Farrah Shags and Polyester
“…A message came back from the Great Beyond,
There’s fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on”
-Mr. Springsteen, 1992
Sometimes technology doesn’t impress me much. I may have mentioned that we get broadcast TV. We’ve had cable at various times. Great to have more choices of infomercials! I guess we got rid of it altogether after Duchess left for college. Paid any tuition lately? Seemed like a sensible economy. If I had to choose one of the other, take the TV. I can’t live without the Internet!
So we have a sporty antenna on the roof. Pyrate put in a rotor and we can turn it around and pull in Baltimore and most of the DC stations. But wait- you’ve seen those public service ads? Television is going digital. We have a perfectly good, but not digital tv. So we sent away for our “coupon” to purchase for a digital converter at reduced cost. It was about $12 at Wal-Mart. So we added that black box (and ANOTHER remote) and entered the digital tv age.
Blah. Now we’re just like our neighbors who have satellite- if it rains real hard, the signal just goes away! One of the selling points is supposed to be being able to watch the “side channels” . The local television stations, haven’t made much use of them. Most of them throw up a live weather map; something I can get off the computer just like they do! One public tv station shows kid shows at 10 o’clock at night on a channel. Some of that stuff on the Spanish channels looks interesting, but I don’t speak Spanish!
Things are looking up! One of the DC stations just started broadcasting the RTN network. I guess that stands for Retro Television. I’ve died and gone to heaven! 
They’re showing the shows of my “youth”: McCloud, The Rockford Files, even the A Team! I found out that every morning at 10, Ironside is on! So now I’ll have to have my morning tea break and watch the Chief catch bad guys!
Today I watched a McCloud episode from 1976 and felt kinda bad about Dennis Weaver dying and all. His co-star was Michael Ansara. We saw him at a Trek convention a few years ago. In the Star Trek world he will always be known as diabolical Kang the Klingon. Speaking of which, RTN runs “retro commercials” and there was one for Cling Free (works on Klingons maybe?)
Still I wonder what the young people must think of RTN? Would it be for them what watching a movie from the 1930s is for me? I love those polyester clothes (no ironing!) and men looked so much better with facial hair! What must they think of corded phones????
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