Bill P wrote, “To:
Subject: Re: question my authority???!
Drew Morris wrote:
> Who is Eric Cartman?
Gad! Where do you live?”
Bill,
Quite frankly, I have better things to do with my time than watch television. I watched plenty as a boy. I try to spend under 50 hours per week on work, but that does not always happen. I am a corresponding member of two ACI committees and on four PCI committees and active in two (yeah, I know, I work for a precaster, so those are just self-serving). I help with the local MathCounts competition – not many hours a year, but stuff like that adds up. I have three teenagers at home, I am on the Board of the local historical society that manages three museums and am the closest thing to an artistic director the local amateur theater has, even though we have other volunteers who have degrees in theater, have been Equity actors or otherwise earned a living in theater, including two professors teaching theater currently (I’m not on stage). I hope you won’t think of me “as [a] narrowly educated geek who knows little outside [my] respective field” (quoting Robert K.). Pop culture is something I have given up. I sometimes wonder at the origin of catchphrases, but usually figure them out.
When visiting others, I am mesmerized by TV yet appalled at the time spent on blather and constant advertisements. Neither you nor David Fisher, who first mentioned Eric Cartman, nor any other regular poster strike me as one whose mind could be captivated by what I see on TV.
I do not mean this as an attack or to make myself holier than thou, you’re obviously a smart guy – obviously smarter than me, if for no other reason than you can find more free time than I (and you’ve kept up with personal information technology better than anyone else I know who does not work in the field), but… Where do you live?