His first son was a disappointment

Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, died on this day in 1971.  In January of 2011, Australian researchers published a study of 8,800 subjects that found that watching TV led to an earlier death.

“There’s nothing on it worthwhile, and we’re not going to watch it in this household.” -- Philo T. Farnsworth, to his son.

Today’s deathless Verse:

TV or not TV,

  That is the question;

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind

  To suffer the soaps and sitcoms

Of outrageous dumbness,

  Or to turn off the frothing sea of bubbles,

And by ignoring, burst them.

  To watch, to sleep…

My next-door neighbor's book: