By way of introduction, first let me say, I am not a crackpot. (Nor am I Abe Simpson.) My dKos user ID is 4486, fer cryin’ out loud. Maybe that doesn’t prove I’m no crackpot, but at least you know I’ve been around here for a while, even if few people actually read my rare attempts at diaries.
I’m "couch-blogging" today because I’m able to goof off a little bit on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. I have a four 10-hour day work week, instead of the usual five 8-hour variety. I have plenty to do today, mind you, but since I don’t have to hit the ground running like I do on other mornings, I like to slow down, have a nice breakfast, read a bit (online and off), watch a little TV, etc.
You know – relax and goof off a bit.
I’m not really qualified to do diaries about politics and current events; I don’t have the time or resources to do a good job of that, and dKos has plenty of people doing that job swimmingly, so it’d be kind of stupid to do that unless I can actually add something to the equation.
I could diary (is that a verb now?) about my oh-so-important opinions about certain goings-on, but again, there’s already more of that going on than what’s needed. IMHO. Just sayin’. And also.
My niche, such as it is, is sitting around for a bit, goofing off, having a bite and a cuppa Joe, or something else entirely (not that I am now, or ever have been, known to do such things), and pontificating about TV and music and such. Not claiming to be an expert or an industry insider or the like, just somebody who grew up with TV and music when it was the golden age for both, and who is a proud citizen of the TV Nation.
And if I’m going to babble on about TV and stuff on a Thursday morning, it’s only natural that I would yack about two of my absolute favorite current shows, "Monster Quest" and "UFO Hunters." Both appear every Wednesday night on the Hitler History Channel.
"Monster Quest" seems to get the more buzz of the two, and not often in a good way. People like to ridicule cryptozoology, and it doesn’t help when you have a couple of dumbass crackers doing shit like this.
(And before anyone takes offense and flames me, I’m a dumbass cracker myself, so if I want to use that expression in certain contexts where I think it’s appropriate, I will. Think of me as the dumbass cracker version of Chris Rock.)
Sure, if MQ maybe overdramatizes things a bit, what do you expect? It’s a TV show, for chrissakes. And Stan Bernard’s pitch-perfect narration only adds to the ever-so-slightly exploitive feel the show sometimes has.
But MQ never comes right out and makes any ridiculous, unproven claims, and when the scientists and experts who appear on the show prove a particular bit of "evidence" of a monster to be false, they don’t shy away from it. The show’s producers never scream "Evidence of Bigfoot finally found!" or "Loch Ness Monster is real!" – but they do a great job of gathering up enough credible witness reports and odd, anomalous bits of "evidence" to make even the most skeptical among us sit up and say "WTF?!" to ourselves or our loved ones.
Even better (and scarier by far), "Monster Quest" will take a show about admittedly unlikely "monsters" – "50-yard long snakes!", "Giant bears!" etc. – and report on actual things going on that really kinda creep me out. I’m not swayed at all that there really are anacondas and boas that are 150 feet long and able to swallow an elephant, but the confirmed existence of a growing population of non-native predator snakes in the Everglades and other southern habitats, and the fact that their numbers are expanding northward as average temperatures increase over the years, is a little disconcerting to me.
And tell me that this doesn’t scare the hell out of you, at least a little: sharks – bull sharks, to be exact – are actually venturing north from the Gulf of Mexico up the Mississippi River, at least as far north as Illinois. They’re swimming up a goddamn fresh water river, and sometimes even attacking humans. (A similar phenomenon is happening up north in the vicinity of the St. Lawrence River; in those cases, it's Greenland Sharks.)
Now, I know there are plenty of reasons I should probably avoid swimming in the Ohio River, but the fear of shark attack should not be among them.
Last night’s episode of "Monster Quest" was about cattle mutilations – yes, there really are some that defy conventional explanation, even if a number of them over the years have proven to be "caused" by the natural processes of nature. I’ve only had a chance to watch the first fifteen minutes or so, so I’ll withhold comment for now. Those of you who did see the show, feel free to discuss.
***************************************************
As for "UFO Hunters," I’ll save the in depth discussion of it for next time. For now, I’ll just say that I think "UFO Hunters" may be the most important show on TV these days. Why? Next time, my little friends.