Five Years ago our TV died--right on time

 " Tonight (May 2, 2017) the living room TV wouldn't turn on. After consulting with Spectrum and trying various things, it was determined it was dead. It seemed new to us, but when I went back through my blog I found I had written about it on Dec. 18, 2009. ". . . selected the Sony Bravio 32L5000 and bought the 4 year extended warranty, which usually we don't. However, the life expectancy of today's models aren't even close to our old "fat" models--we have 3 TVs of various sizes from the 1980s, and one from the early 90s. The clerk said 6-8 years for this one." I see from another blog it replaced a 1994 model. Right on time. It's 7.5 years old."

Our current living room TV is a Samsung and if my math is correct it is about 5 years old.

The Bachelor Host is called a Racist for asking for grace for a contestant

It makes no difference how important you are in your government or business position, the woke police can dredge up your college or even elementary school behavior and "cancel" you. Did you “like” something on Facebook or Twitter casually moving on?   This needs to stop, but it's been so successful by leftist haters, I doubt it will. Especially if a liberal can replace you in your job to continue the narrative. No one is safe, not Democrats, not libertarians, and certainly not Republicans or the a-political.

WALSH: ‘Bachelor’ Host Called Racist For Advocating Grace And Forgiveness. Now He’s Stepping Down From The Show. | The Daily Wire

I’m binge watching Hallmark Christmas movies

Sometimes I doze off (have trouble distinguishing between some of the blondes), but I can catch up the next day watching at the gym. I think I've just about have  “Christmas at Graceland” pieced together. I’d never watched them before but I think I’ve got the plan for the plot and could be a screenwriter.

• Blonde female, brunette male (both gorgeous),
• she's an executive looking for property and he drives a van, or truck;
• alternate line is she is single manager/entertainer waiting for next assignment and
• he is wealthy investor, widower with 3 children;
• town/village/ski resort has Christmas festival falling on hard times;
• everyone comes together to cook/decorate or dress elegantly;
• a minimum of 3 generations, possibly 4 if you can work in the great grandparents
• kids are always handsome and well behaved,
• only one or two kisses for the couple
• no one swears, cusses or throws things.

I did see the first few minutes of one today where beautiful blonde executive is planning to drive her cousin's vintage Mustang from NJ to CO during December.  I'm pretty sure there will be a snow storm with a handsome guy coming to the rescue.  I had to leave. Maybe I’ll see it on Friday at the gym.

One other thing I’ve noticed:  even though it’s snowing and everyone is wearing coats and scarves, if the scene calls for a pretty gown, the lovely main character isn’t wearing a coat so the dress shows well.

The TV swap

The average 32-inch LCD TV sold for $435 in the second quarter of 2012, down from $495 in Q1. Today I bought a Toshiba 32' LCD TV for $100.99 (clearance). Will be delivered free. We'll take our older 32” to the lake and keep the new one here. I thought 19” since I don’t watch much TV there, but was voted down.  Even if I’d wanted a 50” (wouldn’t fit), they were under $400. 

Michael Smith on Murphy Brown

“Murphy Brown was cancelled. I'm not surprised. I watched about 5 minutes of the first show out of morbid curiosity and found it to be completely unwatchable. The plot was tedious and the dialog sounded like an episode of The View with Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and Don Lemon and Jim Acosta of CNN as guest panelists.

When it was popular back in the late 80's it had little competition in bashing Republicans - now there is so much from CNN, MSNBC and the Alphabet broadcast networks that their Trump bashing jokes fell flat.

Another fail was that a sitcom relies on likable characters even if we don't like their dialog. Even though many of us of a certain age remember the characters, the reincarnation of them seemed bitchy and bitter...unlikable.

A good political joke or satire includes a lot of fact - say true representations of an action or words of an actual official - combined with a ridiculous situation or conclusion. That's why the Onion and the Babylon Bee are funny...and successful. Good satire happens when everything sounds real until you get to the punchline.

The problem with the Murphy Brown revival was that the premises for the jokes weren't as ridiculous as the "news" reported by the cable outlets, broadcast news and the leftist print media.

Trump may have broken Kathy Griffin but CNN broke Murphy.”

Dan Quail was right.

