Mainly about advertising, but first: My morning exercise routine is way off because I have become addicted to watching the political news on MSNBC. I can’t leave the house. I am blaming Sarah Palin because she is on a lot and I am hypnotized by her turgid sentences. When I finally get outside, it it too hot to do everything I planned. (Sorry, snow people.)


Saturation ads for Verizon (I bring you ‘push to talk’) and some otc med that control allergies (see how effective? I can’t even remember the name, only that I am annoyed) where the woman burbles on about “time in a bottle” have been playing for what seems an eternity and several times an hour.


I took a commercial acting course back in 1993-4, after I was widowed. I needed a major distraction. All my classmates were black. In any case , there seemed to be more jobs out there for minorities than there were for aging white chicks. (That would be me.) The techniques for getting through an audition and for pushing a product were touched on, although one’s individual approach to the spiel always lends a fresher appeal.


I do get irritated by clichés, dips and rises in one’s voice, exaggerated vocal mannerisms designed to get through to the mentally challenged. I missed that session in TV class but it must be going on somewhere because all the TV actors do it. (But, WAIT, THERE’S MORE …)


Having failed to make a career in doing commercials – lack of determination, too vulnerable to constant rejection until you “hit it” – endless rounds to agents with your pic and resume (no experience, but I’m a quick study and really cute), follow up with a note, follow up with a call, make the rounds again, etc., were all more than I could handle. I was also fitting this in around my full time job at The Times. "Where's Harriet?" "She's gone to an audition" doesn't cut it. Still, I am in awe of anyone who travels this road and stays with it. It is Job Hell.


Which is to say if I had had more determination and a tougher skin, that could be me on the TV, burbling mindlessly, annoying the crap out of viewers, and banking my royalty checks with a chuckle and a “What do I care what you think,” response to anyone who complains.


Instead, here I am whining and sniveling and saying, “Life ain’t fair,” and, in the immortal words of a Mark Twain character, “Ah niver gits no shrift*.)


*shrift: respect

xx, Teal