So … the TV is telling him it’ll answer his question later? Gotta get me on o’ dem!
Back in the day, I had a World Almanac on my coffee table, and had browsed it enough to have a pretty good idea of what kinds of things were and weren’t covered. I was semi-legendary among my friends for saying “Just a sec” when someone would wonder about something; picking up the book; and finding an answer. A parlor trick, of course—the skill was in knowing what would/wouldn’t actually be there: they didn’t notice the times when I *didn’t* look something up!
Nowadays, of course, someone being able to find an answer via Google et sim. goes unremarked.
Earlier this year we (finally) invested in a new TV that has about three times the surface area of the set it replaced. According to the settings, it would have voice control (if we were stupid enough to buy and install the optional extra microphone), and it definitely does have a web browser app (which is a royal pain to use, since it doesn’t have a mouse, just a cursor controlled with the arrow keys on the remote). People talk about “smartphones” and “smart-TVs”, but this one hasn’t quite earned the adjective just yet.
On the other hand, it’s not like Pluggers have ever had a reputation for intellectual brilliance, either. I still have trouble remembering (or believing) that the concept was invented by Jeff MacNelly (who was so creative with “Shoe”).
Kilby – Robert had to put up with my not being comfortable watching digital television. When I watch same – hard to explain – I often see the picture as small squares which make up the picture.
During the earlier days of Covid he kept pushing to get a big(ish) screen TV. We were drawn together by a joint love of movies – old and new – and with the exception of the Covid to now years or big snow storm – we went to the movies EVERY Saturday night – whether at home – in PA, MA, VA, DC, NC, MD, Toronto, Montreal … So the switch during Covid to watching a movie on the kitchen TV was not what he wanted. I agreed with him that I did not see the squares when looking at the big screen sets, but did find the picture on same to be too bright and overwhelming. He explained that he had read that there was a special settings for stores to use for display and it would be shut off in the house so it would not as bright. (I also pointed out that we (he) had decorated in the room in what is called “Colonial Revival”- basically it looks like colonial. Our former living room TV is hidden in a period looking piece of furniture.)
He finally decided that he was getting same for his birthday two years ago. We also needed something to put the TV on. So the entire colonial look died with the Ikea work table and big TV on it. And there is NO such setting for the brightness. I sit with anti-glare glasses on to watch TV for our “Friday night midnight movie TV substitute” and our “Saturday night date night movie TV substitute”. Before buying the TV we worked out that it would not affect our Christmas decorations (I kid you not!) as the TV would have to where the tree used to go. Of course even with all of our calculations it did not work right and after 2 Christmases with the big set in place we are still working out the differences. (Decorating inside the house for Christmas is about 80% of our holiday with most of the other 20% being doing a week to 10 day Christmas event with our reenactment unit.)
Comics I Don't Understand 
So … the TV is telling him it’ll answer his question later? Gotta get me on o’ dem!
Back in the day, I had a World Almanac on my coffee table, and had browsed it enough to have a pretty good idea of what kinds of things were and weren’t covered. I was semi-legendary among my friends for saying “Just a sec” when someone would wonder about something; picking up the book; and finding an answer. A parlor trick, of course—the skill was in knowing what would/wouldn’t actually be there: they didn’t notice the times when I *didn’t* look something up!
Nowadays, of course, someone being able to find an answer via Google et sim. goes unremarked.
Earlier this year we (finally) invested in a new TV that has about three times the surface area of the set it replaced. According to the settings, it would have voice control (if we were stupid enough to buy and install the optional extra microphone), and it definitely does have a web browser app (which is a royal pain to use, since it doesn’t have a mouse, just a cursor controlled with the arrow keys on the remote). People talk about “smartphones” and “smart-TVs”, but this one hasn’t quite earned the adjective just yet.
On the other hand, it’s not like Pluggers have ever had a reputation for intellectual brilliance, either. I still have trouble remembering (or believing) that the concept was invented by Jeff MacNelly (who was so creative with “Shoe”).
Kilby – Robert had to put up with my not being comfortable watching digital television. When I watch same – hard to explain – I often see the picture as small squares which make up the picture.
During the earlier days of Covid he kept pushing to get a big(ish) screen TV. We were drawn together by a joint love of movies – old and new – and with the exception of the Covid to now years or big snow storm – we went to the movies EVERY Saturday night – whether at home – in PA, MA, VA, DC, NC, MD, Toronto, Montreal … So the switch during Covid to watching a movie on the kitchen TV was not what he wanted. I agreed with him that I did not see the squares when looking at the big screen sets, but did find the picture on same to be too bright and overwhelming. He explained that he had read that there was a special settings for stores to use for display and it would be shut off in the house so it would not as bright. (I also pointed out that we (he) had decorated in the room in what is called “Colonial Revival”- basically it looks like colonial. Our former living room TV is hidden in a period looking piece of furniture.)
He finally decided that he was getting same for his birthday two years ago. We also needed something to put the TV on. So the entire colonial look died with the Ikea work table and big TV on it. And there is NO such setting for the brightness. I sit with anti-glare glasses on to watch TV for our “Friday night midnight movie TV substitute” and our “Saturday night date night movie TV substitute”. Before buying the TV we worked out that it would not affect our Christmas decorations (I kid you not!) as the TV would have to where the tree used to go. Of course even with all of our calculations it did not work right and after 2 Christmases with the big set in place we are still working out the differences. (Decorating inside the house for Christmas is about 80% of our holiday with most of the other 20% being doing a week to 10 day Christmas event with our reenactment unit.)