In Repose Blog

Rare Jack Benny Twilight Zone Sketch

Its Friday so lets lighten up a bit around here shall we? Take six minutes to enjoy this 1960"s comedy sketch with the brilliant Rod Serling making fun of himself with the unforgettable Jack Benny.

An Exceptionally Funny Bumper Sticker

Those who know me well know I can barely tolerate a few minutes in a room with a television blaring or blathering away. That makes this bumper sticker especially and deliciously funny to me.

The more I learn about hypnosis, the more I understand television, and the less I like it.

Hey Oprah, What's Wrong with Old?

I don't watch television hardly at all anymore. I find it haphazard, distracting and downright annoying. However I do know many of you out there watch TV. Some in my family watch for hours every day, and I think that's pretty typical. It also seems to be typical that the older you are the more you watch. The younger set gravitate to the Internet and have other distractions.

The queen of daytime television and holding the number four rated syndicated spot is the ever present and most powerful, Oprah Winfrey. What Oprah pays attention to is what her audience pays attention to,  and she can make or break celebrities, authors, products, social topics of all kinds and even, presidential candidates. Its interesting to note that her topics focus heavily on "fighting aging" and yet her audience is primarily female and 55 and older.

A recent post by Ronni Bennett of Time Goes By chides our Ms. Winfrey for her attitude towards aging.

"Oprah's television show promoting youth as the gold standard of life, and Oprah herself is the poster girl for ageism; her advocacy of all things anti-aging translates directly into disrespect for elders."

Geriatrician Dr. Bill Thomas is the author of a book called What Are Old People For?, and has been a strong advocate of changing our culture's attitudes and care of the elderly. He too takes exception to Oprah's youth focus and has produced the following 2:45 minute video called Hello Oprah in which he makes a personal appeal to the talk-show host to give elders equal camera time with youth.

Hey Oprah, are you listening? Own your crone self girlfriend, you are 55! Youth is over-rated and most certainly over-hyped. Help the rest of the world honor and respect our elders.

Flintstones Winston Commercial Break

"Winstons taste good, like a cigarette should."

If you are old enough to remember that tag line, you will remember this ad.

Younger readers will find it disconcerting to see cartoon characters promote smoking, but in these days (the 1960's) even DOCTORS promoted smoking. Remember this one?

"More Doctors smoke Camels than any other brand."

Perhaps the oddest thing for me personally to note is the length of the commercial. We had much longer attention spans in those days.

We would get home from elementary school, watch our half hour cartoon show and then chew our cigarette shaped pink bubblegum. They came in realistic paper packs you could roll up in your tshirt sleeves while you rode your bike. I think the candy maker even put a sugar dusting on the rolled white paper. If you blew on it hard enough, you would get a sweet puff of white gum smelling smoke to complete the smoking effect.

Wow, its almost like they were brainwashing us kids to smoke. Doctors promoted it, we had starter candy cigarettes to practice with...and the Surgeon General had yet to declare smoking a health hazard. Why not? Well, there was a LOT of money wrapped up in that answer.

Follow the dollar baby, it will never lie to you. The truth of almost any issue lies in its funding and the power that comes with it. Rarely do those in power really wish to help you retain your health or promote your happiness.

Here's the thing folks. The brainwashing and disinformation fed to the public by those in power through television is still happening.

Its just not quite as obvious as Fred and Barney whipping out their Winstons.

Tim Russert, 1950-2008

My friend Terri Miller who writes a blog about  Paintings, photos and dressage. sent around an email soon after the report of the newsman's death.

Axel (Terri's well known dressage judge husband) and I have always looked forward to spending our rare Sunday mornings at home watching Meet The Press because of Russert's great interviews.

My guess is that God was as perplexed as everyone else by American
politics, and needed someone to explain it.

-Terri Miller

The Killer Joke

"And now, for something completley different!"

Monty Python's Flying Circus is arguably the most influential comedy series ever broadcast.Younger readers of In Repose Blog may not be familiar with Monty Python, which first aired on television in 1969. What better way to introduce them than to watch "The Funniest Joke in the World"?  Watching the clip I am struck by how our attention spans must be constantly shrinking. The clip was well worth 9 minutes of laughter and brought back fond memories of a great television classic...