The Vast Wasteland, Again

If you grew up in the States in the 1960s, you watched television. You might remember hearing of Newton Minow's speech declaring television a "vast wasteland."  I doubt most Americans remember anything else from the speech other than that famous tagline. Well, here is a snippet: "You will see a procession of game shows, formula …

Virtue

The extra evening light of spring means more time outside, either in the garden or the shop. This is great because I am not a TV person, and an early evening inside means contending with the TV. I don't hate TV; it's just that I left my TV habit behind many years ago. Being on …

TV

My company supported a television production and media literacy program for about fourteen years at our local middle school. I'd trot across the quadrangle of town buildings twice a week to the school. We had a "hot set" studio ( a backdrop, temporary lights, and movable equipment to make it look like we shot in …

Cartoons

When the kids were little, the Simpsons were big in our house. The occasional use of the term embiggen was tolerated with a bit of judicious commonsense, " Well, dear, there are worse things they could pick up from the TV."