Jon & Kate + 8 .....Separate

So Jon and Kate Gosselin are getting a divorce. "Whoop-tee-DOOO!" Call me a Luddite. Call me an old man (I'm "only" 49); that so many people follow the trials and tribulations of so many hapless celebrities who are suffering from substance abuse, infidelity, narcissism and other things wreaks of Schadenfreude; it suggests that we have nothing better to do in our ho-hum lives but to watch as other peoples' lives fall apart, so we can feel better about ourselves and the predicament in which we find ourselves.

You can call me a cynic too, for I wonder if most of the so-called reality TV shows that have aired these past 10 years are little more than deftly stage managed pseudo-dramas; read that: latter day "Quiz Shows", where the participants are little more than actors strutting and fretting their hours upon the stage to be heard no more. I imagine that the TV audience in Deepest, Darkest America is waiting for the episode when "Jon" will come out of the closet and admit he's had sex with a gorilla; or his mother; or an alien.

And you just know that the TV audience "out there" would lap it up and ask for more. Can't you just hear the whispers, "Well you know, he DID have sex with a gorilla..." I guess that these fake lives and fake dramas do alleviate the tedium and anxiety of real-world challenges; but so does playing Monopoly ("He's a Luddite!" I hear you say). But I am no Luddite- I love technology and am a very progressive thinker- which is why I marvel at how easily we are entertained by such patently obvious melodrama.

Notice how I tactfully substituted the word "melodrama" for the term "crap". In case there is anyone out there still deluded by all of this: Jon and Kate are being very well paid for acting out this 3 Penny Opera. I believe they are married. I believe the 8 kids are in fact their children. Beyond that.......well that's where the mist meets the water. Perception is reality, I guess. Stay tuned for the gorilla episode. I may start watching if it gets THAT absurd.