Spoiler alert: If you are a fan of The Wire and have last night’s episode on TiVo and haven’t watched it yet, don’t read any further, and certainly don’t read the New York Times story to which the blink points. Not only does HBO seem to have no compunctions about killing off major characters in many of its dramatic series, but the actors seem to find out only when they get the scripts for the episode in which they meet their end. [As to the details, I actually thought Stringer Bell wwas going to get whacked by crony Avon Barksdale, not Omar.]