I am on a business trip and missing my family, and as penance I am forcing myself to watch British Idol. Excruciating. This hour may actually get me into heaven.

Yes my friend, the culture, or those that most lack culture has been severely affected these days. Like anything else, I blame the internet (who doesn’t blame the internet these days for everything). Truly it has become an epidemic of socialus obliviatum or the failure to recognize personal space.

It started in the car. Most of us equated that to the fact that our space was contained in that small cabin. In light of that we feel we can do what we durn well feel like doing, such as singing our fool heads off, picking noses and/or other important body parts, applying make-up, shaving, etc. ad-nauseum. We seem oblivious to the rest of the world being privy to this as well.

Extrapolate that to work cubicles, again we assume we are in a “private” state and proceed to carry on as if our co-workers are not privy to the salacious details of every detail from last night’s events.

Now with the era of cell phones and those Borg-like attachments we shove in our ears, we assume our phone conversations are private, as we stroll along malls, stores, and halls, oblivious to the outside world listening in.

It’s either that, or we’re all severely preoccupied with ourselves rather than caring about each other. My suggestion is to strap some helmets on the children, apply some sharp edges to the stroller, and aim for the achilles, or the manolo’s , whichever does the most damage!