Violence on TV

I don't watch a lot of TV--my tolerance for violence and inane "journalists" is low. However, I can hear from the living room, reruns of “Law and Order” tonight, which begins every show with formulaic laughter/fun chatter then horror as the shooting starts or the body is discovered in the park, and for years our favorite series was “The Closer.” (I almost never watched “Major Crimes,” which was a spin off the “The Closer.”) Just those two shows exposed us to hundreds of violent deaths, crooked cops, greedy CEOs, philandering husbands and evil religious people. It's enough to make you look forward to the weight loss commercials. And if millions are spent on 3 minute commercials because they influence the public, then doesn't millions spent on 20 minutes of violence achieve the same influence?

Golden Globes 2018

Hollywood (film, TV, indies) told us that adultery was exciting and OK, that religious values were out of date and stuffy, that marriage was a waste of good sex, that divorce was the answer for a less than ideal relationship, that having children would interfere with a woman's career, that the pill was always available, that abortion was a cause for sympathy not reproach, that same sex marriage was just about loving someone, and that transgenderism was actually possible for anyone who felt like joining the sports team or using a different locker room at school.

So now the #metoo movement has brought the chickens home to roost. Women have been objectified, nullified, pacified and ridiculed for 80 years in this industry which has changed our culture at home and abroad. So the same industry that led the culture down this dark, murky road is saying No More? I think it's a little late to return to Mayberry (TV sitcom, Andy Griffith, 1960) or ring the Bells of St. Mary's (movie, Bing Crosby, 1945)

Advancing technology vs. advancing age

Although I spend a lot of time reading, composing, listening to and watching programs and lectures on the computer, I’m a number of years behind on the technology—always have been since I got my first e-mail about 25 years ago. I’m so long at this I can remember when a colleague in TN asked the other Vet Med Librarians about 20 years ago to take a look at Google as a search engine, which was very new. Long before I had a blog I wrote several times a day on several Usenet groups, particularly one for writers. There were mean and nasty people then too, and trolls trying to destabilize the group and friendships. So the down side of social media goes way back.

But I took a HUGE leap forward yesterday. I looked at my little Mother’s Day package and wondered how my daughter could fit a new outfit into that! (Love it when she buys my clothes) But it was a Roku stick. Looking forward to new challenges. As I understand it (it's still in the box because I'll need her help in setting it up) anything I can watch on my computer I can now watch on TV, plus 4,500 other channels. Horror movies, old TV westerns, documentaries, fashion shows, religious programing. Then I can take the stick out and take it to the Lake and watch my stuff there.

"Roku devices are simple to set-up and easy-to-use. They come with a simple remote, and powerful features like Roku Search which makes it effortless to find what you want to watch. Roku devices give you access to 450,000+ movies and TV episodes from top free and paid channels, so you can stream almost anything: Roku How it Works "

Our son works in the automotive repair field, manages a shop for a major auto dealer, and for some time I've been dropping hints about how the automotive industry is changing. Good article in Atlantic about the Uber/Waymo (Google) wars, but it introduces the novice and elderly to the other players in the self-driving auto changes to come.  The author argues that self driving cars will probably change the world--fundamentally. "Mass adoption would create and destroy entire industries, alter the way people work and move through cities, and change the way those cities are designed and connected." Billions are at stake in personal profits. Big winners and losers.

Our new TV--again

Tuesday evening the TV wouldn't turn on.  It was fine Monday evening. Not a hint anything was wrong.  We really don't use the living room during the day, so it hadn't been turned off incorrectly and after calling our provider, Spectrum, we determined it was nothing from their end. Poof.  Gone.  So I back tracked through my blogs to see when we bought it.  December 18, 2009.  Seemed like yesterday, but it was 7.5 years. Right on target. The "fat" TV it replaced was 1994, and the one in the family room was 1985 (it has since been replaced also with a 32" flat screen RCA with a DVD slot and gets much more use).

"We looked at all of them and selected the Sony Bravio 32L5000 and bought the 4 year extended warranty, which usually we don't. However, the life expectancy of today's models aren't even close to our old "fat" models--we have 3 TVs of various sizes from the 1980s, and one from the early 90s. The clerk said 6-8 years for this one"

So we put our daughter on the search, just as she'd done in 2009.  She checked Best Buy and came up with this:  Samsung - 40" Class (39-1/2" Diag.) - LED - 1080p - HDTV - Black.  This is not a smart TV. It doesn't connect to wifi. But we can connect with ROKU to some stuff (I have no idea what that is, taking her word for it).

