Reasons to Bury the TV

Okay, this isn't especially egregious, but it struck me as so ludicrous that I laughed myself into a coughing jag (having recently recovered from a bad sinus bug);

Once in a while I sit down and attempt to soothe my aching synapses with a round of channel surfing. Last night I came across Dancing With the Stars just in time to hear the hostess say (with a straight face) something very like, "We'll get back to our competition after the break, but first the Macy's Stars Dancers and their special tribute to Haitian Earthquake Victims..."

This reminds me of why I don't watch much television.

Then there was the Fox News segment called Around the World in 80 Seconds, wherein we were privileged to witness (among other items) a Chinese army training accident with a hand grenade and a cute Japanese girl at a Tokyo subway station dancing to "Hey, Mickey". Slow world news day, I plum reckon. Where did they get the Chinese training snafu? Does the People's Republic release military blooper reels? (laughing)... Here is where Wen Zhang's parachute malfunctions and he wets himself. Priceless!

You can imagine the guys in the production meeting... "Okay, we have 80 seconds to sum up the news of the whole planet, what have you got?".

Then again, if there is intelligent life out there, and they haven't already given up monitoring our signals in disgust, the two segments in question might at least convince them that we are indeed "mostly harmless"... we can't handle even the most rudimentary hand-lobbed explosives. We just wanna dance!

Comments

[Patrick]

"Slow world news day, I plum reckon."

With 24-hr. news, I'm surprised that they only fill 80 seconds with this stuff. I've only heard rumors of news coverage of Michael Jackson's death (since I don't watch the news), but I gather every day is either slow or Rain Man-like repetitious when you have to broadcast every minute. Also: lots of manufactured "crises" which start out innocuously enough and end up causing a "health care".

[Patrick]

I meant "...end up causing a "health care crisis'.

[Dave Walker]

Did you happen to notice that one of the contestants on "Dancing With The Stars" is Buzz Aldrin? Buzz Aldrin! From walking on the moon to hanging out in the green room with Kate Gosselin. Strange days, indeed.

[Tim J.]

"Did you happen to notice that one of the contestants on "Dancing With The Stars" is Buzz Aldrin? Buzz Aldrin!"

I couldn't help but notice that. I happen to be in the middle of re-reading Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, and it strikes me that Wolfe might say Buzz Aldrin's presence on the could be attributed to the ever-restless Test Pilot Ego.

Our family actually met Buzz Aldrin, once, when he spoke at a local university. My son (this was when he was more interested in aviation) had his picture made with him.