Tag: television

Posted in 2026, life

I Cut The Cable TV Cord….

Posted on by nancyb422

…..and my husband is freaking out.

Can anyone relate? It has been years of steadily increasing rates for so many channels we don’t even watch! Who needs 25 music channels? 50 sports channels? We don’t. We watch (no, he watches) 1 local news station 15 minutes in the morning followed by 15 minutes of ESPN. In the evening, after watching a streaming episode of our latest show, the tv goes to Big Bang Theory where it’s background noise for the next hour. Of course right now, weekends are football – but on Red Zone! Streaming!

I received the bill for this month – $307! Our internet and modem rental is $110 of that.

I had enough. I called Comcast and told them I wanted to cancel. Initially they said “let’s see if we can save you some money”, but I said “No, the latest increase was just the final straw”. We’ll be returning the cable box and modem this afternoon.

We have a Vizio Smart TV and pay for Netflix, and Hulu/Disney/ESPN and I just changed those to “with ads”.

I went to a class at the library two years ago on “cutting the cord”. I took notes and have all the options typed up.

A good option is Hulu TV because it gives us CBS which has the local station we like, four ESPN networks, and a DVR feature. When Survivor and Amazing Race come around, we’ll have to sign up for Paramount+ for the time period. Or maybe YouTube TV is a better option because it just occurred to my Hulu carries ABC network shows, not CBS network! Learning, still learning.

He said to me, “with the cost of live tv, we’ll only save $100 a month”. Oh how comfortably we live….

Moving forward, each month when I pay the internet and modem rental, I’m going to take $100 that would have gone to shareholders demanding higher returns, middle management, and CEO working towards their golden parachutes and put it in an envelope in my safe for US not THEM.

Have you cut the cord? What do you use for an alternative live tv source? Did you have to drag anyone kicking and screaming with you?

Posted in 2025, Memories

Baby Naming and Brush with Fame

Posted on by nancyb422

I was pregnant with our son and due in July of 1990. I found out we were having a boy around the fifth month. I admit I cried because I was not sure I could raise a boy. I had wonderful names for girls but nothing for a boy.

I knew already that his middle name would be John and my husband and I struggled to agree on a first name. It had to flow for me. It had to have more than one syllable, because “John” was one. He threw “Paine” at me but it thankfully didn’t pass the syllable test. Everything sounds so common.

One Saturday morning while we were shopping at Safeway, I saw the People magazine cover…

My inspiration

Besides the gorgeous JFK Jr, there was Kathie Lee with her son CODY. Hmmm, Cody John! That was it!

It was appropriate in a way that his name would come from her because I was home on the couch during my first trimester after emergency surgery from a ruptured cyst. In fact, I found out I was pregnant in the emergency room! I had never watched her before and I looked forward to watching her and Regis until I went back to work in January.

It came full circle when we moved back to Connecticut and I went to work at the local ABC affiliate television station in New Haven. I worked for National Sales inputting commercials bought by the New York sales agencies. Ugh, such tedious work, I had carpal tunnel within the first month. But one perk was being invited to the ABC luncheon at The Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of Rockefeller Plaza by the National Sales Manager.

I don’t remember much about the afternoon besides the fact that Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford were there and we all had the opportunity to have our picture taken with them! People were shuffled in and out of standing between them. When it was my turn, the Polaroid camera ran out of film so we had to wait for it to be replaced. There was my opportunity! I told them how I named my Cody after seeing Kathie and their Cody on the cover of People magazine. The loved the story. Of course I didn’t have a picture of my Cody because I was carrying a small purse. Frank on the other hand, reached into his blazer pocket and took out pictures of Cody and Cassidy to share with me. He was so proud of them!

Me with Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford 1995 or ‘96

It was definitely a memorable day and I’m happy I was able to share my story with them.

Posted in 2025, hobbies, leisure time, life, Politics, relaxing

Madam Secretary

Posted on by nancyb422

The television show, Madam Secretary, had been on my Netflix Watch List for a very long time. Just when I went to start watching the six season show in early April, I discovered it was leaving Netflix forever on May 14th!

97 episodes. Could I do it? That would be an average of 3.5 shows a day! Highly unlikely. But I started watching anyway.

As my bedtime approached last night, I had managed to get through 4 complete seasons – 67 episodes. Many days it was 2 episodes a day, one at lunchtime and one in the evening. One rainy Saturday, I managed FIVE! It wasn’t totally “unproductive time” as I could knit and watch, and many times, scroll on my phone and watch.

Obviously, I really enjoyed the show! Since it ran for six seasons I felt it must be a somewhat realistic look into the federal government and the State Department in particular. Handy for our current situation!

I learned of how we aid(ed) countries around the world and I learned what you see on the surface is not always what’s happening below. Foreign Ministers, corrupt governments, and who’s helping who behind who’s back.

I enjoyed Téa Leoni as Elizabeth McCord, the Secretary of State. A former CIA agent, she was realistic, but could be emotional, she could be tough but remained diplomatic. Her Department staff as well. Assistant, speech writer, press secretary, foreign policy advisor, chief of staff, no idea of many of these positions before this show, and now my eyes and ears perk up when I see or hear those words.

Tim Daly as her husband who was a professor at the war college (and was recruited for some CIA work), and her three children, also grew on me. When the show began, she had been tapped as Secretary when the current one’s plane blew up over the Atlantic Ocean (season one’s mystery!). They had to move from their farm in Virginia or somewhere, to Washington DC, so culture shock and living in a fish bowl hit them hard. They learned to navigate it over the seasons.

This morning, my Netflix popped up and Madam Secretary was gone.

I still have 2 seasons (30 episodes) to watch and according to my local library’s catalog, they have all five seasons on DVD. Lucky me because I still have a portable DVD player! I’m going to give myself a little break before I head to the library to pick up Season 5.

Have you ever watched the show? Did you like it? Think it was realistic or not? Let me know!