EclectEcon

Amazon Prime Video Bleg

Please read the post before making recommendations!

We've had Amazon Prime for years but we never bothered trying to look for Amazon Prime videos on our Smart TV. Several years ago, we tried Netflix for two months and didn't watch anything on it because we never came across anything that looked as if it might appeal to us, so we never bothered with Amazon Prime videos.

But a couple of weeks ago, Amazon was the exclusive broadcaster of an NFL game, and so we had to figure out how to view Amazon Prime videos. And we did.

So here's a request. What do you think we might like to watch on Amazon Prime?

Before you start typing recommendations, here are our tastes, roughly:

• We like convoluted spy stories that we can watch over and over again, e.g. Three Days of the Condor, Tinker Tailor and Smiley's People (the Alec Guiness versions), and the Page Eight trilogy, including Page Eight, Turks and Caicos, and Salting the Battlefield. We highly recommend all of these and we watch them frequently. We have them on Blu-ray and don't need Amazon Prime for these.
• We like British classic mysteries, with little gore, little suspense, and lots of puzzles: Agatha Christie (we have tonnes of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot on Blu-ray), Sherlock Holmes (we have everything ever put out on DVD or blu-ray).
• We never cared much for Morse, but love the Lewis series (again, we have them), and we like most of the Endeavour series (though some are dodgier and/or weaker than we like)
• The Bletchley Circle series was good at the beginning.. but weakened as it went on.
• Vera is okay, but isn't the sort of thing we like to watch over and over again.
• The two different series of Peter Wimsey are both fabulous.

Others:

• We watch tonnes of baseball, some football, lots of curling, no basketball, and very little hockey.
• We watch tonnes of science/space on BBC Earth, NASA Smithsonian, and the Nature Channel (also some on TVO and other channels that sometimes have shows like these).

It looks as if we can get all these things on Amazon Prime. But are there other things like these that we're missing or might enjoy?

Our first attempt was Alex Rider, a teen-spy series. It had potential, but had way too much filler and too much gag-me/meh stuff in the first four episodes. We may watch the last one or two episodes to see what happened but it was exactly the type of thing we don't want to spend much time on.

Television and Dementia

From JR, my favourite drug-dealer.

TV Viewing Tied to Cognitive Decline in Those Over Age 50

By Amy Orciari Herman

Edited by André Sofair, MD, MPH, and William E. Chavey, MD, MS

Adults over age 50 who watch several hours of television daily may be at increased risk for cognitive decline, according to a longitudinal study in Scientific Reports.

Researchers studied nearly 3600 dementia-free adults aged 50 and older who completed cognitive assessments and reported how much TV they watched at baseline. At follow-up 6 years later, those who had reported watching over 3.5 hours of TV daily showed greater declines in verbal memory than those who'd reported watching less than 2.5 hours daily. Additionally, the declines increased with increasing amounts of TV watched. The associations remained significant after adjustment for numerous confounders, including markers of sedentary behavior.

Meanwhile, TV viewing was not significantly associated with another measure of cognition, semantic fluency.

The researchers speculate that the "alert-passive" nature of TV viewing may contribute to the cognitive declines observed; also, TV may replace other mentally stimulating activities.

LINK(S):

Scientific Reports article (Free)

I don't really watch all that much tv, so maybe I'm safe. I often have sporting events on, but I often am doing other things at the same time [however, don't even think about trying to turn them off!].

I wonder if there are implications for children...

Somewhat Sensitive? Overly Defensive? Nevertheless, I AM OFFENDED!!

Recently I was sent an audition notice that reads (in part),

Seeking AFRICAN CANADIAN, CAUCASIAN AND HISPANIC Grandparents or Senior Couples (ages 70 to 90) for a Telecommunication TV commercial. .... Looking for Seniors who are clueless about technology. (emphasis added)...

To apply [please send, inter alia,]... a short description or story of how clueless they are with technology.

I resent the hint that seniors are or might typically be clueless about technology. Some are, for sure, but there is absolutely no reason to feed or promote that stereotype.

