Random Thought of the Day

Sold out.

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/psycho-shower-curtain?source=family

Sometimes I suspect a great many people have had their empathy surgically removed.

And at other times I'm certain of it. :(

Was flippin' through some channels and was reminded.

Truer words... said some 50+ years ago.

Quote:

When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland. You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you'll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it."

--Newton N. Minow

Quote: rxwine

Was flippin' through some channels and was reminded of Newton N. Minow's phrase "the vast wasteland".

And I dare say that fifty years ago the cartoon series "the wasteland looks back" still shows the usual familiar scenes of an exhausted housewife "watching" tv or a housewife watching tv while some amorous salesman is making progress with her on the couch or a group of rugrats are tormenting the cat and screaming as the housewife stares blankly at the screen and the empty bottle.

Quote: rxwine

Was flippin' through some channels and was reminded.

Truer words... said some 50+ years ago.

Really truer words 43 years ago
I am the Slime by Frank Zappa

I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed 'n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
I'm the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you

I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think I'm delicious
With the stuff that I say
I'm the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I'm the slime oozin' out
From your TV set

You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
Don't go for help . . . no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold

That's right, folks . . .
Don't touch that dial

Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin' along on your livin' room floor

I am the slime from your video
Can't stop the slime, people, lookit me go

I am the slime from your video
Oozin' along on your livin' room floor

I am the slime from your video
Can't stop the slime, people, lookit me go

Quote:

And most of all, boredom. True, you'll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few.

And what, you think if you went to any other
time in the history of man, that most of every
day wasn't crushing boredom? Of course it was.
Minow was a moron..

Quote: Evenbob

And what, you think if you went to any other
time in the history of man, that most of every
day wasn't crushing boredom? Of course it was.
Minow was a moron..

oh, man, younger guys have no idea. When i was a kid we were into train-watching. Hey, the engineers waved from the trains back then. They might even blow the whistle for you. We would count the number of cars.

I can remember just barely a steam locomotive and how cool it was to observe the sights and sounds of it starting from a stop [this could actually be a manufactured memory, I admit]. And, yes, like a lot of people, only a few years ago took another trip on a train powered by a steam locomotive in Colorado.

Quote: odiousgambit

oh, man, younger guys have no idea. When i was a kid we were into train-watching..

In the 50's there was lots of home construction.
We would play for hours at the sites after the
builders left. Make stuff from the scrap, make
jumps for our bikes. There was TV, but in the
daytime it was all soaps. Our mothers wouldn't
let us in the house anyway, not until dinner
time. If you didn't find ways to entertain yourself
you were out of luck. Played marbles a lot,
shot bow and arrows, had BB gun wars.

Somehow it seems important that the Justices of the Supreme Court are "unelected" only when the Court issues a decision you disagree with.