Going HD

You'll excuse me for this post but I confess I'm as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve trying too hard to get to sleep.

I just got off the phone with Shaw Cable and I am the proud new owner of an HD receiver with built in PVR. It's the Pace Tahoe (TCD770D) which was on for an introductory price of $448 (plus taxes) until the end of the month. They're installing on Monday afternoon (and one good thing about Shaw, at least locally is that when they say Monday afternoon between 12:30 and 2:30 they mean Monday afternoon between 12:30 and 2:30). It includes a 160 GB hard drive and has SATA for a connection to an external hard drive.

My brother will probably go ballistic when he hears that I got the HDPVR – he recommended the ordinary box which is what he had in BC – but my reasoning on this was that when the sale price ends the Pace units will be much more expensive; I've seen ads that say $200 more and some people have said as much as $250 more. Plus I currently have the money to pay the difference between the normal HD unit and the HDPVR. But the big this is recording. My brother doesn't believe in recording TV shows; with him, if you miss it you miss it. I'm avid – maybe even rabid – about recording so as not to miss a show. This past Tuesday I watched Dancing With The Stars, taped NCIS and Shark on one machine and Hell's Kitchen on the other. The problem – one of them anyway – is that tapes are getting harder to find. Another is forgetfulness. You don't know what I've missed from forgetting to set the VCRs or setting them wrong. The new Pace Tahoe promises me that I can:

• Record, rewind and play your favourite television programs
  
• Pause live TV
  
• Record two programs at the same time
  
• Record one program while watching another
  
• Watch a recorded program while recording two other programs
  
• Create a personal library of recorded programming
  
• Output 1080i and 720p HD formats on HDMI or Component outputs
  

The 160 GB hard drive is supposed to let me record up to 50 hours of analog programming, 120 hours of digital programming, and 25 hours of HD programming. Best of all it will let me schedule whether to record a single episode or a whole series. Which, if nothing else means that I'll actually be able to watch – and review – a greater number of those new shows come the Fall. I just have to be careful of those pesky sports overruns.

I know this all seems pretty familiar to those of you who have TiVos, but TiVo only became available in stores in Canada less than a year ago, and only the non-HD capable Series 2 unit is available here – Canadian cable companies don't use the CARD system that makes the Series 3 TiVo HD ready. So if I want HD and I want to record it – and I do – a box from the satellite or cable provider (like Shaw) is what you have to use.

Can't wait, can't wait, CAN'T WAIT!!!! But since I have to, how about voting in the poll and maybe giving me a bit of feedback about what to expect from the new purchase?

An Apology Of Sorts

I have to apologize for the lack of posts over the last little while. Most of last week and part of the week before was spent dealing with a situation that was causing me and my mother a considerable amount of stress. That resolved itself last Thursday. Then, starting Friday night, I was spending time with my little nephew. Combined with the reversion to type by FOX with regards to The Return of Jezebel James – cancelled after three episodes – and Canterbury's Law – moved to the Friday Night death slot – I haven't got much to write about yet. I confess that taking a vacation from the PTC and their inanity has been a joy.

On the plus side, for a future piece of deathless prose I am now living with a 42" Samsung plasma TV and an up-converting DVD player (also a Samsung). What we don't have as yet is an HD cable box to get the full effect of the 720p/1080i capability of the new set. I've been trying to write about the new TV but without having the full HD effect to describe it's hard to make comparisons. Right now the new TV is just bigger and wider than my conventional 25". More to come on that I'm sure.

And don't forget what tomorrow is – I haven't.

Dagwood Bumstead – Critic?

I probably should have put up a review of Eli Stone yesterday but I was more than a little distracted by stuff going on in my personal life. My mother went into hospital on Friday for an operation to deal with an abdominal aneurysm. The operation was successful and my mother is recuperating but she's had a bit of a setback due to an irregular heartbeat. As you can probably imagine Thursday and Friday were pretty stressful for me and my brother and it hasn't gotten much better. TV takes a back seat and that's only right. In other words while I taped Eli Stone I haven't watched it.

When I saw the following Blondie comic strip I thought I'd be able to write something but I just ahven't been able to find the right words except to say that Dagwood is wrong about TV in general and TV characters in particular being better in the 1950s than they are today.

Merry Christmas To All

I kind of scrapped a couple of the pieces I thought about working on under the pressure of getting things done for Christmas (on Christmas Eve no less) and besides I decided that one of them wasn't terribly appropriate. I mean did you really want me to write about the PTC's belief that Television is "anti-religion" on Christmas Eve? Well even if you did, I didn't. I'll shoe horn that in during my Twelve Days of Christmas pieces (which I haven't even started getting ideas for – yipes!). In the meantime....

