TV - I knew it!

Subject: TV - I knew it!
From: leeneia
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 12:42 AM

I have long suspected that the nation's televisions are broadcasting to about 250 people and the networks don't even have a clue. Nobody I know watches TV. We're just too busy.

The following article, which I have copied from the local paper, supports my view by revealing the extent of anti-TV sentiment across the nation.

--------------
Turned off by TV? This gizmo's for you

The Associated Press


SAN JOSE, Calif. — Ticked off by the TV? Turn it off — anywhere.

A new key-chain gadget that lets people turn off most TVs — anywhere from airports to restaurants — is selling faster than expected.

"I thought there would just be a trickle, but we are swamped," the inventor, Mitch Altman of San Francisco, said.

Hundreds of orders for Altman's $14.99 TV-B-Gone gadget poured in Monday after the tiny remote control was announced in Wired magazine and other media outlets.

The device works like a universal remote control — but one that only turns TVs on or off. With a zap of a button, the gizmo goes through about 200 infrared codes that control the power of about 1,000 television models.
--------------------
I remember a long, long night at the Dallas airport. Thunderstorms had bollixed (is that how you spell it?) the schedules. It was 11 pm, and exhausted preschoolers were draped over the chests of tired fathers. Above our heads, TV people yacked and yacked, but nobody even glanced at them. (Of course, the cost of the sets and the electricity to run them got added to the price of our tickets.) How nice it would have been to have a TV-Be-Gone to shut them up.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Leadfingers
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 06:52 AM

All we need is a similar device for Zapping Musak machinery !!!!

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: *daylia*
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 08:10 AM

I think I've developed a natural "zapper" over the years. After a lifetime of patiently enduring the endless babble and noise from the family's Big Square Eye, I honestly don't even hear it anymore. I tune it right out without even trying, it seems.

Last year I finally bit the bullet and cancelled my cable. Six months after my youngest son left for college, I realized I hadn't even turned the thing on once - and here I was shelling out $40 a month for nothing! Well, the cable people acted like I was asking them to disconnect my head or something - how could I possibly NOT want at least 100 channels of s*** to choose from?

When I finally convinced them YES I really DID want it disconnected and NO I was definitely not interested in their "special bundle" package deals, they added an extra $15 a month to my hi-speed internet bill. Apparently I can't have an internet cable connection without also receiving very basic TV (2 or 3 relatively useless local stations) - so they "have to" bill me for the TV service anyway. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ....

But what really bugs me is this - when I'm at a friend's, or a restaurant, airport etc where the big Square Eyes are babbling away (unnoticed, for the most part) - if I relax and allow my eyes to rest on that screen, I'm gone. I'll sit there like some zombie staring at that screen without even being consciously aware of what I'm supposedly "watching". Maybe it's the movement that's so mesmerizing! TV seems to put my brain almost instantly into "stand-by" mode. I tune out the noise no problem, but if I LOOK at the screen - bye bye world.

It's kinda demeaning   *sigh*

If some alien race had bequeathed us with televisions 20,000 years ago, I doubt we'd ever have made it out of the caves.

daylia

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 11:09 AM

Yea yea yea I agree but just to put the pigeon among the cattets----

How much easier is it to watch a ball game without having to guzzle the gas or fight the crowds - not to mention the time wasted? Or in my case motrocycle races - even in the UK I wouldn't fight the traffic and have taller idiots block my view. No, if you dungotta have that event how are you gonna make it happen. Like say Jay Ungar, Emmylou-Harris, Jon Martin, Ali Bain, Dougie McClean Phil Cunningham etc all in one room - the one I am sitting in. AND I don't even have to be in the room at the time - I can watch it when and as many times as I like. (Transatlantic Sessions - thats what)

I lived 20 years without TV and have never owned a TV in my life. But I have had 3 TV cards on computers.

Horses for courses, Swings and roundabouts, different strokes for different folks. What did we do before TV? we talked, & we made things, like knitted jumpers or music.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Flash Company
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 11:10 AM

Ever read Arthur C Clarke's short story 'I REmember Babylon'?

