two hundred dollars a day plus expenses

I watched one million episodes of season 1 Rockford Files today while I hand stitched the binding on my quilt. (thank you, library!) I used to watch that show all the time when I was a kid (after school, 4pm). It struck me as I was watching the very first episode how few shows now have a working class smartass as the lead. He was not rich, money was an issue. (he almost never got paid and almost always got beat up! the private eye life is not for everyone.) I was trying to think of other hour long detective dramas set in L.A. and could only come up with Shark (which made me laugh because 2 seconds after I thought "Shark" there was James Woods on Rockford as a skinny patricidal nutcase) and Numbers -- both of which either have wealthy characters (Shark) or money don't mean a thing, although if we were to create an algorithm to track it we'd have to conclude that we're quite comfortable characters (Numbers). I'm sure it makes some kind of sociological sense that there are no poor people on tv with the current economic crisis, but I am too tired to put it all together tonight. (hah! assuming that if I were wide awake I could!) One of the most interesting things about Veronica Mars was that they did try to address the have/have not divide.

ANYWAY. I thought of a couple of comedies that feature non-rich characters (Ugly Betty, My Name Is Earl) -- I'm sure there are more and I'm just not thinking of them. I don't watch many sitcoms, maybe that's where people of moderate means reside on network television. Other things that stood out watching a show from the 70's in the 00's: Rockford never wore his seat belt! (did you know that James Garner did his own stunt driving?) Also, he smoked, but it was no big deal. He didn't do it all of the time, it was just something he did sometimes -- it seemed completely natural, which would be IMPOSSIBLE today. Some of the clothes are really funny, but honestly the fashion wheel has swung around far enough that most of the women's clothes, anyway, are pretty close to fashionable right now.

I was going to write more about something else, but since I am sneezing my fool head off I am going to go to bed instead. But I do have to mention one very fun thing that happened tonight -- I went with my sister to Barnes & Noble because she had about 4 gift cards with small amounts left on them that were burning holes in her wallet. I agreed to go with her since I was at the point in my cold medication cycle where I felt GREAT (usually about 45 minutes before the drugs wear off completely) and wanted to go somewhere because although my temperature wasn't elevated, I did have cabin fever. (it snowed today! not enough to keep anyone from opening their cabin door or anything, but it was pretty.) Anyway, I was feeling pretty good after feeling not great all day, and I walk up to one of the tables at the front of the store and see the Maira Kalman book that I've been waiting for at the library (The Principles of Uncertainty) ... and it was only 3.98!!! There was only one, which immediately went into my hot little hands. It has an almost invisible flaw in the dust jacket, which is the only thing I can see wrong with it. Now I have THREE spaces available on my hold list, which I can't think about too much right now or I will never get to sleep. It's a beautiful book, I can't wait to dive in.

Happy Groundhog Day!