Welcome to today’s episode of Zen TV. First, they showed a classic Simpsons, the one where Marge tries to censor Itchy and Scratchy. “I guess I learned that one person can change the world, but probably shouldn’t.” I hope that doesn’t apply to Impeachmint! Next, they showed the one where Homer goes on “Frame Up” the new reality show from Fox. Again, we see the theme of extreme misuse of television. “In four days…” begins a commercial for a movie. They actually had one recorded for each day up to the arrival of this movie. Does that mean that “In four days…” we won’t have to deal with these commercials anymore? I doubt it. They also seemed to show a lot of cereal ads for 07:00 PM. I hadn’t eaten, usually I do beforehand, so this time I noticed the food ads a little more.
As a vegetarian, the ad for the Beef and Bacon something or other somewhat bothers me. The inane chorus of “Bacon bacon beef bacon bacon beef” seems fitting. Note the magickal 2-3 rhythm. Perhaps the masses do deserve a meal made from cows and pigs, comments a brutal part of myself, then I remember the reason for doing these active meditations, and return to the sensible present.
I had more work to do during Seinfeld. Ten years ago, I didn’t want a partner, so didn’t really care, but now I do want one, and not having one bothers me. Not only that, but I analyze these things for propaganda value. Speaking of, I challenge anyone reading this to find me a commercial featuring an exchange between a man and a woman where the man wins. You can’t, because you won’t find one. A Cheerios commercial brought this to mind. Men suck, women rule, shut up and take it. Women who fall for this propaganda should research its origins (hint: CIA). Anyways, one of the subplots in this episode revolved around the female sponge becoming unavailable. This dates it in a rather interesting way. I can remember sleeping through Sex Ed class and them presenting sponges, then learning that they no longer sold them. Watching shows from this era of the mid nineties kind of freaks me out, because things have changed so much since then. Cell phones and the Internet have changed everything. Some quick Internet
searching even turned up the fact that sponges have returned… Not that it matters!
The second later episode had far fewer sexual overtones, and concentrated on George wanting a Frogger machine with his initials “GLC” as the high score. This also dates things, them “remembering that night” would put them in their twenties. I enjoyed that one. At the end, I saw a commercial. “Meet great single women in your area.” I had a bad feeling. “Call and you’ll be chatting with exciting women.” Goddess does this to mess with my head. She knows what I really mean, and that I want a REAL woman. “You don’t even need a credit card.” Warning! warning! “Call 215-936-LINK. Only fifty cents a minute.” Fifty cents? What could you say in a minute? Somehow I don’t think these people want to have deep intellectual conversations. It blew me away. Fifty cents? Good Goddess! I don’t feel THAT desperate! Wow! Now I feel better. I also feel better because I don’t have a computer from Best Buy.
And now today’s paradox: Communication can only occur between equals. No two people share all traits, making them unequal. How can communication occur?
