January 7, 2001
Death of a Remote
There are few things a man becomes more attached to than his remote control. At first, these little devices were a luxury best afforded by those with the money and girth of King Henry VIII. After all, we prided ourselves on being able to operate any kind of electrical device. Soon though, more and more of us found that we were no longer required to watch a television show through to the end. Instead, we could change channels during a commercial and see what else was on. Television manufacturers began to offer other features on the remote control beyond the basic functions of channel and volume. Soon, I found myself changing the sound field on a program. Of course with all of this new technology, there also came some social responsibility that most men learned the hard way. For example, it is NOT recommended to switch channels whenever something your wife wants to watch comes on. It is also not suggested to change the sound field of the stereo receiver so that whenever your wife watches “Touched by an Angel” sounds like it was cast with a team of psycho robots.