So after work on Friday she stopped by and she and Bob went shopping.  I think it only took them an hour, they dropped off the humongous box in the living room and the three of us went out for dinner.  Then we came back and she set it all up for us.  It's larger than our 32" flat screen Sony, but not so much that you'd notice.  The Sony had the screen framed with about 2" of plastic, and this one doesn't have that. We've noticed a difference in the sound since the speakers seem to be in a different location.

Then I asked her to do a bit of tweaking on my two computers.  Sure!  And after about 2 hours she was pooped and went home.  Good sport and super smart!  My favorite security program has been discontinued, so I'd added AVG, but couldn't dismantle Security Essentials so it would stop reminding me it wasn't working.  She took care of that.  One of  the former computer repairmen had added "Logmein" which is a program that allowed him to access my computer from his location.  That was years ago, and I didn't like having it, and didn't know how to get rid of it or if it was still working.  I have some basic skills, but the little packages of commands were spread through out the computer in numerous files.  After a number of tries, she finally got it removed, piece by piece.  Reminded me of Obamacare--buried everywhere in our system of government, even the state governments. A nasty thing to remove.

What was the golden age of television for you?

In November 2011 Peggy Noonan wrote a column about the two golden ages of TV,  for which she was giving thanks that year. Here’s what I wrote about my TV memories in 2011.

“Looks like I missed both golden ages. My parents didn’t have TV when I was growing up so if I ever saw Playhouse 90 (1956-1961) I don’t remember it. I was just too busy going to school, dating or working at the drug store to sit down and watch TV. And of the second group I’ve only seen Law and Order (now in its 20th season), and much of it only in reruns--miss Jerry Orbach. Hardly ever watch it these days--too predictable. The others in the second golden age I’ve never seen. [Noonan cited "The Sopranos," "Mad Men," "The Wire," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "ER," "24," "The West Wing," "Law and Order," "30 Rock." ]

Over the years we’ve enjoyed Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966) both when it was current and later in reruns; Mary Tyler Moore (1970-1977) and the spin-offs Rhoda and Phyllis; Love Boat (1977-1986) was great for seeing all the stars not usually seen; Cheers (1982-1993); the Bill Cosby Show (1984-1992) and still laugh and identify with the family situations and love the fashions [aside: unfortunately that memory has been tainted by recent sex charges]; Murder she wrote (1984-1996) with Angela Lansbury was never missed and we enjoyed it in reruns too; Golden Girls (1985-1992) although I think I saw this mostly on reruns; Murphy Brown (1988-1998)--great ensemble cast; Frasier (1993-2004) again mostly seen in reruns; Ellen (1994-1998); some of the movie channels like TNT and AMC for the movies I never saw when they were current; Third rock from the sun (1996-2001)--hard to believe Tommy is almost 30 [now 34]; we enjoyed Dharma and Greg (1997-2002); Monk ([was]still current and watching it tonight); The Closer ([then] now in the 5th season).

And remember the great variety shows--Sonny and Cher (1971-1974), Donny and Marie (1976-1979), The Captain and Tennille (1976-1977), Hee Haw (1969-1993) and now we even watch Lawrence Welk, which we never would have done in the 1950s and 1960s, as archives were dusted off with added interviews from the “Welk family” (1986- current) for its old time slot on Saturday evenings (tomorrow will be the Thanksgiving special on PBS). “

Christine Baranski and The Good Wife’s wedding planner

How lucky we were!  We'd never seen an episode of the TV series The Good Wife, and after hearing the hysteria for a day (radio news during our auto travel from Ohio to Illinois) from the MSM about an Indiana pizzeria instead of the details of Obama's selling us and Israel down the river in Iran negotiations, we get to see Christine Baranski defend the left's idea of religious freedom guaranteed in the First Amendment while the screen writers fumbled the Christian viewpoint.

The one redeeming line was at the end of the episode where it was pointed out that Obama defended traditional marriage when he wanted to win the presidency (he was lying, of course, but Democrats lie for their causes). That said, Baranski is an outstanding actress and millions will never check the weak argument presented by the actress portraying a Christian wedding planner.

