Intimidation by TV...

Stan M has left a new comment on your post "The Enemies of Reading":

It's nearly 14 months since this entry was posted, but I feel the need
to weigh in, since I was subjected to the same intimidation by TV this
morning, as we waited for my wife's appointment at the pain management
clinic. (Talk about irony...)

Ten years ago, we were called to the
hospital E.R. in the small hours of morning, after being notified that
my ailing father-in-law had been transported there from his nursing
home bed. It was to be his last night on earth. We waited several hours
to be allowed to see him, in an otherwise empty waiting room that was
being blasted by the "Psychic Friends Network" broadcast, in which the
on-duty psychics were telling callers about all the marvelous things
that were about to happen to them. It puzzled me that not a single
person had called and been informed of an unanticipated death, illness
or other bad event.

After I could stand no more, I walked into "the
back," found the Old Man in his cubicle, and we exchanged a few words.
Had I not taken matters into my own hands thus, he would have expired
without a goodbye from his daughter and son-in-law, while this awful
blather was assaulting us.

Posted by Stan M to Chestnut Hill Notebook.