Bob and the TV

I don't think that Bob (not a -Bob) blogs. He's quite computer savvy, just not that way. I met him in a retail computer store on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, eons ago. He was repairing a Wyse 50 terminal, after he'd diagnosed the fault to be a defective (48 cents?) resistor. Bob could've sent the terminal to the repair depot, but he did this to amuse himself (oscilloscope and all).

Over the years, Bob and I became good friends. Some weekends, we'd rent a couple tapes (anyone remember VHS?) of Bad Science Fiction, order a (pizza) pie and toss back a few cold ones .. until dawn. You see, BobTime™ starts at sundown and ends at dawn. Bob was a vegetarian; he wouldn't eat anything that ever had a face.

Aside #7-11: for many years, Bob didn't own a car; instead, he took the bus everywhere. When he finally bought a car, he followed the bus route to wherever he needed to go (versus taking a direct route). Bob also introduced me to the phrase "Hoover Some Sushi" .. and thus permanently impacted my vocabulary.

Once, Bob told me the story of why he doesn't own a TV. His sister tried to give him one. So, he unboxed it, plugged it in, and turned on the power. The first thing he saw was: The Morton Downey Jr. Show. I only vaguely remember this; suffice it to say that Morton Downey was an in-your-face Right Wing Nutjob before Karl Rove/etc. made it fashionable.

Bob watched for a few minutes, quietly powered the set off, unplugged it from the wall, returned it to its box and placed it in the closet. For good. He felt that if this was what TV was all about, he wanted none of it. Huzzah, Bob, Huzzah.