You see that box on top of your television set through which cable television enters your home? Touch it. Go ahead. Feels sort of warm doesn't it. What about VTR? Warm? Does your TV have an "instant on" function? If so, then all three are feeding from your checking account. Go around your home and touch anything that plugs in. If it is warm, and you think it is off, it is sucking . . . continually. Sort of like a parasite.   Solution: Plug cable converter box, VTR, and TV into an easily accessed six way outlet with a circuit breaker. When you want to watch Telly, hit the on-off switch. All three units will be activated.   The average cable converter unit uses 15-20 Watts even when it is OFF. The VTR, Telly and Microwave add to the equation. Neither the cable company or the electric company will tell you, "Oh by the way, these units are parasitic."   Recently I visited a family of four. Mom and Dad had their "Vid Rig" silently sucking in their bed room. The two children had access to another "Vid Rig" in the family room. The kids were trying to memorize their times tables in presence of a computer generated cartoon program. Their "Vid Rig" was very similar to that of their parents but above the converter box was an illumined tableau of the Holy Family "guarantied to last a lifetime."   In places such as nursing homes and critical care units, where companionship of one's own kind is essential, the ubiquitous TV seduces the naked ape into thinking one is participating in life . . . and is with a friend. It is sad to see humans in hospital beds, attached to all sorts of plastic devices, vacuously attending the Telly. What ever happened a soft word and gentle touch.   One of the elements that led to our present position in the food chain was our ability to communicate. I fear this is an attribute we are quickly loosing. Telly is affecting the family and community communication matrix. It is very difficult to establish effective dialog in the presence of the Electronic Icon.   Neighbors that regularly talk to one another are in an extreme minority. With the advent of the new millennium, it might be prudent to acquaint one's self with one's neighbor. We never can tell when we might need a friend. Neighbors that talk and touch are an endangered social artifact.   Thus, let us propose an OFF THE GRID DAY to start the new millennium. It will be a holiday anyway and a good chance to talk to family and neighbors.   So save up on ice. Get the barbecue ready. Then trip the master electrical switch at the stroke of midnight. For the first 24 hours of new millennium we will be off the grid. It is ironic that such a suggestion sounds almost subversive. The nerve of that chap Andersen advocating life with out Telly. Now the man is suggesting we try to live for 24 hours with out electricity.   Dear colleague thanks for perusing this missive which started with a dissatisfaction with the power consumed by the cable converter box and ended up with advocating an OFF THE GRID DAY. Perhaps we know now why Elvis had a propensity to shoot out the Telly. Andersen   -30-