Friday, June 8, 2012

Storage Wars

    As I've noted, the dialysis facility has this strange love for showing A&E on the waiting room TV. Tuesday, in a departure from normal programming, A&E ran a marathon of "Storage Wars." I worked in the self-storage industry for entirely too many years, and I remember when this show was first being promoted thinking how badly it was going to tank. So it was a surprise to look it up and find that it's the biggest hit A&E has ever had, proving still again that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
    At least they don't focus the show on self-storage per se. It's about auctioning off the contents of units the rent on which is highly in arrears. We did this, too, but nobody ever made a fortune that I can remember. What I do remember is the crooked junk salesman guy trying to bribe me $100 to let him buy all the auctioned units. Memory draws a gentle curtain; I'd like to think I didn't take the money. I know I never called the guy again, which definitely suggests that I didn't take the money. But I can't say for sure. Still, probably not real captivating television. A good Russian novel maybe, but good TV? No. Still, kudos to A&E for making gold from dross by making a program about, well, making gold from dross. Magic!

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