the boob tube

I have nothing against television.  At various times in my life, I have been utterly hooked on various TV shows-- usually the same ones everyone else is:  Moonlighting, Northern Exposure, and what was that one that ended when the actor playing the lead accidentally shot himself in the head while goofing around on set?  And Star Trek.  Oh, my word, were (are) we Trekkers.  The Original Series, which I started watching in grade school (it was a rerun damn it, I'm not that old).  And then we were purists for the first two seasons of NextGen and refused to watch it, until Nell was born and I was going crazy pacing the floor with her during her colicky period and I actually tried it.  Subtitles are an awesome thing when you are pacing the floor with a colicky infant.  But for some reason, although we tried, we never got hooked on any of the other versions. 

Anyway.  At some point, though, television left me behind.  Partly because of the age of my kids.  When Nell was 10-14, there was nothing on television that was appropriate for her to watch.  I wanted her to have her childhood, not be dealing with adult issues when she was 12.  And then reality TV took over, and I completely lost interest.  Other than a couple of episodes of HGTV shows that technically qualify as reality TV but aren't really like Survivor or American Idol, I don't think I've ever seen an entire episode of a reality TV show.  I can never make it through.  The people are dumb, or they are mean and conniving, or they're putting themselves through hell to get to a goal that doesn't mean anything to me.  And anyway, it isn't reality, no matter how much they call it reality TV.

But then MadMax grew up enough to watch TV, and we were suddenly hooked on  Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters and Deadliest Catch (which are technically reality TV, I know, but they're not contests where someone is getting kicked off the show every week, at least)(I'm too soft-hearted, I want everyone to win).  And then we got a DVR-- less than a year ago-- and finally I am starting to enjoy TV again.  You can fast forward through the commercials.  You can get online, pick what shows you want to record with a click or two, and then watch them whenever you want.

So we still watch Mythbusters (how can you not love a show that tries to explode a garden shed by popping massive amounts of popcorn in it?), although not so much Dirty Jobs anymore because I think we've seen them all.  We've added Family Guy (which still seems too adult to me for a 14-year-old, but when I object, he just rolls his eyes and says, "You think I don't know this, Mom?")(He gets jokes that would have gone over my head when I was in college.)  And while Dean and MadMax were hunting in Idaho, they were introduced to Big Bang Theory.  I have to admit I love it.  It's so deliciously nerdy, and we are all nerds around here.  We're branching out to Community, too.

And I've started watching Nigella.  Have I ever posted about how much I love reading cookbooks? (a true irony, since I don't really cook all that well).  So I've read 3-4 of her cookbooks.  (If you've never read one, start with How to Eat, which I think was her first one, before she started her TV show.)  They're hilarious, although I have to say I've only used a couple of her recipes-- they often have those furrin British ingredients that are hard to find around here.

But they were talking about her show on the Bettyverse awhile back and I realized I'd never seen it, as much as I adore her cookbooks.  So I went to the DirecTV website, clicked to record it to our DVR, and finally got around to watching a couple of episodes this morning while I did my stretches.  OMG, it is like watching foreplay.  That woman loves her food, sensuously loves her food, and after awhile you start to wonder if she's having an affair with the camera-man.  Her looks to the camera are alternately coy, come-hither, happy, sly, or all-out brilliantly happy.  It's fun to watch.  I might be hooked.

She's my kind of cook.  A few inexact quotes:  While chopping onions:  "They could be chopped a bit more finely, but I'm stopping now."  When having company over, "You want a bit of oomph.  That's what this is about:  oomph with ease."  "I like xxx like this, but do as you please."  ("do as you please" pronounced "Dooze you please" with a coy glance thrown over her shoulder.)  Discussing sausages:  "These are skinny sausages.  I don't normally like that in anything."  and the two shows I watched ended up with her, at night, slipping down to the fridge to nosh on the leftovers.

And did I mention how much I love fast-forwarding over the commercials?  The last two commercial breaks were each FOUR MINUTES long.  ACK.

good grief, this got long.  It really wasn't going to be.