Too Many Famous and Infamous People

When I was a lad, there were only three main TV channels broadcasting (ABC, CBS, and NBC) across America. In addition, we had two local channels. TV Guide had information on the television shows and articles on shows and actors or musicians. There were hundreds of famous people, that today’s viewers wouldn’t even have a clue drying to figure out who they were and what they did.

Most basic cable systems now offer 20 channels, while expanded basic can have as many as 70 channels. Around the world there are approximately 27,831 TV channels. In addition there are ever expanding video streaming companies. We no longer get our news on the nightly news, we get it twenty-four hours every day, almost every single minute with “breaking news” items appearing on our computer monitors while we lie back and forth on Facebook and other social media sites.

I’ve enjoyed the run of Big Bang Theory, but could care less about Roseanne and a Roseanne-less sitcom. How about you? Each morning my wife and I open the newspapers and work on the day’s crossword puzzles, take the Trivia Quiz, and read about what happened on this day in history, as well as who died or had a birthday. Peter Noone was seventy-one today (November 5th) by the way. Mostly we don’t know the names or who these people are or what group they performed with. What do I care about a member of the alternative rock band Radiohead or who the nosy neighbor was on Disney’s K.C. Undercover?

I do care about K.C. Undercover’s neighbor, Jodie Goldfeder. She happens to by my niece Jaime Moyer.

Okay, so . . . actually I do care about K.C. Undercover’s neighbor, Jodie Goldfeder. She happens to be my niece Jaime Moyer, but that’s beside the point. She is hilarious and came up through the ranks with Second City, so you know she is really talented . . . and deserves to be famous. – imdb.com/name/nm1210381/bio

And actually I do like to keep track of alternative rock bands, but I can’t figure out what makes them alternative anymore . . . or how they rock.

News anchors come and go these days . . . and the revolving door White House press people just drive me crazy. I miss Walter Cronkite . . . he seemed to know what he was talking about and you just felt like you could trust his words. Let me say that, again. Trust his words.

In the old days, as late as 2002 there was the Tonight Show, which introduced new talent and catered to the established stars of the day . . . and then opposing talk shows became more and more important and the talent war commenced as to who could book who as a guest.

It used to be that my friends could turn to me and ask, “Who recorded that song about that cave man?” or “Who played the father in To Kill a Mockingbird?” or “Who was Sheldon’s friend from India?” I used to know these answers in an instant, but now I have too much information to sift through and it takes time. Who can keep track of all today’s famous people . . . and who can keep track of the British royalty and who they marry? And what about the super-stars of yesteryear? How come we never hear about Gunsmoke’s Matt Dillon? Danny Bonaduce of the Brady Bunch? Why no further news about Jim Jones and his Jonestown Massacre? You never hear about Nikita Khrushchev and people have almost stopped quoting John F. Kennedy.

I miss Walter Cronkite . . . he seemed to know what he was talking about and you just felt like you could trust his words.

There are just too many people and events to remember, but the good news is that scientists are working on the next step of memory and data storage. Microsoft’s soon to be famous researcher Karin Strauss and Luis Ceze from the University of Washington are working on the possibility of archiving data in DNA. Can you imagine a thumbdrive perhaps at hand in your actual thumb? – spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/dna-data-storage-gets-random-access

My dream is that next year I can put my thumb in an appropriate place and gain access to information like: James Arness who played Marshal Dillon died June 3, 2011, in Los Angeles. Danny Bonaduce, now a re-tired celebrity boxer was recently irritated that a TV show is planned covering the renovation of the Brady Bunch home and he wasn’t asked to play the host, even though he was a member of the Partridge Family. Forty years ago Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) was nearly killed in a savage attack while on a fact-finding mission into Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple cult. She told “Sunday Morning” about how that formative moment changed her life. – cbsnews.com/news/jackie-speier-on-surviving-the-jonestown-massacre-jim-jones-peoples-temple-cult/

Famous people are every where . . . more than I can identify in the morning newspaper for sure . . . even when I have coffee with Alexa. But think about a future with even larger populations and most of them celebrities. I foresee a time when we will share our thumbs and exchange information to keep track of people whether they were famous or no longer famous.