Dave on Demand: Let the games begin - at scheduled time

I suffer from an incurable case of punctuality.

The rest of the world clearly does not share this bugaboo.

Here's the thing: When you publish a schedule declaring that your event will commence at a certain time, I actually expect you to start at or around that time.

That's why the World Cup was so frustrating to me. What ESPN blithely termed a 2 p.m. match could be loosely translated as "sometime that afternoon."

Same with this week's baseball All-Star Game. Fox promoted an 8 o'clock starting time. So there I was in front of the set precisely at 8, my diet root beer perfectly chilled, my sourdough pretzels in easy reach. And there I was at 8:45 muttering curses, still waiting for the first pitch.

See, I think what Fox meant to say was that coverage would begin at 8. And what TV sports means by "coverage" is "any kind of self-serving garbage we can lash together and still charge premium advertising rates for."

In this case, it was a sanctimonious, tedious, and awkwardly staged celebration of "People All-Stars Among Us," honoring community volunteers.

Memo to People magazine and Major League Baseball: I'm sure it's a worthy cause. But organizing such programs is supposed to be its own reward. You don't then spend 15 minutes in the national limelight slapping yourself on the back for your generosity of spirit.

Here's all the pregame I expect for the summer classic: (1) introduction of the rosters, (2) national anthem, (3) Batter up.

So where's Rocky? I had a little trouble figuring out CBS's new Canadian import The Bridge, about a rank-and-file cop fighting departmental corruption. It was part The Godfather, part The Shield, and part Norma Rae.

But my puzzlement turned to delight when Stuart Margolin turned up as the father of the protagonist, Aaron Douglas.

Yes, that Stuart Margolin, the one who played Angel on The Rockford Files, one of the greatest comic foils in TV history.

Good to have you back, buddy.

Turn it off! Syfy's new series Haven, based on a Stephen King short story, has a spooky supernatural feel, a good cast - starting with lead actress Emily Rose - and a vivid setting in its foggy town in Maine.

But the scariest part of the show to me is that every time Rose's FBI agent turns on the radio, the Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" is playing.

Now that's terrifying.

I'll take Nantucket. I was going to call it the most pretentious dialogue of the week, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the season debut of USA's White Collar contained the most pretentious dialogue of the year. And it's only July.

Matt Bomer is in a Manhattan wine bar cruising the personal assistant of guest star and episode director Tim Matheson so he can swipe her PDA. He notices she is looking at real estate listings in Massachusetts.

"Cape Cod?" he sallies. "What a relief to meet someone else who is over the Hamptons!"

"I know," she responds. "I always felt like I was in a Fitzgerald novel." Really? Because I'm beginning to feel like I'm in a bad episode of Gossip Girl.

Brand loyalty. Denis Leary may be better known as the tough-talking TV spokesman for Ford trucks than as firefighter Tommy Gavin on Rescue Me.

So it was a little surprising to see Tommy pull up to the firehouse this week in a Dodge truck. Way to bite the hand that feeds you.