Well, it is a sad day in the history of pop-culture... my husband broke the news to me this afternoon... they are canceling Guiding Light!!! Yes, as much as I have often hated to admit it, CBS soap operas are a longstanding guilty pleasure of mine... I Tivo every episode of Y&R.

I can't believe it! After 72 years! Although it was never my favorite in the CBS daytime lineup (Young and the Restless - 1, As the World Turns - 2, Bold and the Beautiful - 3, Guiding Light - 4) it was an institution and the fact that it was always there and would always be there was comforting!

I love soaps because they're fun to gossip about with your friends because you can do so without hurting anyone's feelings and being a mean gossipy girl. You're SUPPOSED to hate some of the characters. You can live vicariously through their scandals while maintaining your even existence and you can laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

But, the real reason I love them is because they are ALWAYS THERE. How many times have been nearing the end of a great novel and felt like you didn't want it to end because you were going to miss the characters??? That's what it's like with soaps, but you never have to miss them because they are ALWAYS THERE. You can always count on your favorites returning from the dead, or to their intended partner (Victor and Nikki, Reva and Josh, Brooke and Ridge, Carly and Jack, etc.), or from space.... Wherever they went, whoever is playing the character now, doesn't matter because they'll always come back. Maybe it will be in ghost form, as a twin nobody ever knew about, as a clone, as a dream, as a nightmare... whatever, that's not the point, the point is they're they're a constant. In a world in flux, it's nice to have simple, stupid comforts.