����I've finally figured out what's wrong with the Gen X'ers--none of the stars of the children's programming THEY watched when THEY were young were armed.

����I mean we're talking about people who when they were little watched those sissy puppets on Sesame Street. Oh, and let's not even begin to talk about that wuss Mr. Rogers and those sad, sad cardigans, eh.

����Now when I was a kid ...

����*Insert sound of Marn's cane smacking the floor in emphasis*

����Now when I was a kid many of the stars of my favourite kid's programs packed heat, eh. But then when I was a young kid, it was all about cowboys and Indians and it was all very black and white. Literally. TV wasn't in colour then.

����I was thinking about that because I heard yesterday that Dale Evans, the woman who once stood between me and My One True Love--Roy Rogers--died yesterday.

����Dale Evans and her spousal unit Roy Rogers are the earliest television memories I have. My sisters and I all had our cowboy outfits and spent almost all our free time acting out cowboy adventures.

����The black and white television we watched divided the world very clearly into good guys and bad. The good guys always won in the end. They always got the cool girls, too, and when they did they lived happily ever after.

����Almost all of you around me in Diaryland grew up a generation later than I did, no black and white for you. When you were young you watched everything from Sesame Street right through to My Little Ponies and Transformers.

����I played cowboys; you played Star Wars.

����The ads I saw on TV when I began watching were mostly aimed at my parents; the ones you watched cynically exploited you at an age when you were much too young to know what was going on. Heck, more than a few of the shows you watched when you were young were built around toys; the whole point of the show was to make you consume.

����I watched some mindless TV when I was young. But you know, the one thing they didn't think to do was to make me feel from when I was very small that I could find happiness if only I owned the right toy.

����Not that they haven't tried to make up for it since.

����Not that I have always resisted their lure.

����Well, that's enough about that, don't you think? After all, this started out about TV programming, not advertising, eh.

����So Dale Evans, here's to you. I'm grateful that the first woman I remember seeing on television was shown as a partner to her husband, and shared in his adventures.

����I'm equally grateful I didn't see the off-screen you until years later, didn't hear how strenuously you used to deny the value of your career to your life and sense of yourself.

����Happy trails? I'm not sure they always were, because I know you went through some tough times in your life.

����But you know, I'll bet it wasn't boring, eh.

--Marn

SETI@home

There has been an outpouring of sympathy for the plight of one small moose. The incredibly cute and deeply talented Paul of Rilting fame has even made a button for the Do It For The Moose Campaign.