Tivo

When I started working, we used to talk about our bed-to-desk time, how long it took to get up, shower dress, and get to the office. I didn’t eat breakfast in those days, and didn’t seem to get hungry until noontime. I used to go to bed on what I now consider the wrong side of midnight, and, when I lived on Capitol Hill, a short metro ride from my firm at Metro Center, I could be out of bed and into the office in well under an hour.

But, and this will sound ridiculous, something happened when I had kids. Suddenly there was an all consuming set of things to do in the morning—getting dressed, having breakfast (now the most important meal of the day for some reasson) and getting to day care. Plus, these ungrateful bundles seemed to demand constant attention—role playing games, bedtime stories, etc. I found fatherhood to be a real drag on my media time.

The first counter to this new paradigm was Tivo, which combined the utility of time shifting with the VCR and a very friendly user interface. I could now put the OG to bed (she was 3 in 2002, when we got our still functioning Series 2 unit after reading a story, or watching the Wiggles, knowing that I could start the Seven o’clock Wizards game at Eight and finish up in real time without watching any commercials—a decidedly more efficient way of consumption. In fact, I think Tivo missed a real opportunity, by marketing to young people rather than harried parents. You may recall that the main Tivo commercial at the time was a young man watching a football game, who, just as the kicker for his beloved team is lining up a game winning field goal, pauses the broadcast in order to run over to the church to importune for divine assistance. In reality, sports fans have been the most inveterate opponents of this scenario, and I have read countless diatribes about how fans can’t bear to watch things knowing that the results are already known by their peers. I, on the other hand, have no problem with it, and, even when I turned on the tv in medias res (and Tivo did not do a good job of preventing this) and got a glimpse of the score, I actually enjoyed walking the cat backwards to ascertain how it actually came to be. So the core demographic for the service should have been, it seems to me, people with less control over their schedule, rather than those who thought it was cool to pause live television. I don’t have the data to back up this hypothesis, of course, so perhaps I’m missing something.

But Tivo did more than allow me to witness every grisly minute of Michael Jordan’s categoric failure with the Wizards. Counter-intuitively, it also reduced my tv watching time. One of my first actions when we installed the box was to set up season passes to the White Shadow and the A-Team, the former, a show that I hadn’t seen in years, and the latter, one that I was always delighted to stumble on when flipping channels. Now I could call these, and other gems, up whenever I wanted. But I soon found two things: that the White Shadow wasn’t as good as I remembered, and that the A-Team was not as enjoyable without the serendipitous spontaneity of happening upon it when I was looking for something to watch. Shorn of that experience, I simply stopped watching bad television, which had been my late night habit for at least a decade. I can’t say that Tivo was the only reason for that (surely advancing wisdom and maturity were contributing factors, right?) but I do think it played a significant role.

Moreover, and again, this seems like a perfectly obvious marketing opportunity that was largely ignored, Tivo allowed us to always maintain a full complement of the Gs’ favourite shows. This meant that we were never at a loss for finding something for them to watch, and did not have to spend money on dvds. In fact, until Egypt, the girls did not really understand the concept of “Let’s see what’s on.” And, until the allure of Dancing With the Stars, were unfamiliar with the idea of event television, where it is important to be on the sofa at a specific time.

We have two units today, as well as the DVR from Time Warner, which is still far more difficult to use than our ten-year old unit. Because of their age, the Tivo units cannot record any channels above 75, and they don’t record in high definition, which limits their suitability for regular season NBA games. I watch Pardon the Interruption, usually after dinner, after the dishwasher has been loaded, the BG has gone outside to play with the neighbours, and the OG has withdrawn into her chambers. I also watch America’s Test Kitchen now and again, and Worldwide and I will watch the Daily Show during lunch sometimes, although I have lately grown a little tired of the profanity and the Fox-bashing. Not that I like Fox news, I just don’t see it as a practical use of my time to think about it. Worldwide likes Mad Men, Downton Abbey, the Good Wife and a couple of other shows, and the Gs, who have unfettered access to a cornucopia of programming, watch almost nothing.

Shortly before 9 most nights, the Gs will come down  in search of a beverage and wondering if there’s a basketball game on. There usually is, but that’s another story.

Tuning In

A trip up to Hancock New York with the Gs provided me with a survey of today’s pop music. Balancing a manic desire to play the same songs over and over against my preference for no repeats, the OG did an excellent job of walking us through her music collection and responding to the BG’s requests. Pitbull, Usher, Carmen, the Wanted, Taylor Swift (“Mean” was allowed a second play) Nicky Minaj, Beyonce and Train were showcased, along with a sprinkling of Stax and Motown.

On the way back, I was looking forward to a steady stream of Econtalk and Wefunk, but the headphone jack on my phone was not permitting a steady connection to the car stereo. Having no cds, this meant I returned to the age old tradition of seeking a radio station up and down the dial, finding something utterly delightful, and then watching it slip from range. Two highlights, both of which I held onto for the better part of an hour were a fantastic playlist of obscure R&B tracks (there was absolutely no talking for 45 minutes, so all I know was it was 89.3 FM, and I can’t find any more information online) and the midday show from WXPN in Philadelphia, which demonstrated everything that a music show is supposed to be on the radio, but rarely is. The set included classic deep cuts from the Who (Another Tricky Day) and XTC (King for a Day) as well as good new songs from Florence and the Machine, and a few other bands whose names I’ve forgotten.

