"Skewed View"

It's Like owning your own bank for less than $100

2009-05-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to write a shameless plug for the "How To" book on vending I have written titled “Growing a Money Tree“. Among other things, our family has been in the vending business for 20 years. We have found it to be a remarkable business because of its simplicity, low investment, ease of operation, and steady all-cash return.

In many ways, it is just like owning your own bank where you get a keep 75% of the deposits. I first became acquainted with bulk vending when a guy came in and put a machine in my store for one of the national charities.

When he came in several months later and collected a huge chunk of money and walked out the door with a jaunty wave, I realized then, I was paying the rent on his business. At that point I began investigating bulk vending and found that no one wanted to talk ! It was like a secret club and they didn't want to let anyone else in. We eventually found out all the "good stuff" and got involved in the business, much to our benefit.

Here are some of the reasons bulk vending is so good for anyone… men, women, teenagers, fund-raising, fully employed, unemployed, housewives, retirees, and the list goes on and on.

1. Anyone can do it
2. Very low Investment
3. Low tech
4. Work from home
5. Full or part time
6. Almost recession proof

I wrote this book to give my son the direction he needed when he took over the business at a later time. He didn’t want to listen to all the pearls of wisdom I was giving him. The result is this book on vending and (if I do say so myself!) it gives an easy to follow step-by-step instruction and indoctrination into the vending business and anyone who follows it ( in my opinion) cannot help but be successful.

It contains all the facts, sources, tricks, and secrets you need to succede right away.

Particularly in today’s economic climate, I think this is an exciting opportunity for those who need to supplement or replace their income.

To find out more

Click Here

free hit counters

Finacial Accountability and its Demise

2009-04-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it is time we all just stopped dead in our tracks and reaccessed the way things are going. You know, catch our breath.

In an earlier blog I mentioned that the banks were raising rates to cover their bailout costs and that it seems like a “Ponzie” scheme. The more I thought about it, the angrier I have become.

That they would do this just to save their own asses instead of genuinely working with people makes my blood boil!

It is unfortunate that the fiscal policy makers that are largely responsible for this mess get to avoid taking the blame by no longer being in office.

If you or I committed a crime against the American People, we would still get prosecuted if we lost our jobs.

Much of this was egotistical hubris by under qualified leaders who wore blinders and with their own personal agenda.

I say this not for revenge or to point fingers as much as for the fact that if these parasites were to be held accountable to even the smallest degree, it may stave off future malfeasance at our expense.

What do you think?

Hidden Credit Traps

2009-04-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

Credit Tip...

While it may not show on any form and lenders are loathe to admit it, anyone who jumps on the bandwagon and cancels their home phone (land line) in favor of the “cellular revolution” may be harming their credit.

Having a home phone with a specific geographical location is considered a stability factor by most lenders of all sorts. Sales people for the lenders who are trying to get you to fill out an application likely will not tell you that it matters, but, when your application is reviewed it does factor in.

With a fixed location the lender knows where to contact you. They feel more secure if they were to have to collect or repossess something.

If you cannot afford a home phone, then you might have trouble paying whatever debt (loan payment) you are applying for. If all you have is a cell phone, you can block the collection calls and live anywhere! Loan and repo companies are not comfortable without someplace to reach you reliably .

This quiet, little known, almost hidden, and undiscussed factor can have a negative impact on your credit ratings, scores, and availability of existing credit.

You get a letter telling you your interest rate has gone up or, pay your balance down or, dropping your available credit line or, canceling your account altogether, and you haven't done anything wrong! You don't understand and they will not tell you why. You hear things like “review” and “policy” etc.

You didn't know that going completely wireless (locationless) with your home phone could hurt you!

So before you jump into all the flashy cell offers, think and research what the repercussions may be.

Financial Jackels and other predators

2009-04-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

I think that one of the saddest things that I have seen happen during the recession is the unscrupulous profiteering by so many companies just trying to promote their own particular venue to those who can least afford it through fear and misrepresentation. Some examples of these are:

All the phone calls and TV ads on extended auto warranty's that by and large are nothing but a scam, with high deductibles, very little real coverage, and no authority or association with any of the manufacturers or dealers. They imply that they are official and that something is happening with the warranty on your car, however, in many cases there is no warranty for anything to happen to. They are simply trying to get you to buy or subscribe to a service out of fear.

