Author: Thomas Walters

My wife and I were watching one of our favorite tv shows last night, and I was closely watching the opening credits. That in itself tells you that I’m becoming increasingly attention deficit.  Anyway, I noticed something curious.  Under the title, “Executive Producer”, there were three names.  Then the title popped up again with two more names.  Next, a name pops up of someone that’s actually on the show listed by himself, again as “Executive Producer”.   That led me to wonder – what exactly do all these people do? Are there rankings of EP’s,  job descriptions or specific functions?  Is it possible for an EP to do virtually nothing and get paid?  That could be an ideal new career path for me.  All this fruitful speculation leads me to providing my readers with valuable information, much of which is totally made up by me, to assist you in understanding the complex and nuanced nature of media production. Continue reading “Roll the Credits”

This past few months, my wife and I have been working our way around the house cleaning out closets and reorganizing the vast amounts of “stuff’ that we’ve accumulated over the past forty plus years.  To be honest, I’ve been tackling the smaller spaces first because, well, the basement was daunting.  It’s looked something like Extreme Storage Wars since we moved here seventeen years ago, and only been getting progressively worse as we add “essential” bits of nothing. Stuff that you know you’ll never see again, don’t have room to display, but is just too great to give or throw away. (Our niece commented years ago that our house looked like “a Hallmark store”, so that gives you an idea.) Continue reading “Collecting “Stuff””

Just heard someone on television, a young lady who had to complete a task with which she was unfamiliar, state that she was “freaking out.”  Is that really the case?  We hear this phrase often, particularly from teenagers and young people when their anxiety levels are slightly elevated.  So, as a public service, something for which this blog is renowned, I’m laying out guidelines here for when and when not to “freak out.” Continue reading “On “Freaking Out””

So what’s with all these updates?  Didn’t the techies get it right the first time?  My phone bleeps at me to update my apps.  This computer, at which I currently sit writing brilliant and insightful bits of inspiration has about four red lights telling me I have updates to something waiting for me to “install” or “download”.  Raise your hand if you remember when download wasn’t even a word.  Continue reading “Your Updates Are Ready”

It’s coming – I can just feel it.  A two-dollar win on today’s lottery ticket.  OK, not the huge windfall that would sweep us into a plush, luxury lifestyle. I’m a faithful buyer of lottery tickets because I’m sure that the big jackpot is just around the corner.  The fact that the power number was 5, while I had 3, 4, and 6 doesn’t deter me in the least. I go to sleep nights planning the ski lodge in the Alps (neither of us ski, but that’s beside the point) or the ocean cottage  (the view is really all we’re after).  A manor house in Shropshire (because I love that name) or a warm retreat in a sunny location for the winter months. Perhaps a villa on the Mediterranean – I hear Monte Carlo is quite nice.  Someday, I’d like to walk into a Bentley dealership and say, “I’ll take that one – the burgundy one with the brandy-colored interior. Write it up and I’ll give you a cheque.”  Continue reading “The Big Win”

It started out innocently enough.  A suggestion that, having had lunch out, rather than doing take-out, we’d just have a light snack.  “How about tuna sandwiches?  Fine, we have tuna. Open-faced patty melt?  No, I prefer grilled.  OK, then.” And thus it began – our “evening of discontent.” Continue reading “The Sandwich Diaries”

OK – I’m looking out the window and snow is again falling from the sky.  We’re getting on to late April, and apparently Global Warming is not fully doing its job. Last weekend, we endured freezing rain and lots of it – I considered leasing one of those big Duck Boats that conveniently come up behind you and quack loudly in city traffic.  The floodwaters had subsided after a few days, so I thought – “I’ll bring out the deck furniture”.  That would create the illusion of some open space in the basement, but no . . .  . . . Continue reading “It’s Snowing Again!”

This blog, really a primitive sort of homage is dedicated to my brother, long a devotee of plaid flannel for most any purpose but in particular shirts.  I have come more recently to the flannel shirt, having bought one on sale at a local discount store, and now I can’t help myself.  I went into a retailer a couple of weeks ago to get a new belt and found another flannel, my fifth in as many months.  On sale for $5.50 – can you believe it?  Well, actually most of us can because it’s the end of the season in New England.  Continue reading “The Flannel Revolution”

So, what is the deal lately with all the commercials for medications? They hit the airwaves like hailstones in a storm.  They’re four page centerfolds in every magazine.  Ads for medical treatments.  The pharmaceutical industry isn’t making enough money, they now need to hit us with each new product that will repair every organ of the body?  Are people now able to storm into their doctor’s office and say, “Put me on this – I saw it on tv, and the results are amazing. If I do have suicidal thoughts or a two-week erection, my attorney will be in touch.”   Continue reading ““Just Ask Your Doctor” – Medical Commercials”

In the latest installment of “making schools safer”, this just in. A school district in rural Pennsylvania is placing five-gallon buckets of stones in every classroom so that students could throw them at potential shooters.  Betsy DeVos, reigning Secretary of Education could not have come up with a more effective and satisfying school defense plan.  Maybe she could unveil the details in her next  60 Minutes interview. Continue reading “Torn from the Headlines: The Rock Defense”