In the meantime I've got what most of you might consider a hoary old chestnut but there's a story attached. Those of us of a certain age remember holiday specials that were full of songs and comedy. That's just one of the reasons why I enjoyed Clash Of The Choirs; even with its reality competition base it was a throwback to that sort of show. But, of course, I digress. There are people in their late teens who probably remember Bob Hope's annual Christmas shows – I'm not talking about the USO tours here (the last of those was 1990 before the start of the Gulf War) because Hope and his crew were on the road for Christmas and the shows would air shortly after he returned. In those specials Hope would sing Silver Bells which he first performed in 1951's Lemon Drop Kid, and there were the usual pretty girls, the All-America College Football team, and comedy sketches. By his last years on the air, what Hope was doing became increasingly irrelevant and really rather sad.

Those of us of an even greater age – like mine – remember someone who was even more associated with Christmas than Bob Hope. That was Bing Crosby. Crosby's association with Christmas probably started with the now rarely seen 1942 movie Holiday Inn. He sang Irving Berlin's iconic White Christmas in that movie, a song which later became the focus of Crosby's most successful film White Christmas. Crosby did numerous Christmas specials for TV starting in 1957, a number of these appeared during the time he was one of the rotating hosts of ABC's Hollywood Palace variety series, which ran from 1964 to 1970.

However it is his last special in 1977 that is particularly memorable. The program was taped in London in September of that year and featured the model and actress Twiggy, and singer David Bowie. Crosby reportedly had never heard of Bowie and was encouraged to have him on the show by his children, while Bowie agreed to do it because he knew his mother liked Crosby's music. Crosby wanted to do a duet with Bowie on the song The Little Drummer Boy, however Bowie apparently had some qualms about doing a pure duet (he hated the song) and asked if there was something else he could sing. Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman and Buz Kohan, who was one of the script writers for the special, wrote an original song, Peace On Earth to be sung as part of a medley. In fact it turned into a bit of a blend so that the two songs actually become one. A month after filming the special Bing Crosby died at age 74, after playing a round of golf in Spain. As a result he never knew just how successful his collaboration with Bowie was. The song first appeared on a bootleg with the Bowie song Heroes. In 1982 RCA gave the song an official release – it rose to #3 on the UK charts that year. The Bowie-Crosby duet was also ranked by TV Guide as one of the 25 most memorable musical moments of 20^th Century television.

I remember seeing the special at the time, and the Bowie-Crosby performance was electrifying, once they got down to it. Amazingly the blending of their voices was perfect with Crosby's baritone a perfect complement for Bowie's tenor. They come together beautifully in the segments of the medley where they both are singing the same lines and the orchestration suits the power of the merged songs. Best of all, it takes a song which I otherwise cannot abide (the Little Drummer Boy) and not only makes it work but turns it into something almost magical.

(I'd like to thank my good buddy Sam Johnson for choosing this song as part of his e-card this year. If nothing else it inspired me.)

We’ve Got That Rider Pride

Had a good trip out to the casino on Saturday; it was probably helped by finding a system for a machine that allowed me to treat it like my personal ATM. I picked up some things about playing Poker in a B&M room even though I wasn't playing myself. One of the things I picked up on is that Poker is like Yacht Racing – a lot more fun to either do or watch on TV than it is to watch in person. The most interesting hand I recall seeing was a hand where one guy went All In before the Flop for about 4500 and was called by a guy with something around 6000. The All In guy flipped over pocket Ks while the caller turned over K-10 off suit. I still can't figure that one out. The way I play sees All In before the Flop and unless I have a high pocket pair my cards are in the muck at a speed The Flash would find amazing, particularly that early in a tournament.

Ah, but that's not what I'm talking about this time around. Sunday is the Grey Cup which is the Canadian Football League's answer to the Super Bowl except, you know, not really. The Super Bowl is about hype, multi-million dollar commercials and ticket prices that have people mortgaging their children to attend; the Grey Cup is about regional rivalries, grassroots fandom, affordable tickets, parades and great parties. Except in Toronto, which is sadly because that's where the Grey Cup is being held this year. Ask the average Torontonian about the big game and they'll talk about the NFL, and if you ask them about the Grey Cup they'll look at you like you're insane. There's no Grey Cup Parade this year because no one in Toronto knows that the Grey Cup is still being played.

In Saskatchewan we know. If you're born anywhere in Saskatchewan from Estevan in the south to Fond du Lac in the north you are infected at birth with a disease that – during football season – turns your blood as green as Spock's. The 'Riders are the provincial passion our only professional sports team. We live and die with the Roughriders. They haven't made it easy for us either. The 1966 team was the first time in my life that the team won the Grey Cup. I was also the first time in my grandfather's lifetime that they won the Grey Cup and he was born in 1916. Okay it isn't exactly a span of frustration like what the Chicago Cubs have put their fans through, but in some ways it was more frustrating. The 'Riders of the '60s and '70s were always so close and only got the cigar once. The 'Rider players of those teams were my idols. There was George Reed (who ran for more yards in his career than Jim Brown but never got any recognition for it because he was playing in Canada rather than "real" football) Ron Lancaster, "Gluey" Hughie Campbell, and Ron Atchison. Then came a long drought and near bankruptcy for the club before the amazing 1989 Grey Cup win, the team of Roger Aldag, Jeff Fairholms, Ray Elgard, "Robokicker" Dave Ridgway, and of course QB Kent Austin.

