Dear Madge.

(From Canberra Times)

Q Madge, when my fogey of a father isn't telling outrageous lies about his childhood (you have to give him credit for a good imagination though, making up stories about railway engines driven by steam! and wooden CD players the size of suitcases with handles you had to crank to wind them up to play CDs the size of dinner plates!) he's telling me off for being too absorbed with media. He says that if I don't stop doing things like playing video games and watching TV at the same time my brain will go numb or turn into blancmange or do both. But everyone I know does this kind of simultaneous media usage. How can I convince him that what I'm doing is …