Skipping in the Sunshine

Sunshine, you are my sunshine! Actually I am typing in my underwear but what’s the difference? The good news is we are in for some great weather today and that makes my day.

I watched the new show “Body of Proof” with Dana Delaney last night and I liked it. The character has just the right mix of toughness and vulnerability. Who knew I would like Dana Delaney, the woman who made me jealous in “Tombstone”. She was so wrong for Kurt Russell. I had never seen China Beach but I saw the commercials so I know she was in that show but before Tombstone I had never seen her in anything. I liked her as Katherine on Desperate Housewives because I liked to see Bree squirm! She was wicked.

Ah well, I will probably not be watching the show regularly because it conflicts with the only new show that I like. The Good Wife is in its second season and I just enjoy it. I like Alicia, she is a character with integrity, something we see so little of these days on television or film. I wish we did see more wholesome shows. Instead we seem to get fed an awful lot of trash and things which may be funny in the short term but has lasting effects on our thinking. Not in a good way.

The question is, does television shape morals or do morals shape television? I lean toward the idea that television is shaping us. When we see teenagers smart mouthing their parents we begin to imitate that behaviour. I well remember my mother being disgusted with the show “Welcome Back Kotter” because the kids in the class were so smart alecky. She believes television went downhill from there. Just look at the way Roseanne talked to her husband in front of her kids. You never saw Mrs. C speak like that to Howard on “Happy Days”.

And in case anyone doubts that mothers wore dresses around the house i can vouch that my mother often wore a skirt and in the summer time she might wear a cotton dress. She didn’t go around in high heels however she wore slippers. And my mother always wore makeup in the house. Until she was in her fifties and we had moved to a small town I had never known my mother to go shopping in anything but a skirt and heels. Never. She was the most glamorous mom in the neighbourhood and I well remember as a teenager getting incensed when I became aware of strange men ogling my mother in the vegetable section of the grocery store.

Ah, I just remembered, today I have the first of my two phone calls with a pre-retirement specialist! I will let you know tomorrow what I’ve learned about financial planning for retirement.

This is a Garth Williams picture