For no apparent reason. . .

Sunday night, I watched the Academy Awards. I had seen none of the films, and, in fact, I've seen very few nominated films for years. I haven't even been inside a movie theatre since 1998. That year, I saw "Elizabeth," and my last Oscar winner, "Shakespeare in Love." Both were nicely mounted but not memorable.

I confess I saw some of the 1993 winner, "Schindler's List" on TV, before I got really bored and tired of being proseltyzed, and I switched channels to some mindless pap. By the way, did anyone ever explain the meaning of that one brief scene in the black-and-white film when a little girl walked down the street in a red dress? Or was it a coat?

The last Oscar winner I remember really enjoying was 1977's "Annie Hall." In the interim, I saw, probably on TV, a half dozen winners, the most memorable of which was "Rain Man" (l984). With the advent of DVDs, I am occasionally tempted to view some highly touted film, but I have been disappointed just often enough to discourage me. After all, regular TV is equally entertaining, and it's free. Of which medium is that the bigger indictment?

SHOULD THE SCHOOL WEEK BE REDUCED TO FOUR DAYS? Why don't we just abandon public education altogether? President Obama tells us everything we need to know, repeatedly, and we needn't teach job skills because there aren't any jobs, and there are no viable plans to create any. But if you believe the President, we could all have fine health care funded by those companies which are losing employees and/or going out of business.