WTF

71% More Commercials

Last evening at 5:30, having already seen, and probably more than once, anything that was available on our go-to channels (HGTV, Food or Motortrend) we wandered over to TV Land to watch a couple of episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond. Troubling thing was we joined smack in the middle of a show. A quick peek at the electronic guide revealed that the episode started at 5:10 and would finish at 5:45. What the heck? The following show ran from 5:45 to 6:20. Next was 6:20 to 6:55, etc.

There was 35 minutes between episodes. I’m fairly sure there wasn’t an extra 5 minutes of unseen footage that could be added back to the original 23 minute prime time run. TV Land had found a way to add more commercial time to the syndicated shows, in addition to slightly speeding up the video of the show and running the credits at the bottom while the top is showing the beginning of the next episode. Five divided by seven equals 71% more commercial time they could sell.

Having exhausted all the British crime shows we could enjoy, I though maybe it was time to try a much heralded show from a decade ago, Sherlock. But it turns out we just couldn’t take Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance. He was like an over the top and unfunny, Sheldon Cooper. He spoke so fast (and quietly) at times we really couldn’t make out what he was saying. So we turned on the closed captioning to see if that would help. Nope, sometimes the dialog was even faster than it could be displayed on the screen.

With all the marathons of Law and Order running on WE and Sundance, we are now on the second viewing of their episodes. While we do enjoy revisiting this show every once in a while, we’d like the gap between re-watches to to be a lot longer than 30 days…

We are now on the home stretch of watching Cheers having started the 11th and final season on Monday. We are getting tired of the show and are ready to move on. The idea of canceling Netflix and moving to Hulu, so we can smoothly segue into Frasier after Cheers, is a good one. Not only would we save a buck a month, but we could also see another Thursday night NBC comedy of that era as well, Wings.

75,000 Reasons to Fill Out The Card

The beginnings of this post has been sitting in the drafts folder here at Life of Brian HQ for almost 4 months. Why am I finally getting around to turning it into an actual post? I’ll get to that at the end, but first the set up.

We were reading magazines at the local library back in April, me an auto rag and her a female-centric one, when a blow-in card landed in my lap.

Get a full year of Car and Driver and Road & Track for just $15.
2 Years of Road & Track and Car and Driver for just $25 – BEST DEAL!
1 Year of Road & Track and Car and Driver for just $15

Hmmm, I thought, I’ve tried reading Motor Trend via Amazon Prime on the Kindle and it was totally unsatisfactory, maybe going to an old-school paper magazine might be interesting. I told Donna of my plan and she approved it as long as she could do the same. So she hunted down a blow-in card in her magazine:

Get one year of Good Housekeeping and Woman’s Day for a total of just $14.97 — a combined savings of 81% Off the newsstand price.
2 Years of Woman’s Day and Good Housekeeping for just $16 – BEST DEAL!
1 Year of Woman’s Day and Good Housekeeping for just $11

When we got back home I sat down in front of the PC and headed to hearstmag.com, or some such thing, to sign up. I filled out all the name, address, email, credit card info and got to the point where I pick between 1 or 2 years. At first I selected 2, then thought, just one year for now and if I like it there’ll be another good deal for renewing sometime later. I clicked OK and got a confirmation page – Congratulations on your 2 year subscription to Road & Track and Car and Driver, your card has been charged $27.02!

What the heck, I did change my selection to one year, didn’t I? So when it came time to subscribe to Donna’s magazines I asked her to stand behind me to make sure I click on one year. So I go through the whole process, filling out the form and selecting one year. I confirm with my auditor wife that in fact I have selected the one year option. She says yes and I click the OK button – Congratulations on your 2 year subscription to Good Housekeeping and Woman’s Day, your card has been charged $16.84!

WTF! What a scam. Seems like that if you subscribe on the web, no matter what you pick, you’re gonna get 2 years worth of magazines

I get why there is a little extra money on top of the quoted price though, tax, but why did they charge 8% on my magazines and only 7% on hers. Oh well, it really is a good deal and it is cool to get something in the mail besides bills and charge card applications.

