Television is probably the greatest time-waster advanced society has. I have spent enough hours watching I Love Lucy and Top 20 lists on VH1 to know. I have changed my watching habits as an adult and routinely keep the thing off for days at a time. I still have a TV, however, and I won't get rid of it altogether. I empathize with the "Get rid of the TV" folks, but I think there is still enough value to not throw out the baby with the bath water.

It comes down to this: TV is valuable if it exposes you to things you would not be able to get exposed to any other way. I don't play tennis, for instance, but I am able to carry on a conversation at a cocktail party about Federer's ballet-like grace and Roddick's determination with the snootiest wine snob because I enjoy watching it. I may not have the appreciation of one who plays, but watching it has expanded my world.

So here is my list of what is worth keeping a TV for. (A lot of this is also available online, but for the sake of the article, I am treating watching an event online equivalent to watching it on TV.)

• Sports: As I mentioned above, I think world-quality sports events are worth watching. I limit myself to great competitions, such as Wimbledon, the Tour de France, the Superbowl, the World Series, etc. In addition to expanding my world, it also provides a shared cultural experience with others watching.

• CSPAN: In addition to seeing congress debate bills, CSPAN has some other great programs, such as Book TV, which has interviews with authors you won't see anywhere else.

• Breaking news: I don't watch the news on a daily basis, and I am generally appalled at what passes as news-type programs these days. Most are overly sensationalistic and a waste of time (does the news really have to have a soundtrack?). However, when there is a fire creeping close to your house or a protest down the street, local TV news coverage is still very valuable and worth having access to.

• Advertising: This sounds counter-intuitive; but let me tell you about my first roommate, who at age 19, was watching TV for the first time since she wasn't allowed to watch it as a child. Our apartment was filled with juicers, ab-crunchers, and any other infomercial garbage that wooed her because she didn't know how to deal with the advertising. I think a moderate amount of advertising can have an inoculating affect on children, especially if parents discuss it with them and show them how companies are trying to manipulate them.

• Eduatainment: I'm not a big fan of educational television. I grew up watching Sesame Street, but the truth is, there is nothing learned in those programs that can't be taught by a parent. The reality is, however, that not all parents have an ideal environment to sit down with their preschoolers for an hour a day and teach the ABC's. There are also some programs that offer exposure to things that a child would not have access to otherwise, such as seeing the way fish swim from an underwater view, or how a cheetah runs. Keep the principle in mind that it should expand a child's mind and even challenge it, not mollify it.

There are probably other items worth watching; I would love to hear your additions. In general, though, I think that a moderate amount of television doesn't hurt, and can even be beneficial. If reading is the water of our intellectual life, then television is the wine, with 1/2 hour of TV equivalent to a drink. If you are watching three hours of TV a day, you might have a problem. But an occasional 2-hour program should be a special occasion.