Scientists at Cornell University have launched what one commentator has called a “bombshell” into studies directed at the causes for the dramatic increase of autism. The suspected culprit: TV!

Not a few of my generation were concerned when TV became a fixture in every home the infernal device was endowed with certain evil characteristics; one being the growing parental propensity to use the contraption as a babysitter, parking their children from infancy in front of the tube rather than encouraging children in outdoor activities. But since most my age were living in caves by the reckoning of the growing tech generation our concerns were largely discounted.

Besides, who is going to listen to a cave dweller like this: I recall the night I spied a very large black cricket in the house. However, old age being what it is I was too slow attempting to catch the critter and put it outside; for those trying to catch crickets you know they hop pretty good.

Now while I enjoy the chirping of crickets, what worried me was getting up during the night, and in the dark inadvertently stepping on the musical bug; I would feel bad about that, notwithstanding the usual human responses to stepping on various critters with your bare feet in the dark. But the fates intervened and the cricket finally cooperated. As I was at my desk writing, there he appeared on the floor nearby. Cautiously, I opened the door and successfully herded the cricket out into the night.

Perhaps saving a cricket doesn’t measure up to some folks’ standards of warm and fuzzy, but at my age it seems there is a growing soft spot in my heart for such things. Perhaps facing our own mortality, something that is definitely a part of reaching the twilight years motivates some of us toward becoming compassionate toward crickets.

Maria Shriver was terrific on Larry King doing the interview about her book “What’s Happening to Grandpa?” The subject of Alzheimer’s is one of profound interest to me; and Maria Shriver’s genuine love and concern for her father came shining through. We could sure use more of this kind of thing on TV rather than interviews of perverts and serial killers. This growing fascination on the part of those like King and others with perverts and murderers is really sick. The worrisome thing to me is whether those like King really believe Americans care more about interviews with perverts and murderers than good people who make a genuine contribution to the welfare of America?

Naturally the comments by Maria reminded me of my own situation as an elderly father and grandfather. I wanted my children and grandchildren to remember me as the kind of man that would trouble himself to save a cricket. While I am not of the mind of Albert Schweitzer’s “Erfurcht von leben,” or any Hindu superstitions, there is a certain sanctity, if you will, about life that becomes a victim to the wars of men, something easily lost sight of when in the words of Stalin: “The murder of one is a crime; the murder of millions a statistic.”

Instead of the sick interviews of perverts and serial killers I would like to see on TV more baby bunnies, duckies, chicks, and kittens, birdies, squirrels and chipmunks. One local news channel was featuring animals for adoption and a kitten perched on her shoulder became tangled in the lovely newscaster’s lovely blonde hair. Fortunately, the young lady was smiling and laughing as she struggled with the kitten with one hand while holding her microphone in the other and it was a thoroughly entrancing scene.

It was apparent the young woman genuinely liked the kitten, and her attention was given to the kitten rather than the camera. She was having fun with the kitten, and as a result the effect was one of those warm and fuzzy moments where the newscaster’s real humanity came through rather than the plastic representations of human beings so characteristic of the genre.

Watching a segment where a momma duck’s ducklings are rescued from a street drain, and gently placed on the sidewalk where she is anxiously waiting, then to see momma duck with her rescued duckling's right behind waddling off is precious. Rescuing animals seems to bring out the best in people, and the best in us rises to the occasion as spectators; and the majority of us reflect this better quality of humankind, that quality that makes it “a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

One day I saved both a caterpillar and a ladybug, as I did that cricket. The ladybug was a bit of a challenge; as with the caterpillar, rescuing it from inside the house with its cooperation by it simply crawling upon my finger (why a ladybug in the house? Is there something to that pejorative beetle brain?). I took it out near a large pan I have set into the ground and like the bird bath keep filled with water for critters, intending to place it in the grass nearby.

But when I shook it from my finger, it landed in the water. Retrieving the struggling little bug I managed to place it in the grass, thereby saving the colorful little beetle twice; admittedly one instance of its distress being occasioned through my fault, not the little bug’s.

I recall the time I rescued a baby blackbird, which the more cynical would point out would only eat the caterpillar, ladybug, and cricket. Anyway, holding that kind of cynicism in abeyance, I chanced to glance out my window here where I write only to see an adult blackbird having a fit. Looking closer, I spied a baby bird on the ground. It had obviously fallen from its nest in the large oak near the birdbath. It was struggling vainly to fly, frantically flapping its small immature, not fully feathered wings, the adult bird trying to assist and offer encouragement.

Beating the resident cat to the punch I managed to capture the little thing in my hand, despite it hopping right smartly though it couldn’t fly and I’m not exactly as spry as I used to be. Hauling out my ladder, I climbed up, baby bird in hand, and was able to restore it to its nest. Now who would deny this would be a grand event in anyone’s day? There is a great need for warm and fuzzy moments in otherwise “lives of quiet desperation,” including my own. Alas, notwithstanding Nature red in tooth and claw rescuing critters is part of my duties living in the country; and though worthy as it is, sadly not my only calling in life.

To come back to the point of that Cornell study, too many children are now deprived of any real affinity with nature, too many do not have the opportunities I did as a child to form a relationship with nature. And the result of a TV generation may very well be what scientists at the university are discovering about the cause and effect of TV, something far more insidious than its contribution to obesity:

Science: The state of the universe. TV Really Might Cause Autism. A Slate exclusive: Findings from a new Cornell study; by Gregg Easterbrook. October 16, 2006. Today, Cornell University researchers are reporting what appears to be a statistically significant relationship between autism rates and television watching by children under the age of 3. The researchers studied autism incidence in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington State. They found that as cable television became common in California and Pennsylvania beginning around 1980, childhood autism rose more in the counties that had cable than in the counties that did not. They further found that in all the Western states, the more time toddlers spent in front of the television, the more likely they were to exhibit symptoms of autism disorders. .. The Cornell study represents a potential bombshell in the autism debate. "We are not saying we have found the cause of autism, we're saying we have found a critical piece of evidence," Cornell researcher Michael Waldman told me… If television viewing by toddlers is a factor in autism, the parents of afflicted children should not reproach themselves, as there was no warning of this risk. Now there is: The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends against any TV for children under the age of 2. Waldman thinks that until more is known about what triggers autism, families with children under the age of 3 should get them away from the television and keep them away. Researchers might also turn new attention to study of the Amish. Autism is rare in Amish society, and the standing assumption has been that this is because most Amish refuse to vaccinate children. The Amish also do not watch television.