Early Signs, Vol. 2 - Plot

Sitting here watching my beloved SEC lay an egg on New Year's Day. Largely tuning out commercials, when an apparent news report catches my eye.

Reporter: "And this just in, a small commercial plane has just crash landed in an upscale subdivision."

Max Boom, from his upscale(ish) neighborhood, perks up.

Reporter: "Here we have pictures of several victims being wheeled into the ER."

Max Boom, noticing the perfect lighting and the all-white constiuency of the ER, notes to himself "Good one, ER, or Trauma, or whatever one of you cheeseball hospital dramas you are, you got me for all of 5 seconds. Buy your ad man a snowball or something." Returns to picking fingernails.

Deepvoiced network announcer: "So tune in to next week's Desperate Housewives to find out who is injured, who shows up to console the victims..." blah, blah, blah.

Look, it's a free country. People can and do tune into shows that I can't for the life of me figure out how an amoeba would find interesting. That's all fine.

The question is this-- If you are one of the gay men or bon bon eating true "desparate housewives" looking to indulge in a little fantasy "projection" TV experiences, what do the scriptwriters and the programmers think of you?

ABC Boardroomm CEO: "Wait, let me get this straight. You have a show about a bunch of adulterous women living in a small neighborhood. One of likely millions of similar neighborhoods across the country. And you're suggesting that anyone with even an elementary education will accept that a small commuter plane, the kind which maybe crashes into an occupied area once every couple of years, will actually crash into one of your 6 main characters' houses?"

Desparate Housewives Scriptwriter: "Yes sir, I do. With all do respect, you don't know our target audience like we do."

You, yeah, you acting in the next 5 minutes in order to get that 2nd sham-wow absolutely free-- they're lookin' at you.

Early Signs, Vol. 1 - Turn Signals

Debated whether to title this "Middle Signs" or "Late Signs", but as ab and Ghost would opine I'm forever the optimist. So instead of saying we peaked 20 years ago as a society, I'm going to be rosy and say we're peaking now.

This won't be an indictment against the entire race, only the America-centric culture into which our great grandparents were probably the first generation born, and we the last.

Turn signals on a car are interesting. They're mostly a courtesy. Wrecks aren't overturned based on evidence of "He had his signal on." You might get a ticket making an unsignaled right at a Dunkin' Donuts, but that's about it.

A blinker. "I'm going this way, hope that info helps." "Hey, we're all out here together, trying to navigate through more obstacles at higher speeds on tighter time demands-- let me do my part." "I care about you."

I started driving over half my life ago. I see fewer turn signals used. The care is gone. Our steel horses are no longer for utility. They are armor in a fight club.

Blinkers are an early sign of societal discord. I'll hit more.