Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 13, 1992 TAG: 9201130217
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONTY S. LEITCH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
AH, SO - WHAT?
YOU MIGHT have noticed this. Last Monday's "Extra" section carried these two articles on its front: "For 1992, What's In, What's Out" and "Your VCR snow you? Here's help."I read them both. I feel like VCRs are "in" - although that wasn't part of the "in-out" article. Possibly because no one could think of what the VCRs have pushed "out."
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe VCRs really aren't "in." They are, after all, a bit on the pricey side. And just today a friend was telling me that the very same folks who found it chic to boast in the '80s about their expansive incomes now tell each other at cocktail parties how deeply in debt they are.
The "in-out" article sort of bears this out. P.F. Flyers and SPCA mutts will bear out pump-up athletic shoes and "posh pets" among 1992's fashionable "in" circles. Pizza is once again more popular than sushi, and cheap vodka has it all over expensive wine. Poverty, or at least the appearance thereof, is "in."
Well. You could ask some of the truly poor about that.
But that's just my curmudgeonly side speaking. And I know I'm getting old. After reading all of that "in-out" article, I realized I really couldn't care less any more about trends. I'm still wearing the same old shoes, still have the same old cat. I guess this marks the definite end of high school for me.
About the VCRs, though. This year, I got a new one for Christmas. One that's supposed to be "easily programmable."
According to last week's "Extra" story, "Millions of people find VCRs difficult to use and never record any programs." Yes, that is true. I myself have recorded programs, but I know a good many grown men and women who've never even tried.
The same friend who told me about the latest in cocktail chatter also said that her old VCR - she has a new easy-to-program one, too - but her old VCR required about 123 steps, just to record one show, and all those steps had to be completed exactly right and within 25 seconds or the machine would make her start all over again.
My old VCR wasn't that bad. But it was eccentric. Get it all set up to record, say, your favorite soap opera and then maybe it would, and maybe it wouldn't. There's nothing like getting all primed for your favorite soap and getting nothing but flakes.
This new VCR, though, is so easy a child could use it.
Once a master electrician has hooked it up, that is. Unfortunately, you see, the Japanese manufacturer apparently commissioned some beginning English students to write the users' manual. Nothing in it makes sense.
For instance, under the heading for "How to Register Index Signal During Recording," we have these instructions: "Press the INDEX button during recording, then the "INDEX" mark will only blink 2 seconds on the screen."
To clarify, we have "Notes: When registering or erasing the index signals is operated on the tape recorded on other VCRs, its pictures may be distorted."
Fancy Japanese electronics are "in." English-speaking manual-writers, it would seem, are "out." No wonder our VCRs are snowing us.
I'm sorry to say that the article in the "Extra" section really wasn't any help at all.
Monty S. Leitch is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.