George Ferguson’s letter of Jan. 6, “Unhappy New Year,” about his cable bill going up recently was enjoyable. He was cleverly sarcastic and I felt empathy in his “suffering.”

Except for selected sports, straightforward news and documentaries, I don’t watch much television, but a couple of trends are clearly annoying.

One is the kaleidoscopic-like visuals of some sports highlights and most previews of various upcoming shows. I haven’t figured out who finds them more entertaining — toddlers or dogs. They are disturbing to many of us. Their shifting rapidity can impact us visually, but our brains are disallowed to engage, thanks to the advertisers’ playing to our most impressionable sense: our eyes.

The other trend is the hyper, disparate commercials that fly in our faces for three minutes like Muhammed Ali’s piston-like left jab. Yeah, this is a lead-in to a boxing-related comparison that Ferguson, and others, can recall.

NBC, one of the three enduring networks in the 1950s, carried the live, weekly “Friday Night Fights,” all 10-rounders. The one-and-only sponsor was Gillette. Commercials were aired only four times, each being a full, relaxed-viewing minute. They were shown after the first, fourth, seventh, and final rounds. At the conclusion of the other rounds, the camera stayed at ringside with neutral commentary by the solitary broadcaster.

That was normal for the era and, as such, was taken for granted. Nevertheless, the living tempo, Little Richard’s boogie numbers aside, was satisfyingly more in tune with our heartbeat — at rest.

Norm Gellatly, Auburn