We Got Our Daughter a TV for Her Room

For several years now, our 12 year old daughter has been begging for a TV in her room. Well, we did it. We gave her a TV of her very own for her bedroom. Now, you may be thinking we are cool parents for this, or you may be thinking we are idiots.

As Paul Harvey used to say, "Here's the rest of the story."

Several years ago, my wife won a TV. It has been used in various places around the house. The thing only has a 4 inch screen. It is black-and-white. It gets only 3 or 4 fuzzy, grainy channels. Oh, and by the way, after the digital conversion next February, it will be useless. The antenna is built in, so no one could hook up a converter box. I guess it won't be entirely useless, as it does have a radio feature.

Needless to say, she thinks it is pretty nice having her own TV.

19 and NOT: I missed it!

Well the Patriots choked. Tom Brady had laughed at the prediction of Plaxico Burris that the Patriots would score 17. I guess Plaxico was giving the Pats too much credit.

(With apologies to Michael Vick.) I didn't have a dog in this fight. I am fan of neither team. I would have liked to see the Pats win to smack that hoity-toity smirk off the faces of those old grouches: the '72 Dolphins. (Yeah. We get it. They were a great team. Shut up, now.)

I am also glad that the Giants won, because I don't care for Belichick.

The thing is: I missed all of it. About one minute into the game, my son (the 7-year-old who wound up in the ER at camp last summer) complained that his arm hurt and couldn't move it. So my wife and I trekked to the urgent care. We waited, and waited, and waited. All the while the TV in the lobby was tuned to the Biggest Loser. Just before half-time, I changed the channel. Then we were called back, and waited some more. X-rays, poking and prodding took place. They determined it was likely a small break at the elbow. They did not see a definite break on the x-ray, but they saw some swelling on the x-ray that concerned him. They splinted him up and put his arm in a sling. We were then off. I switched on the radio in the car and listened to the last two desperate Tom Brady passes.

From what I have heard on the local news, I didn't miss much because our pitiful local Fox affiliate botched up the transmission. It seems they mess up every big event. A few years ago during the World Series they kept losing the signal. During the Giant-Cowboys playoff game, they completely lost the sound for half the game. I guess that is what you get with drunk hamsters running a TV station.

Reality Show Unreality

When is this insipid run of reality show TV going to end?

I have never really liked any of these shows. Survivor is the worst. The Apprentice is almost as bad. Last night, Donald Trump gave us the newest incarnation of The Apprentice with celebrities (woo wee).

I guess it is easier to do reality TV than regular TV. One does not have to pay writers, who are still out on strike whining about money (boo-hoo). Instead you TV of (to borrow a phrase from Rush Limbaugh) "rank amateurs."

The thing I really do not like about reality shows is that they are not reality at all. Take Survivor. If people were stuck somewhere they would not get "voted off." The reason that there is no real reality TV is that most of our lives are not all that interesting, and no one would watch. So, they make up these "reality" shows.

Give me old-fashioned unreality TV.

NBC: The American Idol Network:

I have never been a fan of the show "American Idol." This past season became the first time I actually watched more than a 30 seconds. I don't understand why it's so popular.

There is one thing that puzzles me though. Which network is it on? I know it's on FOX, but if you watch anything on NBC, you would swear that it's on NBC. Last night (5/3/07), two former "Idol" contestants were on Jay Leno, and Randy (one of the judges) was on Conan O'Brien. It seems to be that NBC hypes "American Idol" even more than FOX does. I hope NBC is getting some advertising revenue from FOX.