FC

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Mudlark
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 04:50 PM

I want one! For: TV in doc office, endlessly looping through Fox News; TV in hosp. waiting room, soap operas flickering away, unnoticed; TVs in bars, all bars except specified sports bars (and thereby avoidable); the TV on way too loud in the next motel room; any TV that remains on in a social gathering when no one is there to specifically watch something. This is a great nvention.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: leeneia
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 01:01 AM

Yes, Mr. Red, you make some valid points. Obviously, if you are interested in a game, you should watch it. (I find I enjoy baseball more if I turn the sound down so that I can hear the crowd but not the announcers. Shutting up the announcers really enhances the experience for me.)

And I always enjoyed the Hit Parade back when it was on.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: dianavan
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 01:57 AM

I know this is thread drift but... I was talking to my friend in Seattle the other night and she was telling how nasty its getting in the states. She mentioned that when she is in her house, she can hear right wing radio broadcasts (very low) coming from her satellite dish. Is this possible? Maybe the zapper could take care of it.

d

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 02:29 AM

Hah, I ordered one of these a few days ago... Can't wait to use it at Target, where there's usually about 30 TVs blaring bad pop music. Assuming I get mine first, I'll post my impressions here.

*daylia*, my nephew becomes zombified by the television, too. One day, he was playing with... those big toddler sized lego-style toys, whatever they're called. Something loud and colourful appeared on the screen, and he snapped his head up, looked at it, and froze in mid-lego-snap, looking like a photograph. I said "Hey, Max," because that is his name. Nothing. "MAX!" Nothing. He stood like that for about 30 seconds, and then I moved my hand in front of his eyes, blocking the TV. He immediately started playing, right where he'd left off. Creeepy.

Oh, and I've found a good way to cut back on television recently: I accidentally broke my remote. "You lazy bastard," you might say, but that's not it at all. I don't mind hopping up to change the channel. What the loss of the remote did for me was interrupt my "channel surfing," which I'd sometimes waste hours doing before. Something about sitting, clicking, "maybe there's some 'breaking news,' or a 'Family Guy' I've seen 40 times," or whatever. Now, I only watch maybe 4-5 hours of television (excluding dvds) a week, and that's only the programs I intend to watch.

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: JennieG
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 02:30 AM

Another slight thread drift.....here in Sydney the major rugby (and other football code) games are, of course, broadcast on some TV station or other. The comedy duo Roy Nelson and H.G. Slaven do a wonderful satirical commentary of the game on radio, so the men of the house watch the TV game with the sound off while listening to the commentary on radio, which is hilarious - the TV commentators are really boooorrring.

While this is happening I am in another part of the house playing music....or sewing.....or reading.....I can't stand football, even with Roy and H.G.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 02:54 AM

The Aussie cricket fans loved the ABC radio commentary, especially since commercial radio had never carried it.

When TV started to carry it, it was amusing and very nearly the same to watch it on ABC TV - cause the ABC TV commentators understood that TV _HAD_ a picture that we were all watching (and they didn't have that verbal diaherra that makes them fill up all the silences!), but when Commercial TV took over (cause Aunty could no longer afford the rights) the astute fans used turn off the TV sound and listen to the ABC radio!

Now that we have Replays - I am never sure just how many balls there are in an over now - it used to be 6; now on average it seems to be 19.37 balls per over....

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: GUEST,Mingulay
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 05:28 AM

Cricket afficionados here would watch the match on BBC TV and listen to the commentary on radio. The best of both worlds.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Mr Red
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 10:00 AM

Mudlark

Call me a pedantic electronic engineer (and I will thank you effusively) BUT does an infra-red zapper work from room to room? I thnk you need a hammer - to bang on the wall and if that doesn't jerk their conscience keep going, and when you break through - then the zapper will fire on all cylinders.

