And that’s the way it was…

America has lost a national treasure tonight. He retired when I was only four and the only time I ever had the opportunity to watch Walter Cronkite broadcast live was during the launch of the shuttle Discovery carrying John Glenn back to space in 1998. Even in his late 80s, it was obvious that this man was simply a force of nature, commanding attention even from those journalists working with him that afternoon. He defined the television news very nearly since its inception and what is means to be a class act and to deliver the news even-handedly and without bias. If you’ve never seen clips of him on the anchor desk, do yourself a big favor and watch the video of him broadcasting JFK’s assassination or the moon launch or from the bombed out streets of Viet Nam. Once upon a time, that’s the way it was and sadly will never be again.

In a world where the news cycle is brought to a grinding halt by the death of an aging pop star, I can only hope that we will pause to remember the man that literally defined what television news is all about.

Sopranos for the 16th Century…

After catching it in bits and pieces several times while flipping through the channels, I finally broke down and bought season one of The Tudors last weekend. Why didn’t someone tell me about this before? It’s like The Sopranos with jousting! Sure, it’s a bit of a soap opera and the historical accuracy is somewhat suspect, but it has lots of violence and gratuitous nudity to make up for that, so what’s not to like?

I’ve had to ration myself to one episode a night just to keep myself going until the second season gets here on Monday. Sadly, I’ve come along to late to jump into the third season, but I’m doing my best to catch up. The 4th season will become a “must see” on my schedule. I just can’t say enough about how impressed I have been with this show… From someone whose usual television watching is limited to the news channels and the Discovery Channel, tuning in for a Drama is high praise indeed.

Adiós Comcast... almost

With DirecTV now beaming 500+ channels of goodness into the house, I thought for sure I could finally be rid of the devil called Comcast. Trying to find an reasonable alternative to their cable Internet service, however, has proven to be an exercise in futility. The DSL that is available here just doesn't stack up after a few speed tests. So, for now it's an uneasy truce with the devil I know as I wait impatiently for Memphis to slog its way into the 21st century.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]