Deep Thoughts...Not

"Grandpappy Amos and the Girls
and the Boys are the Family
Known as the Real McCoys"

What does it mean when suddenly out of nowhere you start humming and singing "...Grandpappy Amos and the girls and the boys...." ?!?!?!?!?  That happened to me last night at 1:00 a.m.    I posted this on my Facebook status (something I rarely do) because it was so weird.  Apparently nobody on my friend list was up OR if they were, they had no idea what I was talking about. 

Well I'll tell you what it means:  It means that I've been a TV-holic for over 50 years!  "The Real McCoys" was one of the earliest shows I recall watching, along with "Ozzie and Harriet"  (my favorite because I had a crush on Ricky Nelson when I was 5 years old).

So sue me, I'm still watching TV!  Current favorites: "The Good Wife," "Modern Family," "The Middle," "Person of Interest," "CSI", and "So You Think You Can Dance".  Oh, and reruns of "Monk" and "Law and Order".  I really am trying to cut down so I try not to watch any new shows unless I inadvertently stumble upon them and get hooked.  There are fewer and fewer shows that hook me lately.

I just saw someone on TV who works at home and has "a couple of internet businesses." Hmmm! We have a little in common maybe since I work at home on the internet?  She's shopping for a house and has a "budget" of one million dollars.  Ok, nothing in common.  Does that qualify as an oxymoron ("budget of one million dollars")?  I changed the channel.  Why torture myself?

I feel very fortunate to own a house--ok half a house. It's nothing fancy and I'd say 99% of the time I'm satisfied.  The 1% of the time is when I'm watching HGTV.   I blame my husband.  He loves watching that stupid channel.  I don't know what's worse, having to watch HGTV and experience house envy, or the reality shows like the ones on the History Channel--what I call Redneck TV.  It's kind of funny because it's like going from one extreme to the other.  As much as I don't like seeing how wealthy people live, I dislike even more seeing people getting their cars towed away, looking into some misfortunate's forfeited storage container, or watching cussing shirtless perpetrators being arrested. 

Ok, I did enjoy "Dog the Bounty Hunter," because it was taped in Hawaii and they acted tough, but sweet at the end.  Example: "You know what BLEEP? I'm gonna file bond jumping on you, you 9mm packing ice head. If you wanna stay out of jail buddy, you better BLEEP show up right now with your old lady. Yeah, listen, we gotcha... you know what BLEEP? You better come right now BLEEP tweak. You better get her right now. [shouting] GET HERE TWEAK!"  Then at the end "You want a cigarette?  Bruddah, if you get a goal in your mind- go for it- you're not in hell yet, you can still make collect calls, you can still talk to your old lady, you can still have children and you can still love and be loved."  Awwwww.

As much as I hate the reality cop shows, I love the make believe ones.  Except for a couple of pet peeves: If you watch police shows on TV, did you notice how TV cops (like in "Law and Order") will approach a suspect and from fifteen feet away yell the guy's name?  As in "HEY! Jimmy Mafusco! We want to talk to you!!"  Then the guy runs away, leading to a fun chase down the street?  Is this some law I don't know about?  "Police are not allowed to utter your name unless they are a minimum of fifteen feet away so as to give you ample time to make a break for it."  I don't see this happening on the real cop shows.

Maria Bello as Jane Timoney,

always appropriately dressed!

NBC recently cancelled "Prime Suspect" before it finished its first season.  Oh...my...god.  How could they do this to my new favorite female detective, Jane Timoney?  It kills me to think it might be because she's one of the few---if not the only---lady cops on television who do not go to work everyday showing cleavage (example: the CSI ladies).  Please, NBC, she can unbutton!  This was an excellent program that grew on me with every new episode.  I think the title was the issue.  So blah and contributed nothing.  The title should've been "Tough Heterosexual Lady Cop" or "Realistically Dressed Female Detective", you get the drift.  All kidding aside, it was a very good program that deserved more time for viewers to find and love it.

My favorite team, Logan and Briscoe!

