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Article: Charge of the couch brigade. (Americans' difficulty in programming VCRs) (Column)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- October 4, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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MY VCR departed this life the other day, so I went on a search for a personal grail: a machine that I could teach to record television shows.
The puzzle of programming a VCR has been a running national gag for several years, a staple of stand-up routines and newspaper humor columns, like George Burns's age or Warren Beatty's concupiscence. It's an odd gag, when you think about it--a celebration of national incompetence. The VCR is a basic household appliance, found in 70 per cent of American homes. Surveys show that 71 per cent of those Americans "consider recording programs a very important feature of the VCR." Yet fewer than one in five actually use it so. ...