My rent-a-car quit on the road, and a tow-truck dropped me off in this oasis of motels and gas-pumps nowhere with nothing but a smart-phone and hope for a better tomorrow.
3:21 AM.
On TV the channel-guide cycles slowly through 100 channels.
Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming
Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming
Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming
The horizontal axis is time. The vertical axis is choice, the free market, America.
Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming
Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming
Paid Programming Paid Programming Paid Programming
A block of named programs appears:
The Healing Power of Juicing. Your Baby Can Read. Collect Gold Coins. Celeb Hair. Cash in the Attic. Super-Size Beauty.
The Fox Movie Channel offers “Bad Boy,” a musical comedy made in 1935, starring James Dunn.
Then the crawl suddenly stops, for “scheduled hardware maintenance.” This thing runs on dedicated hardware! Live and learn!
3:51 AM.
Outside the motel, it’s very cold. Across the service road a quadrant of the truck-stop parking lot is empty.
The horizontal axis is time. The vertical axis is choice, the free market, America.