Holly and I have been friends for years. She is my best friend. We have stood by each other through cross country moves, messy break ups, cutting off a piece of thumb and rather than calling and saying “hey, I need a ride to the ER” sending a text instead saying “what are you doing?”What is the rule Holly? “If there is blood or a hospital visit, it results in a phone call not a text”. It was recently pointed out by two different friends that we should “just get married already.” Really, we do have that long term relationship bickering thing going. A good way to explain it is that we are like Bert and Ernie.Including people seem to think our relationship is something more than platonic. Which I never got. Why would people go so far with something that Sesame Street had to put out a press release?

Which lead to a new bicker. Who is Bert and who is Ernie? I say she is Bert to my Ernie. Except for the whole bird thing. When you or I see this:

Holly sees this:

But Holly says she is totally Ernie.

So, internet, what do you think? Is Holly more Bert like: collects bottlecaps. Kind and intelligent, but grumpy at times and can be easily frustrated. But she has no problem doing whatever it takes for a friend. Remember that episode where Bert traded his paper clip collection for a soap dish so Ernie’s rubber duckie wouldn’t fall into the bath anymore? That is Holly in a nutshell. Except she doesn’t have a paper clip collection…she has binders…She also knows a lot of, and has interest in very useful but obscure things. She would probably be a member of the National Association of W Lovers. And she is a big Mister Rogers fan.

I on the other hand went to a school where ducks were the mascot, and had a large collection of rubber duckies. And like Ernie I can be a little bit scatterbrained, wanting to do something, then letting Holly figure out how to make it work. I am also quite easily distracted. Usually by yarn or shiney things. Oh, I also know all the words to “Rubber Duckie.”

So, what do you think? Is Holly the Bert to my Ernie? Or is it visa versa?

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Cerridwen is going to try to tell you that I’m the Bert in our relationship. She’s as wrong about this as Austin City Limits causing the current infestation of hipsters. I am totes the Ernie. She’s the Bert.

1.  My humor has the sophistication of a twelve year old. I could turn the Pope’s Easter mass into a “that’s what she said” joke.

2.  I’m happy-go-lucky and work in a call center as a trainer—-essentially a corporate stand up comic.  She works with refugees and has a rule that the work day is over after the fourth mention of gang rape.

3.  Birds. You will not find me on the non-fork-holding end of a pigeon. Birds do not like me and they’ve had it in for me as long as I can remember. Twiddle bugs, on the other hand, find me a delight.

4.  I am well-connected in the community and can source anything on a moment’s notice. If you need tap shoes for sheep, I know a guy.

5.  True, I do collect bottlecaps.  For a client.  Who uses them to create outsider art.  One of his pieces recently auctioned for $600.  

6.  Cerridwen’s hobbies include kayaking, knitting, and other things that begin with K.  Today she admitted, “I’m not entirely sure who Lindsay Lohan is.” Are these the words of an Ernie?  (And you do NOT want to know what she does with rubber duckies.)

To be fair, as a child my favorite was Bert.  He seemed like the kind of friend I’d want to have.  And now I do.  La-la-la…

I know this may come as a shock to all of you reading this, but I like education. More specifically, I like learning. I think Mark Twain was on to something when he said

Especially in todays system when educators have to teach to a test rather than teach to learn. But that is a completely different post.

I love to learn. When I was in middle school, what I learned in school is that people suck, and as long as the bullies are pretty and look good on paper, then they can do whatever they want to you. I also learned that if you are different, the teachers don’t really have a vested interest in protecting you.

Oh, and I learned that one bad teacher can ruin a lifelong love of math, and insure that you never recover.

That was my education.

But when I learned, when I really learned, it was from PBS.

If you didn’t click that link from yesterdays post, go ahead and scroll down and do it now. It was about TED Talks Educationthat was aired on PBS. That was more on formal education, which we need, and we need to improve in this country.

But education is something that can transitory. I have always enjoyed learning about everything from everywhere. If Win Ben Stein’s Money was still on the air, I could clean up. I am full of useless facts that do me no real good in modern life. But a quiz show, I would rule, and possibly win enough money to pay for more education

But in the last few months, I have reevaluated my stance on formal education. This is because I work with refugees, many of them from areas where there was no formal education. Or if there was, it was inaccessible. Girls who when they come here are told that for the first time in their lives, they can go to school. Not only can they, but we will do everything in our power to make sure they go and succeed. Families who have never sent their kids to school because they couldn’t afford it, or it wasn’t safe go out of their way to make sure their kids go to school every day.

I have a guy who is going to training to be a school bus driver. He is so excited because he never went to school, and now, they are paying him to make sure kids get to go to school every single day.

Sometimes I feel like a hypocrite, because I used to try to get out of going to school every day see the above comments on being bullied, and here, every family, every kid, is consumed with unadulterated joy at the prospect of learning.