I'm wondering if people these days prefer to watch law breaking rather than law enforcement.  And if they do watch law enforcement, it's got to be sexy and/or in an exotic location with a young cast, like the so-over-the-top-I-can't-watch-it-anymore "Hawaii Five-O".  Heaven forbid any cop is over forty unless he's the captain!  Lenny Briscoe must be turning in his grave--how I miss him!


And finally, a question:  If the computer is so smart in "Person of Interest," can someone please tell me why it can't tell Harold exactly WHY that interesting person's number showed up?  Puhleez!!  I guess the answer is:  because then the show would last only 30 minutes rather than an hour.

Ok, enough complaining. I'm beginning to  sound like that cantankerous Grandpappy Amos!
 

Pigs, Cattle, and Fall TV

Gratuitous stock photo of pork loin.

This may not be my healthiest recommendation, but last night I roasted a small pork loin from Costco (Swift Premium Chili Lime Marinated).  YUM!  It was so simple to do (just open the bag and plop it on a foil-lined baking pan and bake for 40 minutes (depending on the weight).  It was very tasty, juicy, and so tenderlicious!! Pork loins are relatively low in fat compared to other pork or beef roasts, so hey, enjoy.  We had baked sweet potatoes, green beans, and big salads (at least 6 ingredients, remember!) to alleviate the guilt factor.  As for the economy factor, it was only $2.49/lb., which is amazing for something you just pop in the oven!

Temple Grandin and Claire Danes



After eating our pork dinner last night, I watched "Temple Grandin" which I'd rented from Blockbuster.  [Oh please, I hope Blockbuster Kapaa doesn't ever close!  Sure you can rent easily over the internet, but nothing beats browsing "real time" among the thousands of videos in the store!]  I loved the movie, not just because it was about autism, but because Temple's story is so inspiring.  I wonder if she's considered doing for pigs what she did for cattle?  I certainly hope so!  For those of you who don't know, she revolutionized the cattle industry by introducing more humane--and at the same time more efficient and economical--practices by integrating her genius and her autistic sensitivities.  I wasn't a Claire Danes fan before, but now I understand why she won an Emmy for this role.

From touching and sensitive, we go to violent and stupid:  I'm sorry, but Tuesday night’s "Hawaii Five-0 turned me off.  The plots are so cheesy and ridiculously implausible for me. Gee, a team of only four (two of whom are "newbies" to the Hawaiian law scene) singlehandedly saving Hawaii every week from heavy duty mobsters–give me a break. It’s very corny to me, sorry. I really want to like this show because I try to support any series filmed in Hawaii, but last night’s episode was over the top.  My god, even on the NY crime shows you never see a daytime shooting at a high school football game. What are the writers thinking anyway? Can we please have an ounce of believability here? Please?  How about a bigger Five-0 team, or even some show of support from HPD instead of them arriving just as Danno's about to "book um"?  And pssst, I don’t like the Steve McGarrett character or actor, but I do like the others, especially Scott Caan, who plays Danno.  Apparently I'm not alone: Click here for a review in the Michigan Daily.

Let's go back to "sensitive":  I recently read Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol," which I enjoyed even more than "DaVinci Code" and "Angels and Demons" because it was more relevant for me.  Not that I've been to Washington D.C., but its theme was spirituality  and the founding of our country.  One of the subplots involved "noetic science"--the study of the mind and intuition--which has always intrigued me (see my blogposts here and here for two lists of my own experiences). 

Dr. Edgar Mitchell

One of the videotapes I rented from Blockbuster this past weekend was "Hunting the Lost Symbol," which was originally broadcast on the Discovery Channel in which they explore what was real and what was fiction in Dan Brown's book.  In it they cite the Institute of Noetic Science (founded in 1973 by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell) on which Dan Brown bases his fictional Smithsonian counterpart and their very real studies which demonstrate the power of the mind.  For instance, a subject placed in a room in front of a video camera showed measurable reactions when remotely sent "good thoughts" by a viewer.  The subject had no idea when these "good vibes" would be sent, as the viewer only sent them intermittently when seeing him on a screen at random intervals.  Finding they've had success with this experiment supports the effectiveness of prayer, remote healing (such as Reiki), etc.  Very uplifting! Or scary, but I choose to be postive.   This page lists other studies they're doing, and these are completed projects.  Truly mind-boggling!

