Commercial Points

I read Cathy Mere's post about using the DVR and how she has found that it does have a purpose and now she can watch American Idol if she misses it at the original time.  I am somewhat ambivalent when it comes to recording shows.  I am glad that Ray has recorded all of the episodes of the Sopranos because I missed seeing any series that were on a premium cable station.  I still watch these shows while working on the computer.  But it is nice to be able to stop and repeat parts that I have missed.

Maxine is working at her drafting table at home.

Many people like to record shows because then they can fast forward through all of the commercials.  This was something we never did when my mother, Maxine, was watching with us.  She wanted to see the commercials.  In fact, she was often more interested in the commercials than the shows.  Does that seem odd?  Well, not for Maxine.  She was the media director for an advertising agency and commercials were her business.  At the agency she was the person who proofed everything before it was submitted to the client.  She had a gift at catching errors...especially continuity mistakes...like if someone's collar was buttoned in one scene but unbuttoned in another.

At our house we did not take a break to get a snack when a commercial came on.  No...we got to hear about how well this commercial was developed....or how it missed the point...or did you notice that the person had to speed up his speech at the end...probably because the timing was not proper.  Maxine continued such critiquing after she retired (She and the president of the agency retired the same day.).  Even when she developed macular degeneration, she seemed able to notice mistakes in commercials...and actually carried it on to news shows.  She told me that Jerry Revish on WBNS must have a great tailor because all of his suits fit perfectly and made from high quality fabric.  She said he always looked put together unlike another newscaster (I won't put his name) who did not button his suits properly and they did not fit his shoulders.

I found this picture of Jerry Revish that
belongs to the Columbus Dispatch.

I see that I began talking about the DVR and wandered into my mother and commercials.  Oh well, they are somewhat related.  I just cringe at the thought of if we had had DVRs when I was in high school and we would have to rewind to see the commercials.