The state of the culture

It's a rite of passage for teens to congregate with other teens and behave so obnoxiously that adults get annoyed. When I was growing up, we had to drive all over creation to have this pleasure, stopping at places like Halls and Gardners just long enough to let our car engines cool. These kids today, I swear, they have it so easy; all they have to do is go to the mall. But now the malls are striking back. Useful phrase to remember: "I've been thrown out of better places than this." 

Can two straight men find happiness in a same-sex marriage? I'm not sure what to make of the story, but I suspect both proponents and opponents of gay marriage should be careful about using it to prove anything. People have always gotten married for a variety of reasons, not all of them in the "I've found my eternal, true love" column. If some state passed a law approving of marriage between a man and a guppy, someone would end up doing it for the tax advantage.

This fascinating study shows that broadband Internet users watch TV two hours less a week than those who aren't connected. Some might say that on-line time isn't any more productive than boob-tube time, but it's at least not as passive. Such distinctions will mean less as the Internet becomes faster and encompasses both TV and movie watching, radio listening and who knows what else. Interestingly, Internet use seems to slightly affect the time people spend reading but not the time they spend listening to the radio.

Well, enough about the shuttle and terrorism and the death of that important guy over in the Mideast somewhere. Now we get to the really important stuff that we've all been waiting for:

"Am I lonely? Yes. Am I upset? Yes. Am I confused? Yes. Do I have my days when I've thrown a little pity party for myself? Absolutely. But I'm also doing really well."

Shocking, simply shocking.

Well, are you going to call Comcast and demand that it carry Al Gore's new TV network? Gore is aiming his programming at young people and must not think highly of their attention spans:

Based on material previewed on its Web site, Current TV at first glance seems like a hipper, more irreverent version of traditional television newsmagazines.

One of the nice things about old friends is that you don't feel the need to fill all the conversational voids with mindless chatter. You can just enjoy each other's presence in companionable silence. Favorite movies can be like old friends. You don't have to pay attention to the action -- you've seen it a dozen times or more. Having the movie on in the background while you read the newspaper or fold the laundry makes you feel like you're in the neighborhood you grew up in or with old high school buddies you hadn't thought of in awhile.

I love the Daily Rant we had in last night's paper:

Maybe the state of Indiana should put Cherry Masters in all the schools so we could afford to educate our children. I don't know who we expect to run this country when we are all old.

While we're watching for the big signs of the end of the world as we know it, like drug usage, teen pregnancy and the fact that we seem to have only two families in this nation from which to choose presidents, civilization will probably slip away a little bit at a time, with the small things. First, it was a glass of water in restaurants -- you can have it, but you have to ask for it.

I've heard that sending short poetry over handhelds has become very popular in Japan. If you want to get into that sort of thing, check out the Home Repair Haiku posted here for inspiration. Then compose your own.

Coffee and donuts.

The cats lounge on the sofa.

Work outside the door.

Just in case you doubted this was becoming a Therapy Culture: Experts are out there now explaining that "these kids need to talk and grieve." No, not because there's been another school shooting or something equally horrific. The children in question need all this help so they don't become undone by the shocking death in ... the new Harry Potter book.