Lastly, here is a list of some of the Fall TV shows I've been watching and my ratings (* = bad, *** good):

The Good Wife *** (continues to be my favorite drama!)

The Middle *** (my favorite comedy!  This family is so lovably quirky!)

Modern Family *** (another funny family!)

Dancing With the Stars *  (I'm no Michael Bolton fan, but even the horrendous Kate Gosselin never got a 3!  And Kurt Warner gets 8's?!  I don't care for any of these "stars", thank goodness!)

Better With You ** (didn't intentionally watch this, but somehow the cast is really good!)

@*&! My Dad Says * (darn I wanted to like this)

The Event **  (Good grief, "3 hours earlier"  "2 weeks earlier" "5 months earlier" gives your brain a workout! I don't think I'll be watching this for very long.)

Glee **  (Fun to see who guest stars)

Law & Order LA * (Go back to NEW YORK!!!!  And please, no "at home" backstories, we just want the Law and the Order, not the Soap!!)

CSI's ** (Please stop with the creepy serial killers in jail, I hate those plots)

Desperate Housewives ** (I have a feeling this is their last season.)

Outsourced ** (Well you know I like Indians! They're fun!)

Big Bang *** (Big Fun!)

The Office ** (Uncomfortable Fun!)

As I'm trying to cut down on television viewing, I'm trying not to get attached to too many new shows. Yeh right.

 

There's Always TV!

TV talk today!

Have you seen "The Marriage Ref" yet?  The celebrity panel offers a lot of humor and from their opinions you get a glimpse into their mindsets, often surprising.  The most fun comes from the married couples themselves and they don't mean to be funny, they just are.  The things they argue about makes you go, "Gee, we're so normal compared to them, yeh?"  Hmmm, oh really?

For instance, one couple needed mediation because the husband's beloved dog died and he got it stuffed.  He intended to construct a "shrine" in their upstairs hallway (visible also from the ground floor) to display his stuffed doggie.  Happily the panel and the Marriage Ref sided with the wife and the dog will be "buried" in the attic for her husband's enjoyment only.  Check out "Fonzie" the dog and the Ridolfi's.  I think they're a funny couple!

One decision that the Marriage Ref made that is still bugging me involved five tortoises.  They're the husband's pets and yet the wife has to do most of the work caring for them.  As they live longer than human beings, she's not happy with the prospect of doing this for the rest of her life.  The Ref's decision was that she must.  She wasn't even asking her husband to get rid of them all, just a couple of them!  I'm thinking she made a tactical error by not asking to get rid of them all.  We're not talking about little turtles in a terranium.  We're talking about 70 lb. land tortoises!  [I should clarify that this couple didn't appear on the Marriage Ref show itself, but on Oprah's show when she had Jerry Seinfeld and Tom Papa on as guests.]  The Ref and Oprah agreed that it would be bad to break up the family pets, while Jerry said they're not pets because they show no expressions.  I think the wife should scoop up their poop and put it in hubby's car so he'll have a part of them with him when he goes to work.

Other arguments included a wife insisting that their "formal diningroom" be used only for Thanksgiving.  I thought that was a bit too anal and I couldn't believe the Ref ruled in her favor, although he did concede that her husband shouldn't be required to set up an "instant patio" that she ordered.  Another wife refused to let her hub install a stripper pole in their bedroom and the Ref ruled in her favor--thank goodness because a grouchy, reluctant pole dancer is a turn-off!  One husband complained about his wife who insists on flossing her teeth in bed.  This was an easy unanimous decision for the panel and the Ref, and now this stupid wife has millions of people thinking of her as "that gross teeth flosser lady").   Of course all couples got a free Caribbean cruise at the end, so maybe she thought it was worth being exposed?

We audience members sit at home and laugh at these couples as though they're from Planet Crazy but I'm sure you could all come up with arguments you've had with your spouse that are just as funny as theirs.  Not me, of course,  I'm a very reasonable, intelligent spouse who basically just gives in to my husband's ideas which are always brilliant, and vice versa. 