It's hard to underestimate the importance of the Roughriders to Saskatchewan. They're a binding force, and not just for people who live here. Saskatchewan ex-pats fill stadiums around the league when the Green & White are playing. Let's just say that my brother was not alone in BC Place stadium when he saw the 'Riders beat the BC Lions. And it's not just Saskatchewan people either. The Roughriders are Canada's team in the same way that the Green Bay Packers are really America's Team (Dallas Cowboys notwithstanding). People in Canada (outside of Toronto that is) have two teams, their own and the 'Riders. In fact, on the day of the 1989 Grey Cup I heard the Roughrider victory mentioned on a Brigham Young University basketball broadcast. The play-by-play announcer was originally from Lethbridge Alberta, and had been a 'Rider fan ever since.

Actually the comparison with the Green Bay Packers is appropriate. Both are community owned teams, both are the smallest cities in their respective leagues. Both have nation-wide fan bases and do very well in merchandising. Both teams have fans sporting "odd" headgear; in Green Bay it's "Cheeseheads" and in Saskatchewan it is (and I swear this is absolutely true) hollowed out watermelons shaped into helmets. The big difference is the history. When the Packers were founded in 1919, the then Regina Roughriders (then known as the Regina Rugby Club) had been around for nine years.

Today's Grey Cup game should be one of the best. For the first time ever the Saskatchewan Roughriders will be facing their oldest rivals, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The Riders and the Bombers play each other every year in the Labour Day Classic in Regina, and then again the next weekend in Winnipeg. There's a lot of good natured give and take between the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, including a statement by former Winnipeg placekicker Troy Westwood who said that people from Regina were "a bunch of banjo-pickin' inbreds" before a 2003 playoff game; he later amended his statement saying, "the vast majority of the people in Saskatchewan have no idea how to play the banjo."The rivalry is intense but this is the first time they'll face each other in the Grey Cup. When the Ottawa team was folded the Blue Bombers were moved into the eastern conference of the now eight team league to balance things out. Beating Montreal in the Eastern Division Semi-Final and Toronto in the Eastern Final Winnipeg advanced to face the Roughriders, who beat Calgary and BC. The Roughriders are an 11 point favourite in the game, in part because Winnipeg quarterback Kevin Glenn broke his arm in the Eastern Final. Glenn will be replaced by rookie quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie who has only played in a limited number of games this season. If the Roughriders win today, Kent Austin will become the first Coach in the CFL to win the Grey Cup to also win the trophy as a quarterback for the same team. And all I can say is

Go Riders Go!!!!!!!!!!

For My American Friends

The real Thanksgiving was a month ago - Robin Scherbatsky, How I Met Your Mother

As a result, I am not going to do a list of things I'm thankful for, but I am going to put this up.

Happy American Thanksgiving as we say here in the Great White North, and don't get trampled tomorrow (but just in case vote in the poll before you go shopping).

New Link

There's a new link in the sidebar and it may be the most important thing in this whole Blog. Yes, even more important than the links that promise to pay me money. It is a link to Freerice.com and it is both educational and does a world of good. Here's how it works. They give you a word and four possible synonym's. Get the right synonym and you earn ten grains of rice. What you really earn is a donation of ten grains of rice to the UN's World Food Program, paid for by the advertisers at the bottom of the site's web page. The more words you get right the more rice you donate.

If you want a TV linkage for this, I first discovered Freerice.com thanks to the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. On Thursday November 15 they did a story on the website. On the day that the CBS Evening News piece aired, 201,226,610 grains of rice were donated. The following day the CBS Evening News did a follow-up on the story. On that day 198,342,510 grains of rice were donated. Since the site began on October 7, 2007 a total of 2,296,622,790 grains of rice have been donated to the World Food Program. Now I don't know how much 10 grains of rice weighs - or even the 1,500 grains that I've "earned" since Thursday - but as you can see it adds up. It's a great idea and it is both fun and a worthwhile way to spend a few minutes. Click that link.

I’ve Been Plagiarized – I Think

See I'm not really sure if the story that follows qualifies as plagiarism. I might have served as someone's muse, or it might just have been a case of slightly greater than average brains thinking alike. Here's the story, you decide.

