Law and Order of the 90's....the 1890's!

Well, it has now been about a month and a half since our TV broke, and Jeannie and I have found a few different ways of entertaining ourselves in the laughless void we call our lives. First of all, we've been watching ROME via Netflix. Great show. But we've finished that. We have lately discovered, though, that you can watch streaming television shows on Netflix now, which is kind of interesting.

But the main new way that I've been entertaining myself sans TV is by this strange new thing called reading. I had heard people talk of this reading at the store where I work, but it always sounded so boring, and the people who were talking about it were so annoying that for the past few years, I have generally abstained.

But I recently dug out an old book of mine that has all the original Sherlock Holmes stories as they appeared in the Strand magazine in 1891-1905. I have come to the conclusion that reading Sherlock Holmes was the late-nineteenth century equivalent of watching Law and Order, and here's why:

1. The stories are short and, for the most part, self contained. Each story is about 5-10 pages long and there's no real story arc for the series. You could pick any story at random and be able to follow along.

2. Each individual story is not all that good, yet you feel strangely compelled to keep reading more stories.

3. Each story pretty much has the same structure. I swear to god, every time Holmes and Watson get in a cab to go somewhere other than Baker Street, in my head I hear this sound.

So anyway, Sherlock Holmes. Not the greatest literature in the world, but kind of addictive.

On the whole, I've enjoyed not having a TV. The Jeanners and I still watch some stuff via Netflix on the computer, but it cuts out all the "crap watching," like Friends reruns at dinnertime or Judge Judy at 3 in the afternoon when you're off work. Now we just watch shows we really want to watch and only when there's not really anything else to do.

Not too much else going on. Hotel plans and whatnot have been finalized for my parents' visit next week. We're heading down to Chincoteague Island for a night and staying here. I'm pretty excited.