Rain Rain Go Away

I recently agreed to participate in an extensive market research survey that sought to find out what I read (crap), watch (crap), and buy (crap). The process involved a lengthy phone session, followed by a lengthy written questionnaire. Finally, I had to fill out a TV diary that chronicled all the shows I watched during a 7 day period.

Filling in the TV diary was easy as I generally watch the same types of program every day. When I wake up, I watch the news (cartoons). I have a TV in my office to monitor current events, so during the day I watch C-SPAN in addition to the news (soaps and Oprah). At night, I wind down the day by watching documentaries on PBS and the History Channel (sports and Skinemax).

For a show to be eligible for entry into the diary, I was supposed to have watched it for at least five minutes. They can’t be serious. Conceivably, I could watch TV all night and not have any show qualify for the diary. As the Seinfeld joke goes, I'm not interested in what's on TV, I'm interested in what ELSE is on TV. Shoot, five minutes is even plenty of time to (never mind).

I’m not sure how I got chosen for this. Perhaps they wanted to find out more about a member of the east coast intelligentsia (dumbass).