Comments on: The Day the T.V. Died http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/ \"it must give pleasure\" -- Wallace Stevens Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:38:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: bloglily http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-1084 Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:10:04 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-1084 Hey M — I do check! I just don’t always get around to answering right away. (It’s the codeine I’ve been imbibing these last few days.) And thanks for the link. My twins are 11 and it’ll be fun for them to check this out. xxoo, BL

]]> By: mandarine http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-1081 Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:24:15 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-1081 I cannot remember where you had asked me about french websites for kids. I have found one:
http://www.lesclesjunior.com/
It is a news site for kids, related to a very famous magazine here.
The problem is to find content interesting enough with language easy enough (how old are your kids, by the way ?).
I am still looking.
PS: you can delete this comment, it is just that I am starting to believe you do not check you earthlink mail that often.
Best, mandarine.

]]> By: smokey http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-815 Sat, 12 Aug 2006 22:58:45 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-815 Of course, I didn’t have TV when I was little, but I did like weapons. Seems boys do. World War II helped. But that fascination was replaced when my dad gradually taught me and my brother how to make things in the basement tool area.He was an engineer. He showed us how to do all the things you have to do with saws, hammers, screwdrivers, paintbrushes, etc. to maintain a house. He didn’t seem to make a concerted effort to teach us; we were just envious of what he was doing and wanted to help. Like the windows we broke with baseballs and basketballs. He showed us how to put a BB backboard on the garage. Also fixing faucets, and I cleaned out a toilet trap, but that was for a Boy Scout merit badge later. And somehow all that led to making things like book ends by myself and later to bookshelves, games, miniature ping pong tables and football fields and basketball courts. He got my older brother a lathe that led to lots of little wood cup-like things for paper clips and shells from the beach. I loved the neat way he kept all the differnt size screws and nails in old jam bottles that lined the little shelves between the 2 by 4 framing on the brick walls. That neatness rubbed off on my brother and none on me, but I do have lots of screws and nails.
My brother’s son got fascinated with taking apart and building computers, but he couldn’t resist paint-tag guns or whatever they are called. Weapons have their way but seems some other interests that involve eye-hand coordination can be encouraged to move in.

]]> By: bloglily http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-805 Fri, 11 Aug 2006 17:20:33 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-805 Jana, Do they STILL think that about you? I wonder sometimes how my parenting decisions are going to sound when they’re played back at Thanksgiving dinner twenty years from now. (“We are thankful that mom was such a pain in the ass about television. Otherwise, it would not have occurred to me to move to Los Angeles and produce reality tv.”)

Just wait till I die! That’s very funny.

I’ve noticed that after a child (or an adult) comes up for air from what they think will be a relaxing bout of television watching, they’re generally still at the same place they were when they sat down. The argument or the fussiness has just been deferred. That’s not a bad thing, and sometimes a break is needed. It’ll be interesting, by the way,to see how your boys’ reading habits evolve as they get older.

]]> By: Jana Bouc http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-803 Fri, 11 Aug 2006 16:19:14 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-803 Boy does this all sound familiar! My boys (now 31 and 26) thought I was the meanest mom in the world when, after buying them a Nintendo one Christmas, I took it back to the store a week into Christmas vacation because I couldn’t stand that they were spending all of their time indoors with the shades drawn. I also hated the sounds of the games, and that when I told them to turn it off they’d say, “just wait til I die”–at the end of each round your character dies. YUCK!

We didn’t have a TV when they were little because any TV watching at all, even Sesame street, would seem to scramble the older one’s brains and leave him incredibly hyperactive. As a result both boys were constant and avid readers until their teens when other things took priority. Now the younger does all his reading on-line in discussion groups about his interests and the older still reads a bit, but works such long hours there isn’t much time for it.

]]> By: bloglily http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-796 Fri, 11 Aug 2006 14:13:58 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-796 hello Karoline — I am sorry we managed to lose your girls’ hermit crab. Who knew that if you left the top to his home open he’d make a break for freedom?

There is a lot of sound parenting here. What I find reassuring is how many different ways there are to go about raising children. Good thing too. I don’t know what it would be like if we all were raised the same way and had the same experiences! Boring blog conversations, that’s for sure.

And thank you what you say about the boys. I don’t often think of them like that, love them though I do, because I seem to be spending a lot of time putting down violent armed conflicts.

Yes, I’ve had the same thought: what on earth is that woman wearing on her head?

xxoo, L

]]> By: Karoline http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-786 Fri, 11 Aug 2006 01:37:31 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-786 Hey Lily! You know how eerily aligned our households are on this, we got rid of our TV when the girls were 6 and 3, and haven’t gone back. I think one of the advantages of living in this area is that there ARE other families who have made the same choice and so your boys don’t have to feel too isolated in their large-purple-grinning-dinosaur free world.

We also allow computer games, as well as internet access (to a degree) in our house, and often debate whether internet is “just as bad for kids” as TV, as some people say. Although my girls play their share of rubbish on the internet, spending as much time as I will allow them feeding and raising small furry e-creatures while other people take care of their real life hermit crabs (for example), they also use the internet as a tool.

