The worst thing about winter is the darkness. Most of us go to work while it's still mostly dark, and get home just in time to see the last of the sunlight disappear.
That's depressing.
Even more depressing is the intelligence-insulting barrage of nonsense on network television, the latest bad news about the economy, President Barack Obama's approval ratings, and the latest scandal or screw-up among Republican presidential candidates.
It's going to be this way in Iowa for the next three months, although the politicians will disappear from Iowa on Jan. 4.
So, what's an Iowan to do?
There is good news for those of us who are pondering how to get through the winter without having to spend hours avoiding lame talk shows and sit-coms and dull and predictable cop shows.
But there is also bad news: You will actually have to do these things; you can't just watch.
Here is my list of what do to this winter:
1. Jeopardy Google. You watch Jeopardy (record or TIVO it if you cant be in front of a TV at 4:30 p.m.), then Google (or, if you prefer, Bing) any answers you do not know. I have been doing this recently. I learned that it's harder to read a play script than watch a play (Six Characters in Search of an Author), and that that Copernicus dude was one smart guy .
2. Give boredom the Dickens. I learned on Jeopardy that it was actually Charles Dickens who first used the word "boredom." (Sorry, Charlie: I got the answer wrong.) It's time, of course, for your annual reading of "A Christmas Carol." If you prefer to see it, the Jim Carey version is spectacularly true to the Dickens text, even showing the way the seeing-eye dogs led their owners out of Scrooge's way, and capturing in pictures the words Dickens used when he described the ghosts.
By the way, it is also a good time to learn about how Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol." He decided to do so at first, because he was broke. But as he thought about the story, it came to life in his mind; the biographers have documented how Dickens was seen walking though the streets of London, thinking and even crying as he became the first to learn the lessons of Ebenezer Scrooge.
In a year when there are revolutions all over the world, this would be one time when it's not a literary crime to say "best of times, worst of times." The lessons of the French Revolution should guide the people who are trying to change the governments in their country. I hope that they are reading more than the first line of "A Tale of Two Cities." It would be a good time for us Americans to read it, too.
3. Write a poem for a dictionary. My new pals at OEDLIF (Omnificent English Dictionary In LimerickForm) have undertaken a giant task: Defining every word in the English dictionary with a limerick. With the help of thousands of erstwhile poets, the writers are compiling a very unique collection of poems that define words. Read their definitions, and feel free to try your hand as at rhyming defining.
4. Find an old song. Thanks to Google and You Tube, just about every song you remember from your childhood is now available for free on the Internet. Yeah, I suppose there are copyright issues involved somewhere, but getting busted by Interpol for intellectual property theft would certainly make your winter less boring. Right now, I am listening to "Drop Kick me Jesus" the 1976 classic by Bobby Bare, and Jim Groce's "Junk Food Junkie." I can be serious too: "Blind Man in the Bleachers" is playing now. "Are the Good Times Really Over" is next.
Whatever song you remember, you can probably find it. Go look.
Give insomnia a try. For the past few years, allergies keep me awake all night in August and it takes months to get back into a normal sleeping routine. While insomnia is not, generally speaking, a healthy lifestyle, you can see the world in a new light at 2 a.m. Next time you find yourself sleepless, go someplace where the only light you see is the stars. If you can't leave the house, try watching the old "Combat" TV show between 2 and 3 a.m. on the METV network. That show from the early 60s captured a lot of the feelings, and a lot of history, of World War II. I have learned about German mountain units that wore white camouflage uniforms and "Firefly" explosives placed in enemy gas tanks. I thought at first those were fictitious; they are actually a part of WWII history.
See the sun. While the above are among the best ways to make the use of your indoor time, it is still necessary to get yourself outside when you can. Our society is suffering from a desperate lack of personal sunshine. If you need an excuse to get out of your office, let me know. I will see what I can do to help get you out of the office for an hour or two.
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