I was lying in bed last night, reading a collection of short stories by Arthur C Clarke, (Nine billion names of God) while the wife watched the taped end of “friends”, and I watched with her, or rather listened and peeked over my shoulder at the screen from time to time.

I just don’t get it. No, I mean, I really don’t. I don’t ever watch “network” tv, I haven’t seen a “sitcom” since “all in the family” and then only rarely, and every time I turn on the tv and see a broadcast show I am amazed by how uninterested I am in it.

Oh, I watch tv, it’s on over my shoulder as I type. “Throne of blood” by Kurosawa. A great flick, reminiscent of Macbeth. I like that these old samurai films come on IFC, and I have my receiver set to automatically flick through IFC, History, Discovery, TCM.

I read. I read a novel length book or more every day for entertainment alone. I read technical manuals constantly, I read about fifteen weblogs with regularity, I read several firearms related message boards, and I read a LOT of online short fiction by “amateurs”. If I want to smile, I read something by Mencken. If I want to laugh out loud, H Allen Smith and Patrick F McManus never disappoint. If I want to forget the crappiness of the day I crack open a science fiction novel, or a good mystery.

I can’t see watching TV for hours and hours. It makes no damned sense to me at all. Oh, I’ve seen an episode fo NYPD Blue or E.R. that I liked, but Blue is all about “how can we fuck with Sipowicz’s life today” and ER holds your attention by never letting you focus on one thing for more than 45 seconds. Perfect for the TV generation. The wife watches soaps she TiVos, and frankly, they make me nuts.

My daughter watches a few shows which we carefully pre-screen, and that prescreening is insanity to me. We have discovered a few shows that are intrinsically safe, thank god, and we can let her watch without any concern, but the couple of years of checking out “teletubbies” and “Barney” were toturous.

Now, she as often picks up a book. Yeah, they’re kids books, they’re trite, but she’ll be doing more soon. I read to her still, as well, stuff a little above her but not too much, and she’s starting to look at my library with some interest. She knows I’ll let her get away with murder if she’s reading. Which, in my mind, is as it should be.