The James Logan Courier

McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Monday, Dec. 3:

On the morning of Feb. 18, 2009, some Americans will awake, flip on the television, and find ... nothing. Not a single channel in the vast sumptuous television banquet. Just snow.

They will wonder what happened. We will tell you what happened.

On that day — more than a year from now — TV stations will stop broadcasting an analog signal. In English, that means the old way of beaming television to the set, the way that millions of televisions still depend on, will cease. Only digital signals will be beamed. People will be slapping the box, and adjusting the ears and scratching their heads and blaming their teenagers. But it won't help.

From wikipedia:
Eli Whitney (December 8, 1765 – January 8, 1825) was an American inventor.

Whitney was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, on December 8, 1765, the eldest child of Eli Whitney, a prosperous farmer, and Elizabeth Fay of Westborough. Very early in life he demonstrated his mechanical genius and entrepreneurial acumen, operating a profitable nail manufacturing operation in his father's workshop during the American Revolution. Because his step-mother opposed his wish to attend college, Whitney worked as a farm laborer and schoolteacher to save money. He prepared for Yale under the tutelage of Rev. Elizur Goodrich of Durham, Connecticut and entered the Class of 1792.

Visit the Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop, free online at eliwhitney.org.