Other TV programs I'm watching:

American Idol (Tuesdays/Wednesdays on FOX):  No favorite yet although I do like Crystal Bowersox whom the oddsmakers are already favoring.  I also like Andrew Garcia.  Unfortunately there isn't an Adam Lambert-type contestant who makes me look forward to the show every week.  I have one wish about this show and that is I wish AI would choose the songs for the contestants. I'm sick of hearing "Wrong song, dog," and confused about the conflicting criticism of "you didn't make it your own" and "why did you change a perfectly good song." 

The Good Wife (Tuesdays on CBS):  Not only are three of the main characters among my favorite actors (Julianna Margulies, Chris Noth, and Christine Baransky), but we get a bonus in Archie Panjabi's character, Kalinda.  She's my new favorite character of all the shows I'm watching this season.  She's an intelligent, uber cool lady investigator who is often the Superwoman who saves the day.  She's also sexy without dressing constantly to show cleavage like those CSI ladies. Where so many TV series have the stereotypical Indian character who is funny/nerdy or serious/nerdy, she's one Indian who is the antithesis of those characters except that they kept in the intelligent part.  (Not that I don't love those comical characters such as Raj on "The Big Bang").

Dancing With the Stars (Mondays/Tuesdays on ABC):  They haven't started yet, but I'm 99% sure Evan Lysacek will win or at least come in second. This man lives for training and from an interview he did after winning his ice-skating gold medal, it's obvious he is very goal-oriented.  Not to mention the fact that three Olympians have already won DWTS (Kristi Yamaguchi, Apolo Ohno, and Shawn Johnson). Assuming he's as good as I think he'll be, the only reason he may not win is if the voters have an issue with him, if you know what I mean.  I think Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls will also be in the finals.  Every year when they announce the celebrity line-up I hope that there won't be anyone I care to watch so there'd be one less show for me to follow, and there have been years that I don't watch (such as last year), but I admit I have a lady-crush on Nicole S. and I love ice skaters soooo looks like I'll be doing the AI/DTWS juggle on Tuesday nights. 

Anthony Bourdain/No Reservations and Andrew Zimmerman/Bizarre Foods (Mondays on the Travel Channel):  I used to want to travel, but was too lazy to go anywhere except Honolulu and Las Vegas.  I'm still lazy, but I no longer feel the urge to travel because of these two guys.  I can pretty much live vicariously through them because they fill my "exotic food" need.  Even if I went to the same countries they visit I wouldn't be able to eat what they do because they have inside info and connections I don't.  Well anyway, that's how I'm justifying sitting on my behind watching TV instead of traveling to the food bazaars of Istanbul.  That and saving $5000.

 Dr. Oz (10:00 a.m. daily on ABC):  Even if you don't watch daytime TV, you should try to watch this (record it) because you'd benefit from information you'll hear.  What's great about Dr. Oz is he embraces both allopathic and naturopathic medicine.

The Middle (Wednesdays on ABC):  I like this new sitcom and haven't been able to watch it because of the Olympics and AI.  I had stopped watching family sitcoms because they started to annoy me with their usual hot wife, un-hot husband, and bratty kids.  I didn't intend to watch The Middle, but somehow saw an episode and was hooked by that cute little (literally little) son, dopey insecure daughter, and also dopey older son.  I love atypical, especially because these odd kids are quite appealing in their own ways.  Patricia Heaton's mom character in "The Middle" is not half as capable and self-assured a mom as Debra Romano was, and thank goodness that Scrub's crazed maintenance man (actor Neil Flynn) is now a pretty average, though typically clueless dad.  I like that according to what I've seen so far, this show is funny without the husband and wife constantly battling each other.

I'm also still into Law and Order, CSI, Ugly Betty (cancelled!), Desperate Housewives, Glee, and Lost.  I'm trying not to watch anything new because I'm trying to watch less television.  If you think I'm watching a lot now, you should've seen me a few years ago when I would be watching one show and recording two others!  I rarely have to record anything these days and still wonder why a TVholic like myself can find too much to watch on "Budget Basic" cable ($13/month, approx. two dozen channels) and yet most people have more than double the choice and seem to watch less TV than we do.  Well, as Bruce Springsteen sings: "57 Channels and Nothing On" !