The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

•T he I FP • H al to n H ill s •T hu rs da y, J ul y 11 , 2 01 3 8 Sign up NOW for SUMMER www.gcrc.com ENROL NOW @ www.GeorgetownArtExpress.com or call 905-702-1203 ENROL NOW @ Some Spaces Still Available for July & August Georgetown's Most Innovative ART ADVENTURE for Kids! ART ADVENTUREART ADVENTURE Art Express Georgetown Summer Camp I've come to the conclusion that the Powers That Be in this world feel we need constant visual stimulation. Look around you-- everyone is punching text into a smart phone, or watching You Tube or a sports event al- most continually. Don't get me wrong, I use a smart phone as much as the next person-- but I'm not joined to it at the hip. Geez, some people can't carry on a conversation without stopping the mo- ment their phone dings, signalling a message has arrived. And does no one pick up the phone to call anymore? Nope, they text. I know texting has its place-- I do the same, send- ing a quick message to The Sidekick to let her know I'm going somewhere, or she'll let me know she is going to be late-- that kind of stuff. Televisions have become babysitters for all our kids. When I was little, and tele- vision was relatively new, my mom had a rule in the house. No TV during the day, if the weather was good outside. "Go outside and play," she'd say. And we did. Today we see child obesity and all the health problems fac- ing kids, partly because they're sitting in front of a TV or on a video game for hours at a time. And how about those refrigerators that have a television mounted in the door? That seems pretty excessive. A few weeks ago I thought I'd wit- nessed the epitome of ridiculousness at an outdoor event. A couple landed in with their two kids to attend the party. As the day wore on, I noticed their minivan was parked in the shade with the motor running. At fi rst I wondered if someone had forgotten to turn it off. But as I walked around the back of the vehicle, I noticed that the two kids were in the back seat. They were watching movies. Now I'm not sure what the parents spent in gas, (it ran for several hours) and I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to babysitting costs, but I do be- lieve kids shouldn't spend hours in a van watching a movie. Get 'em outside and let them learn how to entertain themselves, not to men- tion perhaps learn a few social skills-- like conversation. I thought that one took the cake as far as visual stimulation goes. But I recently saw a situation that reached the upper echelons of reality-- when it comes to visual stimulation. The Sidekick and I went out for din- ner last week. It was a nice place, our fi rst time there since it opened under new management. It's not a sports bar, but it has a number of televisions mounted around the dining room (most tuned in to cov- ering a sports event.) I could ignore them. It wasn't like I HAD to watch. But later when I used the washroom, I was taken aback to fi nd a bunch of TVs in the washroom. In fact, there was one over each urinal, and one by the sinks. For all I know, there could have been one in each stall-- I didn't think to look. Okay, okay, if you're watching THE game of the century, or waiting to see THAT fi nal putt, or the fi nal 12 seconds left in a best of seven, tied overtime game-- well that might be important. But if that's the case, I sure wouldn't be leaving the table to go pee anyway-- I'd wait until the clock ran out, or the putt was sunk. But there they were, lining the wall. A guy beside me-- younger by 30 years I'd guess, looked at the TV, then over at the one by the sink, then at me. "They sure don't want you to miss anything, do they?" he said rhetorically. I agreed as we both wondered if the restaurant management had encoun- tered a sale on TVs somewhere. When The Sidekick returned from the ladies' washroom, she said they had a couple of TVs in there as well. Being informed is important in this day and age of fast developing events around the world. But there is one thing that strikes me about all. Personally, I don't need to be enter- tained when I go pee. Ted Brown can be reached at tbrown@theifp.ca A Ted Bit Do we really need to be visually stimulated 24/7? TED BROWN 'Personally, I don't need to be entertained when I go pee'