So, as far as you can tell, there is a major selling point of not buying something?
Okay. So, that is how far you can tell, now how far can you ask?
We seem to miscommunicate. My monitor is a 42" - big enough for our living room and interests - TV set. It does have some inbuilt cable receiver, I think (we never uused that), but it used to be connected to a satellite receiver with PVR. The satellite setup broke down and we didnât bother to fix it. Nowadays itâs connected to an Apple TV, a Blu Ray player and a starte of the art (cough) Wii from 2007 or so. It gets about two hours of use per week, I guess. Net = gross, since we donât watch anything with ads. Thatâs TV and movies and some podcasts. Wii time not counted, thatâs probably another 15 minutes a day, when I use the fitness program.
I guess that technically we do own a TV, but since device and service get mixed up in most peopleâs percerption, itâs really more truthful to say âWe donât have/watch TVâ. Same with alcohol, by the way, where âI donât drinkâ implies that alcohol consumption is the norm and not drinking something strange.
Anyway, Iâd rather buy him beer on his 14th birthday - the legal age over here - than give him full access to RTL and Sat 1 and the rest of the bunch.
Heâs invited to watch my Warner Brotherâs cartoons, might improve his English. 
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Name of original author lost to the wilds:
If Archaeology was treated the same as the footy
Firstly, imagine every time within a day that football is mentioned by someone else. Secondly, replace it with something that you donât want to hear about every day. Say⌠Archaeology. Then, think carefully about how an average day would pan out.
So, you awaken to the clock radio. Itâs 7AM. Just as you awaken, itâs time for the news and archaeology already. Not news and other historical investigations, like library restorations or museum openings (unless thereâs another event happening), but just the news and archaelogy. Malaysian plane is still missing. Pistorius is still on trial. New dig announced in Giza. Ancient Mayan temple discovered. Exciting stuff.
Time for a bite to eat over the morning TV. More news. More archaeology. Yes, you are aware of what is up with the missing plane. Fine. Now the archaeology in video format. Video of people dusting off some skulls and bits of pottery. All well and good, but archaeology isnât your thing. It would be nice to hear about something else.
Even when it isnât archaeology season, the media follow noted archaeologists. They drive fast cars, date beautiful women, advertise fragrances, and sometimes they go to nightclubs and act in the worst possible way. Scandals erupt as the tabloids follow these new celebrities when theyâre not searching the past for answers. It is entirely possible you can recite the names of certain researchers, even if you donât pay attention to archaeology. You donât know what transfer season is, but you know that someone was transferred to a dig in Peru for a sum of money that could fund the London Underground for two whole days.
Out of the car at 8:55 and into work. What are the colleagues talking about, I wonder? Oh, Jones dropped a 3,890 year old pot and smashed it? What a useless wanker! Someone should do something unpleasant to him. And donât even ask about the unfortunate incident in Athens two years ago - youâll be there all day! Breaking a pillar like that! We donât talk about that here, mate. What? You donât want to discuss the finer points of the prevalence of phallic imagery in Pompeii? Is there something wrong with you?
The drive home from work. Every thirty minutes, no matter the station, someone mentions the archaeology. Best sit in silence. Drive past a huge billboard with a black and white picture of a rakishly handsome archaeologist draped over an impossibly beautiful woman. Heâs winking at you. Trowel in his left hand, supermodel in the right. Jurassic, by Calvin Klein.
And now the pub. A nice pub with a beer garden. Posters in the windows. LIVE EXCAVATION AT THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS! All of it on a huge TV with the volume up too loud. Drunken people yelling at the screen. âSEND IT FOR CARBON DATING, YOU USELESS ***K!â âWHAT ARE YOU ON, MATE? DUST THE ANCIENT MEDALLION GENTLY! SMELTING METHODS OF THE TIME PRODUCED VERY SOFT AND IMPURE METALS EASILY PRONE TO DISFIGURATION!â All this from two men out of a crowd of twenty. One lousy drunken idiot and his chum ruin the image of other archaeology fans. Carbon dating report from the lab updates on TV, read by a man employed because theyâve been following the beautiful science since they were a boy. The drunk chimes in again. âWHAT PHARAOHâS REIGN DID YOU SAY? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT THE UNDERPINNINGS OF OUR THEORY OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF 4TH BC EGYPT? GET IN, MATE!â A cheer cascades through the building and you can only wonder why.
Best go home and avoid anyone who might be drinking and singing. You once met a disagreeable chap who threatened to beat you up because you didnât watch the archaeology. âNot a late paleolithic era supporter are you? Think youâre better than me? Iâll have you, you scrawny tw*t!â
To bed. To repeat the cycle tomorrow. The inescapable, inevitability that wherever you go, someone, somewhere, is just dying to talk to you about the archaeology.
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Rather than offer an another example, since that one was so good, you might want something to sink your teeth into.
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Thatâs what you get for playing the tedious card in the first place. Is there a Godwin-type law for invoking tediousness unnecessarilyâŚ?
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Thanks for sharing.
Iâd love to live in that archaeology worldâŚ
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Same here, same here. While it is not my primary cup of tea, Iâd gladly enjoy ancient metallurgy (or any other material engineering of the past). The pablum of spectator sports is disgusting, maddening, and, worst, virtually inescapable.
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