Another rather atrocious procedure are the new car dealers who promise that you can return a new car 3-9 months later with no damage to your credit if you lose your job. Well, if you traded in your old car when you bought the new car, are they going to give you your old car back when you turn the new car back in or are you going to be left hitchhiking to try and find that new job.

Something else I find unconscionable is the banks who borrowed our money, a loan from all of us, to stay in business raising our interest rates so they can pay us back and stay in business. That simply amounts to borrowing money from us and then robbing us for the money to pay ourselves back. They are hitting us twice. Sounds almost like a "Bernie Madoff" Ponzie scheme!

Because of all the uncertainty in the credit markets, we all need to be aware of the many phone calls and ads we get regarding credit cards, interest-rate reductions, and bill consolidations. Most of these are simply blind calls by unscrupulous agencies trying to get your personal information.

If you need to seek relief with any of these matters you're far better off doing your own research, being very wary, and in most cases, trying to deal with someone local and established like a Credit Union.

At some point we need to start trusting each other again. Starting with our neighbors, our friends, and our local businesses. It is likely going to take a great deal of grass roots reconstruction to get the economy moving again.

Make no mistake, the carnage will be massive.

The Great Depression 2009

2009-04-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

The world today has changed and become a place that few of us alive today recognize. The fact that Bush and his gang of thugs, Cheney, Rumsfield, and Rove have turned the United States into a Third World country and created a worldwide economic depression the likes of which he have never been seen within the history of the mechanized age.

Objectively examining the carnage they have left behind is less of an exercise in logic, than it is watching a horror movie come to life and growing exponentially, as it bears down on all of us.

In retrospect, it would seem that those of us who recognized a problem growing, perhaps should've spoken out louder, however, that became increasingly more difficult with the abridgment by the Bush administration of the Bill of Rights and the constitutional amendments, not to mention basic constitutional guarantees and liberties.

At the start of the Bush administration we had the largest budget surplus in history and at the end the largest debt.

We have spent ungodly sums blowing up the desert and rebuilding it for people that don't like us while at home people are losing their homes and have no health care. I'm all for helping the less fortunate, but to give them all these things at the expense of our own citizens is plain stupid!

With the cascading economic crash of the markets and a never ending war, it became blatantly clear that the Government's fiscal and foreign policies were flawed and being orchestrated by someone who had blinders on with no sense of reality!

We have now lost MORE U.S. lives in Bush's war over WMDs that did not exist, than we did in 9-11!

I, personally, never would have expected to see the world in its current state, short of a major nuclear or biological conflict.

I am like so many other baby boomers, who as we near retirement, find that we have lost everything we have worked for all our lives with no way to recover, and no way to replace jobs, pensions, and homes that we have lost .

There is no way to know for sure how we are going to get out the situation in which we find ourselves. The fact that a group of idiots in Washington can do more damage to this country and the world through their pride, arrogance, and generally sanctimonious self serving attitude, continues to amaze me.

The question remains, what the hell do we do now?

Salt Water, Salt Air, and Memories

2009-04-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

How long have all of us that have taken to the sea at one time or another wondered what it would really take to tie us down to land and forsake a love so powerful that it is legend in poem and song?

The answer is not so much a physical thing as it is mental, or at least for me that was the case. I suppose it all came down to the point where it was no longer important enough to fight the pain of moment and to let go of dreams long cherished..

Yes it's true!

It was not the pain of age and increasing disability but the pain of remembering when and where and why not now.

That I had allowed my life to become compromised by responsibility and ideals both noble and oppressive is not even a question for debate. In a vain inglorious effort to comfort those I cared for it became overtly apparent that "NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED".

It is quite sad that I feel that all the glories of my life are in the past and I look toward everyday with trepidation for the trials and tribulations it will surely bring.

Ahh, Horatio, but I was young once! And strong and alive, not believing in my own mortality and ready to conquer the universe.

It was magic then, a magic time and I, the weaver of spells.

And now the magic is gone. And I, only a pitiful reflection of who I once was..

And I miss the sea most of all...

War Stories...then and now...and always

2009-04-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

There are reasons to fight and serve, but they are much more infrequent than those in power would have you believe.

And then for the media to treat it like a sporting event and politicos to take the high ground is ridiculous. There is nothing civil about war ! There are no rules !

