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Forget 'What are your strengths and weaknesses?' If you want to get the real dope on prospective employees, ask job candidates these seven questions.

There is more evidence that the NBC TV broadcast network could be divided up into one or more cable entities under Comcast's new ownership, which may be announced this week.

Hang onto this essential checklist, so you’ll know what to do when the time comes.

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• SOMETHING STRANGE IS AFOOT
  

  LOOKING for a new sole mate this summer? Vibram's new FiveFingers shoes (right) make an interesting statement -- if you're strong enough to brave the skeptics who will stare at your feet and judge you. They're far from glamorous, but so are Crocs, and that doesn't seem to stop people from wearing them.

  Designed to strengthen foot muscles and improve balance, agility and speed, FiveFingers feature a variety of special design effects, making them as close to walking barefoot as possible.

  Vibram claims the shoes are beneficial to your lower leg and foot health, as they improve the range of motion in your ankles, feet and toes. They're also supposed to promote proper posture and spine alignment.

  Nonsense, say some doctors.

  "These offer relatively no support," says Dr. Rock Positano, a foot specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery. "They do not support the arch well and may lead to postural problems that not only can adversely affect the ankles and feet, but also the shins, knees, hips and back."

  When we took a pair for a test-drive, we got some seriously strange looks wearing them around the city, and were stopped by more than one pedestrian who looked down and said, "Well, those are really weird."

  The performance rubber soles look like alien frog feet, but are slip-resistant and heat- and terrain-proof. We tested them by walking on broken glass (not a scratch) and prickly pebbles.

  "I've sold six pairs today, and that's just me," says Dana Kellstrom, a sales associate at City Sports on 48th Street.

  "I had a guy from Australia come in the other day, and he bought four pairs because they don't make them in his country."

  Jeremy Nicholas of Berkeley, Calif., just bought his second pair for 80 bucks.

  "I wore the first pair out by wearing them every day since February. Unless I have to look really nice I wear them, and even then, I try to bend the rules."

  Nicholas isn't just wearing them for walking, however. "I wear them turkey hunting, slingshotting, tree climbing and just about everything else I do -- I'm really active."

  Assuming most New Yorkers are not turkey hunting in Central Park, the shoes are best for weekend excursions, where activities like hiking, climbing, kayaking and even running are prevalent.

  Positano suggests wearing them "around the pool or at the beach," but adds that wearing them on long walks is not a good idea.

• KEEPING THE FAITH AFTER INFIDELITY
  

  INFIDELITY is often treated as the atom bomb of marriage problems. When an affair is discovered, many people assume the only solution is divorce. But it doesn't need to mean the end of a marriage.

  Instead, it can turn out to be the beginning of a closer union.

  Anger, jealousy, sadness -- this is par for the course when a husband or wife cheats. But by far, I find that spouses who have been "betrayed" want to find a way to heal their union.

  Because the majority of those who end marriages due to infidelity later regret it.

  For the millions of couples in America who won't make it to my office, here are five realities about infidelity that might save your marriage:

  1. The majority of marriages, even those that last several decades, include periods during which passion wanes or disappears entirely. Yours is probably no different.

  2. Passion requires seeing the other person in the relationship as an individual, not an extension of oneself. This means that time apart is essential to restoring it. Separating for a time is a better solution to this problem than divorcing.

  3. Few of us would recommend marrying someone simply for sexual satisfaction. To me, that means that indiscretions damage a marriage; they don't need to "total" it.

  4. Many people cheat when the alternative is becoming more vulnerable with one's spouse and sharing fears of aging or being unloved. Seeing through the smoke screen of infidelity to a mate's fragile nature can mean the start of the closest years of a marriage.

  5. The idea that episodes of infidelity mean husbands and wives don't love one another is a lie. The same man who cheats may well be willing to put his life on the line to save that of his wife.

  Here's the main take-home lesson: Don't believe anyone who tells you an affair means it's time to leave. Lots of couples survive it and live to thrive.

