Cutting Out the Middleman
L. Penseur
April 1, 1999
My good friend and colleague Preston Jones dropped by Chez Penseur the other night on one of his periodic trips to the East Coast. No doubt stimulated by travel, he proposed doing something unusual and exciting, like watching TV. Naturally I agreed at once; such is the Gallic hospitality of the Penseurs. My people call it Ie noblesse oblige. Well, I regret to say that Preston bit off a little more than he could chew. After about four hours of Simpsons reruns and "Must See TV" (which I see now was a toxic combination for the novice) he was curled up in the corner of the couch, whimpering softly. I must admit to some error. I did not immediately spring to his assistance, administer sedatives, coffee, or even a washcloth; instead, I changed the channel. To pbs. I expected to find, in public television's unceasing effort to broadcast the best of American cultural achievement, the regularly scheduled bbc drama or comedy or what-have-you. Instead I beheld a man (or was it a woman?) dressed in casual clothes, pacing around a stage decorated with soothing pastels (or was it comforting earth tones?) and potted palms. A window behind him or her opened up to a panoramic skyline of San Francisco (or New York, or was it Gotham City?). The audience was obviously chosen along strict multicultural guidelines and represented the maximum possible diversity of culture, age, race, color, and, for all I know, creed. Yet they all looked eerily alike. This was possibly because they all shared an expression of rapt wonder. True, occasionally the director would zoom in on someone weeping quietly or, more likely, shaking their head in a lovely combination of amazement and joy. For the most part, though, everyone was using the expression that you would ...
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