This is now the second time this question has occurred to me. What stimulates it is the paranormal tv show flickering along in the background. My wife enjoys the heck out of the ghost-hunting shows, and the occasional paranormal show as well. Me, I figure they're a good excuse to get some reading done or work on other things. Good noise, though, and they're often a lot of fun. If nothing else, the people filling the hours are having a ball.

On with the question. Stephen King has confessed his fascination with supermarket tabloids, he's said he used to get lost in them while waiting for the cashier. You know the type, 'Elvis is alive and holed up with Bigfoot in a hotel room in Cabo', that kind of thing. Any rate, what I wonder is if Stephen's moved over to the cable t.v. equivalent. Considering how long the History Channel has been broadcasting their alien shows, SyFy with their ghost shows, and now the Travel Channel with everything from true grotesques in various museums to the haunted house shows, I figure that he, and probably a lot of other writers, have the same fascination with them they had with the tabloid stuff.

Even when I'm on the road for work, stuck in a hotel room and scrolling through whatever channels are available, I tend to stay away from these sorts of shows. Entertaining as they can be, to me that's the kind of thing I enjoy with my wife, at home on the couch of a quiet evening. I usually end up hunting for things I otherwise wouldn't get a chance to watch, like food competition shows. I keep waiting for a good food fight to break out.