You know that I think your boys are wonderful, they are creative, imaginative boys who always impress us with their interest and ability to participate in adult conversations. They are bright and thoughtful and kind. While these qualities are clearly the result of a multitude of parenting decisions and designs on your part, the decision to have a TV free household is part of the package, and it is working to mold them into who they are today.

I still smile when I remember a road trip we were on with you a couple of years ago, sitting in a small, rustic motel room, with 5 mesmerized faces glued to the TV screen soaking up the mind numbing glory of the rugrats. I think I have a photo of it somewhere.

And I am chuckling at Carmen Miranda….how does she solve so many mysteries with that cumbersome headgear?

]]> By: sputnki http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-784 Thu, 10 Aug 2006 23:20:03 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-784 I hear you! Whenever the TV has died in the past it could be a year or more before it was replaced. Always that time was a renaissance in the household. We found time to play musical instruments (that didn’t require electricity!), play cards, board games….. But eventually we’d want to watch a movie or something and BOOM! the devil was in the door.

Maybe we should have TV interventions, where concerned friends and family come to your house and take away the telly… Put you in rehab where you weren’t allowed to use anything that ran on electricity….

Doug

]]> By: mandarine http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-782 Thu, 10 Aug 2006 21:02:48 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-782 Having a TV set is all right, as long as it has no tuner or cable decoder attached to it. For those who cannot do without, you can keep young children glued for hours on end with a good old Pink Panther or Snow White or Monsters Inc. DVD. And when they know it by heart, switch to Chinese or Spanish – you’ll be amazed at how fast they learn.

]]> By: mandarine http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-781 Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:57:54 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-781 We have lived without a television set until I was 15. But then it was forbidden to watch french programs on weekdays (I am french). So we had to watch the BBC, CNN, MTV, or undubbed videos that my dad brought back from business trips abroad (including the legendary ‘Zurück in die Zukunft’, by Robert Zemeckis, starring Michael J. Fox).
This is how we learnt most of our English: one of my brothers has a PhD in medieval history from Oxford University; the other one shares his time between Paris, Miami, London and Barcelona – proper TV guidance rules can do an awful lot.

]]> By: bloglily http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-756 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 18:09:22 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-756 Hi Edwin, I’ve never done anything even remotely heroic in my life. Everything I do is always so smothered in self-interest or self-doubt that you can barely detect any finer motive! But thank you anyway, for being such a sweetheart.

Emily — that’s a brilliant bit of writing! I just KNEW there was something going on over at Dover. It’s just too weirdly idiosyncratic to have a normal story. I just didn’t know it was the Cirkers. Somebody needs to write their bio.

Courtney — You’re utterly, completely, and unnervingly correct. The Oakland A’s are about to go to the world series. We love the A’s. (not so interested in basketball. could be because of the Golden State Warriors not being so good.) We are going to have to hook up cable, at least temporarily. (Don’t tell anyone I said this, she says, finger to lips, hoping the BlogLily boys aren’t anywhere near here.)

]]> By: Courtney http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-753 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 15:02:53 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-753 OH my goodness, one more thought…what about BASEBALL? And football? And of course, living with out those, while it would never pass in our household, well, I could SORT of understand it, but what about NCAA BASKETBALL?
Okay, I need to get my heart back to a normal rate. Maybe this is why I have no time to read all I want to…I am consumed by local sports.
Crap. Now I have to go examine myself some more.
Love,
Courtney

]]> By: Emily http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-752 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 11:55:46 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-752 So nice to see so many people have had/still have TV-free homes in this day and age. Where were you all when I was growing up and, although we had a TV, was only allowed to watch 1/2 hour a day (until my mother went back to work when I was 8 and could no longer keep such a tight rein) and everyone else seemed to get to watch it 10 hours a day? I have to admit ours is not a TV-free home; we even have a wide screen TV, but I rarely watch it.

For those of you who’ve been waiting, I finally got an answer on the Dover question (try not to let us extremely-opinionated-publishing-industry-types disillusion you. I’ve just cut and pasted exactly what he said):

“Dover was a terrific, innovative reprint house, founded by two unpleasant people, Hayward (“The Corpse”) Cirker and his unlovely wife Blanche (“The Evil Prune”). The real genius behind the company was the polymath Everett Bleiler (father of librarian Richard Bleiler at Storrs), who pretty much ran the company and did most of the title selection. He worked there for decades before giving up (I think in the early eighties). The editorial team was a bunch of knowledgeable weirdos; I liked their crafts editor a lot. I think she raised dogs in Connecticut somewhere and may still do so for all I know. The company has not been the same since Bleiler left.

It’s always been a mystery how Dover could maintain such high production standards while keeping prices so low. I worked there writing press releases in 1973-74 and can well believe that the Cirkers had no moral objection to the use of slave labor.”

]]> By: Edwinek http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-751 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 08:39:59 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-751 You’re a hero, BlogLily. We do have TV, but no children, so that’s alright. I try to limit myself to watching only what I really want to see, which is surprisingly little.

And I hate how lots of parents use their TVs as a means to keep their children quiet and out of the way.

]]> By: bloglily http://bloglily.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-750 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 04:44:04 +0000 https://bloglily.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/the-day-the-tv-died/#comment-750 Kerryn, Be sure to let us know how that goes, okay!?

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