Streaming and Streamlining 04/25/25

What channel is the Mets game on tonight? I find myself asking my son this question frequently. Just to get this straight, I pay for a premium cable package which includes the Mets on their own special network SNY (Sports New York). But this particular game is on Apple TV +. I’m not sure what the plus stands for but an educated guess is it stands for We Want you to Pay for Apple TV PLUS content you can’t get on Apple TV. I like to record games in advance and watch them later so I can fast forward through commercials (yeah, I know it’s kinda hypocritical after spending 40 years writing commercials, but hey, John does it too.) I also fast forward through inning breaks, pitching changes, replay reviews, etc. But on this particular Friday night (it was only the second game of the season for crying out loud) I came home, went through two remotes to get to my menu of streaming services and yes, indeed, there were the Mets on Apple TV+, but they had the final score of the game posted. I started to watch anyway and part of the way through I hit the wrong button on the remote (the streaming remote, not the regular remote) and when I got Apple + back, the game was no longer available. Hey Tim Cook, I’ve got a rebranding idea for you. How about calling it Apple TV - ? What’s that, too negative? It isn’t negative enough. But that is what television watching has become. Paying extra for everything you want to see. Is Netflix + and Hulu+ and Amazon + far behind? I think in the future, we’ll pay ala carte for every show. Wanna watch the news? That’ll be $1.50. Tonight’s baseball game? $2.00. Breaking Bad? you can have the whole 6 seasons for the low, low price of $55.99. Plus tax.

Our other comic deals with streamlining your possessions. As Eminem once famously put it, “I’m cleanin’ out my closet.” Both John and I do this from time to time and we got to thinking, have you ever owned something so hideous that nobody else would possibly wear it? I’m thinking about the African dashiki I wore in college circa 1971. If Jimi Hendrix could do it, why not me? Forget I asked that question, but I figured whoever picked that dashiki out of a Goodwill bin would be thinking, “What on earth was that guy (me) thinking? I wouldn’t be caught dead in that.” Same with my Keens rubber toed sandals. I wore them to work one time and this woman I worked with said, “You know what I call those sandals?” “No,” I replied. “Deal Breakers,” she responded. I was laughing too hard to be offended. And she later left advertising to write for Jimmy Kimmel.

So that’s it for today. John is out this week and I’m out next week so we hope the New 60 finds you each and every Friday. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. It’ll be there. And two weeks is too long to hold your breath anyway.

Have a great weekend,

Andy and John

Time to Come Home. 04/18/24

I am not proud to admit this, but for a guy who has traveled extensively, the thing I most look forward to is coming back home. You know Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Homeward Bound?” “Home, where my thought’s escaping, home where my music’s playin’ home where my love lies waiting silently for me.” Well my version doesn’t work musically but it sounds like: Home where I can have the food I want to eat when I want to eat it. Home, where I can have my seemingly 800 choices of network tv stations and streaming platforms, home where my gin and tonic lies waiting…” Note: my love doesn’t lie waiting silently for me since she’s on vacation with me. On second thought, I’ll just stick to blogging.

As we age we have to take so much stuff with us that we never had to take before. At least I do. Meds. In little plastic, daily pill packs. This is how I count how many days are left in the vacation. Three pill packs to go, three days to go. My wife drew the line on those long plastic containers with 7 compartments, labelled with the days of the week. She said: “Those are for old people.” I said, “What?” while adjusting my hearing aid. Okay that was just a joke. I don’t wear a hearing aid, but it’s coming soon, count on it. As for “looking old’” I have to face it, 71 IS old. There’s a reason John and I called this strip The New 60. It’s not 60 is the new 40, which is something 60-year olds tell themselves, but is also a complete crock. It’s just The New 60. This is what 60 feels like now. We can do much more that 60-year olds from previous generations. And I hope the same can be said for people in their 70’s. I certainly try as does my young partner who is only in his 60’s. That’s where the pill packs come in.

So dear readers, we have two wishes for you. That you continue to grow older and that you continue to resist it. Gotta run, time for my Jardiance. Have a wonderful weekend,

Andy and John