What Do You Really Remember?

2/10/05

I was thinking about someone recently but after I thought about them for a short while I don’t know why I thought of them in the first place. No it’s not Alzheimer’s I don’t think, I was thinking it just might be a natural curiosity one has towards someone else.

I realized recently that I think too much about the state of affairs in this country and around the world. I think about Katie Couric or Al Roper when I watch the Today Show. I think about how trite and tight everything is on these high price, slick news and entertainment shows and I think about what they are really trying to say to me.

I like the way Katie looks into the camera and smiles like she’s smiling right at you. Then she crosses her legs and interviews someone or laughs and you kind of miss the point of what the hell you’re watching. I watch the BBC News on CPTV and look at the foreign correspondents and the pretty Indian woman who gives the business report (I can’t remember her name) and the English anchor woman and wonder why women seem more authoritive on the morning shows than on the evening news reports. I have difficulty listening to male newscasters in the morning and I really hate listening to the cheery local news anchor and weathermen.

As I think of these women and weathermen I realize that I’m really not listening to a news program for the news though it has its merit, but I find myself thinking of these personalities and their likability or unlikability which makes the news more or less palatable while drinking my first cup of black coffee. By the second cup I’m eating breakfast, with some plane crash survivor, and by the time Donald Trump or one of his fired apprentices is being interviewed by Katie, I’m ready to take the dog out for his second walk.

It’s usually about this time that I realize I’m running a little late because I spent too much time watching these slick morning programs, thinking that it was a worthwhile expenditure of time. I realize only later during the day that I barely remember anything I had watched that morning, except Katie’s smile and Al Roper’s laugh and the pretty Indian woman on the BBC News.

L.A. STEEL