My Dirty Little Secret

On a nondescript evening I went into Border’s bookstore and nonchalantly made my way past the cappuccino swilling intellectuals and toward that one section of the store I know so well. Looking left and right I pretended to be looking at one, more respectable thing.. when in deed I was looking out of the corner of my eye at another. When no one was looking, I darted my grubby left hand outward and grapped my prey. I placed it on the counter face down, hoping no one would see I was buying it. I rushed the salesperson to put it in a bag, and nonchalant;y said, “some light reading”.. chuckling, but ever aware of the judgmental thoughts in the middle aged woman’s eyes. “He’s one of THOSE” she must have thought.

Well.. if I were to tell you that my biggest thrill was hunkering down that night to read how Sisko was going to return in a vision to Jake, while Kira has a run in with Paris and Torres, and Wil and Deanna make an appearance on the station while Jean-Luc is on holiday.. and you know what I’m talking about.. then possibly you are one of THOSE too.

And not just the books.. but the movies.. old and new.. and the shows.. even the last one with the woman who gets lost.. and yes, even this one (which of course takes place so long before).. I love them, but I am embarassed by it.

It didn’t used to be this way. Time was people would grin and admit.. me too.. but nowadays it is like.. “Oh, well, I used to..”

So, for those of you who know the difference between TOS and TNG, and those who are wise enough to realize that DS9 was the best of them all.. and that ENT can’t be destroyed by B&B because VOY was worse.. and it was still good enough to draw you wednesday nights… and Even if NEM was no FC, at least it was no INS. And we think about it.. and we want it to return to its former glory in the same way we want one less pound, wrinkle, or gray hair. Maybe it can.. but it seems wrinkled too now.. worn out.. and tired. And yet.. the life is in the old dog.. you can see it.. and maybe we’ll get another good run. After all, TMP seemed that way too, but TWOK (you know, II) blew us all away.

If you have NO idea what I’m talking about, I understand.. but I wager some of you do. And I wager that some of you linger in memory when it was almost cool to talk about the fat guy vs. the bald guy vs. the black guy. Now we have the snake lady and the guy who used to be Sam on QL.

Ah, QL.. but that is a different Leap altogether.