DE-SPN

The Worldwide Leader in Sports will have to cross me off its list of vassals. ESPN, along with just about everything else in the television world, got the boot last week when we had our cable TV disconnected. (We kept the cable Internet; what sort of barbarian do you think I am?)

The decision was made partially because even expanded basic cable has reached $50 a month around here, but mostly because we didn’t like what the TV Beast was doing to our family. Everybody had carved out their own little timeslots when the TV was off limits to anyone else and only sepulchral silence was permitted in the room known as the “living room” or, sometimes, the “family room.” Given that “living” was not possible under these circumstances, and the family wound up being banned from their room for at least part of every evening, it wasn’t hard to figure out the idiot box was causing most (all) of the problem.

This is the first time I’ve been without cable since . . . uggh . . . December 1978. As in, 28 years ago. I’ve had cable for 80% of my life. Figuring an average of $25 per month (it’s probably more than that), that works out to $8,400 spent either by me or my parents to keep a steady stream of programming flowing into my presence, 99% of which I never saw.

Can you tell I don’t think it was worth it?

I made it through my first cable-less weekend just fine. It didn’t hurt that I had way, way too much to do. Still, after one week, I’m feeling pretty good about our decision.