As a graduate of gladiator schools here and there and conflicts declared and otherwise, that makes me more qualified than most to tell war stories for I know the truth of them.

The truth is that war stories, REAL WAR STORIES, are waking nightmares that do not mellow with retelling or remembrance. They are horror stories that leave oozing, open scars on your soul and, if you are wise, you try not to salt the wound too often.

There is no glory in winning "great battles" because they are about pain and blood and death, horrors previously unimagined, with only the fact that you kill and mame better than your opponent and get to survive. No honor, no glory, only survival.

When I hear naive, idealistic young warriors without combat experience or their families speak of honor and serving their countries, it makes me sad to realize that for most of them enlightenment will come only at the moment of death or loss, if they are "lucky enough" to get to reflect for a few seconds. Many die ignorant of the fact that it was not for freedom, or right, but for the arrogance and power of those who do the ordering but not the dying. A flag in a case and half hearted condolences cannot replace a son, daughter, father, mother, brother, or friend. The flag rots, the case cracks, the memories fade and the pain dulls but 20 years later the loss remains. And what was gained?

In the heartbeat before the abyss I know they wonder why. They want to kiss the girl, hold the baby, hug a family member, eat a cheeseburger, laugh with a friend, at least one more time, not die in the dirt for someone else’s political or economic agenda.

They may go because of orders, ideology, or a hundred other "excuses" but they fight for their lives.

As far as the "Geneva Convention" and rules of war and engagement go, the American Revolution was fought largely by "terrorists" without uniforms.

Freedom fighter or terrorist? Depends on where you fight, who you fight, your point of view, and whether you win or not.

Winners write history and losers are always evil.

Where is Ross Perot when we need him?

2009-04-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

Do you ever wonder why it is that a company that is perfectly sound one day can the very next day be worthless all on the basis of opinion and rumor by some self-serving “idiot” .

During our recent financial meltdown, it has astounded me how many companies were doing well until a credit rating Bureau or self proclaimed expert said they were not!

They were still the same company they were the day before. The only difference was that some “Chicken Little” had gone about shouting that the sky was falling! (And they had probably sold the stock short or bought a whole bunch of put options just beforehand)

In this age of instant information, it is ridiculously easy for panic to gain a frightening momentum and turn into a detrimental wave. If these feeble minded pundits proved anything, it is that the economy is susceptible to rumor and panic and can therefore be manipulated particularly by the government and the news media.

While I don’t have any first-hand information or evidence that there was a conspiracy among various credit reporting agencies and the news media, it seems highly unlikely that the doomsday panic we have suffered globally could have come about without, at least, some complicity somewhere along the way.

Sometimes I watch these commentators and it appears that they get an evil thrill by churning an already unstable situation into yet more and more violent actions and reactions.

It is amazingly easy for someone on TV making $300,000 or $400,000 annually to give advice to the rest of us. However, it all too often, does not have any relevance to the real world that all the rest of us live in.

It is equally as sad that many of the politicians that also share the blame for the situation as it stands, are the first to shout about how they are trying to protect us. They are part of the problem to start with and simply trying to protect their own butts.

Very few of them have any real business experience dealing with payrolls, insurance, benefits, profit and loss, hiring, firing, or successful business management. Yet they stand tall and speak with bluster of their plans to fix the economy. How can they have any reasonable plan when, in fact, they really don’t know anything about the subject. They are for the most part, lawyers, many of whom have never practiced but simply went into politics and became the vampires of society.

Maybe we need to elect more businessmen with real experience to run the government and less lawyers who only complicate things for the benefit of their contributors and themselves. Anyone who goes to school just to learn how to take advantage of the rest of the population certainly should not be allowed in a position of power.

A lot of this stuff isn’t that hard, they just make it so to try to justify their existence. Perhaps Shakespeare had it right. “First, kill all the lawyers”.

"Realities 2009"

2009-04-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s been a couple of years since my last entry!

Right after my last log on we found out my wife had a aggressive form of Breast Cancer and our life turned into a nightmare caught up in a hurricane.

Between the surgeries and the chemo , we have barely been able to breathe. Now with chemo ending, we may not see the light at the end of the tunnel (I hear it was turned off in Washington due to budgetary problems), but at least the runaway train may slow down.

