On January 1st I woke early, made a pot of coffee, and sat down to watch the Sunday morning punditry. In general, this is not a good idea as it often leads to shouting and throwing things at the television, which tends to wake my wife and scare the cat, but it’s a hard habit to break.
First up, as always, was ABC’s “This Week with” … whomever they got for that week … George … Martha … Krusty the Clown. I turned the television on, punched in Channel 4, and was presented with a black-bordered message from Frontier Communications, our cable provider. It informed me that the distributor of our local ABC affiliate was being a pooter and wouldn’t negotiate a “reasonable rate” for their programming and, since Frontier “won’t settle for less than fair pricing for our customers,” they chose instead to deprive us of the ABC channels altogether.
It was the last straw. Continue Reading »
In December 1966 — in lieu of their regular station identification — CBS aired a short, animated holiday greeting for its viewers. (I’ve embedded it, below, for your convenience.) Drawn by 
The epiphany hit me when I finished Wednesday’s New York Times crossword puzzle.
Long post ahead, but I was asked, so I’m answering…
I’ve lost friends because of this election. Ironically, none were from the “red” contingent; losses came from my own “blue” cohort. Some partings were my choice. Others were silent retreats taken by the other party, discovered well after the fact. Either way, the losses were not a surprise, given the level of internecine warfare exhibited during the long, arduous run-up.
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 