Archive for the ‘History’ Category
It’s morning, it’s daylight, it’s cold, and I’m in my toasty bed reading a little Edgar A. Poe. I occasionally fall back to the classics when I’m bored with reading my normal stuff and today is one of those days.
‘He’s got Trump Hair’
I’m not a fanatic about poetry like some, but I will read a little if and when I have time to waste. Most poetry does nothing for me since I’ve self-classified myself as an anti-poetry snob. My idea of good poetry are bawdy limericks and poetry that promotes laughter and good humor.
I have no idea why I started my day today reading some of Poe’s depressing poetic offerings. I did my very best to concentrate on his works, Spirits of the Dead, The Valley of Unrest, and it was a chore. He’s the only poet that can take something beautiful and make it seem tragic and misbegotten. Man that guy had some serious issues.
I finally gave up on Poe when I started feeling depressed and put upon by his words. I moved over to an essay by one of my all time favorites, Mark Twain, or Samuel Clemens if you insist. He was renowned for being a spectacularly glib wise ass which immediately endeared him to me. His thoughts contained in “On the Decay of the Art of Lying” are just plain funny and sarcastic. Here’s a sample:
“The saying is old that truth should not be spoken at all times; and those whom a sick conscience worries into habitual violation of the maxim are imbeciles and nuisances.” It is strong language, but true. None of us could live with an habitual truth-teller; but thank goodness none of us have to. An habitual truth-teller is simply an impossible creature; he does not exist; he never has existed.
Everybody lies – every day; every hour; awake; asleep; if he keeps his tongue still, his hands, his feet, his eyes, his attitude, will convey deception – and purposely. Even in sermons – but that is a platitude.
Anyone who disagrees with those statements is obviously living with their head deeply buried in the sand or deeply shoved up their ass. I’ve always been a fan of lying because lies serve many useful purposes. “Does my ass look big in this dress?”, “Of course not.’’, a beautiful, polite, required, and obvious white lie. We all have a million them and use them frequently.
Do you want me to explain lying to you when it comes to our political system and the liar that has been squatting in the “Peoples House” for the last seven years. That discussion would be totally rhetorical requiring no explanations or further conversations.
I think I could have supported Mark Twain as President only if he had the ability to select Edgar A. Poe as his Vice President. No there’s a pair that could have driven most of Congress right out of their every-lying minds. Throw in Donald Trump as Secretary of State and we’d have a unbeatable trifecta.
Enough of my musings. I’m going to roll over, hug my pillow, and say a prayer that the insanity that has had this country in it’s grip for seven years is slowly fading away. And who’s up next for the Dems but good old Hillary Clinton.
I find myself agreeing with a large block of voters in this country of both parties. We’re sick of hearing the names Bush and Clinton. To both factions, please just go away. You’ve done enough harm already and we don’t need any more.
‘Yikes”
‘OMFG Yikes Again’
I’m already on my third cup of coffee this morning and that good old caffeine buzz I’ve come to rely on has yet to rev my engines. I have a lot of errands to run today and need some serious motivation to get them all completed. The blessing is that my better-half is working which will keep her out of my hair (what little I have left) to prepare for her birthday dinner tonight. It’s difficult to get anything secret done around here and over the years she’s forced me to become even sneakier than usual.
She loves being surprised and each year that goes by it get tougher and tougher to come up with fresh ideas. I’ve purchased her a few gifts which I’m sure she’ll like because I am “The Man” when it comes to giving great gifts. As much as she likes being surprised I like doing the surprising. I can’t go into too many details because she reads this blog looking for clues. I’ve learned to be very careful in keeping important information as secret as possible.
She’s been feeling a little depressed coming into the holidays since it’s the first ones since the passing of her Mom. She’s usually a Christmas fanatic going totally bonkers with decorations and general X-mas silliness. She needs something to get her into the holiday spirit and I’m hoping we’ll have our first snowfall soon. That’s always been a kick-start for me and I think it will be for her as well. She’s also a shopping machine and quite possibly a few hours out in the crowds on Black Friday will help too.
