I'm sitting here in front of the Travel Channel (DISH Network Channel 215) trying to figure out if the thing is outstanding or depressing.
Outstanding because it's somehow managed to glue my in front of the television set in spite of a massive to-do list. Depressing because at the moment, it's featuring outrageously expensive hotel suites in Las Vegas which go for perhaps fifteen grand a night. Amenities include television sets which rise up out of the floor, 24 caret gold picture frames, VIP bowling lanes, and a rotating couch which ensures guests don't actually have to work to enjoy the view.
This is the same channel which offered me and my husband the only non apocalyptic entertainment in the world during the market meltdown. While the rest of the world focused endlessly on the bottoming Dow Jones, we sank into an hour long special considering the best places in America to go for ice cream. Included: The home of the first ice cream cone, as well as a restaurant which serves gold leaf with its sundaes. It was comfort food at its absolute finest, and we didn't put away a calorie or spend a single dime.
It's hard to know whether the channel is a twenty four hour resort ad or a vacation in your living room; visceral reactions range from mild amusement to exasperation to raging envy to "Can we leave for there yesterday?'
Shows range from documentaries on Vegas to studies of food in Paris to documentaries on Vegas to discussions of "America's Sexiest Beaches" to documentaries on Vegas. The channel also dips into tropical getaways, the World Poker Tour (don't ask me) and the occasional anthropological special or paranormal tour. It makes for a good mini vacation, if an occasionally frustrating one-- oh, why can't we afford the ten thousand dollar one night stand atop the Strip? You will, however, avoid any and all airport security lines.
