AP TV

Found some decent and entertaining programming on television last night.  The network is called "Animal Planet."

Another TV Trial Run

Thursday evening; okay let's check out "Parenthood."

 For the first twenty minutes or so I actually thought this might offer something of interest.  And perhaps it does, if your life is not sufficiently filled with angst, tribulation, and annoyances such that you wish to peek in voyeuristic-ally on others' problems.

As it turns out, as is the case with most network television, the commercials were much more interesting than the programming.











Seems to me this is going to be a good winter for catching up on the reading of those classics you always planned to read, yet never got around to it.

More "New" TV

So I passed on a "White Collar" rerun in favor of the new Michael J. Fox Show because I have liked Fox for many years, enjoyed his work, and admire his handling of his illness.

They should have called it the "Alex P. Keaton Show" and brought Fox back as an ultra-conservative yet powerful politician in today's going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket politically correct EC liberal milieu.

But, ho-hum, it is an attempt at a sit-com fraught with political correctness in its own right.  Sit-com.  No, I personally couldn't sit through the first half hour.

Back to reruns and old movies this season, it seems.

More "TV Review"

The Missus subscribes; I just bring it home from the mailbox.  What caught my eye here, though, was the "60 Hot Shows" blurb.

I submit that there probably have not been sixty "hot shows" in the history of the medium.  Depending, perhaps, on what is meant by "hot."

New Season: TV Review

Herk walked down my driveway and watched my puttering with a little project for half-minute, then he said

Didja watch the new show, Blacklist?

I did.

Whatcha think? Pretty cool, huh?

Totally derivative.  The crook-aids-law-enforcement straight from White Collar;  blood and gore from any number of crime programs, just another in the list of shows that hope to see how far they can go, and how soon they can turn your stomach; kick-ass tough girl on the side of good from NCIS, NCIS -LA, SVU, and any number of other programs; spouse with a secret life, well you've seen it all before.  And James Spader played his role with the same arrogance with which he played a lawyer in Boston Legal.  Why not?  Lawyer, crook.

I see no compelling reason whatsoever to put the show on my watch-list.

Herk was already half-way home.

Style

"Funny," Tildy said, "how some women can go to the finest boutiques, spend the greatest quantity of money for an outfit, then look like crap wearing it.  Others can go to Walmart, spend thirty bucks and look like a million dollars."

Yep.  One who has a sense of style will always look stylish, and she who has no such sense cannot buy it for any amount of money.

Still, it is beyond me why women of all sizes and shapes have to wear the latest "look" whether it looks good on them or not.

Work

"President Obama has called on Congress to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.00 per hour."

I was working for the minimum wage of 65 cents when Congress raised the minimum wage to 90 cents.  Man!  What a windfall!  (Well, I mean, I got 38% increase.  Obama is suggesting an increase of approximately 24%.)

Yes, I am old.

Thumb

While working in the garden yesterday, the integrity of my integument was compromised.  Significant insult to left thumb, patched with salve and bandage.  Good thing I don't text.  I'd be dead in the water.

Our World, Their World

The prandial conversation turned to matters of societal responsibilities to the less fortunate.  The Lady said, “As Jesus said, ‘Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."’”  With a mild demurrer, but no rebuke, I suggested that while that was a well-known saying, we have no evidence that Jesus said it.   In response to the question, “When were you hungry, and we fed you?”  Jesus did say, “When you did so unto the least of these, you did it to me.” 

In any event, we veered a bit from the topic to explore the biblicization of common sayings.  Conventional wisdom is rife with bon mots and platitudes which are credited to The Bible.  “Spare the rod and spoil the child” is one of the most often misplaced (or misquoted) “scriptures.”  What actually is in the Bible is this:  “He who spares the rod hates his son.”

Bible and other classical literature notwithstanding, we live in a day in which darned few people know much of anything.  Except technology.  They know technology and how to utilize it.  Puts us old duffers in a whole different world, and one, I think, that the younger ones hope soon fades completely from societal memory.  

Now how did I turn a dinner conversation into a rant?

Worry?

"Worry isn’t the result of your problems. Worry is the result of you thinking you can control your problems." --Pete Wilson