Too Old For New TV Season?

I've discovered why the Nielson Ratings and advertisers downplay the TV viewership of baby boomer and up viewers -- I'm too old for new TV shows. 

 Hey, I like the standards such as CSI, CSI: NY and CSI: Miami (I'd watch a CSI Topeka if they had one) plus NCIS and its fraternal twin NCIS LA (what's with the initials?) , The Mentalist, Bones, Chuck and several others. But I've never gotten the humor of The Office, Parks and Recreation or anything produced by Rickey Gervais. The Simpson yes, Bob's Burgers no.

One new show -- Up All Night -- got cut off after the second commercial. It had believable, likeable characters but it wasn't funny. 

Could it be that it was about the plight of new parents dealing with an infant? We've just visited with our children and their new babies and they were a lot more fun and funny despite the crying and interrupted sleep.

Being boomers approaching retirement age, our lives no longer revolve around the party scene, drinking, dating and struggling job prospects. We should be able to relate since we have been through this, but perhaps we've figured out that part of life and the humor is lacking. 

Of course, if the Progressive's Economic downturn continues then no one will be able to relate to workplace humor, being unemployed; new houses and cars, because they can't afford them; or even college shows as parents won’t be able to afford to send their kids on to higher education. 

Look for a new season of shows such as The Unemployment Line, Living with Mom and Dad (wait, that was the premise of S*** My Dad Says) and  Moving On Down (a Jefferson's spin off for the millennium generation). 

Nope, still doesn't sound funny.

Shut It Down

To my congressman:

Listen to the Freshmen. Remember you were there -- as a freshman -- in the Republican Revolution of 1995 when real "real change" came to the Congress. You balanced the budget, held votes on issues that had long been ignored and reset the public debate.

Today, the federal budget is too big and Obamacare is too expensive. That's what the Freshmen congressmen are saying.

Do not vote for a budget fails to cut spending. The ideas being put forth by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan make sense practically, if not politically.

We can stand a government shutdown better than we can survive continued spending at the current levels.

In any shutdown, the government doesn't completely cease functioning. Activities that are essential to national security, such as military operations, can continue. Air traffic control and other public safety functions are exempt from shutdowns. Federal prisons still operate; law enforcement and criminal investigations can continue. Employees deemed essential to the functioning of government will still go to work.

Federal employees — the government workforce includes more than 1.9 million civilian workers — will be "without pay" in the event of a shutdown. But as soon as the budget is passed, the pay is restored and they have enjoyed a paid vacation.

Remember that this is the current year's budget -- one that should have been passed in fall of 2010 when the Democrats still had the votes to push it through the Congress. If you don't make the cuts now, how will you be able to do it in next year's budget.

Be strong, hold firm and maintain your conservative principles.

A Voter.

Snow Days - Then and Now

Cold toes and fingers, slippery walks and the thrill of zooming down a hill on a sled or garbage can lid. Those are the memories I have of the rare ice storms and snows growing up in suburban Atlanta. There was no way you could have kept us inside on those days.

I can visualize the scene and the faces of the neighbor kids as we enjoyed a snow day.

The same is true for the Blizzard of 1993 when we took the kids out into the frozen wonderland to enjoy the slipping and sliding.

There was no way you could have kept us inside on those days.

Since the kids have grown up, my memories of snow and ice come from the TV coverage of the event. They overlap some: the ’93 scenes in my head include visions of a near-whiteout as seen through the window, and the image of a local TV new reporter (WSB’s Joyce Oscar) reporting for several days from a north Georgia mountaintop lodge because the roads were impassable.

Last year we pulled the sled out and tried zipping down the hill. It worked once, but the recovery time for bruises and strained muscles doesn’t make it worthwhile for this time around.

Watching the ice and snow on TV from the vantage of my easy chair makes much more sense nowadays. I guest that’s why one snow day a year is enough for me.

