Three Things That Always Stir Restlessness

1) Spring peepers at twilight


2) The first crickets at dusk, and on until morning


3) The smell of a grill wafted over lines of trees separating well managed lawns

Three Things That Always Stir Restlessness:

1) Birdsong just before first light

2) Dandelions covering a lawn

3) Graduation announcements in the local paper

Three Things That Always Stir Restlessness:

1) The first spring day above 60 degrees

2) The first thunderstorm of the season

3) The thought of any thunderstorm anywhere...

Three Things That Always Stir Restlessness:

1) The sound of a lawn mower somewhere in the neighborhood, anytime after 11 a.m.

2) The smell of freshly cut grass

3)  Lilacs in bloom

Reason #20 to Live Nebulously: What the HELL has happened to CNN?!

In March, I realized I'd had enough of The Huffington Post. It had become, for better or worse, my main source for news and information over the years. I'd forsaken nearly all other on-line venues, even The Drudge Report most recently, which I often visited to counteract the effects of so much liberal bias. I'm a news junkie, I'm open-minded, I want both sides (blah, blah, blah....), but I got lazy; and it became all too easy to just pour my coffee in the morning, plop down in front of my laptop, skim the main page of The Huffington Post, and tell myself I was staying informed.

But one too many 'side boob' stories, one too may poorly written or misleading headlines, one too many dopey photos with screaming and sensationalistic captions pushed me over the edge, and I made a conscious decision to rid myself of 'HuffPost' completely. The lazy and amateurishness way it conducts itself as a news organization - making mountains out of mole hills (or mole hills out of fistfuls of dirt), creating drama where there isn't any, obsessing over celebrity and perpetuating that obsession - does not do its bias - or that bias' target audience - any favors. The longer I'm away from it, the happier I am.

LAUGHABLE (and yet not at all...) - This story appeared on the front page of The Huffington Post on February 6, 2014. The 'confession' turned out to be that Leo's never done drugs. The misleading nature of the headline, and all that it implies, is emblematic of the way 'HuffPost' operates in general. (The lame headline just below is another good example; should news organizations be breaking the fourth wall...?)   

But I'm still a news junkie, still want to know what's going on without being distracted by either side of the irreparably polarized American scene, so I turned to CNN - the Cable News Network - eager for some straight up news.

Er...right? Isn't that where I should go?  I mean, Fox News is clearly right-leaning, MSNBC clearly left-leaning...and though I haven't really watched CNN since the Bernard Shaw days, I always thought that among the cable news outlets it was pretty 'fair and balanced'. I figured, even, that's WHY it has lagged in the ratings for so long: because it doesn't pander to one side of another, has gone out of its way to simply deliver the news. Just the facts, for reasonable and open-minded Americans who just want to know what the hell's going on.

I have found however, to my shock and dismay, that CNN is lamer, and more tabloid-y than The Huffington Post!  Last summer, the 'sorry state of our Fourth Estate' was Reason #16 to live nebulously, but CNN's descent over time from vanguard of television news reporting to something that reads like a combination of TMZ, World's Dumbest..., and The Weekly World News, is disheartening, to say the least, and deserves its own slot.

The hosts are too comfortable, way too comfortable, with the camera (audience) and each other. Their clothing, their mannerisms, their use of language, all way too informal for what should remain the important and heady business of reporting the news. They spout unwarranted (sometimes brainless) conjecture over serious (or often NOT so serious) topics, turn asinine questions into 'special' reporting ("Were the 60s really that glamorous!?", so asked the headline of a recent feature story, cobbled together in anticipation of the new season of Mad Men ... :-/  ...  ??), and punctuate their words with not-the-least-bit-impartial rolling of eyes and snorts of contempt, or donkey-like brays of laughter to establish that they are (definitely!) in on the joke, whatever the joke may be. Although most of the time, CNN itself is the joke. And I don't think they're in on that.

Nothing's wrong with an increasingly informal world, necessarily, but CNN is not the place for it. CNN should at this point be the grand old lady of television news, not the MILF (or GILF) trying to compete with her daughter by squeezing into jeans that no longer fit (and are not the least bit flattering). It's bad enough that news has become so polarized politically; must entertainment always be the first priority, rather than information?

I just don't know where to turn anymore. Is there any place on-line or on TV where I can find out what's going on without a bias, and with a suitable amount of detachment?

Maybe I don't need to know what's going on.

And for four months or so on 1/48/50 at least, I won't...