No-Frills TV

Last night I actually opted out of high-definition television. I wasn't watching sports or the latest adventure flick, just the VP debate. So why should it matter? Well these days everything is high-def...you'd be crazy to watch "regular" TV, right? I beat my husband to the couch last night, which probably has happened three times in our seven-year marriage. By default, I had remote control control. And since I'm not used to that kind of power, when the debate magically appeared after simply pressing the power button, I didn't wander off looking for another broadcast. Ten minutes into the debate, my husband congratulated me on finding a channel without "those graphics." My fixation with "those graphics" started last week...

We were watching our local CBS affiliate broadcast of the Obama-McCain debate. After a few go-rounds on what's wrong with Wall Street, I found that I couldn't focus on the candidates. I kept looking at the bottom of the screen where a waving American flag graphic flanked the network logo. I tried to concentrate, but my eyes kept coming back to that flag. So I asked my husband to find a different broadcast. (I did not have remote control control that night.) We went to the ABC affiliate. Same waving flag, only smaller. Moving on... NBC affiliate, even bigger graphics. Fox, more of the same. "Let's try CNN," my husband suggested. OH MY WORD... or rather, lots of words. Panic-attack-inducing graphics on both sides and bottom of the screen. There were six analysts rating the candidates throughout the debate, plus updates running on the bottom of the screen. As a last resort, we tried C-SPAN after crowing "No way will C-SPAN have graphics!" but they were running Congressional talks rather than the debate. Dizzy with visual stimuli, we settled on the ABC affiliate because it had the "slimmest" graphics. Fine. A few minutes later I was distracted by this shooting arrow thing revolving around the station logo. Overwhelmed I fell asleep ten minutes later.

But last night, having watched Curious George earlier, the television was already on Channel 11, the New Hampshire public tv station. I didn't even realize what channel I was on until my husband pointed it out. Of course we had to compare the low-def to high-def (I could discern Palin's lipstick color!). CNN was still running the same hyper graphics, and even though low-def, the Boston public tv station actually had a small PBS logo in the corner. (Even that sideways-looking, bald-headed, empty eye socket graphic freaked me out.) It was back to NH public tv, where I was able to follow every word and wink from the candidates.