I got rid of my cable

I got rid of my cable a little while ago. I don't watch TV. Mainly I had it for when my daughter visited, but even then she, or we together, might have watched it for maybe a couple of hours. I was spending sixty-some dollars a month for something I wasn't using, and trust me, I don't have sixty-something dollars a month to lose. That's subject for a whole 'nuther blog. Hardly anything holds my interest on TV, and even when I did watch television I usually was doing something else, too, like playing guitar or reading. I barely watched the World Series this year, and the Red Sox were playing.

I'm tempted to be a snob and say that there is mostly crap on TV, but I don't think that's true. I think percentage-wise, once you take into account all the self-help books and celebrity profiles, there probably is more crap in a high-minded bookstore than on TV.

But TV is pushing it. One of my daughter's and my favorite shows is The Family Guy, and sometimes I'd sit there and really question whether a sixteen-year-old should be exposed to that level of ribald humor. Not that I don't think she couldn't handle it. I think TV gives credence to a lot of unsavory behavior, whether it's the humor of Family Guy or the "F" this and "F" that on reality shows. I don't need a boatload of government scientists funded by millions and millions of my tax dollars to tell me that, if kids don't emulate what they see on TV, they certainly feel that it gives them a certain license. Sometimes people have a hard time separating reality from fantasy. I don't know how many times I've been leaving a theater and an audience member has come up to me and said something like, "you are an evil person," or, "I think she should have gone home with you, and not the other guy." Look people, it's a play, it's a TV show. This is life, that is fantasy. Get the difference.