What if the notice said, "Looking for (females/Canadians/Arabs/Mexicans/Scotsmen/cheerleaders/Jews/athletes/sociologists/York graduates/whatever) who are clueless about technology"? Why is such a characterization of seniors tolerated or even smiled about, when surely it would not be tolerated if it were about some other group.

I'm tempted to write something very nasty about this audition call using Fortran II.

The Steven Truscott Story-- Investigation Discovery

Some years ago, while we were living in Clinton, Ontario, a group from Investigation Discovery came to Vanastra (a small village just south of Clinton) to film the story of Steven Truscott., a young teen who was unjustly convicted of the murder of a classmate, likely on the basis of the trumped-up testimony of a pathologist.

A number of my friends were in the show, including my son and two of my granddaughters. I played the murderer, but since no one is sure who that was, you can't see my face as I was driving the old white Chevy or dragging the victim's body into the woods where she was found.

Whining about TV Sports

I know I have a very good life, so take this for the small grain of whatever that it's worth.

We sign my gubmnt pension cheque over to the cable company every month ...  or so it seems .... to subscribe to every possible sports channel available.

So what do we get?

Four different channels showing the Yankeres baseball game and only one showing the Tigers-Rays game; but at least we have the option because we paid for the extra channels.

Worse though is that TSN has four different channels showing curling from the Men's World Championship. All four of them are showing a replay of yesterday's game between Canada and Italy. Not one -- not one frickn TSN channel -- is showing the current tie-breaker being played between the US and Finland.

WTF TSN??

In Praise of Subtitles

Ms Eclectic and I like to watch British mystery shows. Recently we realized (I have no idea what took us so long) that when we watch them on DVDs, we can turn on "subtitles".

We now find that we can watch the programmes with much lower volume and can understand much more than we could before.

Now to go through all the other DVDs we have to see if this option is available. I sure hope so.

Tennis Attire:

No, I'm not going to write about sports bras, thongs, long shorts, tight shorts, or whatever. This piece is a comment on the increasing use of neon yellow by top players.

Have you noticed how many top tennis players these days are wearing neon yellow as part of their outfits? Some players still do some original designs, though, and many players have not made the switch.

Ms Eclectic disagrees with my own perception that more players are wearing some neon yellow during their matches. She pointed out that not one of the six players we were watching at the time I made the observation was wearing neon yellow; nevertheless both Federer and Raonic had been wearing neon yellow in their matches; and so had Serena Williams and Azarenka (time for a foundation grant to study this!).

The reason they wear neon yellow (I surmise) has nothing to do with fashion trends. Rather it is for the same reason that some baseball pitchers try to keep some white undershirt sleeves showing.

Having some clothing the colour of the ball might make it a mite more difficult for one's opponent to pick up the ball when it is coming at them. I expect the neon yellow wristbands do an especially effective job with this.

Having outfits the same colour as the tennis ball surely affects how one's opponent(s) sees the ball coming at him/her/them.

What surprises me is that more of the players are not wearing neon yellow outfits. The fact that they do not suggests that this ploy yields marginal benefits at best. But with so many of the top players moving to neon yellow distractive clothing, I expect more will follow.

The extreme: tennis apparel with blue backgrounds and neon yellow circles roughly the size of tennis balls. I haven't seen this yet, though.

I Would Like to Thank....

I will never again groan so loudly or so much when I hear the words, "I would like to thank...." during a major award ceremony or telecast of election results.

I don't know that I have ever won any award or election after which I was expected to make a speech, and so I didn't understand how heartfelt the thanks really are for most people who thank everyone. .... until recently.

Two weeks ago, I was named the "Best Actor" in the London One-Act Festival for 2014 for the role, Ivan, in Unforgiven. I had another commitment and wasn't present at the ceremony. If I had been there, here is what I would have wanted to say. I wouldn't have said all this; doing so would have taken far too long. But this is what I'd have wanted to say:

Thank you very much.

I would like to thank Rhonda Allen, who performed opposite me in the play. She was a joy to work with and a joy to rehearse with. She brought important insights to her role, my role, and to the play. She had and showed a depth of understanding that went far beyond mere acting; she convincingly played the person and moved everyone in the audiences.

