Sunday, June 24, 2007

Ixnay on the at-screen-tv-flay

S. wants a flat-screen T.V. I, naturally, am resisting. We have such limited time for TV and film viewing, what do we need with a top-of-the-line set?

S. says that if it were up to me, we'd still be using our old J.C. Penny TV, with built-in VCR. Admittedly, that was a monstrosity; but it worked! At least, the TV part did. I think S. is still bitter about a little incident that happened way back in the days before DVDs and Netflix. We had rented a movie from Hollywood Video, and darn if the cassette didn't get stuck in the VCR. S. called the people at Hollywood, and they said, "No problem. Just bring in your VCR and our tech people will take care of it." So there's S., carrying a gigantic J.C. Penny TV with built-in VCR down 53rd Street in Hyde Park. I'm surprised no one called the cops. Of course, the clerks at Hollywood looked at him like he was a madman. I'm pretty sure we bought a new TV that very afternoon.

The J.C. Penny TV was one of those "church sale" acquisitions you make when you're a starving graduate student. What stuns me, though, is that someone, somewhere, years ago, was in the market for a new television, and they said, "Sony? Zenith? Panasonic? Naah, let's buy a brand-new J.C. PENNY T.V.!" It boggles the mind.

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