"As they passed the rows of houses they saw through the open doors that men were sweeping and dusting and washing dishes, while the women sat around in groups, gossiping and laughing.
"What has happened?" the Scarecrow asked a sad-looking man with a bushy beard, who wore an apron and was wheeling a baby-carriage along the sidewalk.
"Why, we've had a revolution, your Majesty -- as you ought to know very well," replied the man; "and since you went away the women have been running things to suit themselves. I'm glad you have decided to come back and restore order, for doing housework and minding the children is wearing out the strength of every man in the Emerald City."
"Hm!" said the Scarecrow, thoughtfully. "If it is such hard work as you say, how did the women manage it so easily?"
"I really do not know," replied the man, with a deep sigh. "Perhaps the women are made of cast-iron.""
- L. Frank Baum, "The Land of Oz"
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
My wife and I bought a new place about six months ago. We're way out in the country now. We're so far out that a local bumpkin we know told us, "Wow. You're further out in the country than we are."
If we wanted to (which we don't), we could link up with satellite TV. Other than that, though, our only option is to hook up our boob tube to the huge antenna on the side of our house. The coaxial cable, though, has been sliced and since I'm not much of a handyman, I've put off the project now for months upon months. Therefore, we've been without any network TV now for six months.
We do occasionally watch DVDs, but for the most part our TVs (we have two) go unused. It's refreshing to never hear the noise of television in our home. I don't think TV is evil (even though much of the content is evil), but I do think it makes a heck of a lot of noise. Not only that, those boxes are straight up ugly. I mean, unless it's a TV, who would want a big, black, dust-collecting rectangle in their living room? (We've got ours inside an armoire.)
With all that said, I'm going to have to figure out the coaxial thing because Lost is going to start up again in the spring. The Island doesn't accept any excuses.
Speaking of Lost, I still have yet to watch the last half of last season, so don't drop any spoilers in the comments!
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Comments on "A Boob Without A Tube":
4. nhe
- 11/11/2009 2:04 pm CST
ugh.......I think when it comes to TV, I'm the polar opposite of Bill.
The only reason I can think of for not having network TV would be that the dreaded "Lost" comes on occasionally.
However, "Glee", "Modern Family" and "Flash Forward" have shown this fall that TV is actually getting a little better........and if I didn't have Seinfeld reruns available to me on the fly - well - that would be bad.
"Modern Family" is hilarious IMO - best network sitcom since Seinfeld.
"Lost" however.....doesn't grace the downstairs TV - I relegate my wife to watching it in the bedroom.
6. Brian
- 11/11/2009 3:36 pm CST
Do you have high-speed internet? You can always watch the next day on nbc.com or Hulu or something like that.
8. Bird
- 11/12/2009 7:34 am CST
Coax is pretty easy to fix
Yeah, I saw a video demo of the process. Looks doable.
Do you have high-speed internet?
Yes, but it's satellite (our only option for high speed), so there are daily download limits. Therefore, it's impossible to watch full-length shows or movies unless we did it during the free download time from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. That isn't going to happen. :-) Of course, if there were a way to simply download the show during that time (off of iTunes?) and then watch it the next day, that would work.
Hulu.com is going to start charging, I heard.
Does Hulu, or another service, allow you to download a whole show and then watch it later? If so I can download them in the middle of the night.
9. Quaid
- 11/12/2009 7:16 pm CST
Downloading off of Itunes will work - just make sure your computer doesn't "sleep" while it's downloading. I think Hulu streams, so I don't think that would work for you - same thing with network web sites - watching LOST on ABC.com requires streaming which means you have to watch it "live" - you can't let it load overnight.
As for this fall's TV shows . . .
"Glee" started strong, but has waned in the plot department. Outside of Jane Lynch and strong cast vocals, that show is already old.
I like Modern Family, but I think that it could be matched pretty well by Community on NBC as far as rookie sitcoms go.
I've not seen Flash Forward, but I heard that "V" is also pretty strong.
Bird - I'm glad that you're happy being TV-Free. You only have a couple of months until LOST starts, so get that going ASAP.
10. nhe
- 11/13/2009 8:09 am CST
saw V once Quaid - its concept is very interesting, but its execution feels cliche-ridden/poorly written......I think Flash Forward is the stronger of the two ABC neo-sci-fi offerings.
I think Glee is pure fun Quaid....."The Office" however has jumped the shark post Jim/Pam wedding. I've taken it off the DVR schedule - which is my version of giving it the "elbow of death".
12. Quaid
- 11/14/2009 8:01 am CST
""The Office" however has jumped the shark post Jim/Pam wedding."
When did that happen? I think the Office has seen quite the resurgence. Two opens this season rank among the best:
-Pam's morning sickness
-Dwight's martial arts battle with himself
I thought this past week's ep was vintage Office.
13. Jared
- 11/14/2009 9:01 am CST
I actually thought this past week's "Office" (the one with the martial arts opening) wasn't that great, but this whole season has been awesome. Very, very funny. Back in form.
I think they handled the Jim/Pam thing better than almost any other show that has done a "sexual tension" subplot. And now they've got Andy/Erin to fill the gap. :-)
14. Alex Costa
- 11/14/2009 9:02 am CST
spoiler alert: a bald black man with a long black coat comes out of nowhere to give Sawyer an offer. "You can take the red pill, or the blue pill," he says. Sawyer decides to take the red pill, and stay in wonderland, and we never hear from the bald guy again.
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Not a spoiler: Jack is awesome.