Thursday, September 08, 2005

WILY TV 9/7/05: Land of the Lost Timezone

Because I live in the time zone that is the rough equivalent of the Land of the Lost, I had a really frustrating experience last night while watching TV. Fortunately, the state legislature has taken action to rectify the situation. It will just come a little to late to avert last night's crisis.

I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a big tennis fan, right? Well, last night I was watching the U.S. Open quarterfinal match between Andre Agassi and James Blake on the USA Network. It was a real barn-burner; a high quality, super entertaining match. Blake won the first two sets fairly quickly and was up a break in the third, when Agassi turned on whatever it is that Agassi sometimes turns on and fought back to even the match at two sets all. Then, Ted Robinson announced that USA would be ending coverage of the match shortly and CBS would continue coverage live. He explained, quite reasonably, that USA's contract for coverage requires it to sign off and hand coverage over to CBS, except in the Pacific Time Zone, where USA continued "prime time" coverage. (It was 11:35 p.m. by my local time.) CBS would take over live coverage in place of its regularly-scheduled U.S. Open Highlights show, which airs at 12:35 a.m. Eastern.

Well, I new I was in trouble. You see, in the crazy time warp in which I live, the TV stations actually tape the New York feeds and broadcast them an hour later. So, prime time in my little world actually starts an hour later than prime time in New York. As a result, there was an hour break between when USA signed off and my local CBS station picked up "live" coverage of the Agassi/Blake match. Can you say frustrating?

As it turns out, it was a great match down to the wire. I was glad I stayed up the extra hour and watched.

What I learned yesterday (and, sort of today, if you're a stickler for time details) on TV: This is just another example of why the state in which I live was correct in finally giving in to that daylight savings time "fad." The switch just can't come quickly enough. It's been a controversial issue in the state this year. I offer no opinion here regarding in which of the time zones the state should take up permanent residence, though I actually have one. Nevertheless, I've definitely joined the camp that believes the legislature did the right thing. It took a TV glitch, though, to make me a hardcore proponent.

What else would you expect?

P.S. I know the illusion of my geographical "anonymity" has been completely shattered by this post and, yet, I insist on talking around the actual place where I live. Odd. Well, let's make it a game. If you don't know me personally, see if you can be the first person to leave a comment identifying my home state. You've got all the information you need right here in this post. In doing so, you'll free me from the silly exercise of guarding that portion of my anonymity.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Indiana

3:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You live in Indytucky. And the legislature screwed up big time. Wait till you see the mush the Dept of Commerce makes out of this. Indytucky will be split up more ways than Iraq

5:56 PM  
Blogger Wasteland Fan said...

Anonymous: Too easy, huh? Thanks for allowing me to drop the charade of geographical anonymity.

Bloggerdad: Unfortunately you're probably right. The major benefit of the time zone "correction" would be to gain consistency and predictability by joining the rest of the country's practice of observing DST; however, we gain neither if the practice is varied county by county.

On the other hand, I'll protest the Indytucky label. Though I may be on the cusp, some might argue that I live in the hippie nirvana oasis of the Hoosier state. (Wow, the anonymity just keeps flying out the window!)

6:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well I'm certainly not one to deduce locality. If it weren't for Discovery channel, I couldn't feed myself. But I'm a good sport, you seem to be one too. I've watched alot of Discovery channel. I've thought alot about what you have said. I am convinced you are from the Galapagos islands. That's where sea turtles come from. Or didn't you know that. Galapagos. Booyah!

7:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm still stuck on the Land of the Lost comment. If that were true, TH would never have left here. Land of the Lost was her favorite show when a mere tot. Slestaks, Marshall, Will and Holly! Did they ever make it out?

11:19 AM  
Blogger Trailhead said...

Uh, thanks, Full Moon. You've outed me on an embarrassing childhood secret. To a person who'll probably never let me forget it.

1:24 PM  
Blogger Wasteland Fan said...

Oh, Trailhead, how greatly you underestimate the depths to which my TV devotion allows me to stoop. Sid and Marty Krofft were veritable geniuses of the idiot box programming for children and Land of the Lost was clearly the high-water mark of cheesiness.

Never met a slestak I didn't love. The true test will be how much of a fan you are/were. Do you recall that around the end of the second season, Mr. Marshall abandoned his kids (well, okay, he was "saved" from LOTL), but was replaced by Uncle Jack?

For a blast from the past, be sure to visit http://www.landofthelost.com. There's audio of the theme songs even!

1:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Whatever, TH--and I used to be riveted to the Love Boat--at quite an older age than "mere tot"! Plus..who was sitting right next to you when watching those slightly repulsive-yet-compelling creatures called the Slestaks?

12:14 PM  

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