I used to enjoy sending letters to the editor of the local newspaper. It's an interesting challenge to muster arguments and craft them clearly and concisely for the public in a forum where they'll probably get more readership per day than this blog (sorry but it's a fact). I did it a lot back in the days when my instrument for such things was a Remington that had seen better days or some cheap Japanese made electric rebranded by Eatons as one of their store brands (the Remington still works by the way, but like the company that sold it the Eaton's store brand typewriter has ceased to function – broken belt). I went on about any number of subjects but I think my proudest moment was when I had a brief letter published in the international edition of Britain's Express newspaper, correcting a story that claimed that if Prince William were to come to the throne under his given name (they don't have to you know) he would be William IV – he would in fact be William V; apparently I knew the history of the English monarchy better than the English.

In the days after I started my old Diplomacy zine (Making Love In A Canoe – it would also be the name of my first attempt at blogging) my output for the newspaper dried up. I was my own editor, not bound by the newspaper's restrictions on length or content. However the other day I saw something in the paper that was enough to get me to write. The city has a program to honour veterans by allowing them free parking. Currently this is tied to a special license plate that is issued by the provincial government through its insurance agency SGI to qualified people. The problem is that the government's criteria includes anyone who has ever served in the Canadian military or the reserves regardless of time of service or whether the person had ever been stationed overseas. City Council voted on Monday to ask the city's parking officials to come up with a new parking pass that would be issued to surviving veterans of the First (!?) and Second World Wars and the Korean War.

For a variety of reasons – not the least of which is the current Canadian military involvement in Afghanistan this seemed unfair to me so for the first time in a long time I wrote a letter to the newspaper. In my letter I claimed that restricting the parking reward (for their service) to veterans of the World War II and Korea was to denigrate the actions of others; men in women in the armed forces, including reservist, who are currently serving in Afghanistan, who had served during the Gulf War (mainly Air Force and Naval personnel), or in a host of peacekeeping missions from the Sinai, Cypress, and the Congo to Croatia and Bosnia. I even mentioned Canadian soldiers who were deployed to Germany during the Cold War. I pointed out that the risks they faced – including actual deaths and permanent injuries – were equal to the risks faced by veterans in the World Wars and Korea. I sent the letter by an email form on the newspaper's website on Tuesday morning and received a phone call to confirm that I had in fact written the letter.

Today (Wednesday) the newspaper ran an editorial called "All true veterans deserve parking" (not sure if this link works if you don't have an account with the newspaper) in which the collective editorial brain of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix came out with the exact same proposal that I made in my letter. Here are three paragraphs from the Star-Phoenix editorial:

While it's a good idea to de-couple the issue of free parking for veterans from SGI's special poppy plates, it makes no sense to treat the contributions of some uniformed men and women who risked their lives on foreign missions as of lesser value than that of people who did it in two world wars and Korea.

From the service people currently on duty in Afghanistan to those who participated in the Gulf War to naval personnel who enforced UN sanctions against Iraq, plenty of others deserve equal recognition. And that's not to gloss over the contribution of soldiers who were stationed in Europe during the Cold War or the countless peacekeepers who served everywhere from Cypress to Sinai, or in Rwanda, Congo or the Balkans, or Mounties who helped out in Haiti.

The risks they faced cannot be discounted any more than the injuries many of them suffered in Answering Canada's call to serve its obligations on the international stage.

It's not bad stuff but you'll excuse me for thinking that a significant portion of it seems familiar to me. And it's not as if I dismiss the possibility that the newspaper came up with this position without input from me – though if they did, why didn't they come up with the idea on Monday night for their Tuesday morning edition (which is when the report on the original proposal to restrict the parking "reward" was published) or that they got more submissions than just mine which served as an inspiration. And it's not as if I don't appreciate the fact that the newspaper has taken what I obviously believe is the right position on this matter, given that an editorial in their pages will have more influence than one little letter to the editor. The problem is that if they run my letter tomorrow it comes across as me saying "me too" when it's entirely possible that the opposite is the case – that they're saying "us too" to me.

My Second Ever

And this time I made it pay!

Here’s What I Was Watching 38 Years Ago Tonight

Me and just about everyone else on the planet, supposedly. Oh there were some who didn't see it. They didn't have TV in South Africa until 1975 which quite frankly is a real shocker. I doubt that the people in the People's Republic of China – or as we called it then "Red China" to distinguish it from Chiang Kai Shek's truly "democratic" Republic across the Taiwan Strait – saw it. And you can be damned sure they weren't watching in North Vietnam or North Korea. Anyway, here's the clip.

