For ten years in Jersey City PG (PreGentrification), I ran a dive tavern — the Tunnel Bar — just outside the Holland Tunnel. One of the regulars was a former armed robber that we shall here call Hal who had been friends with Mob hit man “Kayo” Konigsberg. Hal had done time in a range of NJ penal institutions, including the Trenton and Rahway prisons. One of his interesting observations on life behind bars concerned the TV viewing preferences of the inmates. If anyone had asked me, I’d have thought that those inside looking out would have wanted to watch dancing girls and crime dramas. Hal reported that the actual far and away favorites were cooking shows — with the Galloping Gourmet ahead by a length.
Over the last few years, with an entire channel dedicated to all manner of skillet jockeys, I’ve thought of William S. Burroughs’s prediction of Control seeping into the pores of the culture. This would mean that there’s now no difference in kind between those incarcerated and those not. Through a Guantanamo Bay of the mind, it’s not society and overseas military bases, prisons, and mental hospitals, but a society of overseas military bases, prisons, and mental hospitals.
And, as A.J., last of the big time spenders, might have said, bon appetit!
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