(no subject)

American Bandstand got off to a bad start with me from which it never really recovered. ABC always had trouble in the early years of TV competing. NBC and CBS got into most markets first and some smaller markets weren't really big enough to support three local TV stations, in a era when most of the advertising slots were filled locally. ABC stayed afloat by buying a show called Disneyland (which, as we now know, would eventually devour ABC) for a high price and was looking for something to fill an afternoon weekday slot, which many stations including my ABC station were filling with syndicated programing that the network didn't get a share of. Somebody got the bright idea to make a local Philadelphia dance program called "Bandstand" a network show. The program had already been popular in Philadelphia for several years, which may account for the fact that the theme music for the all-time classic Rock and Roll TV show was Big Band style not Rock and Roll. The syndicated program which American Bandstand replaced in St. Louis was one of my favorites, an anthology, announced by Alistair Cook, of programming from Britain, very much an early day version of Masterpiece Theatre. The last thing I wanted to see in the afternoon after coming home from grade school was a bunch of goofy teenagers dancing. I really wanted my old program back. Instead Bandstand ran for about thirty years. My only consolation is that Masterpiece Theatre lives on long after Alistair Cook.

I still half expect that after a hundred years or so when everyone has forgotten about American Bandstand and Rockin' New Year's Eve, Dick Clark, who obviously is a vampire, will resurface to entertain teens and aggravate younger boys again for another age or so.

Food and such.

This morning the cashier at the grocery store accidentally let a TV dinner I was buying fall on the floor. She immediately suggested I go get a replacement. It took a couple times to convince her I thought it was all right as is. If it had been eggs, yes, I would have wanted a replacement. If it had been a bag of sugar and it split open on the floor, of course, I'd want a different one. But this was frozen chicken and rice, and the box didn't look damaged let alone come open. I'm sure a lot of people would have insisted on a replacement, but this really was no big deal.

Speaking of eggs I happened to glance at the ad from a grocery store I never go to this week. They seem to cater to large families (maybe small orphanages or small national armies, I don't know). They were having a sale on 5-dozen-count cartons of eggs. Now I probably haven't bought five dozen eggs in five years, so I wasn't interested in rushing over for the deal. Then I noticed in the fine print there was a limit of 2 cartons per customer. I wonder just how many folks out there in my neighborhood are grumbling because they had to pay regular price for a third carton? Another special was actually very attractive unless you think too hard about the upper limits. Five avocados for $.99. Granted these are probably very small, but avocados are only good for about a day in between the time they are rock hard and the time they are disgusting brown mush. One avocado is about my limit, though it's still a great deal for anyone throwing a party this weekend, assuming all the avocados ripen the same day. How about eight heads of lettuce at one shopping trip? The limit on another special. A great way to start your compost pile if you can't eat it all. I saw a lady buying about ten pounds of strawberries at once the other day. But you can make jam or pie out of strawberries. Lettuce jelly somehow doesn't seem that appealing.

In honor of the beginning of hot weather here, I bought a cucumber and made some simple sliced pickles with vinegar and onions. Not exciting, but they remind me of when I was little.

The newspaper had a review of a new restaurant in my immediate neighborhood yesterday. It's a Vietnamese restaurant blending into whatever East Asian. There is already a very similar restaurant almost exactly one mile north of the new one. This new one makes at least 11 East Asian/Chinese restaurants within a mile and a half of my house. From an economic standpoint I think we have about enough.