March 25, 1994
Dear Everyone:
For the Academy Awards, last Monday,
“Jeannie” and I had invited several people to join us for our
sometimes-annual Oscar party; but what with one thing and another, in
the end, it was just the two of us, which was rather restful in itself,
since we could be more relaxed and not have to worry about playing
hostess. Also, there was more
room on the couch.
Since I have two remote controls for my TV and VCR, we each had a
control at either end of the couch. This
soon led to a problem. When the
commercial break started, I automatically hit the Mute button on the
remote control. The sound would
go off for a second, then come back on. So
I hit the Mute button again and the same thing would happen.
It was “Jeannie” who figured out
that we were both hitting the
Mute button, almost simultaneously. The
first would turn the sound off, the second would turn it back on.
After that, neither of us would hit the Mute, each thinking the other
would get it. Until the
commercials would get to us and we both longed for the merciful Mute at
the same time. Again.
The Awards show was very…sedate this year.
I guess, with such serious
subjects as the
Holocaust,
AIDS and
false imprisonment up for prizes, the Hollywood people decided that
this was the year that they would prove to the world that they could act
like grown-ups. And they did.
And, like many grown-ups, they
were essentially boring.
But that left us plenty of time to talk.
“Jeannie” went to a seminar last weekend, for Continuing
Education points. One of the
subjects was Close-Captioning. Some
Reporters, instead of doing depositions and court, do the
Close-Captioning for TV shows. Of
course, you don't see the captions unless you have a special device
attached to your TV.
Some of the people at the seminar were passing around "horror stories"
about what happens when you put something into the computer and the
captioning comes out differently. Of
course, this is generally "live", like the evening news show.
Our favorite was when the news
reporter said:
"…{actor's name}, a well-known hunk,…"
And the Close Caption read:
"…{actor's name}, a well-hung gnome,…"
When {actor's name} came out to present the award for Best Picture, we
both agreed that, while he may have a few wrinkles, he's much too tall
to be a gnome.
Other topics: “Jeannie” on
cereal, "You know, you can't buy just one serving, to find out if you
like it. You have to buy a huge,
expensive box, only to find out that you don't like it after all.
Why can't they put this stuff out
in smaller sizes?"
Reminds me of the time that “Marshall” needed to sew a button back on
and discovered that, even though you only need
one needle, you still have to
buy the whole package.
And, while we're on the subject, how come we still buy eggs in packages
of 12? I only need two eggs for a
recipe. What am I supposed to do
with the other 10?
In other news…
I was in Company Park one day last week and kept hearing peals of
laughter coming out of various offices. The
next day, I found out why when “Valerie” sent me the attached e-mail.
More and more of this stuff is
floating around through the wires. One
person gets it and sends it to six others, who leads send it to six
others, and so on. When I got it
from “Valerie”, I promptly forwarded it to everyone in RACS, plus a
select few others. Who will send
to others, etc., etc., etc.
Love, as always,
Pete
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