apples and oranges

Here’s what was in the news and on the news this week. Yes, there is still a war in Iraq despite numbers of very large protests. Yes, the gas prices are still rising, despite very large protests. There are tornados in the mid west and maybe there’s going to be one in Louisiana, near New Orleans, despite enormous concern. Brad and Angelina don’t know where they are going to have the baby and Amarosa (who was universally hated on the apprentice and my guess is in the White House, as well—she may have worked in some low level position (but it wasn’t beneath the President’s desk), so no one knows where.

What have we come to as a nation when all we can talk about has only to do with body functions, beauty, and bosoms. Ok maybe that’s not all but I guess we are so saturated with bad news over which we have no control, that we have settled for drivel as our good news. And here’s what happens as a consequence of the saturation. Gas prices will never go below $2.50 a gallon because after paying over $3.00 a gallon the oil companies know that we’ll be grateful for less. The President won’t do anything about it because those guys are his friends and he’s going to need someone to support his lifestyle when this gig is over. (He may not get a job but he will need people of like mind, better if they owe him big time, to play with). The war will end but not without more meaningless loss of life and we’ll be so grateful that it is over that we won’t go on and on about what a stupid thing it was to get involved and lose all those lives, and hurricane season begins again on June 1st. So all those people who are occupying the FEMA trailers that got used as well as those people who have been relocated to places beyond their wildest imaginations, will have to find new places to live and new sources of income But we don’t have to worry because out of sight out of mind and now we can worry about Maury and Connie, his dalliance her forgiveness—thank god.

And while we’re on the subject of TV personalities, I tried to watch television last night. I had just finished a book on tape and one while I was on the treadmill, so I thought I would just relax with a little television. And little doesn’t begin to describe what I saw. Or didn’t see. Let me say up front that I like TV. I worked in the industry, I sat in on casting sessions where the women were so thin the only thing I could think was, “where did they put her organs?” I understand the process and the limitations. I know how things get on the air and why it’s all about the money. But despite all my knowledge, I enjoy a good program. Some of us in the Burnett household are Law and Order freaks/purists. We can be found at a time--day or night, watching either “Law and Order” or “Law and Order SVU”. (We don’t like the newer versions but we don’t need to because USA and TNT ate non-stop original series networks. We are such nuts that I even have a picture of Amanda Green hanging on the fridge. We also watch “West Wing” because we like to pretend that’s the way things really happen, and I love Cold Case (especially at the end when they see dead people), I am crazy about “House” and I am beginning to get attached to “Bones.” But I can rarely can watch them at their appointed time so I Tivo them. But tonight I decided to see what America sees from 8-11. I surfed from sitcom to reality show and back to sitcom and more reality shows trying to imagine who watches this stuff. And when you do that you begin to understand why most of the rest of the world thinks we are like the Scarecrow in the “Wizard of Oz” (one of the great movies to watch even on TV), on an endless search for a brain. Is it any wonder that they question who we are as a culture and why they don't want us making decisions about their lives. And forgetting the international impact, there is simply nothing really funny on the air anymore. Admittedly, I never got Everybody Loves Raymond” or Two and a half Men, or any of those other shows where the humor is based on pooping, farting and sexual innuendo—or outuenndo to be more accurate. Just look at a rerun of “The Golden Girls” or "Frasier" if you want funny, or clever, or worthwhile. I know there was a time when you didn't have to work very hard to find something worthwhile on the networks and now most of the good stuff is on cable or PBS. I am not a television snob but is it hard to understand why a people who are satisfied with “Wife Swap” or “Old Christine” are also satisfied with the health care system, the economy and the cost of oil. Apples and oranges you say… we’re just sayin.
Iris