Might as well face it you're addicted to.....

Remember after school in the afternoons (before cable) – parked in front of the TV watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island, Hogan’s Heroes, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. No matter how many episodes you sat through, you could always guarantee a few things:

- Gilligan was not getting off the island but was sure to do something stupid to tick off the skipper
- The professor would have some smarty-farty insight to share with the other stranded passengers.
- Mary Ann (Roy's favorite) would be cutsie and wholesome, while Ginger would try to be sultry and sexy (yuk!)
- And Mr. Howell and Mrs. Howell would be hoity-toity like they thought they were something special.

Hogan and his men would not leave the prison camp though Colonel Klink would never figure out what they were up to as they tried.

You get the idea. Formulaic to a fault. Yet we watched, day in and day out. The basic framework never changed. But we continued to watched, every afternoon. (Unless there happened to be an ABC After School Special on instead.)

I have moved on from the reruns of my childhood. Yet I have not totally given up the comfort of enjoying stories with a formula. In my case, when I need to relax and escape the hustle and bustle of life, I read ….. romances. Girl meets boy, they fall in love, and live happily ever after, eventually. The "boy" may be a Navy Seal (hunk of choice these days--think Suzanne Brockmann) or a hardworking cowboy or even a crippled fighter (My Man Michael). The details change, but the basic plot remains the same. Like the afternoon reruns that kept me diligently tuned in, I now regularly read serial romances. Escapism? Yes. Yes. Yes. Stress relieving? You bet! Fulfillment of an unfulfilled need? Maybe. Typical American ending? Yup.

(Were they written from the French perspective, the boy and girl would probably end up eternally stuck in the dilemma of the characters in the movie Lady Hawke -- “forever bound to each other but forever kept separate”.)

You can laugh that I read silly romances, but I can laugh that you used to watch silly reruns…and probably still have a repertoire of silly formulaic shows that you STILL watch diligently. Your formulas may be different than mine, but you're just as addicted to your formulas as I am to mine. So we’re even!!!