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The Check-Out Lane Experience

Lomo-Cam, Flickr Creative Commons

http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Chion/Colin%20McEnroe%20Show%2008-02-2011.mp3

Ah, the supermarket! The temple of abundance!
Listen to  Don Delillo's characters describe it in the novel "White Noise":

"Everything seemed to be in season, sprayed, burnished, bright. The place was awash in noise. The toneless systems, the jangle and skid of carts, the loudspeaker and the coffee-making machines, the cries of children. And over it all, a dull and unlocatable roar, as of some form of swarming life just outside the range of human apprehension. The large doors slide open, they close unbidden. Energy waves, incident radiation, code words and ceremonial phrases. It is just a question of deciphering. Not that we would want to."

And this was written before Whole Foods! Today, we're focusing on the moment called "check-out" and trying to decipher it.

Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.

Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Colin can be reached at colin@ctpublic.org.

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