Jan. 10, 2002 - 22:16 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Eightysixed

When I got to shambling around today and took a look at the paper it was pretty well the same old stuff - only difference the days date and the names. Apparently the world is still churning and the various Romes still burning.

Takes a man's ego down a notch or two to see that everything is doing its abnormal without my guidance or criticism. But that's life, live it or opt out, and that is not an option for me.

I see that the Columbine High School farrago is flaring up again and it doesn't look that it will ever be put out completely. Too many bad feelings on both sides I guess. It also seems that there are too many cover up lies too. Another item seems to be in perpetual motion is Jon Benet Ramsey, what a shame the handling of that case has been also.

Maureen Dowd from The New York times addresses the fact that the emphasis on feminine beauty is degrading the news departments of many of our TV stations to the point that some very excellent news gatherers who happen to be female beauties are degraded by the public and the producers who try to exploit the sexual weakness of the male viewer. Her reference was mostly about Paula Zahn's move to another channel and her (sexy) introduction to her new audience without regard for her excellent ability as a newscaster.

I am a lousy TV watcher, but over a period of years I kept seeing this woman representative of the press who asked such pertinent questions at the White House each time she spoke. She obviously was a fantastic newswoman but who I doubt would have won a beauty prize in a contest of female adults. It was obvious that she was well respected by all. I don't even know her name, but I think I would recognize her voice and her face.

I have also noticed that there are very few senior adult male newscasters any more on Television. Maybe one token one who has managed to hang on at each channel as the rest get flung off, the token one is usually carrying some title or another. The names of people in the varying lineup are not really worth remembering 'cause they won't be there very long.

Another thing I have noticed here in Denver is the frequency of the news casts. Used to be an early morning newscast, a noon cast, a five or six o'clock one and down the road quite a piece the ten o'clock news. Now it seems as if one local TV channel isn't on with the news another one is.

Also it seems as if the visible news staff on the screen are more entertainer than news persons, I think that too much ha-ha-ha is spent rather than devoting he time to reporting the small bit of news that exists prior to the time for the news cast. I think I can spot a lady new to a channel from her beginning. She starts out looking quite a normal, attractive lady but before long the stations spin Doctors Of Beauty start to work, dust her, polish her, give her a new hairdo and educate her in the proper lip movements as she talks. Her quality as a news person is still with her but she is something like an old car spiffed up and put on the lot for sale, looking at best artificial somehow.

I think I read the first Astounding (now Analog) magazine that showed up on our drugstore's news stand and managed to follow that science fiction mag as well as others to the present day. There was one particular author whose character was an intergalactic trader and his adventures. After this long a time I don't remember the individual story lines but vivid in my memory are two of the acronyms that came out in his stories. TANJ and TANSTAAFL, how often most news demonstrates one or the other or maybe both simultaneously. TANJ = There Ain't No Justice, TANSTAAFL = There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Seems to me to be true and pertinent when looking at our world as it is now.

I took a prescribed dose of medicine a bit ago that is heavy on codine and my eyelids are fluttering like Venetian blinds in a wind. So long and thanks for all the fish. So in this condition I guess being adjudged as unable to drive this diary tonight, good night y'all, I am effectively Eighty-sixed . . . . . . . .

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