Have a nice day.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 12:20 AM

*daylia*, it has something to do with controlled light/movement combination. It's what makes hypnotism happen. You familiar with the cliche scene in a movie/tv show where a doc takes out a pocket watch on a chain and swings it gently in front of patient's eyes so the moving light attracts and holds the attention of the one being hypnotised? The human has times when it needs to focus its attention. Our nervous system is set up to be vulnerable to light with motion, it seems. "Madison Avenue" has wads of scientists helping "them" take FULL advantage of that situation.   Tw

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 02:37 AM

An address, please?
I'd love to have one for when I'm performing and the saloonkeeper leaves the TV on...

Seamus

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 04:06 AM

Here you go.

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: *daylia*
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 09:29 AM

Tannywheeler, thanks for your input. Here's an article called Video Brain Drain which seems to confirm what you just said ...

Whether we watch high-brow programming or TV trash makes no difference; the effect is the same ... television not only destroys the capacity of the viewer to attend, it also, by taking over a complex of direct and indirect neural pathways, decreases vigilance...."

The mild euphoria we all feel when watching TV apparently has physical roots: TV changes the state of our brains. It's got to do with the flicker rate and luminosity of the TV screen. These have a measurable effect on the nervous system.

One symptom is the TV stare. Our eyes stop their rapid scan of the environment--their normal activity--and become fixed on one plane a few yards in front of us. That glazed-over look is not superficial; our brains actually work differently when we gaze at the tube.

The Center concluded that while watching TV, "...our usual processes of thinking and discernment are semi-functional at best," and "the technology of television and the inherent nature of the viewing experience actually inhibit learning as we usually think of it." A number of critics dubbed this altered state of consciousness "TV epilepsy." Many have since speculated on the connections of TV epilepsy with decreasing attention spans of children

What I find most disconcerting about all this is that I barely noticed the "stun effect" a TV screen has on me until I'd been "deprived" of that daily stimulation for a few months! What does this mean - that most people become "zombified" by TV, and don't even realize it?!? Scary thought.

Lepus, here's an article by a pediatrician detailing how TV watching changes and damages the developing brain. I thought you might find it interesting with regards to your nephew ...

Higher levels of television viewing correlate with lowered academic performance, especially reading scores. This may be because television substitutes for reading practice, partially because the compellingly visual nature of the stimulus blocks development of left-hemisphere language circuitry. A young brain manipulated by jazzy visual effects cannot divide attention to listen carefully to language. Moreover, the "two-minute mind" easily becomes impatient with any material requiring depth of processing.

The nature of the stimulus may predispose some children to attention problems. Even aside from violent or overly stimulating sexual content, the fast-paced, attention-grabbing "features" of children's programming (e.g., rapid zooms and pans, flashes of color, quick movement in the peripheral visual field, sudden loud noises) were modeled after advertising research, which determined that this technique is the best way to engage the brain's attention involuntarily. Such experiences deprive the child of practice in using his own brain independently ...

The brain's executive control system, or pre-frontal cortex, is responsible for planning, organizing and sequencing behavior for self-control, moral judgment and attention. These centers develop throughout childhood and adolescence, but some research has suggested that "mindless" television or video games may idle this particular part of the brain and impoverish its development. Until we know more about the interaction of environmental stimulation and the stages of pre-frontal development, it seems a grave error to expose children to a stimulus that may short-change this critical system.

In fact, this pediatrician recommends never leaving the TV set on as a "background" to your home life (it bugs me so much when people do this!); turning off the TV permanently for babies and toddlers under 3, and limiting TV to a maximum of one hour a day for children over 3.

Now, I wonder what's the best strategy for people over 40?    ;-)

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 10:01 AM

My parents were very smart – as I was growing up, the TV was in the basement, so you had to consciously decide to go watch something; it was not the audio/visual wallpaper of our lives. This also means that it was not on in the background during meals (when I grew older, I was amazed to find that some families kept a TV going – during dinner – and right near the dinner table!); in my family, dinner was a time to sit & talk with each other about our day.

