My local cable company has just laid "on demand" service on me. As far as I can tell, for no extra charge (except certain PPV items.) I thought you needed a Tivo-type device for this (the service offers one but I don't have it yet), but it comes right over the cable. Pick a show from the list, and they pipe it right in. Complete with on-screen pause, rewind, fast forward, the works. I have no idea how this even operates.

My son has dived right into this. Cartoons and many other shows are free. He wants me to cough up for the premium channels, which have an extensive choice on "on demand."

No way, kid.

You see, in the old days, you could rightly complain that "there was nothing good on." Guess I'll go outside.

With dozens to hundreds of channels, this became less true, but the running gag just became "hundreds of channels and still nothing good on."

Now, plug a list of hundreds (thousands eventually?) of shows into an "on demand" system, and what do you have?

You have a television set where there is always something good on. Think about that a while. Good God, he'd never leave the couch. More important, I'd never leave the couch. I'm not shutting down On Demand, but by golly I'm not paying extra for any more shows, either.

Don't buy any stock in video stores.