I would also like to thank our director Diane Haggerty. She took a risk on a very difficult play, turning it into a show that clearly affected everyone involved with it, both on and off stage. She experimented along with us, trying various interpretations, and she convinced me to play the role the way I did. Without her input, my performance and the show as a whole would not have been the success it was.

I also owe a deep debt of gratitude to my wife, Ms Eclectic, for working with me and with us. Ivan was a very hard role for me, and (as with other shows) she put in many long hours helping me in so many ways.

Also I want to thank Kathleen Sykora for her patience and dedication. She was in the play, but she also served as assistant director and general support person.  And Aiden Lee, who joined us at the last minute but who added insight and crispness to her role as well as levity backstage.

In addition, some of the people who have directed and worked with me recently deserve mention.  Through their feedback they helped me become a better actor: Steve Stockwell (Out of Sight Productions), Jason Rip (Nemesis Theatre), and Paige Miller (Fusion Productions), along with all the actors I have worked with in those and other productions, including so many mystery dinner theatre shows.

Finally, I would like to thank Maridon Duncanson and all the organizers and volunteers for the London One-Act Festival for their time and effort in bringing about this event.

Thanks again to everyone for everything.

Let me emphasize that the role of Ivan was really hard for me; it was likely the most difficult role I have ever played (including Dysart in Equus two years ago). The word usage was just slightly different for me; and the ideas overlapped within each set of sentences, interrupting the flow of thoughts constantly. Also there was a lot of drama, requiring me to scale back the emotions at times so as not to overdo them.

Apparently, the adjudicator who made the awards said that she had read all the plays and knew from the script how challenging the role of Ivan would be. Also apparently, she talked about how I met the challenge. I couldn't have done that without the help from everyone else. Believe me, I now understand how sincere most of those long, thanking speeches are.

Here I am, holding the "Loafie" [cf LOAF: London One-Act Festival]:

As I said, thanks again to everyone for everything.

Also, regarding the league championship games and telecasts....

Ok, I'm not hearing the beeps during the NLCS, so why was it there during the ALCS?

And another question: why are we not seeing the pitch-tracker (computerized graphic showing where pitches were relative to the strike zones) during the league championship series?

Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep

I'm watching baseball's ALCS on the international telecast via Sportsnet in Canada. Near the top of each half inning, there's a beep, rapidly repeated four or five times. It's not always before the first pitch; sometimes it is after one or two pitches have been thrown. Does anyone have any idea what that is about?

My Current Favourite TV Commercial

Zillions of fans, including 7 or 8 goalies, go on the ice to play hockey with Sidney Crosby against some NHL team. It looks so fun, and the smile on Crosby's face is priceless.

 I wonder how many in this ad are paid extras.

Kelly McDonald Does a Spring Training Show about the Blue Jays

Kelly McDonald is one of the smartest people I know. He is also amazingly energetic and determined. One of the many things he does is produce, direct, and participate in radio and television shows. He is also well-known for his stage theatre work in London, Ontario.

This evening and several more times over the next week or so Kelly has a show about the Toronto Blue Jays on Rogers TV [channel 888 in London and Toronto, update: it is the Accessible Channel produced by Accessible Media]. I think it might be on at 8pm in London with the title "Sports Access". It might also be on at 4pm today in Toronto. He spent some time in Florida doing the interviews for the show.

Kelly is nearly totally blind. His production company is called Out of Sight Productions, which tries to use vision-impaired actors in much of its work. His company is producting "Academia Nuts" for the London Fringe Festival in June. Three of the five actors in it are vision-impaired. I'm one of the other two and happy to be a part of the show.

The Chicago Cubs

I have just been watching the Chicago Cubs play a spring season game against the California Angels. As of the time I changed the channel, the Cubs were losing 13-1 after 5 innings.

It reminds of the time I started watching the Cubs on a semi-regular basis. I was in theological seminary in Chicago, and all the Cubs home games were televised on WGN-TV, so I had the games on while I was studying.

That was the worst year in the history of the Chicago Cubs. They won only 59 games and lost 103. Often there would be no more than a few thousand people at a game.

