The trouble is in your set

This sounds like the trouble I was having with the stereo back in the early Last Word days!

Today I did something I shouldn't have had to do: I buyed a new TV. The picture tube on the 1983 set finally started to cack, so I knew it was on borrowed time. Besides, my DVD player didn't work with that TV because it was so old, and regular TV's aren't going to work a year from now anyway. I had to go all the way out to Florence to buy a new set, but I buyed one!

After being confronted by a Samsung monopoly at one store, I buyed a Sylvania at a different retailer. Now, mind you, this was a new digital set - the kind the government is making everyone buy, just for the shits and giggles of it.

And guess what? It don't work. I brang it home, hooked it up, plugged the antenna in, and all I can get is audio - with no picture.

Right away, I called Sylvania's customer service number, and they said right off the bat that it's a defective set. So I have to wait until I have access to a car again and go all the way back out to Florence and exchange it. And gas is not cheap, so I'm not too happy at Sylvania right now.

Gee, what were the odds I'd get a defective set? Probably pretty fucking high, considering the declining quality of everything. I bet it was at least 50/50. Quality of TV's and radios never improves but only gets worse, even as the price goes up. The assholes in the ruling party are more worried about people walking barefoot on the Purple People Bridge and smuggling bottled water into Taste of Cincinnati than in establishing some minimum standards for the quality of appliances.

It was bad enough 15 years ago when I had to take back several stereos, but now it's worse. At this rate, think what it's going to be like in another 15 years. By then, you'll be lucky to get a pair of headphones home without them undergoing spontaneous combustion.

(Before anyone asks, I already had someone take the old set off my hands.)