eudaemonia?

From yesterday's seattle times...
I'm fascinated.

Kay McFadden / Times staff columnist
New Science study reveals television makes us happy

Happiness has many definitions. But I'm able to clutch at only one that encompasses both television ratings and personal pleasure.
"Grief can take care of itself," said Mark Twain. "But to get the full value of a joy, you must have somebody to divide it with."
Twain never got to address the electronic hearth. Yet his aphorism perfectly suits watching TV. It is an activity shared by millions, perpetuated by popularity and endorsed by Science.
I mean, really endorsed by Science. Friday, the journal of that name published a study confirming what Nielsen already knows: Time in front of the telly is tops for gratification.
In a survey of 909 working women asked to reconstruct their feelings in daily diary form, watching television came out ahead of shopping, talking on the phone, cooking, taking care of children, housework (duh) and dealing with the boss (double-duh).
The study didn't include men. However, I'll risk it and suggest they, too, extract more bliss from "Desperate Housewives" star Nicollette Sheridan shedding her towel on "Monday Night Football" than from the boss shredding a report Monday morning.
Science didn't say exactly what on TV provided the most fun.
For that, we turn to Nielsen Media Research and its season-to-date tally of winners and losers: a statistical compendium of grief and joy that ropes in every great definer of happiness from Bette Davis to the Talmud.
Ratings: The winners
The procedurals. "Happiness is not a destination. It is a manner of traveling."

Popular "CSI: New York," starring Gary Sinise and Melina Kanakaredes, examines both the human body and human experience.
No, Gil Grissom didn't say that; it was Haim Ginott. But from "CSI" (No. 1) to "CSI: Miami" (No. 3) to "CSI: New York" (No. 12), viewers couldn't get enough of gritty trips down artery avenue, laboratory lane and bullet-path boulevard.
Besides forensics, the best of this breed offers excursions through the human experience, adeptly mixing harsh reality and compassion. I'm thinking of the plushy lifestyle episode in "CSI," and of "Without A Trace" (No. 4), which had a shattering story about an adolescent boy driven to despair by vicious peers.
In procedurals — including "ER" (No. 6) — the journey subsumes the outcome, and the outcome isn't triumphal. The old problem-solving swagger has been replaced by a subdued, reflective demeanor, one epitomized by the heroine of "Cold Case" (No. 11).
The suburban situation. "You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation."

"Desperate Housewives," with Teri Hatcher, left, and Nicollette Sheridan, has shot to No. 2 in the ratings.
Thoreau, T.S. Eliot, Tolstoy — everyone has opinions about the futility of domestic contentment and white picket fences. But for "Desperate Housewives" (No. 2) and similar hits of the fall season, I think Bette Davis got it right.
From the chicanery and sexual shenanigans of Wisteria Lane to the suppressed rage and thwarted longings of "Everybody Loves Raymond" (No. 7) and "Two and a Half Men" (No. 9), the method of coping is plain.
Trapped animals change expectations by chewing off their legs. Humans? We watch comedy — the darker, the better.
Shows that test us. The Tao Te Ching says: "He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened."

"Survivor: Vanuatu" is one of the few reality shows still working.
Cutting across the usual categories, several hits this season have the common denominators of emphasizing savvy while supplying challenges.
The action-fantasy "Lost" (No. 9, a tie with "Two and a Half Men") tantalizingly blends the potential for self-reinvention with the surprises of a strange world. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (No. 16) inverts the formula, creating a safe cocoon that the occupants must emotionally furnish.
Despite the waning appeal of reality shows (see Losers), "Survivor: Vanuatu" (No. 5) and "The Apprentice 2" (No. 14) still stimulate. Predicated as they are on strategy, knowledge of oneself and others remains key to success.

Bob Dylan was to appear on last night's episode of the venerable news magazine "60 Minutes."
Finally, "60 Minutes" (No. 13) represents the ultimate assertion of knowledge in the face of chaos. The Sunday show's long record of integrity and audacity remains unaffected by the Wednesday night edition's "Memogate" stumble.
Ratings: The losers
Biology implies that diversity is a good thing. Television teaches us just the opposite.
While it's easy to spot shared traits among hits — e.g., cop shows — failures come from every genre of entertainment. They sink on their own, highly individualized lack of merit.
Consequently, Darwinian trend-spotting doesn't apply here. The best we can do is note the season's highest-profile flops and proffer a little advice from the sages of happiness.
NBC. "Money can't buy happiness, but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery" — Spike Milligan.
NBC could use someone like Milligan, co-founder of the marvelously quirky and seminal BBC Radio program "The Goon Show." But that would require an adventurous mindset that is very different from the current thinking.

"Father of the Pride" had its tail between its legs after the show was canceled in its first season.
Despite the departure of "Friends," the loss of Thursday nights to CBS and the awful (canceled) freshman shows "Father of the Pride," "LAX" and "Hawaii," the Peacock remains quite profitable. "Friends" was an expensive show compared with "Joey"; low-brow reality like "The Biggest Loser" and "Fear Factor" are cheaper than scripted series.
But making money and making good TV need not be mutually exclusive, as our Winners list demonstrates. Further down the road, the lack of decent NBC shows for syndication also is going to hurt the bottom line.
The WB. "To be truly happy and content, you must let go of what it means to be happy and content."
Confucius adds: Enough with the one-hour teenage turmoil, already. The formula that worked for so well and so long needs to be expanded, altered, replaced — and not by suddenly pursuing an entirely different demographic via "Drew Carey's Green Screen Show."
It's hard to believe that women between ages 18 and 34 don't like comedy. We suggest The WB find one, just to test it out.
Fox. "Happiness is something you get as a by-product in the process of making something else" — Aldous Huxley.
Obnoxious doesn't begin to describe the Fox reality series "My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss."
For several years, Fox has suffered from a split personality: On the one hand, inventive new series like "Arrested Development" and "24." On the other, terrible reality shows like "My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss" and rote, sub-par sitcoms such as "Method & Red."
Recently, we fear a turn to the dark side. Expensive, clever series like "Wonderfalls" are put in bad scheduling slots or just not given enough time to thrive. More is being done on the cheap.
Please, Fox, return to valuing the creative process that gave us your once-great, now-aging Sunday night lineup. The advertising corollary to Huxley's quote is you have to spend money to make it.