The  detective was examined by

a smug, sophomoric investigator

with a smirk on his face, about

a horrendous crime scene where

the detective had to fight for her

very life. The investigator leaned

back against the desk, picked up

his cup of coffee and took a long,

slow drink while the detective

shook uncontrollably. The invest-

igator missed the human quality

of the case as she sat right in

front of him not even including

the inhumane nature of the

crime that caused the un-

controlled shaking. A seasoned

cop showed the investigator the

proverbial ropes, the investigator

woke up, smelled the roses and

then the cop helped the then

educable investigator solve the

diabolical case, which isn’t

the way it goes often in real life,

because, in part, the case needs

to be solved in one hour counting

fifteen minutes of commercials,

insulting to human intelligence

and repeated over and over and

over or forty-five minutes if it is a

BBC production shown on PBS.

When was anything significant,

such as the gaining of wisdom,

accomplished in forty-five minutes?

There may be an “ah ha” moment

in real life but usually it takes a

life-time of bouncing off those

proverbial ropes to get it and

even then, there is no guarantee.

Just think about the commercials

or go to a fiftieth high school

reunion and watch.