What it's been like in Pennsylvania in 2024

 My home state is actually a commonwealth, but if you call it a state, only dorks like me will point that out. You'd think that living in a ... place ... that's the center of the political universe for so many months would sate the lust for attention we all have in some form.

Voting for me went smoothly. (Yay burbs!)

Not for me. A geezer of over 65 now, I watch so little broadcast TV that there are often appealing photographs of Big Stars on magazine covers and I have absolutely no idea who there are. Shows that have lengthy runs come and go and I've never seen an episode even when they're on channels I get for free with my rabbit ear antenna, which has a piece of aluminum foil wrapped on it to pick up more. 

When I'm not streaming on Netflix or Amazon, the only two services I have, I'll watch the national evening news and local news occasionally, and Jimmy Kimmel's monologue. The only show on network television I watch in full is Jeopardy! The regular version only. It makes me feel old when the contestants don't know the answer to something that is, to me and others of my generation, common knowledge. A couple of nights ago, the question was about what James Cagney mushed in Mae Clarke's face in the 1931 movie, Public Enemy. None of the three knew.

 

On Jeopardy! these days, in my part of Pennsylvania—the crucial Philadelphia western suburbs—there were, last night (Monday, November 4) a total of 22 commercials. Of those, nine were for either Trump or Harris, eight were for local races, and just five were for "normal" things like cars and prescription drugs. The ads are meant to induce at least anxiety, and often outright fear. I hit Mute on the remote and block all but a sliver of the screen with my knee, but some of the negativity seeps through. Bill Clinton was the first to target ads to the states that mattered. Apparently, it works. Thanks, Bill!

For uninteresting health reasons, my diet has been somewhat restrictive and disciplined for a few years now, and I haven't touched a drop of alcohol for two years, even though drinking was never a problem for me. Today, however, I went nuts in the grocery store and bought things to indulge in, stopping short of alcohol. It's as if I've gotten over a lengthy illness.