Daylight saving time, best sidekicks, drug side effects

It's the first Tuesday in November, which means it's time to empty out my notebook with thoughts, lists and rants that aren't long enough for an entire column, but make up a mishmash of late-autumn observations.

That I'm making up the part that this is some sort of tradition is my first observation.

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A perpetual opinion: Daylight saving time, which ended Sunday, is a bad deal.

In exchange for an extra hour of sleep (for one day), we get dark nights for four months. From now until March 10, when we get back the hour of daylight that was stolen Saturday night, we must endure driving home from work in the dark, in the rain, in the cold. I'm not sure rain and cold are directly attributable to the end of daylight saving time, but it sure seems like it. We get 126 days (18 weeks!) of gloom for one hour of sleep.

I wonder if winter will go away if we choose year-round daylight saving time.

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Today's list: Five greatest sidekicks in TV history:

5. Bert. Ernie gets all the love for his role on "Sesame Street," but that puppet's sunny disposition is welcome only because of his longtime partnership with the curmudgeonly Bert.

4. Jesse Pinkman. "Breaking Bad" might be the most surprising great TV show in history and a major factor was the chemistry – no pun intended – between Aaron Paul's Pinkman and Bryan Cranston's Walter White.

3. Pat Summerall. Even though he was the play-by-play man with John Madden, which should make him the lead, Summerall was Madden's sidekick. One of the great announcers, he knew when to step aside.

2. Ed McMahon. He introduced Johnny Carson and laughed as his jokes ... and was still a star.

1. Barney Fife. Greatest sidekick ever. While never the star on the "Andy Griffith Show," he was the most memorable character.

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I presume it's at the behest of the Food and Drug Administration or something, but I'm amused every time there's a new drug advertised on TV. Invariably, they list the reasons you shouldn't take it and include one great one.

"Don't take Zaxapraxal if you are pregnant or could get pregnant, have COPD, have narrow-angle glaucoma, are allergic to Zaxapraxal ..."

Every time: Don't take the drug if you're allergic to the drug.

Great advice, so please tell me how to find out I'm allergic to a drug without taking it!

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The Oakland Raiders' 10-year, $100 million contract for coach Jon Gruden could be among the worst deals in sports history.

Sure, it's easy to jump on the Raiders after seeing them implode against the 49ers on Thursday. But this goes way beyond one game.

Gruden has coached a half-season and has already traded away the team's two best players, shown no ability to work with younger players and turned a potential playoff team into a laughingstock.

This could be 10 years of disaster.

Most bad sports contracts just tie up a team's finances with an underperforming athlete, but this deal turned a decade's worth of decision-making over to someone who shows no aptitude for building a team.

It's catastrophic.

The good news? Most of Gruden's 10-year stint will be in Las Vegas.

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Final warning: Don't read this column if you're allergic to reading this column.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.