September 15, 2007
"If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television we'd still be eating frozen radio dinners." - Johnny Carson
The late Johnny Carson would be shocked to learn that the traditional frozen TV dinners he once joked about are not popular anymore. Instead, the American public seems to prefer the trendy "bistro gourmet entrees" that are made in the oven or as quick skillet dinners.
And, don't we just love to eat our dinners and watch television at the same time even if Emily Post and our grandmothers would disapprove?
Grab those dinners, whatever they are, and go straight to the television set and settle in for a favorite show.
Trying to eat dinner in front of the television set, however, is not as easy as it sounds.
At the exact moment in time when one wants nothing more than to sit in a comfy chair, eat a simple meal, and watch one's favorite show, a law of the universe kicks into effect. That law dictates that the cable television signal or quality of the picture will be disrupted. It is written somewhere. You will spend the rest of the evening fiddling with the set. Your dinner will get cold.
"Wonderful," my husband said when this happened to us the other night, "Nothing to do now but call the cable guy tomorrow."
Next day, to my eternal surprise, the cable guy showed up. After a long and valiant attempt to fix the problem, he timidly told me that he had no idea what was wrong and would have to bring a more experienced technician tomorrow."
"Rookie," I am thinking at this point. "They sent a rookie!"
The following day not one but two cable guys arrived. After nearly three hours of sweat and struggle both inside and outside of the house, they reported to me that they could not fix the problem. To make matters worse they meekly broke the bad news that all three television sets in the house were affected.
A surge was the likely culprit.
They kindly rigged the television we watch the most (its tuner was fried) so it would feed through the VCR/DVD player. However, we have to use that device's remote control now to adjust channels and the television remote to turn the thing on and off and adjust volume. The big screen is damaged least of all with just two channels affected. The television in our bedroom can still be used if we only want to watch Nickelodeon.
Television watching is suddenly far too complicated in our household.
I have a good book and a bistro skillet dinner ready for tonight.
There is only one problem as Orson Welles once said, "I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts, but I can't stop eating peanuts."
