Wednesday.....Culture.....Dragnet

I'll tell you a little bit of my evening and finish it by leading into the topic I already had in mind. I sat down to write this and received a call from my wife from the tennis courts. One of the ladies had found a Golden Retriever wandering by an industrial plant. The dog looked to be about six years old. It had a collar but no tags. That's why they called me. The conversation went like this:

Me: Where did you find the dog ma'am?

Lady: Over by the industrial plant. It's such a beautiful dog...

Me: Just the facts Ma'am.

Me: Tags?

Lady: What

Me: Does the dog have tags?

Lady: No.

Me: Where is the dog Ma'am?

Lady: In my car.

She knew I meant business now. I transferred the dog to my CRV and set out to find the owner. As I pulled out, this lady who obviously loved dogs was yelling and waving to the dog:

Lady: Goodbye! I'll miss you!

Me: I'll miss you too!

You have to have humor in a job like this. I tried various names to see if the dog responded, Rover! Red! Buster! Barack! I knew it was a male because it didn't seem to be listening. I've seen situations like this before: overweight dog, not a whole lot of slobber. It hadn't travelled very far. There was a hill on the right and a hot dog shop on the left. If it had come from the left, it never would have passed the hot dogs. You pick things like this up over the years. First, I went to the station to let the locals know I was on the case, and then up on the hill stopping at one run down crack house after another, Did you lose a Golden Retriever? They knew I wasn't just a good neighbor. It was getting dark and I had already missed the first period of the Penguin game on radio. I had it on in the car but I think the dog was a Capital fan so I turned it off. The Pens were leading 5 zip. No use upsetting it more than it already was. One lady I questioned kept going on and on about her wonderful Dachshund Lab mix. Just the facts Ma'am. She kept on going. There's not a lot of respect for authority anymore. As I was leaving she asked me if I saw the movie Marley yet.

Me: Does the dog die in the end?

Lady: Yes.

Me: I won't see it then. Old Yeller ruined me for life.

This has been a true story about my night tonight. Only the names and facts have been changed. I found the owner. I stopped a man on the main street and he was one of the biggest lawyers in town. No lie. He made some calls gave me a lead about a dog named Sinbad that breaks out once in a while. It was him. When I got to the house, the family was just pulling in...soccer all night. I hate that game.

My topic for the blog was going to be the influence that television has had on us over the years. I wrote a blog about 24 a while back on how I don't' like the concept of television producers being a primary influence on how we handle terror. Leave it To Beaver, Ozzie And Harriet, Andy Griffith and other family comedies are what I grew up with. I don't think I can ever remember an instance where God was acknowledged. Bonanza certainly did not refer to God and Twilight Zone went the other way. I'm not going to beat a dead horse here but television influenced me in many ways. It told me what was cool. Everybody Loves Raymond has already eliminated me from being of any benefit to humanity. In the 70s , M.A.S.H educated us on how both sides in a war are mad. This naivety continues to plague us today. All In The Family sent us on our way with the mind numbing dialogue of the politcally correct. The 80s gave us Dallas which must have given Tarantino some Postmodern ideas as Bobby Ewing was killed in a car wreck but returned the next season as ratings determined that the wreck would all be a dream of Bobby's wife. Happy Days was perfect as not only did it talk about the 50s but that's about as far back as the people were capable of going without getting bored. Are today's Reality Shows, reality or not? I say they are, and that is quite unfortunate. The latest and lowest of multimedia education is Two And A Half Men. Now, conceivably I could be persuaded to backtrack on any of these comments except this one. When you throw a child into a comedy of this nature, you have gone too far. We all have made decisions in life and that is our responsibility and ours alone, but a child depends on others. This is the key issue in the same sex marriage controversy. By granting the legitimacy of this union and forcing it's acceptance, we would be leaving an entire generation of children defenseless as to God's commands on marriage. His long suffering and patience with us has been this nation's hope. If this agenda succeeds, we are without hope.

The search for the dog's home was real but I did change a few things. Sinbad is not the dog's name. Yes, it was an industrial plant but the surrounding area is beautiful. The conversation with the lady about her Dachshund Lab was very enjoyable and it also was a beautiful dog. I doubt that the Golden was a Caps fan. I don't hate soccer. Unfortunately, the part about Everybody Loves Raymond is probably true.