I'm sorry to see all the soap operas going off the air. It's not that I watched them at all--I didn't. I work during the day, after all. I guess it's because they haven't been replaced by anything worth watching unless you consider Springer worth watching. The soaps can't compete with the talk shows and crap. They are expensive to make and the networks can't recoup their expenditures. Now that "All My Children" just bit the dust, I think there's only three left--General Hospital, The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives. Christ, there used to be a dozen on all three major networks back in the day.

They were kind of iconic in American life but, like equally iconic institutions as drive-Ins and milkmen, have fallen by the wayside. It seems with the more technology we have, the less there is to do with it. We needed HDTV 20 or 30 years ago but not now--there's just shit to watch now.

"Well, josepp, if you never watched them, why do you care if they go away?" There's a pang of nostalgia, I guess. Being home sick from school and hearing the soap opera themes in the other room while my mom watched them. There was a kind of comfort in assuming they'd always be there. It was part of my America. My America is slipping away and I should be happy about that but I'm not. Every time something goes away, nothing replaces it that's worth a shit. It just gets worse. I don't watch Springer and why should I care if someone else does? I guess I shouldn't but I do. We're being fed trash tv and we can't get enough. That just bothers me.