Idiot woman, what century are you living in? Just because you want to go to bed before 11 doesn’t mean you have to miss Jon Stewart – he’s available on-line and without commercials! (I know, Bruce is shaking his head, because during his visit here, he spent a lot of time setting up my DVD player to record the Daily Show. The trouble, Bruce, is that I still have to do things with buttons – turn things on and press this and that. I hate pressing this and that; usually, by the end of all that button-pressing, I’ve completely dismantled my cable connection and am watching confetti. So when you aren’t here, dear Bruce, I am lost. Please move.)
Now, the new anti-insomnia watch-Jon-on-line me turns the computer off at 9 and TV off as early as possible, which usually is no problem as it’s not on in the first place. Tonight the drama Cranford is on PBS again, though, with its heavenly cast – can’t miss that, but it won’t get me jazzed up before sleep the way Jon does. And also a special 20th anniversary Simpsons is on – can’t miss that either. Life is full of such mad excitement!
I watched the new CBC show the Republic of Doyle the other night. Why hasn’t someone made a television program set in Newfoundland before? Just for the sets alone, the rows of multi-coloured wooden houses by the sea, let alone the generous, earthy humour of Newfoundlanders. The basic culture of my beloved country, despite years of immigration, is one continuous flow of whitebread blandness from sea to shining sea, with two huge exceptions, Quebec and Newfoundland. With the Republic of Doyle, the culture of Newfoundland is there for us all to enjoy.
Not that I’ll continue to watch. Friend Lynn in France says, “The thing about television is that if you decide to watch, don’t feel guilty, just admit that you’re going to sit down and waste time.” Though there is of course some stuff on television that isn’t a waste of time, I think it’s true for most programs, and certainly most programs in France. After watching Doyle, I thought, if I were a lonely person, this would fill a happy hour with a funny hero and his quirky friends and family.
But I’m not lonely. And anyway, I’m too busy watching Jon Stewart on-line.
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The admirable political analyst Jeffrey Simpson, in Saturday’s Globe, wonders what we’re getting all het up about; Harper doesn’t give a #$%& what we think of proroguing or of him, for that matter. He’s a superb political machine back by a superb political machine. “Every step he takes,” writes Simpson, “is calibrated to present a manufactured image to the voters, as in the endless series of photo-op announcements of government spending, the meticulous preparation of his every step of every trip, his scripted speeches, his very methodical way of proceeding. It is a government of Sparta and Prussia, not Athens and the Rhineland.”
And, concludes Simpson, the opposition is so hopelessly divided and Canadians are so complacent and easily fooled that a Harper majority is just a step away.
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