2002-07-17 10:30 AM
We're A Nielsen Family!
We're a Nielsen family now, my not-really-living-here-but-never-really-goes-home-either boyfriend, my foul-tempered little calico and I. For the first week of August, anyway.
I'm at home minding my own business when the phone rings. It's probably a telemarketer, I think, but after yesterday's sojourn among the privileged class, I'm feeling magnanimous and pick up anyway.
It's a slow-speaking woman with a very nasal voice who asks to speak to "the lady of the house." Checking my calendar, I confirm that it's still not 1958. But biting back the responses that spring to mind ("who are you calling lady!?") I sit back and play along.
After answering a few questions about whether anyone in my household is employed by the media (not last I heard, though one really can't know for sure what one's pets are up to during the day), and after confirming I'm still in that coveted 18 to 34 demographic, I'm in. (Why these questions must be answered by "the lady of the house" is lost on me, though I suppose they must have years of important Nielsen research to back this up.)
So the diary to record my household's viewing habits in is winging its way to me from Nielsen HQ even as I type, and it's so very important that it will arrive in a red, white and blue Priority Mail envelope.
Oh, this has so much potential. I usually don't watch a lot of TV and mostly got cable for A's games, so my viewing habits are a tabula rasa. Should I order digital cable now and go on a binge when the diary gets here? Should I leave the TV on Animal Planet for the cat while I'm at work? ("Viewer loved the bug and bird shows but fell asleep during the commercials.") Whatever it is will have to include several episodes of "Crossing Over" and at least one infomercial.
What should be must-see-TV chez Nest? Leave your suggestions in the guestbook. The magic begins August 1.