The only good thing that happened that year was that they traded to get Canadian Fergie Jenkins from the Phillies.... a steal.

Baseball!

Spring training games begin today!

Reflections on the 2014 Winter Olympics

In no particular order:

• I thought Scott Russell of CBC did a remarkable job as the primary anchor for those of us Canada. He avoided too much gushing and too much turning the focus onto himself. He was SO much better than Brian Williams had been in the past. [disclaimer: Scott was once a student of mine, but that doesn't mean much since I haven't always liked his work in other instances.]
• I don't know what it was like for people elsewhere, but we had pretty decent live coverage of the events. At times it seemed we could choose between CBC, TSN, TSN2, and at least two different Sportsnet channels to watch different events. I really liked that. Most times there were other things to watch than just one event.
• I detest Putin. Clearly he is a demagogue. Yes, he has restored pride in Russia among the Russians, and yes there appear to have been no terrorist attacks in Sochi during the Olympics. As people said about Mussolini, "He made the trains run on time" but he was a murdering demagogue. I put Putin in the same category.
• Despite all the pre-Olympic stories hinting at doom and disaster, the games ran fairly smoothly. Maybe he brought it off by using employers who stiffed their employees. Also see the previous point.
• Where were the rainbow flags? I wished (and expected) more fans there would have carried rainbow flags. Or were the rainbow flags confiscated by Putin's goons?
• Overall, CBC's coverage was better than decent. But their coverage of the closing ceremony was disappointing: too many breaks, too many very long shots from weird angles, too many aerial shots of the area, and too many close-ups so we couldn't get and enjoy the overall picture of what was happening on the entire floor (?) of the stadium.
• I miss hearing the Olympic Anthem that was so prevalent on ABC (and I guess on NBC). It starts out just like "O Canada."

• I'm not all that keen on judged sports. There are always controversies because the judgement involved.
• Although I'm impressed by the athleticism of the people who do aerial/free-style/mogul skiing and snowboarding, I don't much like the sports as a spectator.
• According to something I read but for which I do not remember the citation, Canadians' most prevalent order at Tim Horton's is "double-double" [double sugar, double cream]. The term took on new meaning at the 2014 Winter Olympics as the Canadian men and women teams took gold medals in both curling and hockey.
• As I posted yesterday, I'm intrigued by the lexicographic ordering used to rank countries by medal counts.
• The concluding speech by Thomas Bach (President of the IOC) went on far too long. The minute I saw him on the screen, he reminded me of Anton Gregoriev in the classic BBC mini-series, Smiley's People.

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Lexicographic Ordering and Medal Counts at the 2014 Winter Olympics

Apparently Russia "won" the 2014 Winter Olympics. Athletes from Russia won the most gold medals and the most overall medals [with no consideration of the number of  medals per capita, medals per acre, medals per dollar of GDP assessed at purchasing power parity, medals per athlete, etc.] Numerous sites show the medal totals (e.g. here or here).

Country        #Gold    #Silver    #Bronze    Total

Russia           13       11          9         33

Norway           11        5         10         26

Canada           10       10          5         25

USA               9        7         12         28

Netherlands       8        7          9         24

Germany           8        6          5         19

Etc.  

The interesting thing I've noticed is that apparently the listings/rankings by International Olympics Committee use a lexicographic ordering to rank the countries: They rank by gold medals, and only if there is a tie in the number of gold medals won do they consider the number of silver medals won; and only if there is a tie in both the number of gold and silver medals won do they consider the bronze medals.

In other words, as with lexicographic preferences in economic theory, there are NO trade-offs. They do not say, "well three bronze equal two silvers" or whatever. There are no weights involved to generate a ranking. For example, with this system, you don't weight gold=1, silver=0.9, and bronze =.8  (or supply your own weights; it doesn't matter). All that matters is the lexicographic order.

Did the USA beat Canada in the medal count? Using totals (as often was emphasized on NBC), they did. And of course it is possible to come up with a weighting scheme whereby the USA topped Canada in the medal count. But with lexicographic ordering, what counts are gold medals regardless of how many silver or bronze medals were won.

Do we observe lexicographic ordering in consumer preferences? Possibly, but no example comes to mind. The case of perfect complements comes close but not quite.

