Vaya con Dios, VCR

I junked the first of my three VCRs today. I've been taping programs off the air for years on VHS tapes, then playing them back so I can skip the commercials. Worked fine for me. Then, prodded by #1 Son (tip-o-the-hat to Charlie Chan), finally got an HD TV with DVR. Wouldn't you know it, soon as the latest gizmo entered the house, one of the older ones decided to die.

Tried to restore it. Took the cover off, peered inside, had no idea what I was looking at. The cassette refused to eject. It hummed, I hawed. I finally closed it all up and put it out for recycling. Realized I probably will have no further use for it anyway. I do have two other VCRs but after viewing the remaining tapes, what will I do with those? DVR trumps VHS/VCR.

And Marv muddles on.

In Spanish?

I'm a member of Generation O (for over-age). No one cares what I watch or read but I try to keep up anyway. Just switched to FIOS (Really Big!) but found it it stands for Frequently Incomprehensible Operating System. Example: I went to my blog page yesterday and it came up in SPANISH! And I didn't even Press 1. I hope this comes out in English but, hey, you never know.

A very nice young man spent an entire day switching me from Comcast to Verizon internet, TV and telephone service. And now the remote on my tuner doesn't work. His fault or mine for pulling out what I thought were excess cables? Doesn't matter. I can still use the tuner -- but manually.

Post-election Musings

Hello, Blog:

Haven't posted anything for a while. I've been immersed in the election aftermath and can't seem to read enough about what this one says and that one says.

I hope the hope for a new beginning is justified but I worry about the far-right attack machine. I'm sure they can't wait for the first opportunity to spew forth the hate and fear rhetoric the electorate has just rejected. But I doubt it. In fact, "still-president Bush," as Jon Stewart calls him, still couches his public statements with dire projections of what will happen if he is unheeded. Hello? Didn't he read the election results? He IS no longer heeded.

I learned long ago not to argue with ideologues. They are immune to common sense and the lessons of history. They see what they want to see and say what they want to say regardless of reality.

Meanwhile, Jan. 20 cannot come soon enough.

Cheers.

Pundits For Sale

From the New York Times, Sunday, October 26, 2008:

"J. PETER FREIRE is at school, learning to be a better pundit.

"He is being trained to carve his conservative philosophy into bite-size nuggets — preferably ones that end with a zinger — and to avoid questions he doesn’t like. He is discovering the right way to attack opponents (with a smile) and to steer a conversation in his direction (by interrupting).
"Journalists once had to achieve a certain gravitas before appearing on television as a political expert, but not anymore. Thanks to the 24-hour news cycle, a riveting presidential election and the proliferation of cable channels, people like Mr. Freire, who is 26 and has been managing editor of The American Spectator, a conservative magazine, since January, are finding themselves in hot demand."

If you ever needed convincing not to believe anything you hear on TV news this should be the capper. What base of knowledge does any 20-something bring to his pundtry? His ability to smile while smearing? His ability to avoid answering direct questions by "steering" to his pre-paid political message?

I used to "train" business and professional persons to become more effective communicators either in person or through the news media. But one thing I always told them was NEVER LIE.

What does pundit school teach these media tots? Smile, steer, sell your message for all you're worth. Credibility? Forget it. This is the world of never-ending news regurgitated on the all-views-all-the-time cable shows.

The tragedy is that too many viewers take this stuff seriously and then repeat it to their friends and relatives; or worse yet, pollute the internet by forwarding this stuff to their entire email address books.

Please exercise a little more discretion before hitting that forward button and THINK before you put any credence into what a wet-behind-the-ears blowhard has to say on the air.

Thanks and good luck.

The Limb Lives

OK, we're even, thanks to the strong left limb of David Price. Hang on.

Beginnings

This is the first blog entry on my new site, Out On A Limb.

I originated the title when I wrote a column as sports editor of my college weekly. I carried the title over to the division newspaper I edited while serving in the Army. I haven't used it since and I'm grateful it's still available as a name for my blog.

As the title implies, I take contrarian or controversials positions just to stir up a little dust and get the brain cells vibrating. Sometimes I'll be right and sometimes I won't, but I hope to keep it interesting and, of course, civil.

I'll also try to be amusing although I don't tell jokes. But perhaps a skewed vision of the world might bring a smile or two.

I am blessed with an abundance of grandchildren (a hint as to my age group) and they might perhaps provide fodder for this blog. We'll see.

And for you golfers out there, I am a confirmed hacker ruefully anticipating the end of the golfing season here in the northeast. If you have any ideas how to use the downtime to improve my game, I'm listening.

Well, you haven't heard anything controversial or contrarian so far and you're wondering when he's going to get on with it. So here goes:

The Rays in five.

See ya.