In an elevator today, I over heard the following conversation between, what appeared to be, two co-workers. Both were women, early-mid 30s, white, middle to upper middle class. One was blond, one was a red head. Their conversation:

Yellow: Oh, is that that oatmeal? (Red is holding what appears to be a Starbucks coffee cup but it has different coloring than normal).
Red: Yaaah, I’m really liking it.
Yellow: Yaaah, I heard about that. So it’s good?
Red: Yaaah, but you have to keep the lid on the cup for, like, 3 minutes or you know, it won’t, like, set up right, or cook right or something.
Yellow: Awwww, cool.
(Brief silence)
Yellow: Yaaah, I gotta try that sometime. It seems good.
Red: Yaaaah.

I lost brain cells. I KNOW I did. I’m so glad I got off on a floor before them and didn’t have to listen to that any longer. Yaaaah.

Suggestion: just because there is an opportunity to talk doesn’t mean you have to. Silence is nice, too.

The last two books I read for summer are hardly worth mentioning, so I’ll hardly mention them.

The Firm by John Grisham. The better of the two, but it was just your run-of-the-mill legal fluff book. I like this type though.

The Sheik by E.M. Hull was book number two. I should have never finished this book, but like a bad train wreck, I couldn’t tear away my eyes. This was one of the most sexist pieces of tripe I think I’ve ever seen a woman write. It was hideous. Don’t read this.

I’m not much up for reading any fiction next. Too much going on. I’ll find something soon enough, though, I’m sure.

Happy autumn, Beachcombers.

What in the world has happened to WGN?

For those of us who grew up in the Chicagoland area, WGN was a staple of our television viewing. More importantly, for those of us expatriated from the Chicagoland area, WGN’s national reach was vital. We had access to White Sox and Cubs games. Beyond that, I used to tune in to a lot of shows on WGN.

Then…

WGN changed to WGN America. It all went down hill from there. Sometime this summer, WGN made the mistake of trying to ‘revamp’ their image, which was wholly unnecessary. WGN is staple viewing, revamps were not needed. Yet…

There are now incredibly creepy monochromatic ads with butterflies and eyeballs that have little to do with anything WGN actually does. There are women singing in soprano voices that have little to do with anything WGN actually does. WGN where did you go?

The straw that has broken the proverbial camel’s back is that they have taken off reruns of Corner Gas in lieu of reruns of (get your bucket ready) Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie.

Are you freakin kidding me WGN? For real? This is your genius programming decision? You better dream Jeannie doesn’t screw up your ratings. This was a really ridiculous programming choice. I hope someone at WGN wakes up soon. This isn’t funny anymore.

Bring back Corner Gas. Go back to the old WGN. WGN America sucks.