Addendum: maybe the best way to weight the medals is by resale value.

Poor Losers?

After Canada eked out wins over the US in both women's and men's ice hockey over the past two days, some folks in the US didn't take it very well (via Jack):

But to be honest, I really liked the pregame sign in Chicago:

The Loser Keeps Beiber

Craziness in the NFL also, my picks

I don't care what the algorithm is to determine where games will be played, it makes absolutely no sense to me that there is a play-off game in Green Bay tomorrow under the weather conditions forecast for there. [actually, it also makes little sense to me that an 8-7-1 team would have home field advantage over a 12-4 team; I understand, Green Bay won their division and SF is a wild card team]. But playing in -10F temperatures with -25F windchills is just plain stupid.

My picks:

KC at Indianapolis; oddsmakers have KC by 2. I'll take Indy outright but certainly plus the points.

Saints at Eagles; oddsmakers have Philadelphia by 3. Saints have not looked good lately, so I'll take Phil minus the points.

Chargers at Bengals; oddsmakers have Cincinnati by 7. Cinc looks strong and the Chargers looked lucky to be there. I'll take Cinc to cover the spread.

49ers at Packers; oddsmakers say SF by 2.5. Not under those conditions. I'm picking Green Bay to win outright so I'll take 'em plus the points.

The Rose Bowl

It satisfies the traditionalist in me that the 2014 Rose Bowl is a match between what used to be a PAC-10 team (Stanford) and what used to be a Big-10 team (Michigan State) [I have no idea what schools are in what conferences anymore or what the conferences are called.].

I saw my first Rose Bowl game 60 years ago.... on a television at the home of some friends of my parents (we didn't have a tv then). Michigan State defeated UCLA. As I watch tonight's game, Michigan State appears to be the dominant team, but the game is only in the early stages of the fourth quarter as I post this.

Update: Michigan State won 24-20 after a dynamic stop of Stanford on a 4th and 2 play.

 

Governor Isaac Shelby, The War of 1812

Nearly two years ago I auditioned to be in a documentary series about how the War of 1812 affected Southwestern Ontario between Niagara and Detroit. I was initially offered a role of a 32-year-old, and I immediately wrote to the producers that I was flattered that they thought I could play such a role. They, of course, rescinded that offer and instead offered me the role of Governor Isaac Shelby (of Kentucky), who was a general during that war. The filming for my very minor role was done in August, 2012, and will be on TVO sometime during the winter of 2014. Here is my very brief role, in its entirety, in Episode One.

I recorded this snippet on my smartphone from a disk sent to me in advance of the TVO showing of the series. 

In this scene, I am assuring the women of Amherstburg that we Kentuckians will not destroy their homes so long as they do not harbour any of their men folk, whom we would consider to be soldiers for the British. The narrative over the video suggests that I might be playing General Harrison giving these assurances, but that isn't exactly what I was told nor what the credits say (and is especially bizarre since General Harrison is played by a different actor).

Oh well, another gig, another credit.

Coincidentally, Shelby, Michigan, less than an hour north of where I was born and raised, was named for Governor Shelby:

Shelby was originally established as Churchill’s Corners in 1866, named after Walter H. Churchill who was the first postmaster. It was renamed Shelby in 1885 when it was incorporated as a village - after General Isaac Shelby, who along with his famous Kentucky Rangers, took back Detroit from the British in the War of 1812.

It's interesting that in the full narrative of the documentary, Governor Shelby's role in the War of 1812 is not mentioned even once.

And you know what? If I hadn't played this role and done lots of reading about it, I'd have had no idea who Shelby was, what he did, or why that village was named Shelby.

The Desert Between Us and Them: The War of 1812 in SW Ontario

The War of 1812 involved lots of burning and killing all over eastern North America. The ultimate losers were the Indians of the midwest who were driven farther west as a result of the treaty agreement between the US and Britain. One area that suffered during the war was in southwestern Ontario, where the US attacked from both the east (via Niagara) and the west (via Detroit). 

