WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH? 

     Two days ago, I spent six hours with a ten-year-old patient. This is a smart kid who was not feeling any physical pain. He was however having a problem with boredom. To help pass the time we played some video games, then he watched several hours of TV. I was able to catch enough of the programing for kids his age to get a taste of what they have available to them in the name of entertainment. Man, oh man, I’d hate to be hiring people who had had a diet of this junk while they were growing up. 
     Some of it was cartoons and some of it was live actors. Most of the plots revolved around conflicts of some kind or another. In nearly every case the kids worked out the situations despite the bumbling efforts of the adults. Mostly the male adults. 
     Some of the programs featured black families or black communities with a few clownish people of other ethnic origins thrown in. I was surprised at the black on black racist content. The dialogue was mostly mind-sapping clichés – it certainly didn’t show black people, or anyone else, as being anywhere near smart, articulate, or respectful of anyone who was any of those things. 
     Whatever happened to good old Wile E Coyote, who would encounter at least thirty life-ending encounters per thirty-minute show and be alive tomorrow at 3:00.

TELEMARKETERS ARE GETTING DESPERATE 

     Between my cellphone and my landline phone I get at least several telemarketing calls each day. I’ve signed up for whatever don’t-call-this-number sites and services that are available and I call-block all numbers from callers that get past that. The problem is that I will get a call from the same telemarketing entity several times per week and each call will come from a different number. 
    It is somewhat interesting. To start with I am listening to a recorded voice, or a real person following a specific script. If it is a real person anything that forces them away from their script discombobulates them to the point of not being able to answer a simple question. 
    Occasionally, if my life is lacking in entertainment at that moment, I will lead one of these callers on until I get to a real person, where I will ask some questions as would any sane buyer. This is not appreciated, and here again, the caller will only be able to respond to whatever fits into their script. 
     But yesterday telemarketing reached a new low. I got a call and the whole pitch was in Chinese, or some other oriental language. No English at all. I would like to talk to the originator of this marketing strategy. Whoever it is, they don’t mind playing the long odds. 
     I’m now wondering how soon before I start getting calls in Swahili or somesuch.