Warming up the set

When I was a kid, I liked having the job of "warming up the set." It may have been a hold-over from when my parents were young, and the television actually took a long time to have sound and picture. I think ours might have taken a short while to be ready, but it was more about the ritual of sitting down together to watch something special. This was intentional television viewing, something I still try to practice today. As in, I am turning on the television to watch something I have previously selected and consider entertaining enough to be worth my time. Rather than something I sometimes do but am never satisfied by, which is decide that I am bored and flip on the set hoping to find something to cure that boredom.

It's a little early now, but I have that "warm up the set" warm fuzzy feeling about tonight's debate. It's mostly Schadenfreude, I must admit, as I expect Palin to be pretty much of a total failure. I have more of a "Saturday Night Live" feeling about this debate than a "NewsHour" one. But in any case, it is fun to have an excited anticipation building today in my household.