Here’s the point.  Baranski’s character is correct, Jesus never commented on homosexuality.  It was a practice and lifestyle not known to Jews.  It was for pagans, Greeks and Romans where even they didn’t have marriages for homosexuals—it was a form of acceptable pedophilia or prostitution to engage in outside of marriage.

Jesus also never addressed pornography or pedophilia, or space travel or nuclear war or environment or guitars in worship services or many other things that pull us apart these days.  That said, no Christian church exists strictly on the words of Jesus in the four gospels. The Church of the Brethren in which I was baptized at age 12 loves the book of James which doesn’t present the gospel.  The Lutheran church where I am now a member baptizes babies and Martin Luther wanted to throw out the book of James (he is the reason Catholic and Protestant Bibles have a different number of sacred books).

The Christian church managed to thrive for years with no formal canon/scripture; and today every church whether Protestant, Catholic or Independent has a form of church hierarchy, with accepted rules and traditions passed down by word of mouth or printed documents. Churches have statements of faith, synods, boards, brotherhoods, deacons, pastoral organizations.  How to “do” church appears first in the book of Acts not the gospels and most churches follow that in some form.  But the oldest “here’s how to do it” record, The Didache, is a list of rules on baptism, the Eucharist, worship, how to treat each other, no abortion and no sex with young boys, no fighting or gossip, etc.

Marriage is a part of Scripture from Genesis forward, and in Christian teaching, Jesus Christ created the world and all that is in it, including sex for procreating and marriage.  Tradition and all church groups from the Creation right up to 2012 when a tiny political minority combined with a large number of those who think marriage is worthless anyway worked to get the law changed.  It’s not hard to change a law for an event people don’t even care about—but that doesn’t mean Christians have to give up 2000 years of history and tradition and the First Amendment just because screen writers don’t know how to do research.

In the United States the First Amendment protects millions from government interference in religion—Amish who don’t have to go to public school, truck drivers who won’t deliver alcohol, Quakers who don’t get drafted in war time, Sikhs who wear head coverings, prisoners who don’t need to shave and it should protect wedding planners and bakers who don’t wish to be part of the bonding event for gays. And truly, who has killed and imprisoned more gays than governments?

Word of the week—reboot

Numerous things have gone wrong here, but I think everything is working again—the car, the garage door, the phone and the TV. Our son (manager of a dealer Quick Serve) put my car up on the rack and found a huge chunk of frozen ice and dirt in the wheel well hitting the tail pipe causing  a loud noise,  and he fixed the “low tire” dash light which had been on for 4 months and inflating the tire didn’t seem to fix it; then the garage door wouldn’t go down when it was 10 below zero, and our son stopped over, got a ladder and unplugged it (rebooted) and it started working (had not gone down during our 2 coldest, below zero nights causing the neighbors to call and remind us to close the door); then the phones stopped working with a message, “no line,” so I thought well, if it worked with the garage door maybe it works with the phone, so I unplugged it, and they started working; then the TV quit, so I couldn’t reach the plug and turned off the surge protector to reboot, and then everything quit even the cable box, but it was working this morning after rebooting.  So the word of the day/week is “reboot.”

Parks and Recreation ending and I’ve never heard of it

“The writers worked hard to make sure that not one citizen of the fictional Pawnee, Ind.,was left with a dream unfulfilled. The finale, packed with inside jokes and guest stars, showed multiple flash-forwards of the characters through the years. The end result? Every character ended up exactly where they were meant to be, except about a hundred times better”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/02/25/parks-and-recreation-series-finale-the-wildly-optimistic-show-stays-true-to-its-roots/

The all white, all Spanish language cable channel

I was watching Despierta America on Univision this morning while peddling my Power Spin. That channel has a terrible "shadism" problem--didn't see a single dark skinned, Indian, black, brown or Asian person either as host, contestant, guest or in a commercial. Even the exercise segment was led by a blonde. The President of Mexico sends his brown and poor to the U.S. so that fair and light skinned Mexicans of primarily European descent can retain power and money. Univision is headquartered in NYC owned by a conglomerate of investors and in viewership is on a par with the top 5 English language networks. I wonder why there is a different standard for diversity and multiculturalism?

http://entretenimiento.univision.com/shows/despierta-america/

“How much does it cost to kill a man?”

