Dear Abbey

Jon Bauer, Herald staff

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Associated Press

In this image released by PBS, Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess Grantham, is shown in a scene from the second season on "Downton Abbey." The 78-year-old actress, who portrays Lady Grantham in the popular PBS series, told �60 Minutes� that she hasn't watched the drama because doing so would only make her agonize over her performance. She said she may watch it someday. (AP Photo/PBS, Carnival Film & Television Limited 2011 for MASTERPIECE, Nick Briggs)

Buy your own tote bag, moocher: PBS' reputation as a bastion of liberal elitism is apparently up for debate. Fox News host Stuart Varney recently noted that PBS' hit "Downton Abbey" portrays the rich as generous, classy and stylish, "which poses a threat to the left, doesn't it?" Varey said.

If PBS has moved to the right it would explain why we saw Grover on "Sesame Street" singing the other day: "Oh, a corporation is a person in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood."

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So, she's never seen "The Benny Hill Show" either? Maggie Smith, who plays the acerbic Dowager Countess on "Downton Abbey," says in an interview to air on "60 Minutes" this Sunday that she's never seen an episode of the PBS series in which she appears.

Well, of course not, you ninny; they didn't have television in England in 1921.

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Generous, classy and stylish: Some in the business community say they oppose President Barack Obama's proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 from the current $7.25 because, they claim, it will reduce demand for low-wage workers' services.

Now, if you're quite finished agitating for a raise, be a stout fellow and bring the Rolls around. Good man.

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