This thread is great! Among other sites listed here, FailBlog was new to me, and proved addictive...
Arts & Letters Daily, http://www.aldaily.com, is definitely my favorite time-waster.
I loved CSI, Criminal Minds, and all the rest of the "crime procedurals". My favorite, FOX's The Inside, unfortunately had a very brief run.
My roommate is a big fan of Family Guy, The Simpsons, South Park, and the like, and I have to admit they're pretty funny.
Hannah Montana, though, is my ultimate guilty TV pleasure.
The "dominant perspective" in this thread is the ethical one: it's wrong to lie, cheat, and steal, and someone who does the foregoing ought to be persona non grata in academia.
I'm pretty introverted too. I was scared of the thought of asking professors for recommendations. But I did it anyway. My introversion was and is a barrier to overcome, not a handicap that confers upon me the right to flout common standards of decency and honesty.
IvyHope, your refutation was excellent.
Last year, only one of my decisions (a rejection from Princeton) came by e-mail. Its subject line was simply "Princeton University Graduate Admission Decision"; there were no attachments. I don't know if acceptances bore the same subject line.