>Instead of urging people to watch
>this cool new show on
>NBC, I find myself, not
>two seasons later, embarrased by
>my own commitment to it.
>
>The show committed suicide. There
>are a lot of people
>to blame, but in the
>end, there wasn't one person
>who could stand up and
>shout over the noise and
>confusion of this carnival, "Stop
>the insanity"!

Like many, I had a hard time picking what of this post to quote back, to say nothing of all the other deeply eloquent posts in this thread. But the above struck the chord. A part of me feels a sense of wistful mourning that SO is over. Another part of me -- perhaps the larger part -- feels mortified that I ever got myself involved in this mess in the first place. Watching the last dregs of the re-runs this Summer, I often find myself wishing I could take a second shower. How could something that once meant so much, end up feeling like a nasty practical joke played on you by the mean girls in highschool.

For me, this last season of SO felt like a jar of cookies I once had in the cupboard. They were getting stale and they didn't taste very good to begin with, but I couldn't bring myself to throw them away because it had taken so much time and effort to make them (I don't cook ). I didn't like them, and noone needs 150 empty calories every day, but I kept eating them because they were there. For no better reason than because they were there. Cleaning the cupboard one day I dropped the jar and the cookies all over the floor, and I was finally able to sweep it all up and get it out of my life. And until now, I never thought about those cookies again. Once they were gone it was over, and I never needed to look back. That's how SO was feeling to me. And that's how it's cancellation feels to me now. In the weirdest, stupidest way I feel like I can go on with my life now, without having to worry about this assinine *thing* that I need to do for an hour in the morning.

But I, too, just had to stop in and say Goodbye. I won't miss SO, but I'll never forget it either. It meant a lot to me once. What caused it's demise prolly says more about our society than I care to think about, but maybe someday, someone out there will remember and start over in their own lives because of it.

Godspeed to you all.