Hopefully, that will allow us to deal with all the other problems that have cropped up while we were dealing with Cancer .

The amount of money that the medications and treatments require is absolutely staggering. With no health insurance, it’s like playing “lets make a deal with your life” and scary as hell ! Overall the medical bills, so far, have exceeded over $500,000 !! (Yes folks, that a HALF A MILLION DOLLARS)

Some of the Doctors have been great but others have been blood sucking mercenaries. We have gotten bills from medical personnel and offices that we never even knew existed, talked to, or agreed to any services or payment. Everything they send is accompanied with a threat of some sort. To our credit, of lawsuits, collections, etc. What's worse is that they only seem to exist in the ether. No office, phone, or location. Just a auto answer “billing service” located in another state 2000 miles away

It is amazing how fast you can go from comfortably semi-retired to broke and almost homeless when they hold your life ransom. And, of course, what the Doctors and hospitals didn’t get, evaporated in the economic meltdown those idiots in Washington let happen through pride, hubris, denial, self righteous sanctimonious finger pointing (after the fact) and trying to avoid responsibility.

In answer to the question of whether we are better off now than 8 years ago the almost universal answer is a resounding NO! With our retirement accounts decimated and nonexistent and the economy in free fall things just get scarier.

The fact is that many of us feel that we are now living in a 3rd world country and it's profoundly sobering and ghosts of the “great depression” are popping up everywhere.

I will try to get back here on a regular basis from now on and start getting caught up.

That's it for now....

See you later.....

Here comes Summer and Reflections

2007-05-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

Well, as my Daddy used to say, Spring has sprung. And as summer rushes towards us like a freight train in the form of a heat wave, we are endeavoring to get the pool open and ready for the season. Before you know it, there will be 90° days when a dip in the pool is the only thing that seems to save you. All of the dead trees have been reborn on the hillsides in brilliant green topped by the dazzling blue sky. There are flowers everywhere. The world is a beautiful again!

When we were young It was the most exciting time of the year for us. It meant picnics and barbecues, rafting on the river, swimming in the lake, State Parks, going to the beach, drive-in movies, girls in bikinis, dancing In the sand, cruising on muggy nights, walking on the beach in the moonlight and a thousand other things lost to memory.

These days, without as much life to look forward to as we may have had when we were young, summer tends to be more of a period of relaxation and reflection. A time to heal from the wounds of the winter and once again find that time when “the living was easy”.

As I grow older I find that all of the seasons hold some sort of excitement for me, but summer is still the one that I hold most dear.

When I lived in Florida, it seemed to be summer all of the time and it was easy to lose touch with the reality of aging and time passing. I became a beach boy (or bum some would say) at 16 and lived this “endless summer” for most of my life. Now I live in the mountains and the change of seasons is not only dramatic but an ongoing reminder of the cycle of life. I feel to have reconnected with the world on many levels, however, I have, perhaps, bypassed an essential part of life’s journey. I don’t really know for sure!

Like Jimmy Buffett said ”I’m growing older but not up”.

So I suppose I will go check the chemicals in the pool and get ready for another exhausting ride in my floating lounge chair while working on my tan. It’s not exactly riding a long board in 8 foot swells, but it’s easier to read and not spill your beer in the process. Maybe next year I will look into going on tour with the “Seniors Semi-pro Suntan team“.

I always wanted to meet George Hamilton.

halcyon summertine

2007-04-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

I remember when I was about 13 spending a week in a cottage at the State Park at Myrtle Beach with my family .

Family vacation… In the summertime… Sea breezes, lemonade, and watermelon…

It was kind of a strange disenfranchised place but my brother and I loved it! The cottages did not have A/C (hey, this was the early 60’s ) and were about ¼ mile from the beach across the dunes and saw grass.

It was so very quiet all of the time with one notable exception.

The location of the State Park was on the ocean side of a coastal highway directly across from the local US Air Force Base. This was inconsequential most of the time, however, at 4 AM the jets would take off in pairs to the east (over the Park’s cottages) and they hit the afterburners and broke the sound barrier directly overhead.

The boom rattled everything down to the fillings in your teeth. YOU WOKE UP ! And just as you started to doze again, here came two more . BOOM BOOM BOOM.

Everyday we were up to watch the sun rise! It was glorious.