TV Ontario is airing the premiere showing of a documentary "The Desert Between Us and Them" this coming Saturday, October 5, from 9-11pm. The film describes the daily trials and tribulations of settlers in SW Ontario as the Brits harassed them to join the war effort and the US confiscated considerable food, etc., after the successful invasion at Amherstburg. From the TVO website promoting the airing of the film (which has a short video as well):

A cinematic documentary that explores those stories that make the War of 1812 a "modern war" by stepping back in time to experience the conflict through the eyes of the people of Southwestern Ontario, who spent several years living in a War Zone. Saturday October 5 at 9pm (ET).

Unless it ended up on the cutting room floor, there is a brief portion of the film in which I appear as Kentucky Governor (and successful general) Isaac Shelby. The scene was filmed over a year ago. In it, a group of women pleaded with me not to destroy their homes. From Wikipaedia,

On July 30, 1813, General Harrison again wrote Shelby requesting volunteers, and this time he asked that Shelby lead them personally.^[44] Shelby raised a force of 3,500 volunteers, double the number Harrison requested.^[1] Future governor John J. Crittenden served as Shelby's aide-de-camp.^[56]Now a Major General, Shelby led the volunteers to join Harrison in a campaign that culminated in the American victory at the Battle of the Thames.^[1]

The Battle of the Thames was fought exactly 200 years earlier than the date of the premiere showing of this documentary. Leading up to, and during that battle, it became clear that the Brits were going to sell out Tecumseh and their Indian allies. From the Wikipaedia entry on Tecumseh,

During the War of 1812, Tecumseh's confederacy allied with the British in The Canadas (the collective name for the colonies of Upper Canada andLower Canada), and helped in the capture of Fort Detroit. American forces killed Tecumseh in the Battle of the Thames, in October 1813. His confederation fell apart, the British deserted their Indian allies at the peace conference that ended the War of 1812, the dream of an independent Indian state in the Midwest vanished, and American settlers took possession of all the territory south of the Great Lakes, driving the Indians west or into reservations.

I have no idea whether my scene made the cut, but we have the PVR set to record it.

Baseball Statistics in the Booth

Today's NYTimes reports that increasingly baseball announcers are being asked to use and interpret analytical statistics during their broadcasts.

Statistical analysis has swept through baseball over the past decade, becoming part of the fabric of the game and an object of growing fascination to its fans.

It's about time.

Back in the days of internet newsgroups and rec.sport.baseball, those of us who used analytical statistics referred to announcers who wouldn't try to understand them as "mediots" for good reason. They would trot out cliches and useless measures over and over again. Meanwhile, we screamed at them through our computers. 

Then, when I had the chance to do radio play-by-play of (AA) London Tigers games and then both radio and television play-by-play of the independent league London Werewolves, I got my chance to change things a bit. I continually talked about and used "on base percentage" [OBP] and "slugging average" [SLG]. And I refused to discuss RBIs. I even had it written into my contract the last year that OBP and SLG had to be shown on the screen and that they would not show RBIs. Here's a story about my efforts back then.

Slowly I had an impact on some of my co-announcers and even on some of the players. The big change came, though, when Billy Bean of the Oakland Athletics began to employ some techniques using baseball analytical statistics, and Michael Lewis wrote about his success in Moneyball. 

It has still been a long road; old-school announcers resisted the change. But it is slowly occurring. This year I have seen some telecasts that show a batter's OPS [a good, simple indicator of both power and the ability to avoid making outs: OPS = OBP + SLG]. And it looks as if some are going even further:

As players, managers and front office executives embrace the esoteric statistics, teams increasingly want their radio announcers just as fluent in the language of WAR, VORP and B.A.B.I.P. (Those stand for wins above replacement, value over replacement player and batting average on balls in play, for those of you dusting off your radios as the season begins.)

The use of statistical analysis (as opposed to just relating numbers) in baseball has come to be known as "sabr-metrics" [sometimes spelled "sabermetrics"], after the group SABR [the Society for American Baseball Research]. I was a member of the group back then. 

Addendum: I was once asked on air by a visiting-team announcer what I thought were the most ridiculous statistics. I told him the Triple Crown stats: batting average, home runs, and runs-batted-in. I tried to explain that OBP and SLG capture and reflect the ability of a player much better, but we really didn't have enough time for me to go into lengthy discussions about it all. 

