While You Were Out

Did you see Justin Timberlake on Saturday Night Live? That's okay. Neither did I. But by the time I was fully awake on the first day of Daylight Savings Time, I had heard from a great many people, some of whom were unknown to me before this event, that I had missed something wonderful. I felt a pang of ennui, and then went directly to Al Gore's Internet where pictures and recordings of all the world's events reside. I saw what many considered the highlights of the show, and then took a quick peek at some of the disappointments. Since I was busy with the care and feeding of teenage boys as well as finding every timepiece in my quadrant that needed to be sprung forward. It did not occur to me to watch a show that I stopped watching about the fourth time the power that be declared it dead.
I won't go on and on about the relative quality of Lorne Michaels' comedy showcase. Instead, I find myself surprised by the relative lack of alarm I have over any live event, especially those on television. While I do make a point to try and watch sporting events in real time, there is very little else that can't be funneled through the time portal of Tivo or accessed through any number of video replay outlets. I didn't need to see the meteor explode over Russia. I waited until someone thoughtfully distilled all the various angles and sources into one and a half minutes of intense rehash. It reminds me of my wife's friend who insisted that watching NFL games was a waste of time, since ESPN did such a fine job of dicing up all the day's action and popping it into a forty-five minute flurry that didn't require blood pressure medication or patience of any sort beyond a certain tolerance for Cialis commercials. Highlights.
There may be still some cachet left for being able to say you saw this or that as it happened, but it's just far too easy to catch it on tape delay. Whatever this "tape" thing is.