  Keith Ablow, MD, is a psychiatrist, Fox News Channel contributor and founder of livingthetruth.com. Contact him at info@keithablow.com.

• DIET SODA DIATRIBE
  

  COKE is apparently not It in Venezuela. The government there recently took the step of banning Coke Zero "to preserve the health of Venezuelans," as a government minister put it, leaving even the most unflappable among us wondering what the heck is going on. Is it time to put down the can of diet soda and back away slowly?

  It just might be. Even if you're not plugged into talk-radio culture or don't scour the Internet for evidence of UFOs, you've probably heard rumblings about the dangers of artificial sweeteners.

  True, the Venezuela situation is easy to dismiss. Its government would love nothing better than to blacken the eye of America's biggest brand, and Coke Zero there is reportedly sweetened with something different from what is used here: sodium cyclamate, a potential carcinogen banned by America's FDA since 1969.

  Nonetheless, there might be something to all this. Snicker if you must, but it's time to get to the bottom of the diet soda intrigue.

  Conspiracy theory: Those sweeteners are poison!

  Pretty much, says Chris Lydon, a physician and author of "Ten Years Thinner" who used to recommend products with artificial sweeteners until she really looked into them. Lydon says aspartame, the sweetener used in Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi among many others, has been linked to headaches, hypertension and eye damage. One of aspartame's components, wood alcohol, converts to formaldehyde -- something you don't want to be drinking. Numerous studies have concluded that aspartame is safe, but Lydon says, "The only studies that support the use of those [sweeteners] as 100 percent safe are funded by the very individuals who are making lots of money off that stuff." Of the 400 studies conducted on aspartame between 1985 and 1995, none of those funded by its maker found any health risks; every other one did and raised questions.

  Conspiracy theory: There was a lot of funny business concerning aspartame's approval!

  Sure seems that way. The FDA refused to approve aspartame for more than eight years because of health concerns. Aspartame's manufacturer, G.D. Searle, hired former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld as its CEO in 1977. He promised to get aspartame approved via political connections. In 1980, a public board again voted to keep aspartame off the market. That ban was eventually overruled by Arthur Hull Hayes, the new FDA commissioner. In 1983, the chemical was approved for use in soft drinks despite the objections of the National Soft Drink Association. Hayes resigned a few months later, eventually taking a job with p.r. firm Burson-Marsteller, which represented aspartame's manufacturer. After hiring Rummy, G.D. Searle went from $28 million in the red to $120 million in the black, according to PBS's "Frontline."

  Conspiracy theory: Drinking diet soda actually makes you fatter!

  Probably. A recent Purdue University study reported that rats given saccharine-sweetened yogurt actually gained more weight than rats given regular sugared yogurt. One theory is that artificial sweeteners increase sugar cravings, leading to overeating. A 2007 study at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio also found that those who drank diet drinks were fatter than those who didn't.

• SOBERING TRUTHS ABOUT ALCOHOL'S SUBTLE GRIP
  

  OVER the course of my work, I end up treating many patients for alcohol abuse. But in the beginning, very few of them actually come to me worried about whether they might be alcoholics. Most of them come for help with depression, marital discord, stress at work or anxiety.

  Many of these men and women never considered themselves problem drinkers. They don't drink every day and don't get drunk every time they drink. They may have stopped drinking for weeks or months at a time, without having any signs of withdrawal.

  So what defines alcohol as a problem in their lives? When does drinking constitute a disorder, even when the person affected isn't someone who should head to detox?

  Alcohol consumption constitutes a disorder when it negatively impacts people in their relationships (whether at home or at work), or when it contributes to decreased mood or energy or concentration, or when it results in trouble with the law.

  People don't need to drink daily or fall down drunk to be suffering from alcohol abuse. Alcohol is a much more subtle and toxic substance. It can impair a person's ability to resolve issues in their personal relationships by giving them false shelter from their problems. It's an escape from reality that a