I understand how she feels because I went through the loss of both my parents in the last eight years. My mother was a Christmas lunatic too and it’s still difficult to have Christmas and not think of her and my dad and Christmases past.
The saving grace this year will be the grandsons. Christmas has always been for the children and once the tree gets decorated and the kids come to visit, chattering on and on about Santa and reindeer, she’ll be just fine. They own her completely and a few smiles from them will make all the difference in the world. Then she’ll go crazy the last week before Christmas trying to make up for lost time which is what I’m hoping for.
Truthfully I’ve been a real Grinch for many years about Christmas but having the boys in our life is changing all that. I hope we both can find the holiday spirit once again. I’d love to have that feeling on Christmas morning like I did when I was eight years old.
It can’t get much better than that.
I’m one of those boring people who feels the need to constantly examine my life. I look at my past and judge myself, I look at my present and judge myself, and finally I look at my possible futures and judge that too. Also if I’m given the opportunity I’ll judge you as well. So not only am I a borderline addictive personality I’m a bit judgmental.
I’ve always suspected I had issues with addiction but never tried to delve into the why’s and wherefores until now. My list of addictions is long and began back when I was just an newborn infant. Here’s my list from my formative years in no particular order of importance:
Breathing
Breasts
Breast milk
Diapers
I was able to finally work through those minor addictions without the assistance of an expensive rehab program. I was well on my way to puberty where my list began to grow and become more interesting.
Breasts
Legs
Butts
Pornography
Sex
Puberty not only changed me physically but also intellectually. I understood at age thirteen that these addictions unlike my toddler list would likely become permanent. And guess what? I was somewhat correct. I resigned myself to learning to live with my addictions and to make the best of them. It was a dirty job but I stepped up and made the required personality adjustments to deal with them.
My teen years were interesting and a little frightening. My list again changed but was still manageable:
Sex
Breasts
Legs
French Blondes
Cigarettes
Beer
Pornography
College brought more changes and not all of them good. As the list increased so did my stress levels as you can plainly see:
Sex
Oral Sex
Brunettes
Blondes
Red Heads
Breasts
Beer
Whiskey
Marijuana
Wine
I learned a lot in those years but realized my life was in a rut so I dropped out of college and enlisted in the Army one step ahead of the draft board. This began another long, interesting, and scary adventure. Once more my list expanded a bit:
Sex
Oral sex
Oriental Women
Black Hair
Whiskey
Coffee
Cigarettes
Beer
Marijuana
Speed
Adrenaline
Wine
I returned home a few years later, much wiser and a much less addicted person. I was able to rid myself of many of my stupid addictions over the next two decades. Here are the final results after many years of really hard work:
Any Sex
Breasts
Coffee
Reading
Photography
Computers
Chocolate
Wine
Exercise
As you can see most of the exciting addictions in my life have slowly faded away. They were fun while they lasted but were discarded when they became dangerous or harmful. I’m now a much wiser and more boring person and I have to admit as I sit here quietly judging myself, I miss some of them a lot.
My list is certainly smaller but less dangerous and easily managed now. I expect this final list will remain with me forever.
The only addiction that stayed with me from infancy to the present day are “Breasts”. There’s no rehab programs to help me deal with them and I’m pretty happy about that. So thanks again Mom for the one lifelong addiction I’ve enjoyed the most and will continue to enjoy until the lid slams shut. I’d love to see the 12 step program for that addiction.
I know one thing for sure, I’d never miss a meeting.
Today feels exceptionally uninteresting. It’s a little blah, a little gray, and a little cold which means I’m suffering from a total lack of interest. I was just advised by my better-half that I’d be spending the better part of this day being dragged along on her shopping safari. Thank God I recharged my Kindle last night so I’m now good to go. That means I get to sit in the car and read while she shops.
If I use my head and offer up a little charm I might just convince her to buy me some sort of breakfast. I have a serious need for bacon and I need it right now. I swear it’s a worse addiction than cigarettes or coffee. It’s maybe the only thing that keeps these shopping forays bearable for me.
