Hot in Cleveland

A couple of decades ago, I was alternating daily between two good-sized mid-western cities.  I was very taken with the difference in atmosphere and tone from one to the other.  Admittedly, I didn't meet most of the residents of either place but what I did meet showed a sharp contrast between optimism and pessimism.  I was never able to see any good reason for the difference.  I guess it was just tradition but one town offered a we-can-do-it spirit while the other radiated a feeling of we-better-not-try-and-tomorrow-looks-worse-than-today.  

We like the choices of movies and tv shows available on Amazon and Netflix.  We can watch them on a computer, which after all does have a bigger viewing screen than the 10-inch tv which was our first set ever.  Still, there are a number of connection and cable possibilities that enable the computer screen to be duplicated on a television set.  If I had known we would have Vizio sets here, I would have brought the Roku player, which provides a very good connection to Amazon and Netflix.  Still, the Vizio set enables a computer connection and the transmission signal here is strong enough that we can stream shows.

We are getting so that some tv shows fit our schedules better than movies.  They are shorter and sometimes two episodes will fit comfortably in an evening.  Last night we tried "Hot in Cleveland" and thought it was pretty good.  We hadn't heard of the show before.  We often find out about some show about the time it goes into reruns.  I guess this one hasn't gotten to that point yet.  It was the premise that got us interested: three sophisticated actresses are flying to Paris for a holiday when their plane needs to put down in Cleveland.  At first, they are completely sure that the city is not worth bothering with but within hours and certainly days, differences from their normal California existence penetrates their consciousness.

The three enter a bar for a drink.  "Look!  Everyone in here is eating and nobody is ashamed!" "I'm ordering cheese fries and three beers.  Not light beers!" "Gasp!"  "Gasp!"

I am an easterner and have lived in the mid-west for more than 40 years.  There is not a big cultural difference but some stand out.  In my childhood, I never saw a dead deer splayed out across a car roof.  Travel is often enlightening and this series focuses on that fact.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety