I just got this month's cable bill from Time Warner. $49.88.

I can't remember the last time I turned the TV on. I kind of ignore it every day; it's right there in the bedroom, collecting dust. College football season is long over, and even then, we watched the...

I remember the news reports saying that the first thing the East Germans did was go to buy televisions.  They tied them onto the backs of their tiny Flintstone-era cars.  A year later, when I found myself lucky to visit Berlin, I looked for evidence of this TV-mania; I was...

The other night during dinner I thought of a great new reality TV show: "Extort!"  In my scenario, viewers submit the names of people they want to intimidate and your host, Robert Halderman, conspires how to extract the cash.  It's a lame idea which is why it might just happen.

Jet Blue used to be a fun treat, before its prices stopped being a bargain and before the (three then four then seven dollar) bus from downtown Los Angeles to LAX was invented and Long Beach seemed more ridiculous and arduous a trek than ever.  Especially since I was then...

I should have got up this morning to drive to Long Beach to wait in line to see the Dalai Lama.  A stranger gave me a ticket.  He won't miss that I'm not there.  And I won't miss the throngs, nor the commute.  Instead, I spent 90 minutes on the...

As dead tree media consolidate and contract and close here in the United States, newspapers are booming in the tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.  Currently, there are four, three started in just the last several years, all in the service of promoting a healthy and strong democracy.  Elections came to...

The remote control for Bernie's old TV, which still doesn't quite feel like mine, sits on my nightstand, next to the shinier one given to me by Time Warner Cable, the company that has the lock on service for my building. I find the clutter annoying but I keep them...

I had lunch with a lovely new friend today, a woman who is new to LA. Her husband is a TV critic. As much as she and I had in common as female humans who worked in and around media all our lives, what we didn't have in common were...

Wednesday night is monk night. I like to go see Rev. Kusala at the International Buddhist Meditation Center in Koreatown here in Los Angeles. I found him thanks to his podcast, when I was really underground last fall and was craving some sort of steadiness in my brain. Lucky for...

Words I don't believe I have uttered before: "I am going home to watch TV." I left dinner with friends in Santa Monica so I could be in place for the start of Leno.

My friend P. expressed distress at the content of that statement. "You don't LIKE the guy,...