This blog needs a bit of a breather from stories about my life and times. Today I’ll supply the world with a few really useless but possibly interesting tidbits of information. It’s been a while since I’ve dished out a dose of these factoids and today’s the day. Here we go . . .
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The average American two-car garage is 25 percent bigger than the average Tokyo home.
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The European Union exports more to Switzerland than to China.
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During the first year of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the Red Army issued 800,000 death sentences to it’s own soldiers.
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The first year in which there was no recorded lynching of a black American was 1952.
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There were 658 suicide bombings around the world in 2007 – more than double the number in any of the previous twenty-five years. Afghanistan and Iraq were responsible for 542 of them.
I didn’t say that all of the factoids would be funny or uplifting because life on this planet leaves a lot to be desired at times.
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In 1976, the United States had 30 percent of the world’s college students. By 2006, that had dropped to 14 percent.
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Intel employees collectively send or read 3 million emails a day.
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The Mafia accounts for 7 percent of the Italian GDP, more than any single business.
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There are as many fake doctors practicing in India as real ones.
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The average male orgasm lasts eight seconds, the average female orgasm twenty seconds.
I guess that last one explains a lot of things. Women not only orgasm longer but get to have multiples as well. That’s just unfair.
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In the United States, adult bookshops outnumber McDonald’s restaurants three to one.
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Napoleon often masturbated before going into battle.
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Red Bull is illegal in Norway, Denmark, and Ireland.
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In 2007, twenty-four people killed themselves jumping under Paris Metro trains. On the New York City Subway the figure was twenty-six, and on the London Underground fifty.
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Men produce twice as much saliva as women.
I think that’s enough for today. I wouldn’t want you to overdose on all this useless stuff. It’s Sunday, watch some football, drink a beer or two, eat some nacho’s and belch like you have a pair. That’s what I call “a day of rest”.
HAPPY SUNDAY
“I will never forget.” is the extent of my comments for today on all of the 9/11 anniversary coverage. I have no need to write paragraph after paragraph about that day or to show any of the many horrific photographs. “I can’t and won’t ever forget.”
For too many years of my life I’ve wasted time fretting about politics and inept politicians. I’ve allowed myself to become upset and irate about how this country has slowly eroded many of our civil and human rights without a second thought. With the new presidential campaign beginning it’s time for me to bury my head in the sand and go into seclusion from it all.
I see nothing that interests me. It’s more of the same idiocy, the Clinton’s, the Obama’s, and the Bush’s. All we need is for someone to throw in a couple of Kennedy’s and we’ll finally have completed our time travel back to the 1960’s.
I’m one of the many citizens who’ve lost faith in our politicians as well as the American voting public. Any group of people, large or small, who are gullible enough to vote for an obvious anti-American to a second term as president deserve exactly what they get. This country has been in decline since the arrival of the Obama’s who’ve done nothing to stop it, if anything, they’ve accelerated it. Now the Democrats want Joe Biden to step in and attempt a third Obama term. The way things are going in this country he’ll probably get elected and the media will convince everyone it’s a huge mandate. Then he can become the scapegoat that can then be blamed for the downfall of the United States as a superpower. Turn out the lights people the effing party’s almost over.
I’ve finally eliminated from my life the constant barrage of political propaganda, both Republican and Democrat, that’s being spewed from millions of televisions across the country every day. I’ve also stopped listening to the radio which has become just as bad as television, if not worse. I’m done with it all.
My late father always told me that my vote meant something. I’m glad he didn’t live long enough to see what happening to this country . . . it would have killed him. The individual vote means nothing any longer because the political parties have successfully separated the citizens into small and diverse groups based on any number of differences. They play the blacks against the whites, the whites against the blacks, the heterosexuals against the gays, the blacks and whites against the Hispanics, and even the religious against the non-religious. We now have Red states against Blue states which helps keep everyone arguing and fighting on stupid social issues that mask all of the games that the political elite love to play. It’s become almost impossible with all of the factional infighting to elect a president with a majority of the popular vote.