Doc Palmer in the broadcast booth at Labatt Park

 

PJ Kwong again

I recently sent fan e-mail to PJ Kwong, complimenting her on her solo on-air sportscasting on CBC Bold TV during the World Figure Skating Championships. Here's the message I sent:

Subject: I absolutely love your work on CBC Bold.

I love your tone, your approach, your information. Everything!

http://www.eclectecon.net/2013/03/bless-cbc-bold-and-pj-kwong-cbcs-coverage-of-the-world-ice-skating-championships.html

In the above posting, I refer to you as "The Vin Scully of Figure Skating". I hope you realize I mean that as a VERY high compliment.

I really hope CBC-sports and others will adopt the model she used. She had online chats and tweets going, but she was the only voice on air. It was inexpensive (comparatively), fluffless, and solid. Here is her response today.

I am sorry for the delay in my response but have been trying to get rid of a post-Worlds cold !

 I wanted to be able to thank you properly for your kind words and for the amazing comparison. You cannot imagine how much your support means to me!

 Thank you again J

 Pj

I hope others feel the same way about her work and will also urge CBC-Sports to adopt this style for more telecasts.

Bless CBC-Bold and PJ Kwong! CBC's coverage of the World Ice Skating Championships

Ms. Eclectic absolutely loves to watch figure skating on television. I watch it with her sometimes. 

This year the World Figure Skating Championships are being held here in London, Ontario. Rather than pay $1300 each for a full pass (let's face it: I wouldn't have), we opted to watch the competitions live on television. 

Interestingly, CBC decided NOT to telecast the entire event on their regular channels. Instead they are showing the competitions: all, everything, on their bizarre alternative channel, CBC-Bold, a channel which is not in most basic cable packages.

Ordinarily such a decision would irritate me. But I love this one --- not so much because the telecasts are on Bold, but because instead of all the horrid interviews and horrid chit-chat that we see on the regular CBC channel (when it does cover the event), we get very straight-forward commentary by PJ Kwong. She is superb in this role.

She is a former skater and former skating coach. She does the commentary alone, and is very informative with no nonsense. She doesn't whine, she doesn't moralize; she just describes what has happened and what is happening. She pulls no punches, and yet she is very supportive and very positive. 

In many ways, PJ Kwong is the Vin Scully of figure skating.

Wouldn't it be absolutely wonderful if more telecasters would do something like this for more sports!

And CBC take note: you can dramatically reduce the size of your budget by covering more sports this way in the future.

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Tyler Cowan on "Big Ideas"

Fortunately you don't have to live in Ontario to see this. It's available over the internet (or soon will be).

I'm setting our PVR to record it (5pm today and again 5pm Sunday, Ontario time). Here's the pre-broadcast blurb:

According to Tyler Cowan,  our speaker this weekend,  much of the problem with modern democratic societies is that voters know what they would like but have very little understanding of economics.    What most would like is for our economies to perform the way they used to for about 30 years after WWII.  And even though they have not done so in many years, the memory of that golden era is still presented by politicians as the standard by which the performance of their political opponents ought to be judged. The issue we are contending with is that we have a political culture premised on 3-4 %  growth with an economy that can only perform at 1-2 %. Tyler Cowan has been called America’s Hottest  Economist  by BusinessWeek Magazine and he teaches economics at George Mason University. His blog Marginal Revolution carries a telling subtitle, Small steps towards a much better world. His ideas on the slowing of economic growth are contained in a 2011 e-book The Great Stagnation; How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better.        Tyler Cowan will be joined on stage by National Post columnist Andrew Coyne.   And if all of this will make you want to take a course in economics, look no further. Tyler Cowan has just started to offer an on-line course in what’s been called “the dismal science”. If your interest in all matters economic has not yet been satiated, then take a listen to an audio podcast of a recent lecture delivered at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto by John Hancock, a Canadian trade specialist at the World Trade Organization in Geneva. It’s title: Our Capitalist Revolution.

 

Let's Hear It for Choice!

