Commercial Break

I find, just lately, that I'm more and more impatient with the commercials on the radio. I'm less willing to just ignore them until they go away, and more likely to turn the radio off entirely -- and then just as likely to forget to turn it back on for the rest of the drive.

I'm especially annoyed with "story" commercials. Real people do not talk like this, using the full name of a store, or when asked how to contact a company, being able to recite the precise phone number and address. Kids do not excitedly tell their parents about how much they learned at a museum, and I have yet to meet any woman who cares exactly where her boyfriend or husband bought her jewelry -- much less brag about it to her friends.

Seriously. Just tell me who you are and what you sell and why your product or location is better than your competitors', and just tell me how to contact you. I don't want a little faux-play to illustrate how much happier my life will be when I give you my money. Listening to those commercials is the audio equivalent of biting into wax fruit.

I'm quite the curmudgeon today, aren't I? I might need to just burn some mix CDs to keep in the car, or get an iPod doohickey, and stop listening to the radio altogether.