Friday, March 20, 2009


Rosemary not working any more in combination with a Toshiba laptop that she uses in bed has made her a different person (much more fun) from the one that I have known for the last 41 years.

Around 11:15 last night she told me from upstairs, “I want to watch Obama on that show. Is it called the Tonight Show? When does it start?” Neither Rosemary nor I have ever seen Jay Leno (the closest I ever go to Leno was in this picture I took of him in 1987 backstage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre). And I do believe neither of us ever saw the Johnny Carson Show. Since we arrived in Canada in 1975 I never ever saw The Beachcombers. But I will proudly admit watching Gilligan’s Island with my two daughters. And prior to 1975 I was addicted to La Odisea del Espacio (Star Treck) in Mexico City.

Because of our TV illiteracy we never keep the TV magazine that comes with our Vancouver Sun. I told Rosemary to look up the Tonight Show on Google. We found the schedule. Our next problem was to figure out which Seattle TV channel on our box was NBC. With some back and forth flicking of the remote we did prevail and Rosemary got her wish.

If you have never seen a late night TV show, most of the concept is alien. It was for us. I particularly noticed Leno’s tacky desk and plants. The only class in the joint was the President himself.

But now both Rosemary and I can claim true passage into the 21st century. But perhaps not quite, “Alex what do they mean by network television?” she asked me. I did not consider her question all that relevant to our times so I gave her a perfunctory answer.