Unfair Mortgage Realities

2007-02-28T14:15:00.000-08:00

I was asked the other day by one of my home mortgage clients, why he did not qualify for the new loan that he had applied for. He was having a great deal of trouble understanding why he could not qualify for a mortgage payment that was less that he'd been paying in rent for the last 10 years.

I explained to him that the government had certain loan-to-value ratios and credit-to-debt ratios that he did not meet in order to get a loan that would be insured under one of the Federally guaranteed home loan programs. As he walked away looking quite forlorn, I could not help but feel bad for the gentleman because, in truth, he very probably could have afforded to make the payments.

He had simply fallen into the trap of the "powers that be" when they decided to make residential home lending homogeneous. A semi-arbitrary set of statistics regarding loan-to-debt and value ratios versus loan defaults were instituted to provide a standardization of debt packages so that they could be traded as securities in the financial markets.

I have seen this happen more times than I care to recap here and wish there were some reasonable solution for it. It appears that as the markets have expanded nationally and globally, the hometown Savings and Loan, that knew its customers and made personalized decisions, has fallen by the wayside.

These days, many times, you can get better interest rates, easier qualification, faster service, and lower closing costs with the Online Lenders and Banks for Mortgages and Equity Loans than with local Lenders.

It is likely that only a grassroots campaign soliciting Congress to revamp the system will make any noticeable difference. I think I will go and write my Congressman.

Is this the start of my Mid-life Crisis?

2007-02-24T13:58:00.000-08:00

Where do we go when dreams die?

Whether by time, age, contrary twists and turns of life, by natural causes, casual abandonment, or deliberate disregard in favor of more important or pressing realities.

Whether they quietly drift away into the mist or we crush them with an iron fist in a deliberate action that feels and sounds like a train wreck in our heads.

Is there a dream store where we can go to look at a list?
Replacements for the adventurer? The sailor? The race car driver? And so on…. Or, perhaps, just something "age appropriate" for the aging, the "in crisis," the infirm, the fat, the ugly, the poor, or just all those who have come to realize their lifelong dreams of "things to come" have passed them by and to continue to dream these false illusions of "things never to come" is just wasting whatever boring, mediocre, bland, mundane life we have left.

"Romance in the Rain"

2007-02-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

I remember back in the late seventies in Lauderdale there existed a favorite haunt of mine called the " Café Martinique".

It was just a small bar/restaurant attached to a motel on US 1 , however, it had the most charming courtyard populated with exotic birds in cages where you could dine.

As part of the dining area , there was a small portico with a couple of tables and a tin roof that leaked randomly when it rained.

Some of my fondest memories revolve around sitting there all afternoon in the rain, with one of the most extraordinary girls I have ever known, drinking wine, eating bread and cheese and fruit, and feeling like European sophisticates as we talked of much and nothing. We could just barely hear the jazz from the outdoor speakers over the rain on the roof and since we were the only people outside, it seemed a romantic world of our own just for lovers.

Twenty-five years later the world has moved on, we all have changed, and nothing is as it was in what many of us perceive as a golden time.

In specifics we remember very little of the past and perhaps, mostly, that is just as well.

It still rains in Fort Lauderdale, the Café is long gone, and I have become only a reflection of who I once was, however, I still remember the wine, the rain, and that extraordinary girl. She was unforgettable !

And she still is !

You can't go home again... but I can remember

2007-02-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

It’s true that you can never go home again. If for no other reason than time is a component of the universe (you know, that old time and space thing) and the place you remember cannot be revisited because it no longer exists in this time. Only a simulacrum and undoubtedly, a changed one at that.

Sometimes this reflection can be comforting enough to soothe our need but more often than not, it is hollow somehow. More gaudy, smaller, and less poignant with the connection frayed and weathered.

The little country store only covered 100 sq. ft. or so, but seemed much larger to a child. At seven and eight, your perspective is a little skewed. Just down the road from my Grandfather's farm, it sold Coke and Pepsi Cola, Nehi Grape and Orange Soda, and Yoo Hoo chocolate drinks, candy and cigarettes, and odds and ends to all the local farmhands and, of course, all us kids.

In a time and place when aluminum cans, pop tops and even twist off tops were unheard of. Everything came in glass bottles and had a deposit. The shed out back was stacked to the ceiling with cases of empty bottles.

