THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501260158
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ford Reid
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Every now and then, I indulge in a particular fantasy.
This fantasy has nothing to do with winning the lottery or ruling the world, although those are pretty good fantasies.
This one is a simple, if simplistic, wish to live in a remote place.
Not on the edge of the world, mind you, just a place removed from most of it. A remote, somewhat isolated place. A place, for instance, like Hatteras was in the 1970s.
When I am foolish enough to talk about this fantasy, my wife always asks the same question: ``What about television?''
My reply, too, is always the same. ``I don't watch that much television,'' I say.
Then she begins her verbal list of all of the things that I do watch.
There is the news, of course. Sometimes I watch the news two or three times in a day.
And reruns of my favorite old situation comedies including Taxi, Andy Griffith and, of course, The Beverly Hillbillies.
I watch C-SPAN now and then to get some idea of what the government is up to and once in awhile I try to watch a movie, although the commercials usually drive me away before the plot has begun to develop.
I like to watch the weather, especially when there is a storm approaching, and I am occasionally fascinated by one of the seemingly endless string of nature programs. Whales, birds, snakes and big cats are all fun to watch.
I haven't even mentioned sports. I believe that last year's baseball strike finally cured me of the worst of my long-time sports on television addictions.
But there is still college basketball, and plenty of it.
Surveys routinely show that the average American spends something like seven hours a day watching television.
I used to argue with that assertion. After all, when you add seven hours of television time to the average American's work day, then add to that a reasonable number of sleeping hours you are left with about 20 minutes a day for everything else.
The truth is that nobody is really watching television for seven hours a day. Sitting in the same room with a television that is switched on, yes; but not watching it.
That is the true addiction of television. Not watching it, but having it on.
When was the last time that you turned on the set at, say, 9 p.m. to watch a show, watched that show and then turned off the set?
Be honest.
Ask your friends if they are capable of doing that.
In the mail this week came a notice from my cable company saying that they are adding five or eight or 15 new channels to basic service.
I lose count, but we now have somewhere between 40 and 100 choices. More news. More sit coms. More sports.
If it is there, I will watch it. That is the sad truth.
But I'm going to keep my fantasy.
Right now I am dreaming of a place so remote, so primitive and isolated that the cable has only 35 channels. by CNB