The Supermarket Thing

Does the supermarket thing really work? You know the score. You're walking along, minding your own business in the deli section when before your view there slides one of the most charming looking girls, or as the case may be, guy, that you have seen in recent memory. You clear your throat with sandpaper comfort and set about chancing introductions. "Oh, fancy that, we use the same brand of cottage cheese. Shall we go out?" Of course I now it's probably not that simple. But then again, it might be. The question that remains for me is wether or not it is humanly possible for humans. This is excluding Brad Pitt and and any other demigod of the netherworld, that is. I have a friend that assures me it is defiantly possible. But when you look like he does, it's more probable that HE'S the one getting approached by nervous produce wielding beauties. Mind you, this is also the same friend that suggested that in order to take it to the next plateau with my then girlfriend of four weeks, that I book a hotel room without telling her and then end our day's date by saying "I've got us a room. Let's go." Maybe that would have worked. But maybe not. The supermarket thing works in movies. But everything works in movies.
Back to the main thread, and IF this all works. Well, I'm sure it does. But I'm even more sure that it's not normal people that manage to pull this seemingly unsurmountable feat off. It's done by these chiselled characters with mythical good looks. It's done by the Populars and their scudded accomplices.
Aside from anything else I think common decency holds ME back. I just don't think anyone wants another person to creep up behind them while they are trying to make the ever important decision of wether to get smoked or regular bacon. I just don't think it's good manners. But then again, what's manners when the magnetic field begins to wail? What does common decency matter when your favourite song begins to play over the supermarket loud speakers, seemingly spurring you on in an oh so spiritual way. That's how it happens in the movies. Maybe that's how it happens in real life too? S.H.

The Symphony of Madness

The Symphony of Madness bothers me greatly. Not only are parental role models dwindling as parents seem to be deciding with more and more steady regularity that they are more important than their little ones, but because of this and the ready availability of digital media, kids have all too ready access to the Populars, who the children are forced to substitute as their secondary mentors. The problem with this is that the Populars are anything but role models. They facilitate and promote an image of human beings that is not only irresponsible, but for a vast number of the general population, unattainable. For the most part the Kings and Queens are oblivious. They serve only as the pretty puppets for the machine operators to twirl and preen, fully aware that the damage they are doing is not only far from innocent, but boarders on destructive and criminal. S.H.