The question I guess is whether the United States could do it again; an eight year program to do the near impossible because it was a challenge. I'm not sure. A few years ago I posted a challenge on soc.history.what-if asking whether, if Bill Clinton had said in the first year of his presidency that the United States had to put a man on the Moon by the turn of the millennium in 2001, the country and industry could do it. The responses I got weren't yes or no answers, or programs, they were diatribes on how Clinton in particular and the Democrats in general hated the space program. It degenerated from that into the usual Clinton hatred and politicized policy bashing of the Democrats that was so prevalent in the early days of the Bush presidency and still exists today. Looking back, I have to wonder if the United States could ever unite itself behind a leader and a policy as completely as it did around John Kennedy and the mission to the Moon (and yeah, I know it was hardly unanimous support but far more than any other recent president has been able to put together, let alone for anything so daring)? Right now, I despair about the possibility.

The New Computer Is Here!

It arrived Friday, just after noon, which is odd since I got a phone call the day before from Dell that it had been shipped. Of course that was a week after the Dell website told me that it had been shipped. I'm confessed that I'm very excited but I'm sure that will wear off. No trouble setting it up except for getting the speakers to work – turns out I forgot to plug them in. You're going to have to indulge me on this for a minute or two and then I promise not to write anything more about it – yeah right.

Instant observations:

• This thing is fast. On the computer that I was using since my old E Machine died I would sometimes type faster than the computer was ready to accept characters. Not happening here. In performance terms the difference is like between a Ferrari and a Lada or a Trabant.
  
• The other big thing that I've noticed is just how quiet this machine is compared with every other computer that I've owned, with the possible exception of my first computer, an XT clone. Compared this with either the E Machine or the PII that I've been using is like the difference between a hybrid cars, like a Prius, and a 747.
  
• As far as Vista goes, I haven't had any problems with it. There are some nice gimmicks, but I don't know that it is a huge jump up from XP. If I didn't need a new computer I wouldn't have upgraded (not that the E Machine would have been up for it) but since I did have to get a new machine I am glad that I waited for Vista.
  
• I'm also enjoying using Office 2007. The ribbon bar looks like it could take some getting used to but it seems reasonably intuitive. One thing I like is the ability to write blog entries and post them directly to Blogger with no intermediary.
  
• The one problem so far is really outmoded technology on my part – not only does the machine not have a floppy drive (by my choice – they actually do offer one) but there`s no parallel port for my printer. I can`t get to the back of the printer right now but hopefully it has a USB port or I`ll have to figure something else out.
  

All in all I`m very happy. We`ll have to see how long that feeling lasts.

Update: No problem with the computer, but when I tried logging into Blogger I had a problem, namely that I can't log into Blogger! At least not the version that I use, and I can't change to the new one, so I have to post this using Word and hope that it posts properly. In the immortal words of Chester A. Riley (who was played on TV by both William Bendix – who created the role on radio – and Jackie Gleason) "What a revoltin' development!"

Update to the Update: Problem resolved. I don't know how but it's fixed!

Dudes I'm Gettin' a Dell

I just ordered my new computer from Dell. It's a Dimension E351 with the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ processor, 2 Gigs of memory, NVIDIA GeForce 7300LE with TurboCache video card, 250 Gig hard drive, a 2.1 Speaker system, DVD ROM and DVD +/- RW drives, Vista Premium, Office Home Student edition. Oh yeah, and a three year subscription to McAfee Security Center. No monitor - I have a very good low mileage CRT. It's probably not the best system I could have set up for my needs, but it's a damn sight better than what I'm currently using and a lot better than my old (and now dead) E Machine.

The whole ordering process was quite frankly a nightmare. Any time I clicked on a link for information it opened a pop-up and then the whole thing refused to let me go any further with a handy "page not found" error message. Had me half-way to ripping out my hair even if I can't afford to lose any more.

By the way (to steer this peripherally back to TV for a moment) have you noticed that Dell computers are increasingly more visible on TV shows? As everyone knows, the Mac used to dominate on TV shows. The heroes would use a gleaming white Mac while the Evil Bad Guys - and this extended down to their well intentioned but misguided dupes - would be toiling away on a generic beige PC box. Increasingly you are seeing more and more Dells - or at least Dell monitors with that big DELL logo discretely embossed on the back - being used by the heroes of various TV shows. That's not why I bought one of course.

Feel free to forward words of congratulation, condolence, or advice. Offers of financial aid wouldn't be rejected either.

I Return From Hiatus - Unlike A Lot Of TV Shows

Wow!

I really didn't intend to go that long without posting or without hoisting the old Campbell's soup can, the internationally recognised symbol of an extended period of not posting. Thing is that we've been so focused on getting the last of Greg's stuff out of his old house and transferring the property to the new owners that it took up most of the time when I'd be doing the stuff I'd normally do, like writing (or even reading) and playing Poker online. I started a couple of posts but just haven't had time to wrap them up.

