Top Banana

Well, Bush delivered the State of the Union address, last night. I watched some of it, but ended up watching Monday's episode of "Heroes" that I had recorded. My reasons for not watching were not political, in fact, there were two specific reasons that I didn't make it through to the end.

The first reason has to do with childhood memories. When I was a kid growing up in South Carolina, my family lived on the edge of 'nowhere' and 'almost somewhere,' but more into 'nowhere'- just not in the middle of it. Television consisted of whatever we could receive with the antennae attached to our roof, which meant several versions of the same networks (the big 3) and maybe an independent station or two. The only 'cable' in our area was made of steel and never used for transmissions of any type. So, whenever the President had something to talk about, that's all that was on. Period. As a kid, having the President on television was like being punished for something somebody else did. A punishment that seemed to last forever and lingers, to this day. Now,with hundreds of stations at my disposal, I feel almost obligated to switch to something else when the President is on. However, I will admit that I feel a little guilty when I change the channel because, as an American, I should put aside my differences and partake in hearing the President speak as he must. Which brings me to reason two:

When Bush is on and he's got his cronies around, I always think of "The Banana Splits" (Cheney really reminds me of Snorky) and, sometimes, I can even hear "The Tra La La Song" in the background. It's at that point that I say, "Uh-oh, Chongo!" and grab the remote.