So, I did it.

I shopped, I spent, and next weekend the new TV will come home. It could come home sooner, but I want to be here and not stick Girl with dealing with the delivery and setup. I spent more money than I'd intended to, in fact, I spent more money than I'd ever imagined spending on a television in this or any other lifetime.

But I thought about it and realized that: I own my home, in which I have lots of equity. I have a better than decent job and I see a future that doesn't involve the paralegal pink straightjacket. My kids are grown and I'm not supporting anyone but myself. I have retirement savings and continue to save for retirement at a respectable rate. I don't like going to movies, I rarely eat in restaurants, I don't have time for long, expensive vacations, I bring my lunch to work and my commute is only 4 miles. I drive a 5 year old, paid off car that I'm not thrilled with, but that is just fine and functional. I can buy a fancy-schmancy TV. So I did. And I'm really excited about it, and it is going to improve the quality of life and increase the time spent on couch with movies and knitting, so it will in turn contribute to the decreasing of the yarn stash. Can I rationalize, or what? And it's going to look gawgeous in the living room, on its nice console stand in a rich wood that I still have to put together but which goes so perfectly with the rest of the room, and the black obelisk of Sony will be history.

I'm fighting a cold, I've got that semi-sore throat and post-nasal drippage and headachy, tired feeling, so after errands and nearly blacking out from shock while paying for the new TV, I did some housework and didn't tackle assembling the TV stand. This thing is a TV stand like a dining room table is a TV tray. I fell in love with it when my Target first put it on display, and knew then that when the living room TV finally gasped its last, this was what I wanted. It is going to be fabulous. Super Bowl Party at my house!

So Girl is working and I'll be retreating to my bedroom to watch the functional TV. Still obsessively knitting the linen shawl. Linen is a sickness for me, like felting.

Sorry I'm not very political lately, so many others are saying it, everywhere, and so much better. It's really lively, isn't it? They even closed the Washington Monument briefly, but quickly reopened it - I'm guessing someone hit *69 and Turdblossom's number appeared. And Dubya's twitching and jerking like a redneck on meth. Sometimes you don't have to say anything, you just have to throw a bag of popcorn in the microwave, prop your feet up, and enjoy the show.

But when the buck-passing, blamestorming and tantrum-throwing gets tiring, it's good to read sane, smart, on target comments from someone the majority of Americans actually wanted to be the president: Al Gore.

Clearly, the purpose of television news is no longer to inform the American people or serve the public interest. It is to "glue eyeballs to the screen" in order to build ratings and sell advertising. If you have any doubt, just look at what's on: The Robert Blake trial. The Laci Peterson tragedy. The Michael Jackson trial. The Runaway Bride. The search in Aruba. The latest twist in various celebrity couplings, and on and on and on.

And more importantly, notice what is not on: the global climate crisis, the nation's fiscal catastrophe, the hollowing out of America's industrial base, and a long list of other serious public questions that need to be addressed by the American people.

And yeah, the irony of a post that started with the purchase of a new television ending with a condemnation of what has happened to television news is not lost on me. I bought the television to watch movies and football. I don't expect it to inform me of anything more meaningful than the state of Katie Couric's boobs. I'll let ABB stand by in horrified fascination, waiting for the Pap smear. She's a stronger woman than I. I can't take it anymore.