Anyone have a working VCR to unload?

My typical Tuesday night presents a dilemma. Do I watch Scrubs and The Office, NBC's dual showcases of sardonic hilarity and clever interpersonal musings, or House, Fox's gripping new medical drama featuring moral quandaries and gorgeous, gorgeous men?

Those of you lucky and tech-friendly enough to own TiVo (or a similar DVR) are surely shaking your heads and clucking your tongues in pity. I know; TiVo, Playstation 2, flat-screen TV, and decent speakers -- these devices are all on my Best Buy shopping list as soon as I begin earning a decent salary (and, ironically, losing any time to enjoy them). Thus far I've managed to survive armed with only a basic TV I've owned since high school and my similarly aged DVD player and VCR. And cable, of course. Last fall, my VCR, much to my despair, gave up the ghost. Or, more pointedly, she fell into a persistent vegetative state. She can still play tapes, but seems to lack the capacity to record new things. And my DVD player, obviously, doesn't record. And so I'm stuck, like a typical family in the early 80s, with an economist lurking, unwelcome, on my shoulder. The opportunity cost of watching Scrubs and The Office is, not only the completion of work that I ought to complete, but also this week's chance to drool over Robert Sean Leonard and puzzle over a frightening medical mystery.

And until I bite the bullet and pony up for a new VCR (unlikely, given my eccentric and utterly unsensible (insensible?) spending choices), my Tuesday nights will remain, sadly, unfulfilled in one way or another. That is, until I discover the secret to time travel. But, sadly, I think it likely that my good Lord has decided, in his wisdom, that 24 hours in the day is quite enough for me. And NBC and Fox, sadly, have apparently decided that the shows falling in this time slot are substitutes, rather than complements. Someone needs to park an economist on their shoulders.