My 65 year old husband was stopped as he exited a parking lot in an upscale town nearby for not having his seat belt buckled. I was wearing mine. The officer was young and extremely polite and explained the ruling and exceptions (we own a 1952 sports car that came with only lap belts and that's OK). The officer stopped him because he didn't have his seat belt on and he was there to see it. If I were this girl, I'd be much more concerned about the fact that her boyfriend drives without seat belts. I've used them since 1969 when I dated a guy who had a car that came with them.

And, the whole transaction took about 20 minutes because our plate was checked, too. We sat there doing some speculation about why we were stopped--was it the gray hair?--but the officer was enforcing a law that our state takes seriously.

As for no TV, the library has loads of the programs that are on science channels, classic movies that you can check out for free. A local movie rental place rents kids movies for free. Maybe she can check out what's available and make an appeal for a DVD, VHS player and a TV.