So I hope you’re all prepared for the browbeating and propagandizing that’s coming your way for the next year. Let me know how it’s going from time-to-time if you can because I’m tired of trying to do the right thing and having it thrown back in my face. I’m tuning out just like the powers-that-be want me to do. They’ve won the battles and they’ve won the war. By disenfranchising us citizens they can continue to rule as they please without interference from the “great unwashed”.
HAPPY DAYS
‘Star Trek – Original Series’
I just finished watching a documentary thanks to Netflix that was filmed by the son of the late, great Gene Roddenberry. If you’re not aware and have been living in a cave somewhere, Roddenberry was father of Star Trek. His son claimed he was trying to discover who his father really was because they hadn’t been close. It seemed to me he was just using his late father’s fame just one more time to get his face on the big screen. Everyone needs their fifteen minutes of fame I guess and he’s using his to whine about his Daddy issues. Typical father and son issues that we’ve all dealt with in one form or another but without the capability or need to air it publicly.
‘Star Trek– Next Generation’
Let me give you my qualifications for the remarks I’m about to make. Unlike Gene Jr. I was a sci-fi nerd before he was even a twinkle in his father’s eye. It began for me when my mother’s birthday gift for my eighth birthday was painting the walls and ceiling of my bedroom with planets, rocket ships, and stars. My bedroom was "Outer Space" to me before Star Trek was even a dream. For me that sci-fi nerdiness has grown over the years until I’m what you see before you now, an older and wiser sci-fi geek who is damn proud of it. I loved Star Trek because it brought many of my childhood space fantasies to life.
‘Star Trek – Deep Space Nine’
The documentary in question was a nostalgic trip down memory lane for me where I got to listen and meet once again the heroes of my youth. Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Bones, Scotty, Sulu and on and on and on. I loved the interviews with the cast from the Next Generation series which I always thought was the best of them all.
‘Star Trek – Voyager’
It took me back to my visit to a motel in Philadelphia many years ago while on a boring business trip. The trip was a last minute one and I was hard pressed to find a motel room in the area I was visiting. At the last minute I finally booked a room (a rather expensive one I might add) and arrived at the motel just after dark to check in. Little did I realize that the motel was hosting a rather large Star Trek convention and I was the only guy around not in costume. As I walked through the lobby in my nice suit and tie what did I see but three Romulans, two Klingons, and one fairly hot and green Orion slave girl.
‘Star Trek – Enterprise’
Truthfully I was thrilled but I definitely was the odd man out. I was advised by the desk clerk that my room had been given away to a large group of Klingons who all wanted to stay together in one wing of the motel. I was then upgraded to a beautiful suite that had a huge and gorgeous Jacuzzi right in the middle of the room. I changed my clothes and returned to the bar to check things out and to buy a few rounds for some of the visiting aliens? I heard more Klingon spoken in that bar in one night than all of the Star Trek episodes ever made. It was just the coolest thing ever.
‘Klingon Sweethearts’
I was in nerd heaven but little did I know it was going to get even better. One of the last things I remembered was being in that scalding hot Jacuzzi at 3:00 am with two rather naked Klingon chicks and one Vulcan bitch who was no fun at all. They filled me up with some sort of Klingon drink (they claimed) that tasted suspiciously like tequila, a treat from the Mexican side of the Klingon Empire. It truly was a night to almost remember.
I confess that I’m a gigantic geek who remains loyal to all things Star Trek and always will.
NERDS MAY RULE THESE DAYS BUT US GEEKS GET THE KLINGON CHICKS
I just returned from the UPS Store where I dropped off the last of the equipment to be returned to the Dish Network. I wanted to make sure I mailed them as quickly as possible because their veiled threats of future penalty charges were wearing thin. I now have my receipt in hand and they can go find someone else to screw with. The only chore I have left is to remove that attractive satellite dish from the front of my house. I may be forced to repurpose that dish for further use because I have hundreds of birds in the area who’d appreciate another place to bathe. SEEYA DISH!
Today’s posting will be a lot of useless whining but I need to vent before my head explodes. Yesterday was Windows 10 day here at my house. What a huge pain in the ass that turned into. Two of my computers were eligible for the free upgrade and since I’ve always disliked Windows 7 and absolutely hated Windows 8.1, I was ready for the change. That old adage of “Be careful what you wish for” always seems to remain relevant.