So why am I finally writing about this, in my email inbox yesterday, what did I get but an offer to renew my Road and Track subscription just four months into a 24 month run. The deal? I would get another year for just the low price of $14.97 and with it I can give a subscription to two of my friends.

Wow, I’m saving 3¢ and they are getting two new subscribers to their magazine, upping their monetary ask from the folks who want to place ads in the magazine. And they are probably hoping that in a year I’ll have forgotten about those gifts and the subscriptions will automatically renew on my charge card for the full price, $60, for a total of $120!

Sometime yesterday the CTBNL ran past 75,000 miles.

Name of Thrones

Disclaimer – I have not watched a single episode of the show, nor have I ever read any of George R Martin’s books. We have HBO in our cable package, so I have glimpsed drips and drabs of the show, including one brief scene that showed some sort of woman warrior, in a weird armored outfit that left one breast exposed, so that a 10 or 12-year old male child could suckle, but it is just not my cup of tea.

But seeing as I am a sucker for a well crafted name (or stripe or book title & plot or advertising slogan or movie genre) generator, how could I resist trying the Game of Thrones Name Generator.

Brian Bogardus = Brlian Arryn

I’m Turning Into Howard Hughes

Not in money, that’s for sure, and not in almost all of his psychoses, like for instance I don’t wear Kleenex boxes on my feet or my urine isn’t stored in bottles. But for the last week, at least once a day, I tell myself that I need to trim my toenails, and each and every night I go to bed with them still untrimmed.

The fingernails I’m keeping trimmed, but probably because those get broke every once in a while in day to day living, while the toenails are usually protected from shattering by being covered by a pair of socks and occasionally shoes.

Carolina Panthers Car


In the ten months since I added the black 1″ stripes outlining the 2 large blue stripes on the silver car, only one person has mentioned the similarity of the color combo to the uniforms and helmets of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. During last weekend’s trip thru northern South Carolina and southern North Carolina I got that observation 3 times.

My response to these folks was always, “It was purely coincidental.” But it got me thinking, maybe I need to change something to keep from getting this comment. Swapping the color of the big blue stripes was out of the question, too much money. Removing the stripes all together was also a non-starter, so that left replacing the black narrow stripes with a different color. After mocking up several colors and dismissing most, only two were marginally considered, maroon (a nod to the dearly departed Emperor) and a dark blue. I like the dark blue best and think if done in a reflective tape it would even look quite interesting at night.

Of course there is one other more extreme option, we could move all the way across country where probably no one would make the connection…

Mmmm, Derby Pie

Today was the Annual Chocolate Festival at St. Mary’s Church which is used as a fund raiser for their school. There are fun and games for the kids, a small vendor area, a silent auction, a couple of spots for lunch, a bake sale, a used book sale and a plethora of chocolate goodies for consumption. As we do almost every year we dropped in for a brief visit to look at the used books, check out the silent auction and eat some chocolate based food stuffs.

We actually bought a few books this time after having not for the last couple of years because of becoming Kindlized. Donna picked 8 books to mail off the munchkins in Washington state for a quarter a piece and a couple of paperbacks for herself at a half a buck each (one of which she is reading by flashlight on the back porch as I write this.) I bought 5 for myself, so for eight bucks we came away with 16 books. Which is pretty good considering the 8 we got for our reading pleasure were “trade” paperbacks that retail for like $15-17 each.

We hit the bake sale where we spent a bit on some cupcakes and cookies before heading outside to buy some other chocolate goodies. Donna found some chocolate covered pretzels for herself and I snagged a slice of Derby Pie. We found a shady spot to sit and enjoy our treats. As I took my first forkful of pie and brought it up to my mouth I was bopped in the hands by a volley ball. I did manage to save the bite on the fork, but the rest of the container of pie hit the ground. Neither one of us saw it happen, but a ball somehow got loose from the octagonal corral where a couple of kids were hand batting it around. One of the older kids who was running the game was very apologetic, but the other one just hung her head. I brushed myself off and went back over and spent another 75¢ for a second slice. This time I kept my head up while eating.