IceFloe of Sleet
Jan. 29th, 2023 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoAs I thought, we had a lot of snow. It took a joint effort from both of us to remove 7 to 8 inches from our driveway. I deduced from looking out the window that our neighbor, Irish, had work to do and left in a hurry. His truck was gone, and his driveway had been snowblowered, but he hadn't done the other things that he usually does when he has time, including doing the end of our driveway! It was not too difficult with both of us working. I confessed to the Sparrowhawk that I always secretly hope on those occasions when Irish doesn't use his snowblower for our benefit, that he's impressed when he comes back and sees that those two old people next door have taken care of it by hand. Like cavemen! The Sparrowhawk laughed and said that he feels the same.
We didn't actually go anywhere until the football game started, when the Sparrowhawk went out to get pizza and chicken wings. I've fended off several fast food temptations by producing something better, but on this occasion, I indulged him. At halftime, we went back to watching the ice skating championships. I whiled away the time by starting to read the copy of "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television," by Jerry Mander that arrived at my door via Amazon. I first read this book in 1978 when it was published. I decided to re-read it after I finished Johann Hari's "Stolen Focus." It's so interesting to see how Mander makes all the same observations about TV that Hari makes about the internet--45 years ago. Nobody wanted to listen to me when I started thinking about this. It's inevitable, I guess--as Upton Sinclair famously said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it." And, of course, I am watching TV even as we speak. Nevertheless, there is something very, very wrong here, and it's not improving. The Ring changes people who want to use it, and not for the better.
We didn't actually go anywhere until the football game started, when the Sparrowhawk went out to get pizza and chicken wings. I've fended off several fast food temptations by producing something better, but on this occasion, I indulged him. At halftime, we went back to watching the ice skating championships. I whiled away the time by starting to read the copy of "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television," by Jerry Mander that arrived at my door via Amazon. I first read this book in 1978 when it was published. I decided to re-read it after I finished Johann Hari's "Stolen Focus." It's so interesting to see how Mander makes all the same observations about TV that Hari makes about the internet--45 years ago. Nobody wanted to listen to me when I started thinking about this. It's inevitable, I guess--as Upton Sinclair famously said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it." And, of course, I am watching TV even as we speak. Nevertheless, there is something very, very wrong here, and it's not improving. The Ring changes people who want to use it, and not for the better.
splendid quote
Date: 2023-01-30 08:11 am (UTC)i always forget who said it.
mark twain gets credited for most 19th c american wit, so i'm not *positive* he said (something like):
it is much easier to fool a man than to convvince him he's been fooled.
go elderly cave people with your manual tools. rock on.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-31 02:14 pm (UTC)