That was the title of a Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s 1968 television program—he was the master of the green chalk board, looking into the camera with piercing eyes, posing questions which he then answered, and pregnant pauses to let his audience catch up.  Even my parents watched him, after they finally got a TV in the mid-1960s.  (If you’ve ever watched Glenn Beck, I wonder if he watched old tapes of Sheen to develop his style).  You don’t need to be afraid of this Catholic  Bishop—he doesn’t talk dogma or Catholic ceremonial worship.  He emphasizes history and values—and he’s the master of the medium.

In the 1950s, Sheen was firmly anti-Communist—predicted the worst.  And we were at war in 1968, and I wonder if he was having second thoughts—at least about the tactics being used. First he discussed the uselessness of peace treaties—4,568 between WWI and WWII (didn’t supply the source).  In one year before WWII, he said there were 211 peace treaties.  He calculates how often the western world (he doesn’t say western, but those were his examples) has been at war.  Using, I believe, a 500 year time frame (counting back from 1968) he said Great Britain had been in 76 wars, France, 61, and Russia 63. Then he made a startling observation—at least to me--about Russia which made me think of President Obama’s current methods of containment.  He said (paraphrasing here) that the U.S. method of war was to first send in armaments and weapons, then to later send U.S.  troops.  Russia was different, Sheen said, that after sending armaments and weapons it finds dupes in other nations to do their dirty work—they don’t send troops, so it can appear that they are  lovers of peace. Technically, they don’t kill anyone, just their machines.  I assume he was referring to the U.S. struggle with the North Vietnamese who were being funded and weaponized by outside Communist countries like USSR and China—while we and the Vietnamese were losing men, they were just losing machines.

Then he quoted the research (missed the source, but he did give it) of someone who had calculated the cost of killing a man in war (collateral damage to civilians not noted).  For Cain to kill Abel it took nothing but brute force; for Julius Caesar to conquer what is now western Europe was about 75 cents per man; for Napoleon it had increased to $700; in WWI it was $21,000 and WWII, $200,000 per death; and for Vietnam War he estimated it was $1,000,000 an hour.  Then he warned of the earth being destroyed by mistake, and told the story of King Arthur and his son reaching a peace agreement, when one soldier’s sword flashed in the sun, and the opposing sides attacked, killing all but four.

Neither leader trusted the other, so they ordered their knights to attack immediately if anyone pulled their sword. Surrounded by a small band of knights, Arthur and Mordred held their discussion. While they spoke, a snake slithered through the grass and bit a knight on the heel. Acting on reflex, the knight pulled his sword. Both armies saw the flash of the sword. Suddenly, the ranks of knights gave a shout and advanced into battle. For the next several hours, England’s greatest knights slaughtered each other, until only two were left standing. http://superbeefy.com/how-did-king-arthur-die-in-the-battle-against-mordreds-army-and-what-happened-to-his-sword-excalibur/

Maybe Sheen will never make it to sainthood (there is a fight over his body by dueling interests), but he certainly has something to say many years later.

Why do women do that?

Meredith Vieira is 60 years old and she’s making a “come back” on talk TV (I didn’t realize she’d left) and I wish her luck.  There are not enough mature women in film or TV.  It’s as though every woman over 55 has gone missing except for ads about Depends, retirement destinations and Nancy Pelosi who is 74.  As I was watching a promo for her show last night, I said to self, “Why do women do that?  Why do they sit like that in public?” You’ve all seen it; maybe you’ve wondered too.  One leg folded under and the knee pulled against the chest to make a shape like a toddler trying to do yoga.  Next time you watch a TV talk show, watch the  female guest.  She flounces in from the Green Room having spent hours on her make-up, hair and torn jeans to look trendy and tousled, sits down next to the host, and promptly pulls one leg up to her chest, or sits with it folded under her. Then look at the men—neatly dressed, usually a suit, sitting up straight (unless a musician—they slouch), and making no attempt to look small and child-like. 