Fortunately the new owner of my brother's place took possession on Thursday - actually we gave him the keys on Wednesday so my brother - who had already moved to the Vancouver area at the start of February which was why our mother and I had had to deal with so much of the property situation - can get on with his life (or more likely worry about other stuff) and I can get back to doing the stuff I enjoy. At least I can after I rest up for a couple of days.

Short Takes - February 12, 2007

I haven't been writing much lately: I know I haven't written much, and I've got a lot of shows that I should be writing about, including Heroes, Little Mosque On The Prairie,and Studio 60 before it goes on hiatus, and probably a whole bunch of other shows, but I haven't been doing it. I meant to write about the return of Robson Arms but I lay down for a nap and the $500 alarm clock (aka my TV) wasn't loud enough to wake me up (my ears plug up sometimes). There are several reasons but the big one is just how annoying I find it to write blog entries on this old computer. Then too there's been all the drama surrounding my brother moving to British Columbia and my mother and I having to finishing the packing here while he works at his new job in Langley. These things will pass: Greg's stuff has to be out of his old house by the end of the month and I hope to have a new computer by the end of the month as well (at the risk of reviving an old commercial pitch man, "Dudes, I'm probably getting a Dell"). Now if someone could just tell me what the best security set up for Vista is.

Actually there is something else I've been doing lately: And it has been impinging on my writing time. A little over a year ago I started playing on the Hollywood Stock Exchange, and after a year I'm starting to get the hang of it. In fact I've got a spreadsheet and started a second portfolio to test out a couple of ideas. I'm having fun, but it is taking time.

I am not the father of Anna Nicole's daughter: In fact, not only did I not have sex with that woman, there wasn't enough money on earth for me to have been interested in having sex with her.

That said I suppose that it's only fitting that her death played itself out on cable TV and the entertainment "news" shows because so much of her life played out in those venues. Sure, she was in Playboy first but most of the other aspects of her life played out on cable TV and shows like Entertainment Tonight. Her marriage to J. Howard Marshall was a fixture of the tabloids - both the print and TV type - and her court battles over Marshall's estate was a fixture on Court TV, the cable news networks, and the entertainment "news" shows. She starred in her own Osbourne style reality TV show for a time. Her daughter's birth and her son's death just three days later were in the media results of her son's second autopsy - paid for by Smith herself - was announced on CNN's Larry King Show. So it isn't surprising that Anna Nichole's own death was given blanket coverage by cable TV.

There is something disturbing about the way that much of the dealt with Smith's death. The American cable news outlets - CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC - all offered hours of blanket coverage of Smith's death, to the point where Lou Dobbs stated at the beginning of his program on the day of her death that he would not mention Anna Nichole Smith in the hour of his show. Meanwhile, although all of the network news shows aired a mention of Smith's death none of them led with the story. NBC led with NBC broadcaster Tim Russert's testimony at the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, while ABC and CBS both ran stories about a new study on the increased number of children suffering from autism. The nightly network news broadcast - at least according to a lot of people, many of whom are associated with the cable news industry - is supposedly a dying form, but in this case they did a better job of delivering actual news in a half hour package than their competitors in the cable industry did.

It was such a divergence in content that during the NBC newscast anchor Brian Williams stated "This may say a lot about our current culture of celebrity and media these days when all the major cable news networks switched over to nonstop live coverage this afternoon when word arrived that Anna Nicole Smith had died." In MediaBistro's report on the coverage, a viewer stated that "Much TV coverage was extended when Gerald Ford died; I, like many people, was not alive when Ford was president, and sadly, I know Anna Nicole better than Ford. Cable news shouldn't feel guilty for covering something that is news." It is a sad commentary on so many levels that people thought they "knew" Anna Nichole Smith. What they "knew" was an image filtered through the sleazier parts of the media. Anna Nichole Smith didn't have the sort of impact on anyone that a president, or even an actress like Marilyn Monroe had. Anna Nichole Smith was a media creation (because in the end she did little to deserve the attention she received) and her death was deemed to be news - and got far greater attention than it deserved - because the media convinced people that she was more important than the real issues of the day.

Who does the PTC hate this week?: The PTC site was down for a while and I noticed that something was taken off (I believe it was a complaint about an "F"-bomb dropped on Don Imus's MSNBC show). But there is something else. It seems as though there are certain shows that just irritate the PTC. One of these is Las Vegas but another is Two and a Half Men. The latter show is the one that currently has the PTC's "knickers in a twist" as at least some Brits would say. According to the PTC's current "worst of the week", the episode in question is a "careless discussion of promiscuous sex, masturbation, and infidelity in front of a young boy is evidence of the network’s (CBS) complete disregard for family viewers at 9:00 p.m. (8:00 in the Central and Mountain time zones)." The set up for the show was that 12-year-old Jake has overheard his mother and her boyfriend having sex night after night. In the words of the PTC, "Instead of displaying responsible parenting and helping Jake to understand complexities of what he has heard, Jake’s father (Alan), uncle (Charlie), and housekeeper begin a dialogue rich in kinky sexual innuendo that carries on for the entirety of the show." Later in the episode "Charlie discovers repressed memories of watching his mother having sex with several different men and one woman. He agonizes over the trauma the memories have caused him. When he tries to confront his mother about the memories he once again catches his mother in the act of promiscuous sex with a strange man." In summation the PTC states that "The irony of the episode it that it carelessly documents the trauma a young boy experienced and the developmental problems he faces after being exposed to reckless sex, while at the same time broadcasting the content for millions of young viewers to digest."

