Has anyone ever experienced this before…

Through my Comcast Digital Cable receiver I am now seeing a large black rectangle from the middle to the bottom of the screen on what would be considered your analog channels (2-99 and some low 100’s). The “Music Choice” channels as well as the “On Demand” programming do not have this issue. Also, on my TV which is hooked up to the analog cable jack I do not have this issue. So my guess is that it has to be something to do with the digital receiver. I have a request into Comcast to see what they say, but any pointers would be greatly appreciated in the meantime, as we kind of have a big football game here in town tonight (complete with the Indianapolis Police Department picketing).

UPDATE [1:41pm]

I sort of figured it out…I turned closed captioning completely off on my television and the black rectangle went away. Though that doesn’t really pinpoint the behavior that I was seeing. Oh, well, it’s back to normal now and I can watch the fool’s ball this evening.

Here’s Reggie’s quote regarding the recent Pacers nonsense…

“That’s ridiculous. That is a black cloud. That is a punch in the gut for Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird.”

“You shouldn’t stand behind a player that is someone slapping you guys in the face during the middle of training camp being out at a strip club at 3 o’clock in the morning shooting it up like it’s the Wild, Wild West.”

…could we please get some players on the team again who have some common sense? I’m disgusted with this and you can bet that there will be some ranting by Jeff & I on this week’s Trolley Dodgers Podcast.

Federal health officials want you to get rid of any bagged fresh spinach you may have. They want to stop an E. coli outbreak in nine states, including Indiana.

No problem. And I think that’s probably a good idea regardless of an E. coli outbreak.

I always *love* when people come by my house trying to sell me things that I don’t need or want (even when there’s supposedly no soliciting in our neighborhood). But this afternoon I had grin when a guy was trying to “give” me something if I allowed him to put up a sign in my front yard to advertise to my neighbors since my yard was well kept. Though I didn’t say it, I was thinking, “You should have come by a few hours ago.”

You see, I had just given my “grass” its biweekly (at best) scalping (it is no secret that I hate mowing my hill with a push mower). When my lawn is cut, it does look OK if you don’t actually walk on it or look too closely, but if you look at it at all you’ll notice that it is nothing but a bunch of weeds with a few pieces of grass scattered about. It has been that way ever since we bought the house five years ago. I’ve tried seeding, fertilizing and watering with no luck and I’m at the point of just wanting to till it all up and start anew with some decent soil and grass seed.

Anyway, I sent the guy away (apparently to his amazement) and I spared him my smart aleck remarks since I wasn’t really in the mood to push any buttons today.