Home is Where the Hopelessness Is

There's a commercial airing during my favorite shows, like Lost and House, for the depression medication called Cymbalta. It starts with, "what do people suffering from depression have in common?"

The screen shots of the "before" situations cut from one kind of pained/sad looking person to another, black, white, male, female, etc, each more depressed-looking than the last.

So. The thing that each person seems to have in common?

Wood paneling.

Yup. Wood paneling. Either on their walls or on their bed headboard. Apparently, being depressed causes you to surround yourself with bad interior design. It also makes you rub your neck a lot and forget to do your hair. But mostly it makes you buy the house formerly owned by Archie and Edith Bunker.

Don't get me wrong. I grew up in a wood paneled living room myself. In fact, the whole dang house was wood paneled...and we thought it looked GREAT! We installed it ourselves (by which I mean my dad did it while we held wood caulking glue and listened to him swear about the g$#*&^mn uneven walls). But we was stylin, yo!!

And yet, sort of depressed now that I think about it.... ;)

So if you should ever find yourself unshowered, unshaven, and sitting in a wood paneled room while ignoring your kids, hie thee to your computer and visit http://www.cymbalta.com/index.jsp. Your feng shui depends on it.