One client called me several times a day for several days (we kept missing each other). I was worried, because it was obviously important. I was worried that there was a problem. Nope, he called me to tell me one of his sons received an honors certificate at school. This is how important learning is to people.

And how important PBS is as well.

All my clients have TVs, and all of them watch PBS. One family doesn’t speak a word of English, and their 3 year old daughter was scared of me. Until I pulled out my phone where I had Curious George downloaded. She may not understand what is being said, or even have any clue who I am, but she knows Curious George!

This is PBS, and why PBS is so important to us as a country. It is teaching our children so they can be better learners. It is teaching those who come to this country so they can be better engaged. It is teaching. All we have to do is embrace it and learn. It’s not that hard really.

It has been a busy week at work. Which is really good. I had my probationary review today!

So, enjoy TED TALKS EDUCATION that aired this week on PBS

Watch TED Talks Education on PBS. See more from TED Talks Education.

There will be a test later

Happy Star Wars Day!Everyone who is anyone has made a visit to Sesame Street. This includes R2D2 and C-3PO.

My dad says that you aren’t famous until you are on the Simpsons and Weird Al makes fun of you. But I think that you aren’t famous until you are on Sesame Street or make a PSA for PBS

Makes sense, of course.

So, everyone, sit back, relax, contemplate the dark side and the light side

And May the Fourth Be With You!

I love Ken Burns. He is an amazing film maker. One of his films is The Shakers. I re-watched this last week it was originally made in 1985, so I missed the first airing of the showand one of the things that made me think then was how everyone they interviewed was old. I know that the Shakers were celibate, but they were also big proponents of taking in orphans. You would think with the amount of kids in foster care, that there would be more Shaker homes.

But that was last week. Last night I went to Knit Night at my SIL’s parents store. They had new silkworms, so I spent a lot of the evening staring at them and poking them. Luckily, they are used to this. The last batch I watched the moths hatch for hours. It was a lot of fun. Well, for me at least.

I bring this up not just because I am easily amused, but because one of the people who were interviewed made a comment that has really stuck with me. He was talking about the Shaker furniture and the things they made and said how you can not have creativity without spirituality.

And I wondered about that. The Shakers imbued their faith into everything they did, and for the rest of us, sure that is the goal. But how many of us really do that?

I wonder if creativity can exist without spirituality. I don’t mean religiosity, but true spirituality.

I wondered this at Knit Night. I was sitting across from a woman with Downs Syndrome, sitting next to the new Queen for the local SCA kingdom ask Holly about this. She knows more about the SCA and all that than I do. And she knows her in the SCA. I know her as a really good knitter and crafter and the mother of a really cute not-so-baby-anymoretalking about her coronation and the clothes they are making for that, and me laughing everything she said that she needed to be home because people were coming over to help her polish her scepter.

Ok, that last part was completely besides the point. But it was funny! Maybe you had to be there…

The point is, there were a large group of people from a wide range of life and religious paths. What do we all have in common besides being crafters? Knitters and crocheters and weavers and spinners. What else brings us together? There are books and websites devoted to this question. But I wonder if the Shakers had it right: creativity without spirituality is impossible.

I really don’t know. I do know that everyone they talked to who had grown up as Shakers talked constantly about the love they got from the community and how happy and at peace they seemed with their lives. And it makes me a little sad that they all were talking about the end of their way of life. Though one woman did say that the Shaker religion was from God, and therefore could never be destroyed. I liked that.

But I still wonder about the comment about creativity.

Okay, okay.  I know I’m supposed to post on Tuesdays.  But I fell asleep halfway through dinner.  But today a friend posted this on my FB wall, and I can’t wait for next Tuesday.  This needs to Be More…viral.

“Some people just want to watch the world learn.”

Recently Cerridwen (our regular host) dragged me out on a Sunday afternoon and bullied me into getting a library card—-my first in Tucson, and my first since my teen years back in Ohio.  I don’t think you could really even call what we had in Pioneer a real library.  Until one of the rich kids died in a car accident on prom night, prompting an influx of memorial funds, our library was little more than a closet full of bodice rippers.  The Pima Library system, as they themselves tweeted at me, is a library of the 21st Century.  With e-books, classes, language programs, and even roaming nurse practitioners, this is a full-spectrum community service.  Just like PBS.  

@slackferno @teaearlgreyhard Holly, welcome to a library of the 21st century! I hope we surprise you. —Lisa/PCPL

— Pima County Library (@pimalibrary) April 14, 2013

PBS and the Pima Library both prove that you don’t need to turn your brain off to have fun.  And they both need your support.  Not just pledges and taxes, though those are important too.  They need to be utilized.  Go to your local library and check out a jazz record you’ve heard about but never actually heard.  Watch Nova and actually pay attention instead of daydreaming about Neil deGrasse Tyson appearing on Dancing with the Stars.  Let yourself Be More

-hmh.

Like most people of my generation, I grew up with Indiana Jones, with with NASA, the age of Science.