My desktop was first up and should have been an indicator of where I’d be heading for the remainder of my day. The desktop was a Windows 7 unit and while the upgrade was over and done with in thirty minutes it created other problems. Anyone who knows anything about computers also knows that a Microsoft upgrade means additional problems. My desktop is located in a basement office a fair distance from the router. It always had a bar and a half on the wi-fi meter and that was sufficient to operate on the Net. After the upgrade I no longer could connect to to my home network. What a shock! (Sarcasm on) My final solution to the damn problem was either to buy a range extender or move my office elsewhere. More money down the drain for an range extender making my free upgrade not so free . . . add $90.00.
Then I began the conversion of my laptop that was running Windows 8.1. A handful of error messages and four hours later and it was finally done. A nice quick Microsoft fix. (more sarcasm) I let you know in a week or so just how stupendous Windows 10 is or isn’t. I’m not holding my breath.
I’ve been attempting in the few years to fight the powers-that-be to regain some control over my life. I dumped Time Warner because they were big fat liars and then signed up with Dish Network. Then after the first year at Dish they turned into the little brother of Direct TV and started jacking up their prices. They seem to think they have the moral high ground because they lie a little less than Direct TV. It’s a small difference to those of us who are the screwee’s (my made up word).
A few years ago I went through the same process with the cell phone carriers. It never seems to end with these companies who appear to have the government regulators in their pocket. They have us by the throat in a government regulated death grip and they never stop squeezing. Network upcharges, surcharges, taxes, fees, and anything else they can think of. “Land of the Free” has no meaning for me any longer.
The golden rule, "Do unto others what you want them to do unto you”, has always been meaningful but I think it now needs a bit of rewording.
“Shut the hell up, bend over, and like it.”
How many of you live in the northeastern United States and have never gotten up close and personal with a desert. I assume most people only have that opportunity if they live or visit the southwest. I found out his week that my assumption was wrong. Who knew I’d find a desert right here in Maine.
Yesterday my better-half and I were as usual out roaming around the state taking photographs. As we were cruising south on the interstate we saw a sign that said Desert Road. Never hesitating to explore we exited the expressway and drove a few miles west into the woods. What do we find? This!
Right smack dab in the middle of a huge pine forest is a fifty acre desert with sand dunes and everything. We couldn’t resist checking it out and immediately coughed up $20.00 for the grand tour. Of course the better-half was off to the gift shop to buy postcards and other weird items for her family members. I was finally able to drag out of there, through the building, and out the backdoor to the tram.
‘This is a tram.’
It’s amazing to me how this desert was initially formed and the sand is still forty feet deep in spots with dunes as high as ninety feet. There’s even a sign along the tour route where an old Spring House once stood before being buried by the shifting sands. Here’s an old photo showing the final days of that building.
‘Then’
‘Now’
The visit to the desert was fun and informative but as always the better-half was irritated that there were no live camels to ride. She’s never happy! I found this one but we couldn’t come up with a workable solution to get her in the saddle.
Then it was back on the road, stopping for a decent lunch, and then home. I’ve finally made my first and hopefully last visit to a desert. I really do hate the heat but fortunately this desert was a moderate 85 degrees and even I could handle that.
I also have to tell you that sitting on the tram can be treacherous. Some little darling left a gob of gum on the seat that stuck to my ass like glue all day. Just “be careful out there . . .”
The day after the night before. Happy Birthday America! Another Fourth of July celebration under my belt but you know, it just doesn’t feel the same as it once did. Things in this country seem to be a little out of kilter these days and I’m not too happy about it. In my opinion this posting at this time is an absolute necessity. I never thought it would come to this but here goes.
I suppose I could blame the Obama’s for everything bad that’s happening but that’s a little too easy. In reality they’re just a symptom of this countries problem, not the actual cause. Unfortunately in a representative republic (incorrectly called democracy) the will of the people rules and therein lies the real problem. It’s obvious to me and others that most people in this country no longer give a damn. The evidence is shoved in our faces every day if we’d only pay just a little attention. I could spend twenty more paragraphs explaining all of the dirty little details but everyone admits to knowing them so what’s the point. The United States is slowly turning into a much larger and richer version of Europe and if that doesn’t frighten you just a little bit then there’s really no hope for us.
