My brother Bob and sisters Diane and Barbara gave me an HD TV for Christmas and this evolved into getting a new box from cable, adding more channels than ever and now for three months a free movie channel.  On it I finally got to see The Hunger Game and I was not disappointed - they did a really good job of bringing the story to the screen. 

I've always loved movies.  When I was a kid, our school was condemned, so we only had to go on half days in fifth grade.  Mornings were the best because then you got to go to the movies EVERY afternoon.  It cost only a dime, and so it was not unusual to see a movie more than one time.  Barbara and Jack were dating then, and in the 50's, the movies was the place to go on a date.  One night they came home, laughing their heads off at a cowboy, girl wants boy movie, called "Many Rivers to Cross".  It was apparently on a cheap budget, although it did have two good stars, Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker.  She was a terrible tomboy, but flipped over Bushrod Gentry, and would say his name, really slow, like a purr, Buusshhrod.  There were only three Indians in the movie, and Jack pointed out that the same three Indian were killed over and over. Another good and memorable thing about this movie is the song, "the higher up the berry tree, the sweeter grows the berries, the more you hug and kiss a girl, the more she wants to marry" (I can remember the words from the 50's better than what you call those buns that you eat at Lent that have a cross on them.)  This was one of those movies I probably saw three or four times.  Anyway, my whole class would sometimes show up at the matinee.  I remember John V bringing binoculars to the theater when it was a Jane Russell movie, wanting a close up of her bosom.

Having so many channels can be a problem though.  I started to watch Buried Alive about hoarders and if you sit through one or two of them, I dare you not to jump up and start to clean our a closet or a drawer.  Well, the new TV is a real God send in this longer than long winter and not so great so far Spring.  But Happy Spring Cleaning cake sniffers (cake sniffers from Lemony Snicket.)