Thursday Thirteen #324

Why I still have cable. Yes, I know this makes me a dying breed. 56% of households have cable, but that's down from 76% in 2015. Yes, I know it's expensive. But it's so easy!

There are so many streaming services available. Many of these services have different plans to choose from. Figuring out the best way to get my favorite channels seems like an awful lot of work. Thanks to Xfinity, I just say what I want to watch into that lovely voice remote and it appears.

Here are the 13 most popular streaming services. It's so overwhelming that I almost miss the days of 5 channels when I was a kid.

1. Netflix

2. Hulu

3. Amazon Prime (I pay for this one but to be honest, I got Prime for the free package delivery)

4. Disney+ 

5. Apple TV

6. Max (formerly HBO Max)*

7. YouTube TV

8. Peacock*

9. Paramount

10. Sling 

11. Fubo*

12. Tubi*

13. Pluto*

Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.

*Included in my cable package

August Happiness Challenge -- Day 30

My 2023 happiness icon

Today's Happiness: Back to school

Today when I was running errands I happened past the junior high. Some students were tending their "habitat" (i.e. garden). The sky was blue, the weather was lovely, and they seemed so earnest out there among the sunflowers and whatever else they've got. I enjoyed seeing them.

WWW.WEDNESDAY

 

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

PS I can no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.

1. What are you currently reading? Murder at an Irish Wedding by Carlene O'Connor. I'm back to Kilbane, the Irish village at the center of this series. A fashion model has chosen this picturesque, secluded spot for her wedding. Our heroine, Siobhan O'Sullivan, is very involved: First, because her family business is catering the affair; second, she's attending because her fella is in the wedding party. Naturally, when someone gets dead, she can't help but investigate.

 

The characters are warm and witty and this book aspires to be no more than entertaining, which is nice after I endured the following.

2. What did you recently finish reading?  Jackie: Public, Private, Secret by J. Randy Taraborrelli. What a hot, steaming pile of crap this was. I have no one to blame but myself. I know J. Randy Taraborrelli writes breathless hagiographies and I know he recreates scenes and dialog he can't possibly substantiate, yet I picked it up anyway. So shame on me.

 

It's the disinformation in this book that made me want to scream. For example, Jackie's kid sister, Lee, is portrayed as receiving treatment for anorexia in the 1950s and again 1970s. I recently read a biography of Karen Carpenter that revealed how woefully ignorant doctors and mental health professionals were of the disease in early 1980s. Karen Carpenter was a celebrity and a multi-million dollar property who had medical teams in New York and Los Angeles working on her case, but I'm supposed to believe that somehow a socialite managed to be diagnosed and treated for this misunderstood disease decades earlier? Bullshit.

Similarly, I always knew former Senator John Kerry once dated Jackie's youngest sister, Janet Auchincloss. It was when they were both at college, and he has always been self-deprecating about how little he meant to her. This book not only has him snatching Janet's virginity but also involved with the extended Kennedy family during -- wait for it -- THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS! Yeah, J. Randy, that happened.

 

This book is 500 pages long and I bet I could come up with 100 ridiculous passages. Do not read this book. It is worse than a waste of time.

 

3. What will read next? I don't know.