I haven't followed much of the Olympics this year, but it looks to me as we in Canada had THREE different channels, each showing different events most of the time (Sportsnet, CTV, and TSN). And then if we wanted to see rerun highlights with a US bent, we could watch the evening show on NBC, which someone told me, is all the US viewers could watch.

I love all the choice we have on our cable system. Sure, we pay for it. But increased choice is valuable. Some people could watch diving, while others could watch soccer, and others could watch running, etc. And meanwhile those who were less interested in the Olympics could watch the Young and the Restless. And I still had my choice of baseball games, NFL pre-season games, six or more newscasts, or myriad crime shows.

Choice is costly in two ways: it costs providers to offer such variety. But it also costs users something to search and to figure out what the options are (and then evaluate them). But overall, it's a net benefit. I love it!

Sunday Night Baseball?? Five Sportsnet Channels and NO choice??

Sheesh. We received about 999 cable tv channels here in London, ON. We subscribe to LOTS of channels, and we especially like to receive every possible sports channel. 

Not one of them is carrying the Sunday night baseball game between Atlanta and Washington. 

Meanwhile several sports channels are carrying NASCAR. And Rogers Sportsnet, with five different channels because, in their words,

It's all about choices. The ability to give sports fans the freedom to choose what they want to watch, when they want to watch it. Welcome to the world of Sportsnet ONE,

is carrying the Memorial Cup (junior hockey) on ALL FIVE of their channels! I realize that most people here in London will be pleased because the London Knights are playing in that championship game. But I would like the option to switch to the baseball game now and then. Certainly Sportsnet Pacific could be offering the baseball game. What's the point of Rogers' having five different Sportsnet channels if they are NOT going to offer viewers the promised choice??

Addendum: I see their Sportsnet One channel is indeed offering some choice. It's scheduled to show cricket.

Why Are Tennis Commentators SO Full of Themselves?

I was shocked. I was stunned. My friend and co-blogger at Curling, Alan Adamson, wrote on his Facebook page,

Alan Adamson thinks CBS/ESPN has a great team covering tennis - the McEnroe boys, Darren Cahill, and the very fetching Pam Shriver, Mary Jo Fernandez, and Mary Carillo. How did such a team get assembled?

I completely disagree. Earlier this week, when watching the U.S. Open, I found the only way I could bear it was to mute the commentary; and in the end, I actually just turned it off rather than listen to John McEnroe ramble on. And the women commentators need to learn that the show is about tennis, not about them. Cutesy interactions and inane questions just don't cut it for me.

What is it about McEnroe that I can't stand? First let me state up front that, yes, he was a great tennis player, and, yes, he is quite knowledgeable. What I think irritates me is his arrogant yet whiny condescension that both says and implies that if only the players had done what he thought they should, they'd have won the point/game/set/match/whatever.

Update: Alan responds on his own blog.

I May Actually Watch an Entire Episode of The Simpsons

It's about curling.

[h/t to Alan Adamson, co-blogger at Curling]

The Revival of My Acting "Career"

After about a four-year hiatus from my semi-professional work on stage and screen, last fall I accepted a role in a community theatre production of My Darling Judith. Then in the winter I rejoined Mystery Unlimited in London to perform in mystery dinner theatre productions.

This weekend, my son (David Ricardo Palmer) and I will both be doing some acting for a television documentary (acting? for a documentary? if that makes little sense, read on).
From the producer:

We are a crime recreation show called Extreme Forensics, we are based in NYC though we film all over the country and our show is syndicated all over the world. We are filming in Clinton Ontario this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. ... Our episode features the Steven Truscott case. [link added]

They've cast me as a pathologist and my son as a police officer. From Wikipaedia,

Steven Murray Truscott (born January 18, 1945 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian man who was sentenced to death in 1959, when he was a 14-year old student, for the alleged murder of classmate Lynne Harper. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he continued to maintain his innocence until 2007, when his conviction was declared a miscarriage of justice and he was formally acquitted of the crime.

The murder occurred on the outskirts of my present hometown, Clinton, Ontario, which is why this episode of Extreme Forensics is being filmed here.