How Digital Foiled The Finals

I guess I want the Lakers to win tonight, even though I want the Celtics to win it all.

Why? Because it's another night I can sit on my porch with my pre-historic television struggling to pick up the ABC airwave signal all the way from across from the Carolina state line and the Blue Ridge mountains.

Ever so slightly, with most minimal shifts in the wind, the stark contrast of the green shamrock against the flamboyant Laker yellow and purple will shift to black and white.

That makes watching television a true interactive experience.

This year, like other early Junes before them, since NBC handed over the torch to ABC (and with its broadcast rights, a far weaker signal), the use of tin foil has been vital to the tradition.

For without the tin foil scrunched onto the anntena rabbit ears, it wouldn't look as good as it does nor feel as industrious an endeavor.

It feels like you're tapping into something natural (though it's not) and yet at the same time have created your own technology with each sheet of foil you tear and crumple.

But ... they're going digital in 2009.

Who could forget with all the reminders to the (old) folks who use this as their primary source of having the bejesus scared out of them by the 11 o'clock news.

And it's OK, kind of. The government is going to help the people who like how it's done now to buy the digital converters to keep their crappy televisions functioning.

But for me, I'm losing something, even if I were to upgrade my TV.

Gone will be the satisfaction of twisting some tin foil on the edge of a prehistoric anntena and feeling like I personally am responsible for bringing to the porch enclave the Celtics 24-point comeback in Game 4 or the Lakers stumbling there way from elimination in Game 5.

I could convert the TV, but the point isn't pick up a digital signal.

The point is to manipulate are far simpler code with the use of a simple household item.

I don't really like the Lakers, but I want at least another night of grilling some food, drinking some beer and sitting with my son as we scrunch the tin foil ever-tighter and ever-pointier.

A view that we earned, not bought.

It's almost like sneaking into a live game.

If it goes to a Game 7, maybe I'll celebrate and buy another box of tin foil.