In 1970, the same mixture of superiority & sentimentality inspired no less a person than W. H. Auden, in regard to *radio* soap opera (in _A Certain World_ s.v. Opera, soap) to reflect: "While it flourished, it seemed awful, but now that television has killed it, one remembers it with a nostalgic regret." The entry contains two observations on the subject by James Thurber ("Next to physical ills, the commonest misfortune in the world of soap is false accusation of murder").