When my grandfather came for a visit, we moved the TV up into the living room for the duration of his stay (he was too infirm to deal with the stairs), and I remember noticing how much more TV we all ended up watching. It was soooo easy to get hooked; you'd be walking through the living room, your attention would be caught by whatever was on (whether or not it was truly interesting), and 20, 30, 40 minutes later, you'd still be there... it was a bit scary, but a useful object lesson.

The other really smart thing my parents did was talk to us about commercials, explaining that they didn't always tell the truth, and that those nifty toys that looked so wonderful in the commercials could be quite disappointing in real life. It worked: my siblings and I rarely nagged our parents for things we saw on TV; as a matter of fact, when adverts came on, we enjoyed making fun of them.

I have a friend who does something similar; when one of her kids desperately wants something they've seen on telly, they go to the store together to "just have a look" at this fantastic item. Nine out of ten times, the kid sees it's nowhere near as exciting/appealing as it looked in the advert. Brilliant!

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 10:08 AM

A device similar to the "TV-zapper" that blocks cell phone signals appears to be in fairly widespread use in many places. Earliest usage was to provide "secure" meeting rooms, and to prevent anyone from inadvertently or intentionally "phoning out" what was going on.

The device now is reportedly in use in many restaurants and concert halls in many countries.

Unfortunately, it has been ruled illegal in the US, under the prohibition against "broadcasting interfering signals" in FCC regulations. I think the regulations need changing.

Under this US rule, in order to shut off cell phones a restaurant has to put up aluminum foil wallpaper and steel doors.

John

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: GUEST,Charmion at work
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 12:40 PM

We, too, unplugged our television cable -- and suffered the consequent bounce in the price of broadband Internet service (sigh). So far, the net result is a quieter household with more reading and more music. We live in Ottawa where we enjoy excellent radio service courtesy of the CBC and two newspapers, the local daily and a national daily; the last thing we need to keep informed is television. Edmund misses rugby after church on Sunday mornings, so now we eat Sunday breakfast at a Don Cherry's sports bar -- and now I eat smoked salmon at least once per week, boo hoo.

In 1995, about a year after I kicked out Husband No 1 (Mr. Wrong), I unplugged the television for the first time, and did without it for three years -- in fact, until 1998 when I married Edmund (Mr. Right). I remember the initial reason was to make it easier to re-arrange the furniture in the sitting room so the most comfortable reading chair would be beside the window, but once it was disconnected I found that I couldn't possibly put it in the bedroom (too cold), the kitchen (no room), the study (ditto) or the dining room (too tacky for words). While waiting to figure out where to put it, I realized that I felt much less nagged, hassled and harried, and was sleeping more restfully, so I put it in the cellar, promising myself that if I really, really missed it I would re-install it. Six months later, I gave it and the VCR away to a young couple who had been burned out of their apartment.

This time we're keeping the equipment -- but now we can get lots of really good shows and movies on DVD, which we didn't have in 1995. So we watch the occasional movie, and I've been trying to learn something about string theory from a DVD I borrowed from my 12-year-old cousin the genius. And I'm sleeping more restfully, and we eat at the table like grown-ups much more often.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 01:53 PM

Thanks, Lepus!

Seamus

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: John Hardly
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 07:41 AM

"Can you turn that down!? " Eve said from across the room.

Ed gently leaned his guitar against the wall and made his way over to the TV. But even as he started to lean over and adjust the volume control...

...it suddenly wasn't enough.

Muttering to himself, "For every commercial I've endured - many over and over and over.... - and always at that annoying heightened volume level to make sure I can hear it from the kitchen with the 'fridge door open! Always telling me of the wonders of the latest product that I need to make me happy -- I've bought 'em.....they didn't.

And with that, he reached around behind the TV, and with a jerk on the cord, pulled the plug on the set.

That felt a little better.....but not much.

The TV was quite an armful as Ed hefted it up from its stand. With a few grunts, and opening doors with a shove of the hip, he finally managed to get the thing out to the garage workbench.
A plan was brewing.

