BEFORE WE HAD T.V.

I think, if I remember correctly now, one of the problems in New York with "Jolson " was with the Actors Guild and the the fact that the cast was "foreign". ie not members.

Acquiunk, That's such a "stupid" rule. The consumers lose out from seeing a great show.

Acq, not only was it a bad idea to tell my grandmother that you were bored, because she'd either put you to work, or tell you to go read a book--if the latter, you were expected to report back on what you'd read, and what you believed it meant. My grandmother had only had four years of formal education, but by the time i was 8 years of age, she'd read everything of interest to her in the local, small town library, and we drove to the next town over so she could find books to read.

Set, same here, by the time we were seven we had library cards.

You know, Boss, i don't regret it. When i was looking into which university i might attend, the guidance counselor gave me a lits of books i would be expected to have read by the time i completed the college. I scanned it, muttering, "read it, read it, read that twice, read it . . ." until he got aggravated, and snatched it back from me.

Lol I know what you mean, books made up for a lousy social life in my high school years.

Books did that in high school for me too.

Re my screen name, Ronmac, I picked it because I make the country of Italy - its history, the arts developed there, its food, its people - a sustaining interest in my life. When I pick a password for some reason, it is an italian word.

I don't speak italian well at all, quite badly in fact, but I love the musicality of the language, love a lot of the phrases I find in the dictionary. So, when I joined abuzz a few years ago, I tried out some words I might like, and picked ossobuco - for the sound of it.

It happens to be the name of a braised veal shank dish that is very popular in the Emilia-Romagna region, and that I tried once when I was in Modena. The dish was delicious, but its not a usual food choice for me. Little did I think at the time that this could offend the many people who don't eat veal because of the common mistreatment of calves in the production of it. Luckily, no one beats me up verbally for it.

The next problem with the name is that it ends with an o, and people assume at first that I am a male. I like the name, so I don't worry about that.

Audio CDs aren't "Regionalized" the way video DVDs are, c. i. And if you're really in need of it, most DVD players can be "hacked" to ignore the region code, and some, even very cheap ones, pay no attention to the code in the first place, though you could run into compatiblity problems as regards North American NTSC television standards vs European and Asian PAL and SECAM television standards, having to do with number of lines per frame, frame refresh rates, and picture synchronization. There are workarounds for all that, too.

Osso, I hadn't even considered the "masculine O suffix" thing. In Japanese, the suffix "ko" is a feminine diminuitive ... so maybe a Japanese reader might be inclined to think, judging from my screen name, that I would be a cute young hottie. The mind boggles

NEWS FLASH...Backwoods midwest curmdgeon masquerades as oriental hotti on internet. Film at eleven.

Well, I'm not old enough to have experienced life without TV. However I would imagine it would be just as boring as lfe without the Personal Computer.

I remember life before the VCR though, and I remember we had one of the first VCR's in our neighborhood. It was a foot high by two foot wide and about a foot and a half deep, made by Quazar, and the tapes were also huge. I remember my dad used to record shows like Hooper and Walking Tall, and all of the neighborhood kids used to come over to our house to watch the VCR because nobody had cable. Then when everybody got cable all they had was HBO...

roverroad- No, life was NOT boring without TV. As a child, I had radio, and listened to many programs. Kids had games, like Monopoly, that we used to play with one another. After school, we were out in the fresh air, playing with other kids, and learning how to communicate with people.

Saturday afternoon was a big social time for kids. We went together to the movies, which offered two films, a newsreel, and a cartoon. We could spend 5 hours at the movies. When we were under 12, we were all herded together in the "children's section". It was really quite a social event.

I am not knocking TV, and certainly not knocking the computer. These advancements have certainly enriched my life. But I think that there are both upsides and downsides to every invention.

I agree with Phoenix. There are no boring time periods; it all depends on the individual to be bored or not.

I also agree with Phoenx. We played baseball, marbles, kick the can, hide and seek, basketball, monopoly, many dances, the radio (the Shadow, and many others), pinball machines, and the Saturday movies that cost us two bottle caps for two features, cartoon, and newsreel. Them, as they say, were the good ole days.

Ahhhhhh yes, the good old days------I don't watch much TV now, just sports and news - things that a happening. Very few movies, maybe 4 or 5 a year. Rest of the time spent reading, golf and socializing.
the good old days can still be today and they are not boring

Bored? ! ? ! ?

Amazing . . . there is a device you can obtain, which is hand-held and operated--therefore requires no batteries or electrical outlet. It is very user-friendly, it is paced precisely to your interest and ability to use it. It can literally put the entire world at your fingertips . . .







. . . it's call "a book."

And I still enjoy the "funnies."

Me too, Boss, i always refer to it as the literary section . . . unless i'm reading the Times, which saddly had no funnies, it's the first section i turn to . . .

I'm new at this. Pardon me but this is just a test. No need to adjust your monitor.

Blaine, Welcome to A2K. We have quite a few A2Kers living in Florida. They're planning their second get-to-gether pretty soon. You may want to check it out. We're having a A2K San Francisco Gathering next month.

Welcome Blaine, is that like Blaine the Mono