Tuesday

[susandennis]

My childhood TV was Pinky Lee and Winky Dink and Romper Room and Captain Kangeroo. Mr. Rogers was after my time. In college, for some reason that escapes me now, I had to have a course in early childhood education. Since even then, I didn't give a shit about early childs or educations, I conned the professor into letting me write a mini dissertation for the credits. I wrote it on the potentially damaging effects of Mr. Rogers' messages. Yep, I ripped Mr. Rogers and his sweater to shreds.

My Twitter feed has been loaded with Mr Rogers praise recently. I think it's some kind of anniversary. I remember none of the details of my paper, but I still have lingering skepticism of his preachings that get evoked with every tweet. Based on nothing.

Oh, and I got an A on the course and a note from the professor that I should 'expand and publish'. I thought he, the professor, was a crock of shit, too. I knew everything then.

Today that now famous air conditioner arrives. Just in time, too... it's really heating up here. It's 64 degrees in here now. I'll need to drag out some sweaters to put on when I test it. The past few years, I've pulled out and set up the A/C about mid-May. But last year I didn't even turn it on until June 22. I do like to be prepared, though. I hate hot so much.

And having it operable by Alexa will be a treat. I thought operating my shades by Alexa would be a parlor trick but, turns out, it is far easier and quick to use Alexa for moving them up and down than digging out the remote or firing up the app. I suspect the A/C will be the same way.

Tomorrow is house cleaner day so today I need to make sure I move stuff to where it belongs so she can actually clean. And make up a grocery list cause that's where I'll go while she's here.

And I'm out of breakfast burritos again. So I'll be making some of them this morning. And sewing.

I started a new book last night that promises to be a good one. It's the latest Thomas Perry. About a bomb maker. Kind of especially creepy in light of what's going on in Austin. Thomas Perry tells a good story but always always has one giant pull-you-out-of-the-book mistake in every book. It's now gotten to be a treasure hunt. The last one he had a character in Victoria, BC hail a cab to Vancouver (140 miles) and get there in minutes.

Ok, time to get off my butt and put some pants on it and get started with the day.

Comments

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

That's a big dumb mistake - plus, there is water. He either took the cab to the ferry or to the airport, since Victoria is on Vancouver Island while Vancouver is on the mainland.

[siobhan63.livejournal.com]

The last one he had a character in Victoria, BC hail a cab to Vancouver (140 miles) and get there in minutes.

That is one major mistake. I mean, it's not just the 140 miles apart issue, there's also the small matter of Victoria being on an island, not on the mainland, so travel between the two would also involve taking the ferry.

[fitzjameshorse.livejournal.com]

There is a commemorative stamp being issued for Mr Rogers.
The interesting thing about the Internet is that it fills in gaps in my knowledge. I have always been interested in American culture....music movies, TV as well as History and Politics.
I suppose I have seen more than four hours of American produced TV every day for almost sixty years....from Jack Benny, Phil Silvers-Bilko, I Love Lucy, most westerns, detective shows comedies.

For the most part we had four TV channels ...BBC1 BBC2 ITV and the Irish station RTÉ. At the same time USA had three main channels ABC, CBS and NBC.
Inevitably some shows that are familiar to American baby boomers never made it across the Atlantic...and in the 1960s it was only possible to watch one show at a time. There was no way of recording shows to watch later.
So its interesting when I hear references on modern shows to older shows....for example "Mr Rogers" and "Captain Kangaroo" were never shown here. Neither was (for example) "Leave It To Beaver" or "Gilligans Island". Circa 1993 there wasa country song by Confederate Railroad which referenced "Maybury RFD".....and it irritated me that I knew nothing about it. Circa 1998 when I got online (pre-Wikipedia) I asked an online friend...."what on earth was Maybury RFD"?
and she said "OMG have you never heard of Andy Griffith?"....and I said "oh yeah....Matlock".

[susandennis]

ha

[meowmensteen]

I think Mr. Rodgers was too big on that whole, "everyone is a special snowflake" thing. He raised my whole generation to think they're the most important person on the whole planet, thus everyone around them is insignificant..or at least the second part is the natural reaction to the first part.

[daphnep.livejournal.com]

Jesus, now I really want to read that dissertation! I mean, what can Mister Rogers possibly have done?

[susandennis]

I dunno... but I knew so much back then that I'm sure it was devastating and foreshadowed the end of civilized society. I'd kind of like to read it myself.

(The reality was it was the 60's and as a Person Under 30 I was required to argue whatever was set forth as truth. The argument rarely mattered, the arguing was the thing.)

[susandennis]

Today it's tops. I finished one - a short sleeved tunic and have another - long sleeved swing style top - in progress. I'm always sewing something.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

At the moment we don't have anything rigged for Alexa to operate - so she mostly plays music for us, but I really would like her to be able to do the sort of things she does for you.

[susandennis]

I rarely listen to music. Besides running appliances, Alexa is a better spell checker than anything on my computer... Alexa? How do you spell _________? She knows 'em all.

[lostincandyrain.livejournal.com]

I've always been suspicious of Mr. Rogers too, even though I liked his show. It always seemed like it would be better without him - there was some sort of make believe land or something that seemed like it could stand up just fine on its own, and didn't need him introducing it all the time.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

It's Mr. Rogers' 90th birthday this week (or it would have been) and there's a new documentary coming out about him. I watched his show but I thought he was boring. I liked the puppets though.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a chaotic house-hold with a father who genuinely hated my existence. And I had a mentally ill mother who had no support from the world at large. (often I had to parent her.) Mr. Rogers was a bright spot in my early childhood because I felt like nothing most of the time. That is all I will say about that.