Remote Control: Out Of Control
A confused writer admits: I can’t figure out how to watch my brother’s TV. He’s explained it to me a hundred times, but that’s the curse of the baby-sitting uncle: It’s harder to work a remote control than it is to change a diaper. Every living room has its own orchestra of buttoned rectangles, a set of instruments that must be played in just the right sequence and according to a musical logic that can never be taught, only learned. Yet we indulge the fantasy that using someone else’s TiVo is a matter of following a few simple directions: Just make sure you power up the cable with the gray remote and then flip on the set with that skinny black one, otherwise you’ll get all screwed up. You can change the channels with the silver, and use the gray again for the volume, but remember, whatever happens, don’t you dare press any of the buttons on this little gray one. For the love of god, just leave this little gray one alone.
