It's increasingly looking like the hopeful news from Nikki Finke regarding the possible settlement of the writers' strike was wishful thinking, and things perhaps look bleaker than ever. I have long subscribed to the belief that there would either be a short strike settled by Christmas or a long strike not settled till summer, and I'm now anticipating the latter, which will make for a bleak time for the shows you love. According to United Hollywood, the AMPTP's latest is a rollback, and they don't seem to have any interest in it at all. Settle in, folks; I think it's going to summer. Once positions begin to harden like this, even more than they already were, you're not going in the direction you want to be going.