The PTC didn't just label Two and a Half Men as their worst show of the week though. They also sent out one of their usual press releases in which they demand that "unwitting sponsors" of this filth should demand a refund of their money. Of course if they did know the content the advertisers should "seriously evaluate how their customers will feel when they learn of the sponsor’s decision to underwrite references to bestiality, masturbation with fresh produce, and other graphic sexual dialog. Is this truly the kind of content they want to associate with their hard-earned corporate brands? We certainly intend to inform the public as to which sponsors knew what they were underwriting." And then they throw in this one just to seal the outrage: “Not only was the dialogue inappropriate for children watching during that early prime time hour, but the actor playing Jake who was involved in just about every scene is 13-year-old Angus Jones. It vexing that CBS would pay a child to say such things.” True. When I was that age we'd say such things for free and think we were sophisticated.

Okay, here's a couple my comments on this whole thing. First I would be surprised if anyone doesn't know the sort of content that is seen on Two and a Half Men if for no other reason than the fact that the PTC keeps harping on it. I've never watched the show but I've got a pretty good idea of what's going on. As far as why the show didn't engage in a display of "responsible parenting" by "helping Jake to understand complexities of what he has heard" well let's remember that this is a comedy in the 21st century rather than the 1980s when the "very special episode" was a dominant feature (it seemed like every episode of Blossom was labelled a "very special episode, but maybe it was just me) and what the PTC wanted the show to do was not only not in keeping with the nature of the show but dare I say it not funny - although the prospect of Charlie Sheen helping any kid to "understand complexities of what he has heard" has considerable comedic potential. In the end it comes down to the PTC, in the guise of protecting children, wanting to decide what everyone is allowed to watch rather than giving actual parents credit for knowing what is suitable for their own children.

Snow Day!

If you looked over at Tim's blog or watched the news here in Canada, you'll know that most of Western Canada got hit by a massive blizzard and right at the center - Saskatoon. We got hit hard, although thankfully no power outages. How hard a hit? Well let's put it this way, the last time the schools didn't open because of snow was probably a few years after the picture on my profile was taken - but not many. In other words somewhere in the region of 40 to 45 years. If this were Toronto the mayor would be hounding Ottawa to send in the army - or at least what's not in Afghanistan and maybe even the part that is in Afghanistan. We usually shake our heads sadly when we hear that sort of stuff then go back to shovelling.

There are lots of stories from the Blizzard of 2007. There were people forced to spend the night at the airport because their flights were cancelled but they couldn't get back to town. There are stories of truckers, most of whom stopped at the area truck stops, but a few of whom were independent enough (read as either incredible idiots or close to losing their rigs if they didn't get this load through right now) who weren't overly worried about the fact that the RCMP was strongly recommending that people didn't travel. In fact they closed most of the highways in the Saskatoon area. Then there were the hundred or so people who for whatever misguided reason just had to get out to Costco and ended up spending the night there. I suppose they had it better than the folks at the airport. At least at Costco there are plasma TVs and a supply of movies.

Sadly there were deaths - at least three - including a couple of people near Onion Lake who were foolish enough to leave their car and try to make it to a house or something. Rule #1 for winter survival: Don't leave the damned car! Being in a car gives you shelter and if you have gas you can stay warm. A good survival kit for the car includes (but isn't limited to) a blanket and candles - candles can be used for heat as well as light.

I wish I had a good blizzard story but the closest I can come is looking out the window a few times and not being able to see the house across the street. You weren't going to pry me out of my nice warm house into that. Oddly enough my TV viewing suffered - I forgot all about the late feeds of Friday Night Lights, Knights Of Prosperity, and In Case Of Emergency. I planned on writing about at least one of those two today. I also forgot to watch my tape of Little Mosque On The Prairie, but I hope to remedy that situation soon. Meanwhile I have snow to shovel, but assuming I can avoid a heart attack (shovelling snow is high on the list of immediate causes of coronaries among Canadian men my age) I'll check back with you later.

Merry Christmas To All

I hope you've all been having a Merry Christmas. Mine's been so-so so far. As you know I spent the weekend and part of today at my brother's place looking after his dog while he was out in Vancouver. I just got back home about an hour ago as I write this. But it took me almost an hour for the cab I ordered to arrive at my brother's house. Such is the curse of getting a cab on Christmas Day - anywhere.

