July 4, 2020
.
Mattering … and Cable Cutting
♦♦♦
With “America” teetering on the brink of an historic KABOOM juggling real and imaginary socio-cultural “nukes”, I remind myself that Saving Western Civilization is well above my pay grade.
I’ll be content to play Cassandra and rely on numerous “I told you so’s” as America hurries to join Cahokia, Carthage and The Incas among “Whatever Happened To ____” civilizations.
“Mattering …” is a Repost from about ten years ago. It has aged well and merits reposting. … And Blondie and I took our “giant leap” in Home Entertainment.
.
As a writer by trade I have an extra vehicle for retaining thoughts than most people. Concepts, ideas, profundities and flaming BS magically pop up on a monitor. When I jokingly say “… but a humble vessel” I mean it. That’s been the case lately.
Is all of Life column fodder and show prep? Is “what it is” sometimes all that it is? Probably.
Last week (ten+ years ago) I went to two church fundraisers in Durham. One was my annual visit to a fish fry at Mac’s 9th St mission church. The other was a “country ham & egger” at Beth’s sort-of-country church on the outskirts of Durham. Mac & Beth have been on board for this ride pretty much from the beginning – almost 1,500 incredibly insightful (!!) columns. Their encouragements has “mattered a lot” to me over these 10+ years.
I could have begged out of either invite with no consequences …. except I would have missed out on “mattering”. Whatever else I would have done with those few hours would not have “mattered” as much.
My $6-$7 for the meals resulted in a net profit of a few dollars for the respective ministries. I could have mailed in donations of $10 if that was what “mattered”. It wasn’t.
Walk into a building you have never been anywhere near in your life. Walk up to two nice ladies at a card table and have them smile up at you and say “You’re BobLee aren’t you? We’re so glad you’re here !!”
I wasn’t wearing my monogrammed BobLee leather bomber jacket or BL ballcap. Roy and Mike would warn me that such public recognition can be hazardous. I have no illusions of my pseudo-celebrity status.
Mac and Beth and the two nice ladies at a card table in a sort-of-country church on the outskirts of Durham were sincerely glad I came to their events … and so was I.
It’s been said that 90% of doing one’s job is simply showing up. It’s the same with “mattering”.
♦♦♦
Vic Koenning was Larry Fedora’s Associate Head Coach / Defensive Coordinator in the first few years of the ill-fated Fedora Era of UNC Football.
I interviewed Koenning when “my buddy Chansky” and I had our radio show on WCHL. I recall him to be “a typical assistant football coach”; whatever image that conjures up. After a stint at Troy (?), he is now at West Virginia … sort of.
For those of you keeping track of the whereabouts of former Fedorians… Larry himself is Off Coor at Baylor.
Last week Koenning got caught up in a “… said something racially-insensitive” brouhaha and has been suspended pending the ubiquitous “investigation”. By my unofficial count… that is episode #10… 12 … 20 across Power-5 World … and counting.
With “the gladiators” now firmly in charge of both pro and college FB and BkB, “racially insensitive” episodes will become weekly occurrences for the foreseeable future.
For the best “Sports Updates” and Sports Commentaries on the Internet … I recommend – OUTKICK … right over there on the right.
♦♦♦
Three weeks ago we joined the ever-growing number of American households that have “cut the cable”. With one snip, our monthly TV-related expenses went from $190 to $60 … with zero negative impact. We are very very happy with our decision.
We were already using Apple TV as our streaming device. We chose HULU (instead of YouTubeTV) as our streaming service for network TV / cable channels. In addition we have Amazon Prime … Netflix … ACORN TV … and Curiosity Stream. … Learning how to navigate among streaming “channels” does require a bit of patience but is not all that daunting.
I really enjoy ACORN TV and Curiosity Stream. ACORN is all BBC / England / Australia / New Zealand programming which both Blondie and I enjoy. Curiosity Stream is all documentaries on pretty much any subject you can imagine. Literally 100s to choose from.
I can Watch Anything at Any Time. “Cutting the cable” was a very good decision for us.
If you are considering “cutting the cable” there is a certain amount of research required in selecting from a myriad of streaming options. You can Google pretty much any streaming question and get suggestions … or contact me.
.
More BobLeeSays? … Click Here!
.
