Friday Five for this week

•Several deep snows this winter that stick around for a few days, long enough for much of the moisture to melt into the ground, could really help relieve our drought.

•Who's your favorite -- or most irritating -- overly perky TV spokesperson: the Watson's girl, the Downtown Nashville Nissan girl or the Sticks ‘n Stuff girl?

•Speaking of weather and TV, we're getting back into the season when every rain shower is dangerous and every snow flurry (remember snow??) is a potential blizzard -- at least, according to TV meteorologists. We might be better off, and they might be taken more seriously, if they'd confine their excitement to actual threats instead of hyping slight possibilities to get ratings.

•Maybe dancer Marie Osmond would be a good celebrity guest for Lewisburg's annual fainting goat festival. I'm not making fun of anything serious, but she's joked herself about her fainting spell on TV earlier this week. And I'm not comparing her to a goat!

•"We don't need to invent new ideas," presidential candidate Fred Thompson told the Associated Press on Wednesday, claiming proven ideas haven't been around for a long time.

Sorry, Fred, but new ideas are among the things which make the world go ‘round and foster still more creativity and innovation. Bring on new ideas -- loads of ‘em -- while still embracing and cherishing the old ideas that are proven successful, still work and remain relevant to today's society.