PBS Passport

 

Occasionally I talk about my favorite streaming services. Recently I have been watching a lot of Channel 13 Passport (other cities have their own channels in the title). In order to get access to Passport you have to have a membership in a public television station. The price may vary by city but Channel 13 New York charges $60 a year.

That amounts to five dollars a month, a lot cheaper than Hulu, Netflix or Paramount or something. And you actually get a lot of stuff.     

I am currently enjoying the Good Apprentice, an Italian import. A combination romantic comedy, doctor show, police procedural featuring a good looking cast. The scenes around the streets of Rome are also nice. There are a lot of European police procedurals with women detectives solving crimes. Some of my favorites are  Annika,  Frankie Drake, Lord and Master, the Nordic Murders and Luna and Sophie. Yes, there are sub-titles. In addition there is the gauntlet of shows that have been on PBS in recent years. 

One catch to the service is that, at least in my experience, you can't find it in your Smart TV listings or apps. What I do is send the show to my desktop or iPad. I then "cast media to device" and flip the show to the tv. It doesn't need a dedicated channel. It seems to find the show immediately, even when the tv is off. Google Chromecast is also involved.  

Editor's note: Many models of Smart TV's do have the app right on the tv. Unfortunately, my Vizio does not. I do have a Chrome key plugged into my HDMI port to do the casting process. 

I saw a drone from my backyard

 

Here in New Jersey we are all drone crazy. Apparently launched by Iran, they are circling the state, especially military installations. I saw a group of drones myself last night. 

Fathers, Sons, and Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving often brings families together. 

Why we suffer for the misdeeds of others

 

I just got a letter from my homeowner's association. Apparently, they were fined by the state because too many households were unavailable for the safety inspection. Pro-rated to everybody, we each will have to pay $27 and change. It reminds me of the bills I used to get from Rutgers every summer for the damage done to my dorm by my classmates.

I did everything right. I was always available for inspections. I   changed my smoke detector to bring it up to code. I even opened my neighbor's door so his unit could be inspected. I was the model homeowner. 

Getting punished for what other people do is not a new occurrence. I remember in 4th grade the whole class had to copy three pages of a dictionary because one kid smart assed to the teacher.  I remember having to do jumping jacks all period at gym class because one kid did something, I don't remember what. Sometimes other people do something stupid and the rest of us have to suffer. 

Editor's note: This isn't the first time I've bitched about inspections. Once the US Dept of HUD inspected and failed my office in the library for being sloppy. It almost held up the grant for the handicapped elevator. 

The time Brother Adrian came to dinner

 

Speaking of Brother Adrian, that reminds me of the time our family had Brother Adrian over for dinner. Apparently he had taught my father at Manhattan College in the thirties and was known for his leaf etchings.  In an act of bravado, my father suggested to the members of the local KFC that this artistic member of the Christian Brothers faculty at Manhattan College would make a good evening speaker for the next month's meeting. 

As part of the arrangement, Mother would treat him to a Southern dinner before his speech. My father may have had an ulterior motive here since he had been lobbying my older brother to attend his alma mater after high school He thought the good Brother could extoll for him the virtues of Manhattan. However, the cause was lost after my brother got accepted at MIT. 

Brother Adrian was an entertaining dinner guest, gave the family a leaf etching, then happily joined my father on the way to the Knights. Mother whispered that she hoped she hadn't fed him too many Manhattans. 

College reunions

 

Since I donate to my alma mater, Rutgers, every year I am on the mailing list for other publications of that esteemed institution. Recently, they have been trying to cajole me into attending my upcoming reunion for the class of 1974. I am not attending for the simple reason that I didn't have any friends in my graduating class. I was in the cynical group that felt that college was a meaningless waste of time and that its only purpose was to keep young people out of the labor market. My friends all agreed with me. When September came around, I was always surprised to see that all of my friends had dropped out of college. Each year, Sophomore, Junior and Senior I had to make new friends since my old pals had all dropped out of college. 

Being popular and a person of some prestige since I was on the college radio station, I had no trouble making friends. However, I have few college friends, certainly not from my class, that I could share a table with at a reunion dinner. 

My father had friends from his class at Manhattan College and loved to get out his green college ring and attend reunions with Mother. They had a celebrity in the class, Dennis Day. My mother talked to him one year and asked him how much his records were worth, since we had one of them. 
"About ten cents", the esteemed singer and comedian answered. 

Editor's note: I see from the picture that Manhattan College is now co-ed. Brother Adrian would be surprised. 

Cartesian and Aristotlean concepts of truth now supplanted

Those of us with a formal education have probably grazed upon Aristotle's concept of truth. Those of us with a college education have encountered Descarte's definition of truth, too complicated to delve into here. 

Happily, for many of us we are now being encouraged to see a modern interpretation of truth. In the future, we will be able to deny things have happened that may have negative impacts on our lives.

 

The employee will now be able to say, "Oh no I didn't come in late" even if that is far from the truth. For now if you deny, deny, deny, your falsehood will be able to be accepted as true and legally binding. 

If you say something false in order to elucidate a greater truth if not entirely factual statement you will be admired as a sage. Boys who break windows with their softballs will now be exonerated if they lie and all the parties will now agree that if one says something untrue but in a forceful manner, it will be accepted as if from the word of the Gospel as it will be directionally correct.