From: nebusj-@-rpi-.edu   
      
   	My father and I now had our tickets, and our wristbands, and   
   about an hour to fill before coming back to the mezzanine level for the   
   line which would actually put us in the studio.  We figured this time   
   would be a convenient one to check the NBC Studio store, even though I   
   at the time only actually watched one and a half NBC shows other than   
   Conan O'Brien's (I've since fallen quite in to the whole Parks And   
   Recreation/The Office/30 Rock block) and my father just sighs wearily   
   when the suggestion of not watching every home repair show ever during   
   prime time comes up.   
      
   	My father was surprised there wasn't any Late Night merchandise   
   on sale.  I kept pointing out that it's a much bigger store than he   
   seemed to think it is (I don't think he realized then just how far back   
   it goes from the storefront), but he kept insisting there wasn't anything.   
   He kept up this insistance as we went past the table selling Late Night   
   T-shirts, mugs, pins, keychains, and Masturbating Bear-related merchandise.   
   This selection was smaller than I expected, though, even though they did   
   have replicas of the desk mug with many weird cryptic messages written   
   on it that Conan drinks his water from during the show.   
      
   	What did surprise me was the abundance of merchandise connected   
   to either Seinfeld or Friends, shows which if I'm not mistaken went off   
   the air when the current crop of high school graduates were still in   
   elementary school.  This doesn't speak well of the modern crop of NBC   
   shows, but I do understand why someone might like a Seinfeld T-shirt more   
   than a Kath and Kim one.   
      
   	What astounded my father was the range of House merchandise.   
   I don't think he cares about House in any way except that he knows   
   Plainsboro, New Jersey, fairly well.  (My father knows every street   
   between northern Virginia and New Hampshire.)  But he knows that my   
   mother likes watching the show, so he went carefully through every   
   single T-shirt, mug, button, and poster, suggesting we buy it for my   
   mother.  My mother has never hinted that her liking any show has ever   
   extended to wanting any merchandise connected to these shows, including   
   videotape or DVD sets.   
      
   	I resisted all the buying efforts because I didn't want to carry   
   anything through the rest of the day including the show.  So on verifying   
   that the store closes at 7 pm --- a half-hour after the scheduled end of   
   taping --- I was able to stand on the ``we'll buy stuff later'', assuming   
   the show ends on time, principle.   
      
   	This was a great improvement over the way the old NBC Store used   
   to run things when I went to tapings in the 1990s: they used to close for   
   the night at 6 pm, midway through Late Night.  Why a 7:30 closing time   
   wouldn't make more sense is one of the many things which I think of and   
   which the outstanding team which runs General Electric doesn't.   
      
   --   
   								Joseph Nebus   
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)