TV good

• Like so many other misguided people in the world, my mentor at work recently and proudly said, "I NEVER watch TV." I told him I absolutely love TV, and he, in a morally superior way, said, "Why?" Why, indeed?
• I remember when I was littler it was de rigeur for families to purposely not have a TV in the house. They proclaimed it loudly and proudly, inducing guilt in others (unconsciously, I'm sure). I suppose these rare birds must still exist somewhere. What a way to raise a cardboard, puritanical, joyless person, I say. When I took Rebekah in for a physical recently, the doctor chided her: "You must not watch TV/be on the computer for more than a combined three hours a day." Ya, and you must also drill holes in the skull to let out those evil vapors when you are severely ill, in addition to the mustard plaster and, of course, many many leeches. Ok so to give credit where it's due, there is actually a medical benefit to using leeches.
• To continue this questionably apropos metaphor, the prevailing idea that TV is evil, is just plain malarkey in the same way that skull holes are malarkey. Since when do doctors dictate how a child spends his/her time? Just examine the body and possibly mood, please, and leave the rest alone.
• "But TV poisons little Johnny's mind." So does going to a strip club and intently observing the pole dancing. How about this: don't let Johnny watch trashy TV shows, and perhaps you should not allow him to frequent those strip clubs either. Just as leeches can in some cases be beneficial, so can TV in some cases be harmful. OF COURSE, duh.
• Aw, heck I'm on a roll now: why not add another (grossly overused) metaphor? "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater." Baby good, bathwater bad. Most TV good, some TV bad.
• A person can be an idiot and neglect relationships, exercise, and other things that deserve attention, in favor of watching TV. Is that TV's fault? No, the thought makes reason stare. To magnify: a person chooses to go to a ballet instead of attending his grandmother's funeral. Is that the ballet's fault? A clue: no.
• TV is such an amazing and relatively new art form. It incorporates all other art forms and adds in the art of cinematography. The very best artists' crafts, everywhere and through history, are available immediately and for free. TV broadens the mind. It engenders imagination. It relieves stress and provides an escape. It makes for some darn fun exercise. It allows understanding of other lands and people and ideas that was never possible before TV came along. It can teach you just about anything you choose to learn, through direct instruction, and through vicarious experience.
• And now, if there are faults in this post, they are the mistakes of men; wherefore condemn not the things of good TV, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of your own mind.

ambi

• Quotation of the day: "They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine." --The Doctor
• Become ambidextrous. You know you want to. Everyone is doing it.

hear these voices

• I am SO knocked out about this new discovery: imeem! I figured out how to embed audio files on Blogspot through imeem. You can embed individual files, or you can make an audio player be a page element. Here are clips of the people I mentioned in my last post, who have fab speaking voices. (I have found that every Dick Vitale clip on the internet is a fake, so he is not represented here. I actually don't think Dick Vitale really exists.)

First, David Tennant:

And Stephen Fry:

And Alan Rickman:

Okay and finally a video about Don LaFontaine:

• This is by far the most technologically advanced post I have made. I win.

This post rated PG-14. *HOUSE SPOILERS*

• Here is Aubrey driving. She is doing well even though it brings to mind a movie called Driving School with David Tennant.






• I have always been fascinated with gender roles and psychological differences between men and women historically and across cultures. And more specifically with all forms of male-male relationships. I recently read a thing on pederasty, which I found very interesting, but it is not for the faint of heart or easily offended. Some might say that most male-male friendships have just face value and lack depth. *sigh* That's so simple and delightful. But then there are House and Wilson, the most male of males, who have this insanely hilarious relationship. They yell at each other, drug each other, pull unimaginable pranks on each other, nose in each other’s business, steal each other’s money, get each other fired and arrested. While absolutely no sexuality or physicality of any sort exists between then, they came just a smidge away from declaring their undying love for each other in Tuesday’s episode. Apparently they are soul mates in a sense. And then there are Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, two genius renaissance men, who have the same sort of thing in real life. Except one of them is gay.


• In Virginia you can vote for either party in the primary regardless of how you are registered. Since I no longer care who wins the Republican, I am going to vote for Obama. Or rather, I am going to vote against Hilary. Interesting that we call her "Hilary" rather than "Clinton", by the way.


• Is Cat on a Hot Tin Roof not the best title ever? Seriously, think about it. But not for too long, 'cuz it's not comfortable.


• People with excellent speaking voices: that TV announcer dude, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Dick Vitale, and David Tennant. Wish I could attach sound clips, but no time or mental wherewithal.

Yip yips meet the telephone

video of the day, or maybe of a lifetime

Pleasant-looking politicals and sportsers

I'm not a fan of politics or sports. But give me something good to look at, and I will stare blankly at them as long as you please.

Here are ESPN's Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic:



Mr. Romney. It's not every candidate that I could stand to look at and listen to for four years. I could definitely stand this one.


John Roberts. It was rather pleasant watching his confirmation process. Don't 'cha want to ruffle his hair up and pinch his cheeks?

Ken Bradford

• Okay, so get this: Ken Bradford and his family moved into our ward. His cute little tow-haired son Blair is in Jerry's and my Sunbeam class and has been for a few weeks, but we just figured it out today in a roundabout coincidental way. They live about as far away from us as Ken did from my house in Albuquerque twenty-odd years ago. He was in the same ward, same high school, and same grade that Jerry and I were in. What a trip. It's a small world if you are Mormon. Lindy, I will leave it up to you, if you like, to pass on this information to any interested parties.
• I got my eyebrows dyed last night. Why did it take me 37 years to do this? Love it.
• Quotation of the day: "Grease makes your hands soft." --Jennifer M.