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What I’m Watching
Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, when awake, my television is on pretty much all day. Mostly it’s on HGTV or Food Network for background noise. Serious television-watching is reserved for the evening hours. Netflix and cable are my only options. DVR is essential. Watching network TV without fast-forward is torture. Finding something to watch has…
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LGBTQ History: Missing Pieces?
June 2019 was the best LGBTQ Pride Month ever. The level of media coverage was unprecedented, and several excellent shows were aired. All in all, I was blown away and thrilled for our history to be so widely shared. Coming out in 1979 sparked a life-long interest in gay history. I realized while doing the…
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Worth Watching?
I’ve been recording my favorite television shows to watch on my schedule for a long time. The ability to fastforward through commercials and boring parts of reality shows made DVR a much better option than OnDemand. Then I got Netflix. No commercials or waiting a week to find out what happens next. I still DVR…
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RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 10
I love drag shows almost as much as I love Broadway musicals. Except for the number of cocktails involved, they’re not that different. Costumed performers dance, sing (or lip-sync), and otherwise entertain a live audience. From the first season, RuPaul’s Drag Race has been must-see TV for me. Like live drag shows, it’s cheesy, a…
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A Glimpse of the Future
I haven’t taken more than a few days off from the day job for years. Nobody fills in when I’m out. An overwhelming quantity of emails, phone messages, and snail mail waiting when I return offset the benefits of getting away. I use vacation days a few at a time for long weekends throughout the…
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On Bruce Jenner
Watching Bruce Jenner win the decathlon at the 1976 Olympics stands out in my memory. I’m not a decathlon fan, but something about Bruce caught my attention. Becoming “the greatest athlete in the world” was special. After the Olympics, his star faded. Like most celebrity athletes, he turned up now and then for cameo appearances…
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My Cable Bill
The ability to retire a few years earlier than planned has provided an incentive to pay a lot more attention to my monthly bills. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always been vigilant. But the emphasis has shifted from checking for errors to looking for (painless) ways to cut back. As they’re based on usage, I expect bills…
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Fake-umentaries
I like documentaries, perhaps because learning something makes me feel less guilty about watching television. When I was a kid, my favorite show was Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins, though in retrospect, I may have had a crush on his assistant. I looked forward to a new National Geographic special as much…
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DVR Changed My Life
For longer than I care to admit, my evenings revolved around the television. I had shows to watch every night of the week. Picking favorites for some nights was easier than others, but somehow, I always found something to watch. Looking back, the quality of my viewing selections makes me cringe. I couldn’t stay awake…