He looked around the shop for some rope but finding none, his eyes rested on the 50 ft. orange extension cord hanging from the peg rack. "That's appropriate." says he.

With great deliberation, as one might put into a ceremony, Ed proceeded to turn one end of the extension chord into a noose. After trying every which way to get the noose to stay put around the TV, he finally found that he could kinda wedge the protruding picture tube from the back through the noose twice and, with the TV entirely circled with cord, it was now secure.....enough.

Ed, by now sweating just a bit with the labor of it all, hauled the huge TV into his large back yard and half set, half dropped it on an old wooden chair at the foot of a big ol' oak that grew there. Throwing the loose end of the extension cord over a big branch, and then securing it to the tree trunk, he said, " ...and here's for every mindless PSA re-informing me either what I already learned in kindergarten, or what common sense taught me almost from the time I could first talk. I don't need some Government or corporate expenditure to remind me of the obvious --- and God save me from the TV viewers who do!". And with that he kicked the chair out from under the TV and left it to dangle there - hanging until dead.

.....'cept it wasn't dead, and Ed knew it. And Ed wasn't through...

...the TV didn't know that.

Ed pulled on the extension cord to raise the TV up a few feet. He then walked over to the nearby firewood pile and got a few armfuls of kindling and wood and stacked it under the dangling TV. With one more trip to the garage for some kerosene and matches, he was now prepared to finish the task.

As he lit the match to throw on the kerosene soaked wood pile, he shouted, "And for teaching my kids to, like, talk, like.....whatever...." he said in his best adolescent impersonation (which admittedly wasn't very good). "I'm not going to take it anymore! This is for teaching a whole generation of over sexed, over violent, over entertained youth that there's no difference between smart and smart-aleck........but infinitely worse, that there's no difference between fame.....and infamy!" he said. And with increasing anger in his voice he continued, "And for choosing your right to speak over the good judgement to shut the hell up from time to time!!".

As he watched the fire slowly disfigure the plastic parts as they curled and buckled slightly, he felt moved to be a little more active in the TV's demise. This watching thing was too passive. Ed retreated to the house and quickly returned with his 12 gauge and upon loading the single cartridge into the chamber took aim. As he did he shouted, " ...and for stealing the reality of life and replacing it with spectating! For every game watched...and not played. For causing me to forfeit my own creative potential - as well as the potential of my own creativity - to the expression of another's.....way too much of the time!" At that, his shoulder was kicked back with the force of the shell blast. And the glassy screen of the dangling TV all but disappeared, leaving a jagged crown in a mal-formed plastic frame.

But Ed was just getting warmed up.

He untied the TV from its mooring on the tree trunk and with a few swings to put it wide of the still burning fire, he let it fall crashing to the ground. He then dragged the TV carcass, cord and all and tied the cord to the bumper of the old pickup truck he used for gathering firewood.

He still had some things to say like, "For the Sunday morning talking heads who parade their professional liars week after week, giving them a forum for their manipulations until meaning has lost all, well..... meaning! And for foisting your pretty-boy presidential candidates on a public too ready to listen with their eyes....catering to people's desire for a symbol not a substance, an image rather than a reality!" This he shouted out the truck's open window as he proceeded to drag what was left of the TV behind the truck, over the uneven ground of the pasture behind his house.
When the extension cord noose finally let go of the TV, and the TV came to rest appropriately on a pile of cow manure, Ed slowly drove back to the house, and parked the truck. He then walked back in, calmed and refreshed, picked his guitar back up and started playing again.

"The guitar…" said Eve. "I was just wondering if you could play it a little quieter."

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 07:54 AM

Now if someone would just invent a similar device to self-destruct the car stereo of those inconsiderate b******s who drive round with their boom-box at max and all the windows open....

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: GUEST,Crystal
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 09:05 AM

*daylia*, that stuff about TV turning us into zombies is scary! Do they say anything about people with naturally short attention spans though? I have a short attention span and simply cannot just stare at a TV. I have to have a book, or some painting or my sewing to keep me occupied, otherwise I just get boared and figity. Maybe it is a dyslexic thing where to two halves of the brain can't communicate properly!
Any other dyslexic catters find this, or am I just wierd?