The parking lot was paved with tens of thousands of bottle caps that constantly filled the bottle openers on the side of the two chest type cold drink coolers. It could be painful to walk across barefoot and cuts were common. It’s just that as children on a farm in the summertime, you were always barefoot. Breaking up dirt clogs in the fields with your bare feet was a favorite pastime.

In the halcyon days of youth, innocence abounded and responsibility was a concept yet to be discovered by us.

"Don't Call Me That!"

2007-02-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

Names,Labels, monikers, and other mis-descriptions...

First of all, let me start by saying I am generally a liberal and a Democrat.

That being said, I strongly object to being stereotyped by any type of label. I'm (and most folk I know are ) far more complex than that.

I really am a far left wing liberal, middle of the road moderate, and extreme right wing consevative on a wide varity of diverse subjects, and a whole lot of shades all across the spectrum.

Here are examples of just some of my points of view...

I believe everyone has the right to own a gun without being registered ( or targeted ) by any governmental authority and gun control means hitting what you aim at.

I believe most gun accidents happen because many people have no idea of what real damage can be done with a firearm. The media and the PTB always say "we are not going to air that footage because it is too graphic and could be upsetting". Well Hell, all that accomplishes is to keep the public ingnorant of the realities. Show the people what can really happen, let them get upset, and then, perhaps, not so many ignorant people will be so calvalier about buying and brandashing guns.

If you try to elimnate guns, then the criminals will go back to knives, swords, bows, etc. There was crime of all kinds ( murder, robbery, rape, etc. ) long before the invention of gunpowder.

Maybe the public will come to understand how horrific "WAR" truely is.

I don't generally believe in capitol punishment. If, however, you are are going to have a death penalty availible in the court system, then the jury members should have to attend the execution personally, look the "victim" in the eye, and each one throw a switch to kill the convict. If they cannot do so, then there should be no execution. To kill under color of "law" by pronouncement and have someone else do the dirtywork is just "State sanctioned murder". Murder by any other name is still murder. If you feel enough conviction to have someone killed for a crime, then you should have the "chops"to participate in the execution yourself.

I believe that procecutors should be barred from any elected office because that would eliminate the need to unjustly pile up convictions just to have a track record to run on. Then procecutions would be based on real merit and not just trying to build a reputation. Also the elimination of "plea bargining" would make all real criminals have to serve time if convicted and stop the expensive imprisonment of massive numbers of minor criminals in a trade off that leaves the worst free and continuing to victimize and be supported by the public.

I believe that term limits would help make "public service" re-materialize and "government service" disappear. That along with campaign finance reform, would go along way towards finding an honest politician.

I believe that there should be a cap on medical malpractice awards and anything beyound a certain point would turn the matter into a criminal situation with jail consequenses. A national medical licence and registry so incompetants and revokees could not relocate and do more damage.

I believe that by making congress subject to medicare, Social Security, and healthcare options like the rest of us, and discontinueing all their sweetheart retirement and healthcare perk packages, they would then get off their collective butts and make some real progress.

TV network insanity!

2007-02-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else get how stupid the television networks are?

Every 13 weeks or so they come out with a new spate of shows and invariably cancel any that I liked .

They say it’s because not enough people watch (in their limited focus groups or Neilsen polls ) for them to sell ads profitably.

Hello !! Knock, Knock, is anybody home at the networks?

My family (and everyone I know) has from 2 to 4 VCRs (or digital recorders) and the shows they really want to watch get recorded. I know this doesn’t rate with the PTB (powers that be) but it means that they regularly cancel shows that actually have a better chance at selling me something than some crappy cheap reality show or totally ridiculous biased "in depth" pseudo-news show.

I like News! Real News. I like to make up my own mind. And I like to be entertained.

After work I have a million (well a lot anyway) of things to do before I can call it a day. To this end, I record the shows I like and only watch those I am not particularly concerned with at broadcast time. It doesn’t matter if I have to pick up a Pizza then because if I miss it, it’s not important.

I don’t know what the answer is, perhaps a comparitive survey of popularity as opposed to just what is watched a what time, however, if the networks will pay me what they pay the Idiots they currently have in charge, I will be glad to try to figure it out for them.
I bet a lot of us have more on the ball and more common sense than they appear to…