Fifty-Seven Channels and Nothing On

 I went to a seminary for one year in Iowa. Yeah, I know. I had a hard time imagining as a priest, too, which is why I never finished that path.

They had cable TV back then, something I had never heard of growing up in Chicago, but now that I think of it, it makes sense. Cable brought all the television networks to rural America.

 

When I moved to Wisconsin, I got cable TV which was really cool at the time. I could get both Chicago and Milwaukee stations.

 

It was a simple system. Two coax cables coming out of the wall to an A/B switch box that connected through one coax cable to the television. If the television didn't have a coax connector, you connected it to the antenna somehow. The A switch was one set of channels, the B switch was a different set.

 

The company was Racine Telecable. Racine actually had its own local channel. Over the years, Telecable was sold to different companies. The A/B switch went the way of the horse and carriage. In came the cable box with what Bruce Springsteen wrote had 57 channels and nothing on.

Cable’s selling point at the time was better reception, which was pretty much true except for days when the satellites they used to get their signals weren’t working well. 

The cable box brought HBO and Showtime. Eventually everything went digital. The A/B switch was obsolete and antenna screw connections all became coaxial connectors. People who have “cut the cord” and use antennas have the coaxial connection.

Converter boxes, modems, wireless routers and a myriad of “smart” home devices are all now used to watch television, turn on the lights, and lock the doors.

I’m not decrying anything here, because all these devices are pretty much treated the same throwaway way by all the companies. When my Racine Telecable A/B switch broke, I took it to the store. They gave me a new one. When my remote broke, they gave me a new one. When I followed the suit of all cable uses and got a cable box, and that broke, they took it, and gave me a new one.

It’s been that way in the industry for as long as I’ve been using their products. It’s been that way with every company, be it Telecable, Time/Warner, AT&T, and now, here in Illinois, Comcast and Xfinity.

I should have known better. Instead of them spending hours on the phone trying to figure out why the modem and my devices weren’t connecting to the Internet, I should have just told them, “My modem ain’t working.” I should have taken it to the store right away. Hell of a business model. Let the customer bring in the old device, give them a new one. Probably explains the prices they charge, too.

So I took the old modem to the store. They gave me a new one. I installed it myself. It works. I still have 57 channels and nothing on, but it is fast. Springsteen has grown older. So has television.

Some facts and who deserves credit

 On December 1, 2020 the number of people in the world diagnosed with Covid was 63,396,852. In the United States the number was 13547,090, 21.3 percent of the world’s total.

Today, December 12, the world the number of people with covid increased to by 8,034,033 to 71,430,885 and the the number of U.S. persons with it increased by 2,419,496 to 15,966,496,.

The United States is now 22.3 percent of the world's total. Since December 1, the country is 30.1 percent of the world's increases.

By December 1, 1,471,152 people had died of Covid

By December 1, 268,129 U.S citizens had died of Covid

As of today: 1,600,995 people have died globally, an increase of 8.6 percent

As of today, the number of dead U.S. citizens reached 296,997, an increase of 10.7 percent

United States is responsible for 22.2 percent of the people dying of covid since December 1. 

 Clearly, something is not working. Thanks Trump.

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Fortunately, the world is getting some vaccines that look promising. England has already started vaccinating senior citizens. Oddly enough, the first man to get the Pfizer vaccine was named William Shakespeare. He received the shot in a hospital just 20 miles from Stratford on Avon. 

In our country, the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use. I suspect that other vaccines will meet similar approval as they become available. 

The vaccine is good news, but the key to its effectiveness globally and in the country is getting enough people to get innoculated. It will take time and effort to distribute the vaccine. It will also take a massive public relations campaign to convince people to take it.

Clearly something might be working. Thanks, all you scientists, researchers and thousands of people who volunteered for studies around the world who are responsible for this vaccine and all the others that are being developed.