Why is Oliver Sacks EVERYWHERE?

You know that phenomenon where you re-hear some old song you love and then it's everywhere - in the elevator, on some TV show, in the CD player of your friend's car? Yeah, right now, my song is Oliver Sacks.

He'd always existed in that vague soup of famous scientists, authors and artists that are well-known in general, but not well known to me. Now that I've become more familiar with him and his works, I realize it's probably in a large part due to the movie Awakenings. In my new mania for neuroscience, his work has been referenced here and there and Amazon.com certainly seems to think I should be reading his books. So, I've been reading through my Christmas gift The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and now he's everywhere! He was referenced by Daniel Tammet on a recent On Point episode and he popped up in the opening act of this week's Radio Lab. WHo knows where he'll show up next.. though hopefully my TiVo won't get any ideas and record Awakenings. blech.

My TiVo Nightmare Continues

Ah, TiVo, you have brought my so much happiness for years and so much pain in the past month. After my ridiculous saga of not properly installed CableCARDs, I've been successfully watching and recording HD TV for a couple of weeks now and taking advantage of Netflix Watch Instantly (the main reason I purchased this new TiVo in the first place). Unfortunately, that all came to a screeching halt today when my brand new TiVo's hard drive apparently failed.

So, now, I can't even watch live TV because I have no cable box thanks to the fact that I had to make the switch to a stupid CableCARD and, best of all, I get to go through the whole CableCARD pairing process with Comcast again once my replacement box arrives. Brilliant.