"The History of . . . " Uh?

Last night as I was flipping through the extremely meager television offerings, I landed on The History Channel. Here's what was on: The History of Poker. The History of Poker! Wha'?? As a former history major and a once-and-future history buff, I have so many complaints against The (So-Called) History Channel, that I hardly know where to begin. But, really, The History of Poker?

I mean, it's one thing if THC had covered all the interesting, exciting history the world has offered up since before written civilization and they had simply run out of things to do "The History of . . . ", but - trust me - no. Unh-uh. If you take out all of the channel's World War II programming (constant) and the multitudinous airings of Modern Marvels, you're left with very little indeed. Another chunk of the programs should technically be on The Science Channel/Discovery Channel - meteors, UFOs, tsunamis. Again, if THC had run out of true historical stuff to cover, then perhaps this stuff could be justified.

Even if THC does focus solely on military history (which it mostly does), could it maybe, once in a while, on occasion, look at World War I? Boer War? Boxer Rebellion? War of the Roses? (I could go on and on and on, regrettably.)

What about a look at early civilizations? There's enough blood and gore to keep the guys interested and a lot of information that could shed some light on how that stuff impacts us today (and where the Middle East is concerned - it most surely does).

Did the Renaissance or Reformation ever happen? Early Chinese dynasties? Anything ever happen in the history of the world in, say, South America? Africa? Did women ever exist in the history of the world? Guess we've just been sitting around on our asses all this time.

OK, that's it. I'm spent. Pass this along to the 12-year-olds in charge of programming at The History Channel. Now, go out and make some history of your own!