Wide open borders . . . Ignoring dangerous enemies . . . Loss of respect in the world . . . Corrupt politicians . . . Lying and corrupt media . . . And a total waste of precious money, energy, and time on ridiculous social issues like gay marriage. Try to imagine the millions and millions of dollars spent on this nonsense and to what end? Just more inane and unimportant issues to further divide the country into arguing factions of passionate idiots. This country has lost the ability to create a consensus on any given topic, important or otherwise.
Maybe I’m slowly turning away from the lies and BS of the Republican and Democratic Parties and morphing into some sort of borderline, militant, and angry Libertarian. It’s going to take a powerful third party to rise from the ashes in this country with the ability to pull the strongest and smartest members from all of the other parties. They can then create a cohesive majority with good common sense goals for the country. That party must have no fear of the political correctness crowd and all of their liberal hangers-on.
So a great big happy birthday to American, a once powerful and respected nation. I’m beginning to wonder for how much longer it’ll be worth celebrating.
U . . . S . . . A U . . . S . . . A U . . . S . . . A
I’m still in bed. I don’t want to get up. I’m actually bored with this day already and it hasn’t even begun. What does that tell you? Nothing I’m willing to bet.
Today is one of those days where it’s been raining for 36 hours, the sky remains cloudy, everything is drenched, and I’m once again stuck indoors. I have a few things on my mind I’d like to accomplish but concentrating on them is problematic.
I seem to have painted myself into a corner. No that’s not really correct. I feel as though I’ve been forced into that corner and had it painted around me. I’m in the throws of a dilemma concerning of all things something that I’ve come to love over many years. I’m just a few days away from canceling my Dish Network affiliation. I have the same feelings as I had when I made the decision to eliminate my home landline telephone years ago and to convert to cellular once and for all. I’m a little uneasy because as we all know, change is sometimes difficult.
I’ve gotten to this point because cable television as it currently exists is nothing more than a scam. When I had my old telephone removed it was for the same reasons. I dislike being manipulated and lied to. We have the technology to do miraculous things these days but I’m supposed to believe that no one within the television industry can figure out how to set up a system where I can choose those stations I constantly watch and not the hundreds of channels I’m forced to accept as part of their bundle. Then add on a few surcharges and taxes and all of a sudden it’s costing me $70.00 a month to watch those twenty channels I actually frequent. That’s money I’m forced to pay because their basic bundle is being rammed down my throat leaving me just two options. Keeping paying and shut or get the hell out completely.
I’ve been working on my own bundle for TV which I suspect will be in place sometime this summer. The first thing I’ll do will be to cancel the Dish Network and have their equipment removed from my house. I’ll then sign up for Netflix and Hulu Plus which will supply me with all the movies and TV programming I could ever want to watch. Total cost for those services will be no more than $25.00 a month. I will have an additional one time cost for two ROKU devices that allow my second and third TV’s to connect with my home network with access to the Internet. Total cost for the two devices is $100.00.
I’ll end up with access to thousands of old and current movies, more television than I could ever watch, and a monthly cost that will save me $50.00 a month for a total yearly saving of $600.00. That’s enough money to pay for my entire car insurance bill for the year.
After all of my time spent researching and the possibility of major savings I’m still uneasy. I need to suck it up and make the change but for some reason I hesitate. It requires that I shake off more than forty years of brainwashing where I’ve been constantly told I can’t live without TV and the ever increasing costs they keep shoving down my throat. I’m slowly working through this situation much as I did with the telephones and very soon I’ll have more of my money in my pocket and not in theirs.
If and when they again figure out a way to continue increasing my costs I’ll be forced to do away with TV watching entirely and resort to movie watching and TV programming from my vast DVD collection.
I can only assume that many of you are in the same situation and I wish you luck. Land of the free and home of the brave? Not so much anymore.
