Letterbox

Wouldn't you know it? Right after Christmas, and just before what will certainly be a time of bunkering down in our house [although it's not exactly cold out right now], the TV in our bedroom is dying.

Mind you, I bought this set --- which weighs about twice what Samson does --- when I was in graduate school 11 years ago. So it really doesn't owe us anything. And it's not that the TV is going that is so annoying. It's how it's going.

I assume, based on my vast knowledge of electrical appliances, that the picture tube is slowly giving up the ghost. I say this, because now when we turn the TV on, there's a better than 50 percent chance that whatever we watch will essentially be in the letterbox format. Which might be cool when you're watching indie and foreign films. But it makes the news hard to watch.

And it makes Curious George almost impossible to find on-screen.

Lately, this is Sam's show. Which, I have to say, is a welcome respite from the Higglytown Heroes.

Aside from the creepy weeble aspect of the show, the cast of 'heroes' seems to waning. I'm sure the idea was sound when it all started: Introduce kids --- via talking nesting dolls --- to the many career opportunities out there.

Fair enough, but the pickings are getting a little slim: They've gone from doctors and teachers and firemen to clerks of court and electrolysis technicians. I imagine we'll see an episode soon where the kids do a ride-along with a bounty hunter or meet the tollbooth guy on the HTPK.