Everybody knows the song The Twelve Days of Christmas but not everybody knows what it actually refers to. In fact it refers to the twelve days between Christmas and the beginning of Epiphany or Twelfth Night which is January 6th. In Medieval tradition this was a time feasting and merry making - and gift giving. Although most of these traditions have disappeared (like the idea that all Christmas decorations including Christmas Trees have to be removed on Twelfth Night or the house is cursed with bad luck - unless of course the decorations are left up all year) one tradition that is still observed in navies that follow British traditions is that the highest ranking officer on a naval ship changes duties with the youngest enlisted man aboard. It happens every year in Canadian ships, even those in war zones.

In respect for the tradition of the twelve days of Christmas, I will be presenting my own version of The Twelve Days of Christmas with a series of articles that are also my take on the events of TV in this year. Starting tomorrow.

Meta-Post: A Random Christmas Thought or Two

I was out Christmas shopping today and am preparing for a second strike tomorrow, when I might actually buy something, so chances are that I won't get around to doing a full blown review of Identity with Penn Jillette. Actually it's not as bad as I feared but it's not as good as it could have been. I never know what to buy for my brother, and no one seems to have exactly what I want for my mother except maybe one place. As for my nephew, at almost four he should be easy to buy for since over the course of the year he has essentially said he wants everything as long as it's not for girls. But this whole Christmas shopping thing has left me with a few ideas.

1. Every mall or department store that has a Santa Claus should record what the kids ask them for and have that put on a computer so that parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles with aching backs can access the information. Think of it as a gift registry for kids.
2. People who say that you don't have to get them anything for Christmas should get exactly what they ask for. It would simplify matters greatly for one year and generate suggestions in following years.
   
3. Why is it that I keep promising myself that next year I'll do most of my shopping online but I never do?
4. For that matter, I used to get my christmas shopping done before the Army-Navy Football game. Now, when I'm extremely lucky, I get it done a day or two before Christmas Eve.
   

I'm A Lovable Hostoric Lunatic

I hadn't planned on posting this but then I saw who I got. Let's face it, if you're going to be a known historical lunatic, this guy is probably the one to be. Plus he appeared on an episode of Bonanza (played by Sam Jaffe) along with his subject Sam Clemmons.


Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

I'm Back

Well at least for a while. The old computer is toast. It might be the power supply or it might be the motherboard but either way I don't think it's cost effective to go to the trouble I'd have to go to in order to get it up and running again. I'd made the conscious decision to get a new computer as soon as Vista is released as things started failing on the old machine. I'm sticking with that idea, so what I'm doing now is actually using an older computer that my brother had - it's so old that it's running Windows 98 though it could run XP and probably will be by the end of the week. I've been spoiled by XP and how many of you thought you'd ever hear anyone say that! I still have slight hope of being able to get my hard drive from the dead machine up and running but this machine is set up in a very strange manner. It should work though if the drive isn't fried, which I fear is entirely possible. Anyway, that's an update on my current status. I'll probably have a real post in a day or two.

Momentarily, Temporary, And Please Stand By

When I was a kid, watching television wasn't always a simple as turning on the TV and watching a show. There were "Technical Difficulties". What the "Technical Difficulties" were was never absolutely clear but in many cases the local station - in my case CFQC-TV in Saskatoon would be able to put up a slide or have one of their announcers do his thing. It was usually something like "We are currently experiencing Technical Difficulties." There was then a vague indication of how long it would take to resolve the "Technical Difficulties." There was then usually an indication of the amount of time, not in minutes but in the use of words. It always seemed to the eight year old me that when the announcer said "Momentarily" it meant at most a couple of minutes. "Temporarily" meant longer, maybe four or five or ten minutes tops. The killer was "Please Stand By". That meant that the people down at the station had absolutely no idea of when this was going to be fixed and you might just as well turn off the TV and go read a book play outside for a while. I hated "Please Stand By."

We here at I Am A Child Of Television are currently experiencing Technical Difficulties. To be more specific, it appears as though my computer has given up the ghost. It won't boot or show the manufacturer's flash screen. The hard drive and both optical drives are operating but even attempting to boot from an Ubuntu Linux live disk did nothing. I suspect that the CPU is fried. The machine has been acting up for a little while - it started reporting hardware conflicts and refused to recognise that there was paper in my printer amongst other things, then on Thursday I turned it off and when I turned it on again nothing happened on the monitor.

I am writing this on my brother's computer - I'm house sitting for him again - and I have a couple of ideas to try to replace my computer that might work. I should be able to do another post on this computer but after that I don't know is Momentarily, Temporarily, or Please Stand By applies to my current situation.