Investigate Before You Forward!

I get a lot of crazy emails. Once a year I get one about a famous atheist doing away with all religious programming on tv. It has been forwarded by a gob-zillion people before I get it. They want me to sign a petition and send it to the FCC. The problem is that this famous atheist has been dead for over a decade. I really doubt she is opposing religious programming from beyond the grave!

I loved the one I got about the woman who was sitting in the car holding her head. She claimed someone had shot her in the back of the head and she was using both hands to hold her brains in. The story goes on to say that it was a hot day and she had just bought several cans of bisquits. One exploded and hit her in the back of the head. She reacted by grasping her head to feel the warm dough and thought it was her brains. If that story was true the woman would have been bragging. She didn't have that many brains!

There are emails that warn us of things that never happened. We have been warned of car jackings, kidney stealings and many other scams that never happened. Somebody, somewhere is getting a great laugh at our expense.

When I get an outrageous email which has been forwarded, I always check it out. I have found that www.snopes.com is a great resource. This website is not infallible but it does have some research attached to it.

The strange thing is that when I tell people that their stories are not true, instead of thanking me, they take me off their email list and continue to send bogus stories. I know this is true because one of their friends, whom they forwarded the bogus email to, forwards the email to me. After I warn that person, I drop off of another person's email list.

Maybe we just like the stories and don't care if they are true.

I Don't Watch "Lost" and I Don't Want To

Each time I have been tied up and placed in front of the tv because someone has made me watch "Lost", I have hated the program. Noone understands why I don't want to watch another minute of it. So, here is my answer:

Lost has no clear plot. It seems as if there are two guys locked in a room who have been promised they will be released if they can guess how to end the program. These guys just happen to be the writers. The struggle is always changing. The characters seem to have no purpose. At first, they wanted to be rescued. Now, it seems they want to stretch the program out so that it can go into syndication.

None of the characters on Lost or either good or bad. You can't trust any of them. A society depends upon trust. I would live as a hermit if I had to live with people I could never trust.
Character matters even in tv programs.

The characters seem to stress a lot of emotion which is so often a twist in what they really desire. Okay, once in a while I have seen people who stress emotion without any truth behind it but, come on, every one of them, nearly all the time? They are like an island inhabited by drama queens and kings. Who can really get concerned any more?

The story line is more crooked than that of a soap opera. Three years from now, one of them ,who is pregnant, will still not have delivered the baby. They fall in and out of love with each other like alley cats. They have so many flashbacks and flashforwards that the viewers will have to go through professional counseling. Some may have to be hospitalized.

I guess I am just too simple for Lost. I like a hero with character. He or she is loyal and looking out for the good of others. He or she tells the truth. He or she does not justify his or her flaws but asks for forgiveness. He or she attempts great things at personal risk for the good of others.

I know; I know. If I don't like the program I should just turn it off. Well, too many of my family love it. I won't turn it off . . . ,but I will walk out of the room.