Get off the couch

by James Logue

News Editor

Stop the presses: We're getting a new sofa delivered today.

After hearing our daughter complain that the couch in the living room was old enough to go to college, we decided to break down and get a new one.

There really wasn't anything wrong with the old one except we bought it during the first Reagan administration. Funny how we always seem to buy furniture when the Republicans are in power. I can't explain it.

The old sofa won't be leaving us, however. It will go downstairs in the family room. Not that the old sofa has any sentimental value; it's just lasted a long time. And we'll still be able to get some use out of it.

As far as I'm concerned, a sofa's a sofa.

I'm not one to get overly sentimental about inanimate objects. Some people do and that's OK. I just don't break down and weep everytime I see Aunt Edna's collection of cobalt blue glassware.

Of course, I'm not a completely heartless slob, either. I'm not going to throw Aunt Edna's cobalt blue glassware out the window, for crying out loud. I'm happy she left it to me when she passed on. (But the summer home on Martha's Vineyard would have been nice, too.)

I just can't get misty-eyed over an old piece of furniture. The sofa has served us well and was reasonably comfortable and it held up well through the years. In fact, it has more spring than I do.

I am curious, though, why people get so attached to inanimate objects. Just look at Liza Minnelli.

When our new sofa arrives today we'll enjoy it for however long we can and then we'll get a new one, probably during the Schwarzenegger administration.

I am looking forward to looking under the cushions of the old sofa to see what bounty lies beneath.

You never know what you can find under the cushions. I'm surprised we don't look under there more often.

I hope I can find my ball point pen I bought at the Hard Rock Cafe in Fargo, N.D.

Now that has sentimental value.