Northern Exposure Quote of the Day:
Maurice: At forty-six five I had a moral compass, Chris, but at 55 I'm lost. Half of me says 'take the money, you fool', the other half says 'don't sell to these two guys!'.
Chris: Still hung up on that gay thing, huh?
Maurice: I don't care what consenting perverts do in their own home. I just don't want 'em doing it in my backyard, that's all.

This recent rash of Northern Exposure quoting is the result of a recent rash of Northern Exposure viewing, which is the result of recently finding out that Northern Exposure is to be released on DVD! I don't know where to begin gushing about how Northern Exposure is my fave TV show of all time.

Does anybody remember Northern Exposure? I wasn't really into TV when it originally aired, so I don't remember exactly how popular it was, but it did win a bunch of Emmy's. I don't hear many people referencing it these days, but I do know that there are fans out there as rabid as me.

It's weird. The show feels like a time capsule to me, capturing a very specific niche of a social, political, cultural, and spiritual philosophy. It arguably portrayed white liberalism at its pinnacle most enlightened, before it got flaky and PC-policed out of popularity (my earlier knock against white liberalism notwithstanding). After decades of social, political, progressive struggle, we finally had our eyes open.

Our multicultural, multiethnic, multipolitical, multieverything society could be inclusive and tolerant of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, education, social status, ability, background, etc. We could recognize and accept our diversity and differences, while always showing baseline civility to the people around us. It's really not that hard!

After decades of struggle and court battles, we had the philosophical groundwork for a non-self-destructive society that worked on the strengths of its citizenry, and didn't exploit and capitalize, literally, on its weaknesses, but also didn't try to artificially erase the difficulties of living in communities and the potential ugliness in the name of equality.

Northern Exposure showed this all to us in the quirky, metaphoric, and sometimes metaphysical and magical utopia of Cicely, Alaska, on the cusp of the Alaskan Riviera!

Socialized health care!

*ahem*

But the show was so much more than that. And less. If you're my friend, you'll buy this DVD when it comes out. Or if you've never seen it, you'll check it out, rent it from Netflix, borrow it from a friend. Heck, you can come over and watch it if you live in San Francisco if I'm still around. Or we can watch it at your place. And if you like it, you'd still have to buy it to be my friend. If you don't like the show, I'm sorry, but I really do not see how we can continue with this relationship. I'm sorry.