I went through images to see if I could find it, but none were as extreme or as revealing as the one I saw in the promo.  In the promo she was wearing tights (don’t recall the top) and had bare feet—like maybe she was getting ready for bed.  Really?  Is that what it takes to attract an audience of middle age, over weight women (judging from the audiences).  So I looked at an NBC clip of the upcoming show, and she was wearing tight jeans, heels, and something that looked like the jacket for a suit or dress from the 90s picked up at the resale shop.  Very odd; if that’s in style I guess I have some old blazers I can pull out.

In these images, the first looks like the way we probably all sat on the floor for junior high gatherings.  Many carried this position into their 20s and 30s until they gained weight or got pregnant and couldn’t manage it.  But I’ve seen women sit like this in public!  Then the next photo is a very common position I’ve seen at meetings, in restaurants, although usually one leg is curled under.  It’s a more typical guy position—spread the legs and take all the room you can to look powerful.  It’s not flattering for women.  If men blow out their knees in athletics, I think women do it from years of sitting with their legs curled under with all their body weight in the wrong places. I sit like that last photo watching TV—but I wouldn’t if I actually were on TV.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Meredith-Vieira-Show-Biz-1086460.aspx

Does Netflix take the place of TV?

I was surprised this week to hear one of our speakers at Lakeside say she doesn't have a television. She subscribes to Netflix (online video rental). So that means she doesn't know about the IRS scandal (but neither do millions of others who watch broadcast news). She doesn't know that our administration's policies have encouraged parents in Central America to send their minor children on a very dangerous journey and now they are in camps spread around the U.S. at the states...' expense (but TV broadcast news has told viewers they are fleeing violence, instead of looking for a free college education). She doesn't know her president of 5.5 years is still blaming his predecessor for his inability to cobble together a defined foreign policy, a safe exit from Iraq, and a flailing economy (but if she were watching the news this week she would know about celebrities' babies and hair styles, the World Cup, and that the climate is changing and it's all our fault). She also didn't know about a huge story in her field that broke that day--until her audience told her.

Enjoying Jack Benny 60 years late

I enjoy watching The Jack Benny show on my "rabbit ears" TV--I rarely listened/watched when it was one of the most popular and long running radio/TV shows in history (1932-1955 radio; 1950-1965 TV). I was looking at the FaceBook page and noticed that the wife (4th) of his announcer and side kick Don Wilson was Lois Corbett. That's the same name (not person) as my aunt.  But also the photo on the page shows a different Don Wilson, an Asian martial arts guy.  Considering what Don Wilson (rotund) looked like, that's hilarious.

Our guest room TV antenna reception

I have antenna (indoor) TV in the guest room, and moved the antenna last night and rescanned. Here's what I get, but don’t know how this lines up with what others have--because each time I rescan, it is different. Also depends on the weather.

NBC 4
MeTV 4.2
ABC 6
MyTV 6.2 (THIS)
CBS 10
Antenna TV 10.2 (retro)
WCLL ? 19 (Christian?)
WTTE Fox 28
Fox Spanish 33
EBR? 33.2
SNTV Somali ? 33.3 Dalmar
Afro TV Muslim? 33.4
Guide Us Muslim? 33.5
?? 33.6  (only infomercials when I’ve seen it)
WOSU-HD 34
Ohio Channel 34.2
WOSU Create 34.3
TBN Trinity Broadcasting Network  51 Christian
TCC The Church Channel 51.2
JCTV (Christian) 51.3
? Spanish Christian 51.4
SOAC ? 51.5

I've checked some articles on the internet, but the numbers and station letters don't always match what I have.

In the original conversion, we had 2 boxes, one here and one at the lake house. (You don’t need these with new TVs).  But the one here died.  I bought one at a rummage sale for $5.  I think a lot of people just gave up and switched to cable.

Reconnecting back in Columbus

                 

We take our newer HD flat screen TV to the lake in the summer, and then bring it back. I've rescanned the channels because the lake area channels don’t work in Columbus (we can get Detroit, Cleveland and Ontario there), and am surprised at the additional programming I didn’t have when we left in June. Not sure they’ve been added, or I missed them in the original scan.  I now have 2 channels on zero, and am getting DIY and 2 more c-span than I had before (no box so the selections are limited) and a few more I haven't identified. I’m getting Me-TV which I didn’t have before and an Ohio sports channel.  Both Fox 28 and WOSU are coming in on 2 different channels.