Dear President Obama,

I'm writing this on behalf of my parents, A** and C** L**. It has come to our attention they neither of them have received their $250 stimulus check this year. I don't have the address and name of the stimulus czar, so I hope you can pass this request along to the right people.

Perhaps it's because you -- the government that is -- don’t have a current address. They haven't communicated with you lately because, of course, they have passed on to their reward and are no longer living. But I understand that should not slow down the stimulus funds they are entitled to -- even the Wall street Journal is reporting the details.

You're a man who espouses fairness. How about some fairness for these two who fit the criteria just as the 72,000 other Americans do. And they're not even in prison.

I am sure that this is just a oversight, but while we are on the subject, can you ask whoever sends out absentee ballots to forward a current ballot. They lived in DeKalb County most of their lives, so that will do.

I'm sure it must be legal to the deceased to vote. Even the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (part of your media cheer-leading team) noted in their fight against requiring proof of identity at the polling place called it: "the myth of voter fraud." This is the same newspaper that won a Pulitzer for uncovering counties in south Georgia that were found to be voting people from the graveyard, even in alphabetical order.

So I am aware that things have changed and that words and promises don’t mean the same as they did just a decade ago. So, please forward the checks and in light of my previous letters, the renovation and remodeling of my house is still a "shovel-ready" project and ready for funding.

Thank you for your time.

Death of A Real American Hero

With the death of Dennis Hopper this week, I am reminded by the TV retrospectives that I never saw his seminal performance in "Easy Rider."

Of course there are a lot of movies that I haven't seen -- Rocky (any number), Star Wars (none) and several others that "everyone" has seen. In fact, I was told by my daughter once she was in a college class studying pop culture that I had deprived her of these movies. She didn't know she was deprived at the time, neither did I.

Life, family, job all seemed more important at the time than fighting the crowd at the movie theater. I knew, of course, that the movie would come out on Netflix or HBO in a little while, although these things just hadn't been invented yet.

So I never met Dennis Hopper, either in person, or on screen.

But I did have the privilege of meeting and working with Jeanne R. Ferst, the first lady of the Georgia GOP, who died Thursday at age 91.

Mrs. Ferst was considered instrumental in starting the Republican Party in Georgia in the 1950s when she and a band of brothers tirelessly crisscrossed Georgia to create a Two-Party State. She was a lady with a conservative opinion and the ability to bend the ears of the rich and powerful to listen.

In contrast to a Hollywood film "hero" (or anti-hero) Mrs. Ferst was a believer in the good that is America and worked to promote its betterment, rather than tear it down.

I'll take real life over the movies any day.

Getting Help With the Census

There are signs at the library and several other public places offering free Census help.

Yesterday I spotted a fellow in the room across from the Austell Mayor's office ready and waiting for folks to drop by and beg for help with their census form.

"How's business?," I asked.

"It's kind of slow," he replied. "Can I help you with anything?"

"No, I know my name and mailed the form back in."

How much help does anyone need with a form that asks for your name and how many people live in the house?

The census is important, but it's not that hard. Mail it back.

Taking The Census

Census Day is this week -- April 1. Already the media reports that people are mailing their forms back on track about as expected.

Do you have questions about the census? Should you respond to all the questions? THe answer is yes, a long as you follow the constitutional requirements.

Respect the constitutionality of the Census. Fill out the packet with your name and a head count. The nosy forms -- or long forms -- are there so that marketers can get demographic data on the cheap.

Even Clark Howard, consumer guru,advises you to comply with only the Constitutional requirement of reporting the head count in your household. (Yes that includes names. Some ancestor will be looking you up in genealogy research one day.)

My question though is, why are people sending it back early. The count is on Thursday, April 1. You mail it back and a wayward cousin shows up to crash with you. Your answer could have screwed up the entire count and result in getting a wacko liberal congressman, rather than the straight arrow conservative you deserve.

Me, I'm waiting until Thursday to fill out my form. There's only two of us here, but I haven't decided whether to add the cat. Then I'm going to lock the door until midnight so that no one can come or go. I don't want to give them the wrong information.