Take on Television

As a child growing up with Have Gun Will Travel, Lassie, My Friend Flicker, could I have imagined the programming that would be on television in the 21st century. Heck, I couldn’t even imagine the 21st century. One night devoted to a dude trying to find lasting love in a house filled with back stabbing women only to be followed by “the beautiful ones” so full of themselves it makes one smile when they fall. Then two hours watching people lose weight; almost as fun as watching paint dry. A night of Super Nanny traveling to homes to teach parents how to control their out of control children; hey, wait, maybe the nanny and the dog lady could team up; it is called discipline. Next, two women who swap houses and families for a few weeks; and the point would be what? No complaints from me about any of the Law and Orders, NCIS, Criminal Minds, the Mentalist, Without a Trace or the original CSI and finally the cable networks are putting out some pretty good programming too. Damages, The Closer, Saving Grace, and The First 48 to name a few but even A&E panders to the undereducated. Two hours of Dog the Bounty Hunter followed by the Exterminators; I promise it is a show about killing bugs, rodents and other pest and I just had a thought; maybe the Exterminators should come on first and exterminate Dog and clan, yeah, that would work then the show about tow trucks could follow dragging off the vehicles and sweeping up the trash. Let’s not forget the shows in which people subject themselves to all sorts of torturous things, Amazing Race, Survivor, just to win money. Finally on those nights when sleep eludes be careful channel surfing there is some really weird stuff on early in the mornings.
Hooray!! The street sweeper finally made an appearance on our street. Thank you streets and drains.
For two years running the Chef at Augustino’s has won the chef challenge. I have been itching to try his cuisine and the opportunity finally came this week. The restaurant has good atmosphere, the prices are a little high for the area and the wait staff is excellent. However I was sorely disappointed in the food. The meal started out with fresh bread to be dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar; very good. It took a while to make the decision on what to order but finally I order beef filet morsels with mushrooms, red onions a red wine sauce and a nest of angel hair pasta. My friend ordered the swordfish. The plate presentation was lovely and since you eat with your eyes first I was expecting something quite savory. With the exception of the red wine sauce nothing had any flavor. The filet morsels were cooked perfectly but they were hard to cut and a little tough. The pasta was totally tasteless and cold. My friend loved her swordfish.