The idea of exploration was implanted early and took hold strong.

There is little left in the world to go out and explore. We don’t get to find that lost city, that lost tribe, anymore.

That’s ok though. We get to live vicariously through PBS.

Even better, exploring vicariously means you get to see all the beutiful places, and have no fear of becoming lost in the Amazon.

Even though I love going out, I love hiking and camping and kayaking, I also like sitting in my air conditioned house with a cold drink and my knitting. On a lazy weekend, I get the best of both worlds.

I get to sit at home and knit a hat for myself knitting is not a strange thing. Knitting something that I will keep myself isand learn about Col. Percy Faucett and his exploration of the Amazon. And while he was lost and most likely killed before really starting on his journey, I finished my hat and get to embark on a new journey.

Six months ago, a politician made a stupid comment. Little did he know how that one sentence would change everything. Now, I am not saying that Romney lost the election because he threatened Big Bird, but when one comment generates the level of outrage and support that this one did, I am sure it had an effect.

Sorry, Mitt, but when one comment in a debate, really the only comment people remember from that debate, generates things like this on the internet 20 minutes later, you didn’t stand a chance.

It became more than just a policy question, though there were more than enough people out there who stepped back and discussed the policy, and the economics, of the comment.

I was not one of those people. Holly is, and discussed fundingin a Guest Post.

No, I was completely emotional about the whole thing. I love PBS. Period. End of statement. Nothing else needed to be said. My relationship with PBS has always been emotional first. Then later did intellect enter into it.

When Mister Rogers died, I think I was more upset than when my grandparents died. When Caroll Spinneyfinally goes up to that big old puppet stage in the sky, I know I will be incosolable.

PBS has been there for every milestone in my life. When I got my first library cardI checked out books I had seen on Reading Rainbow.

To this day, PBS, and more specifically KUAThave been there for every major life event. The good and the bad.

So I started talking about Why I Love PBS. Not why I liked them, or why they are important in the world. Other people could do that. People who are way smarter than me they probably watch a lot more PBS than I do

My only concern was why I loved them, and why they were important in my world.

Holly, my Official Apologist and Purveyor of Ideas said I should make a Tumblr and share my obsession insights with more than just my Facebook page. Also, I should write more, that way people would not think I am completely nutterscould be exposed to more of PBS then they may have through their affiliates.

Like most ideas that Holly has, it has turned out well. At least I hope it has.

Over the last 6 months, this blog as evolved. As have I. And once again, PBS has been involved in some major life changes. In October 2012 I was living in Tempe, working on political campaigns and hating my job. I missed my friends, my family and my home.

Since then I have moved back to Tucson. I have been at my new job, which I love, since January and have a house that is close to my friends, my family. Incidentally, it is also just up the road from KUAT. That had nothing to do with my signing the lease, just a cool bit of trivia.

In the posts from myself and Holly, you have seen us happy, sad, depressed, cynical, hopeful. And you have seen how PBS has celebrated the ups and helped us with the downs.

Over the next 6 months, I hope to continue that. I hope to show you more of why I love PBS, and why you should too. I hope to expose you to something that you haven’t seen before. I hope to remind the world why PBS is important in America, even if it is just on an emotional level. And I hope you continue reading and enjoying what we bring to you. I also hope to get some more Guest Bloggers to tell us why they love PBS.

And I hope that you reading this will continue to comment on the posts, and let us know what you would like to see. After all, despite what I like to pretend, PBS does not exists solely to make me happy. It caters to Viewers Like You. And I hope to be able to do that too.

In the end, I mostly just want to say THANK YOUto all those who have been reading Pretty Boss Shows, and especially to PBS for continuing to give us great content to write about. Here’s looking forward to 6 more amazing months!

I have been asked why the previous post is labeled #41. Obviously, it should be #42!

But frequent readers of Pretty Boss Shows know that Reason #42 is NOVA.

If you watch NOVA, then you know what the Ultimate Question is.

And if you do not know the Question to Life, The Universe and Everything, obviously you missed that episode.

Go back and watch them all again.

I am trying to remember if I saw Hitchhicker’s Guide To The Galaxy first, or if I was handed The Guidefirst. I doubt it matters.

I do know that I first saw the BBC version of HG2G on PBS. Which completely made sense to me. Where else would I find the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything but on the channel that brought me Nova and the New Yankee Workshop?

I am sure my early exposure to The Guide is the reason I always carry a towel around the invention of microfibre towels that can be smushed down and carried in a pocket have helped me seem less strange.

And while I am a complete Luddite in many areas of my life (I just started using the calendar on my smart phone 2 weeks ago. I still have two paper calendars), I embraced electronic books very early and love my Nook. Yes, I have a copy of The Guide on it. Really, it should come standard on all eReaders

So, in the beginning, there was PBS. Which became my Guide. Through it, I have traveled the Universe. It was a very good idea.