Channeling frustrations

Here at the Lazy 'C' Ranch, where the dear and the cantaloupe play, Sunday evenings are pretty much reserved for all of Peggy's favorite TV shows - "Once Upon A Time," whatever's on Masterpiece Theatre, and this new "Penny Dreadful."  I find another corner to watch football or baseball or I don't know what-all else, and all is well.

We don't live in North Dakota, which I guess is pretty much the northern end of Tornado Alley, the section of the United States where those big twisters bedevil the land and its residents.  But if I did live in North Dakota, I know these two things to be true:  A) I would still be an Alabama fan, and 2) I would pay attention when the news came on and told me of an impending twistolola that was about to take me and the whole farm and send us twisting after Miss Gulch.  I would be glad to get such warnings.

But, last Sunday, as ABC unrolled the thrilling finale to this year's twisted ham-fisted melodrama thrilling series of well-acted non-piffle OUAT shows, KSFY-TV out in Sioux Falls broke in with news of a real life tornadic outbreak which was about to rudely interrupt their favorite show.

And people reacted to this by 1) thanking the station for saving the lives of many who might have been affected  or 2) calling and caterwauling that they were missing vital moments of the show, and how could they get through the rest of their lives without knowing that the Mayor was eating children alive, or whatever it was that she did.

Nancy Naeve in regulation
anchor pose

The answer, my friends, is 2.  They called to complain that meteorologist Shawn Cable (the greatest name for a TV performer since "Charlie Channel") had busted up their fun, and the next thing you know, here comes news anchor Nancy Naeve to give them what-for and how-do-you-do.

Sheriff Lobo (right)

I remember the day that American inaugurated former poor movie actor Ronald W. Reagan as president, and the Iranians set our hostages free, and the father of a person I know called Channel 11 to complain that the news of those hostages coming home was knocking "Sheriff Lobo" out of his evening lineup.  We didn't know it then, but it turned out that Reagan himself would have preferred to watch "Sheriff Lobo" too.