Prager: "There are no old newspapers in this house."

I can beat that. Where I'm living--and it's not my family, it's the family of a friend--there are no NEW newspapers, either.

It's amazing living in a culture where reading just does not happen. They know a little bit about the news because they hear the daily gossip from their friends, and occasionally they pause on ABC News on TV. But read a newspaper article? Subscribe to a newsmagazine? NEVAH!

They do, however, have a favorite place to dump those precious dollars that they don't want to spend on written matter. Tanning beds.

That's right, tanning beds.

When the administration wanted to slap a tax on tanning salons, the media were all over that, trying to label it as a tax on the rich, knowing that the public would forgive them for putting yet another tax on those stinky rich people. Indeed, we normal people can't even imagine paying large amounts of money on something so stupid and otherwise free. It MUST be something rich people do, right?

No, not really. The rich go to the beach, or they get out in the sun and play golf, or sail, or lie beside the pool in their own back yards. They don't pay to share skin fungi and dandruff and crabs and headlice with the common grunts who came to the salon before they did.

There are only two tanning salons in Beverly Hills, outside of private clubs. But right next door, in West Hollywood, there are more than a dozen. But here in the redneck part of this border state, tanning salons are one of the most popular businesses in town.

I don't know why I got off on this tangent. This post should probably be on my "Selfishly Therapeutic Blog".