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 09:36 AM

All of television is focused on maintaining and consolidating profits and power. To this end, viewers of TV must adhere to a strict regimen of obedience and habit. TV watchers must continue to watch TV.

Television is about television. Its only real goal is to keep you watching.

From: www.turnoffyourtv.com

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Peace
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 09:56 AM

I can watch television for about ten minutes and then I fall asleep.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: gnu
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 10:19 AM

Try turning the TV on, Peace.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: jacqui.c
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 10:26 AM

I watch TV, but only when there is something on that I want to watch. I can't just sit and watch though so I crochet or do the ironing, both of which require me to take my eyes away from the screen for at least 50% of the time. I think that stops the hypnotic bit from happening.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: GUEST,Crystal
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 11:46 AM

Yay Jacqui! It is nice to know that I'm not the only person who can't just watch TV.
Books on the other hand...

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Bert
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 12:05 PM

Ah, Minstrel, you should feel sorry for those buggers, they haven't got dicks.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 12:31 PM

I too know people down south - anywhere from Minnesota to southern California - who leave their televisions on all day. I know a couple of others who do the same with radio. I don't do either, so that's not an issue with me although I wish the blasted thing were turned off. As a guest, however, it's not my call.

I can understand the need or the wish to zap a bar's television when one is performing.   However, it seems to me if you go around in airports and restaurants and elevators zapping TVs and radios willy nilly, fixated only on one's own comfort, you are encroaching on other people's space and comfort level.

There are people who simply cannot function without familiar sounds and images that allow them to block out UNfamiliar souroundings.

What happens then? Zap ON, Zap OFF, zap ON, zap OFF- the indoor version of road rage?

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: The Walrus
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 12:54 PM

I must say that TV in the summer is GREAT!

I have sleep problems, but all I have to do is switch on Tennis from the Queen's Club or Wimbledon and I'm out like a light - much quicker than, and just as effective as, a sleeping draught, but with no risk of an overdose.
:P

W

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 02:08 PM

" However, it seems to me if you go around in airports and restaurants and elevators zapping TVs and radios willy nilly, fixated only on one's own comfort, you are encroaching on other people's space and comfort level."

I disagree. I have never seen anybody in an airport watching the televisions. No doubt sometime, somewhere, somebody watches. If that person really needs media for comfort, then s/he should get a little radio or whatever and take care of the matter at her own expense.

In addition, the noise level is most airports is too high already. Noise is proved to raise blood pressure and stress the body.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: gnu
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 02:27 PM

WHAT!! REALLY!!?? SOB!!

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: Becca72
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 04:14 PM

I, for one, have the tv on all the time when I'm home. But I live alone and use it mostly for the noise. I also am only home and awake for about 3 hours a day during an average week. I also have a book or crossword going at the same time, usually.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: gnomad
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 04:11 AM

I liked John H's story.

They are still available

Just.........need.................to........................pre





Sorry, got distracted by a cartoon, where was I?

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: jacqui.c
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 06:43 AM

I've decided that I'm going to sit with my grandson and watch the commercials. What we will do is work out the hooks they use to try and get you to buy.

I reckon if he's aware of those hooks early on (he's nearly seven) he won't be quite as vulnerable to the hard sell.

Subject: RE: TV - I knew it!
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 10:45 PM

I might've mentioned this in another thread: Where Carol and I live, we cannot receive any television through the air. If you wish to have TV, one must purchase cable to get it. We prefer not to have any television at all. At least 80% of what is on is useless tripe to me.
SO, in the USA we have NETFLIX. That's a service that will mail you 3 DVDs to watch at your convenience--then you mail 'em back and the next 3 from your computer chosen list are mailed to you. Thousands of titles from ALL categories of films except porn.

Now that we are both disabled and have no real way to go out to rent movies, this is an almost perfect solution!!

Art Thieme