Not the best way to spend 20 hours, I suppose. But I got the Gs to camp without incident and myself back to the CHill in time for last night’s Game 7.

Sunday Papers

Seeing lots of signs opposing fracking has got me to thinking about energy lately. I’m hard pressed to articulate our current energy policy beyond tiny investments in renewable energy and small subsidies to the purchasers of hybrid cars. This seems misguided given the geopolitics of the Middle East and the current explosion of natural gas production in the US. The Times helps out today with an editorial, as well as an Op-ed piece by Daniel Yergin, whose book I’ve considered reading. The editorial cites a recent report from the International Energy Agency, which concludes that fracking is preferable to coal from an environmental standpoint (a gas-fired plant admits half as much carbon dioxide as a coal-fired one). Yergin shows how the balance of oil production is shifting home, and suggests that the Administration is starting to embrace the benefits of this boom.

All of this suggests a better future, where cleaner power plants produce all of our energy and electric and gas-powered vehicles turn us into a net oil exporter again. With Dallas returning to the airwaves, this seems like a viable scenario, unless JR’s scheme to crush the competition succeeds, as it usually does.


Also noted

Kristof on the tragedies in Sudan and Syria. It seems morally wrong to sit idly, even if the history of intervention is not looking so great right now.

Animals get breast cancer too, like to get high and suffer from neuroses. We can learn from this.

Friedman on the choices offered young Egyptians in the upcoming presidential election; 622 or 1952?

The significance of Exxon Mobil in the world. Echoes of the East India Company.

Song of the Day

Little ditty, about waking up Ev.
Fighting writer's block--check the kitchen clock. Oh well, whatev.
Evie gonna be a 4th grade grad,
Me I'm a lunchbox-packing, lyrical dad.

So let it rock, Let it roll.
Let me go upstairs and tell you it's time for school.
Hold on to 4th grade as long as you can.
Changes come around real soon and we head off to camp.*

* This part appears in the middle of the song, so I did not follow the lyrics exactly. But I do so enjoy rhyming "roll" and "school" in my best rock star voice.

Hibisquitous

Meetings in foreign countries invariably include a drink. In my four years in Egypt I drank a lot of ahwa seder (bitter coffee) as well as yansoon (anise tea), which became my signature beverage. I also grew partial to karkadeh, hibiscus tea, which can be served hot or cold. I don’t much care for the hot version, but the cold beverage is delightfully refreshing, and the dried flowers were available all over Cairo. I used to buy mine from a small spice shop by the Dokki metro, on Tahrir Street, near my office.

For our lunch at G-Lo’s 80th birthday, I toyed with the idea of making an agua fresca—some sort of light and fruity beverage—to accompany the carnitas. Looking for recipes on the Internet, I learned that hibiscus (Jamaica in Spanish) is also widely consumed in Mexico. At a local tienda in Carrboro, I spied what looked like the dried flowers in an unmarked bag among an assortment of dried peppers. Thinking they were what I wanted, but confused as to why they weren’t with the other coffees and teas, I asked the guy sweeping the floor if they were hibiscus. He looked at me uncomprehendingly, and said “Jamaica.” So I knew I had found what I was looking for.
 

I haven’t tried the recipe in the video below (and I’ve forgotten my Cairo recipe), so I’m not sure how accurate the proportions are. But you just simmer the flowers and sugar for awhile and then strain and cut the tea with cold water. Sweetness is a matter of taste, anyway, so the amount of sugar that suits you may vary. I’ll try it as soon as I’ve finished my pitcher of green tea with mint from the garden (thank you Morocco) and let you know what I think.

Sunday Papers

Plenty of good stuff in the paper this morning, complemented by the BG’s design and my rendering of perhaps the first ever blueberry, coconut, chocolate chip waffle—a rousing success.

Mixed reactions to a life sentence for Hosni Mubarak. It’s  unclear how this will affect the presidential candidacy of his former prime minister. Still a few chapters to be written in this story and the ending is impossible to predict, though many are trying.

My favourite nutrition writer on salt: its linkage with poor health outcomes is not as certain as people believe.

Hagiographical review by Al Sharpton of the new James Brown biography. Here’s mine: “Not the nicest cat, he seems to have sacrificed relationships, money and health at the altar of success. Ran his band like a despot, but he made it groove like no other. Endorsed Nixon, smoked PCP every day in the 80s.”

Apparently Fred Astaire was not the star of the Austerlitz family. I had not heard of his sister, Adele, until today.

32 innovations on the horizon. Is sous vide the new microwave?

Don’t go to the doctor unless you’re sick. Despite everyone having an anecdote to disprove this theory, the statistics are compelling. According to Nassim Taleb, the best way to hasten a man’s death is to give him a personal doctor.

Smoothie update

The BG's vegetarianism means that iron is a concern, while Worldwide's globetrotting means exposure to exotic fruits. Thank Amazon.com and our neighbourhood Mexican market for the two latest additions to the smoothie bar: iron elixir and passion fruit , which Worldwide has enjoyed in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. A teaspoonful of the former contains 44 mg of elemental iron, enough to keep the three smoothie drinkers in the family supplied with our daily requirements. And the taste is undetectable inside the delicious grapefruit-lime flavour of the passion fruit.


Today's special is iron-fortified blueberry-passion fruit.