“In a turn of events arguably more dramatic and interesting than anything that ever happened on their hit show, Sex and the City stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall have made their private tensions very, very public.” – Flavorwire in “The ‘Sex and the City’ Feud Just Got Very Public and Very Ugly”

While searching for real news that matters, most of us see links for those horribly tedious slide shows with titles such as “Secrets of Mayberry” and “What You Never Knew about Bewitched” and “What the Producers of Bonanza” never told you.”

Since these shows, filmed in television’s stone age, are still airing in reruns and (apparently) have large audiences who also care about the arguments, practical jokes, and other politically incorrect stuff that happened when the shows were first aired, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that cast squabbles from “Sex in the City” still make the news fourteen years after the series ended.

Is caring about these shows in 2018 a nostalgia thing? Is it a respite from the hideous real news we’re subjected to every day? While they’re mindless and filled with more ads than content, I have to admit that those darned slideshows about stars who are mostly dead by now are a very escapist–yet possibly healing–antidote to the polarized Facebook debates about current issues.

Like the comments on many news sites, Facebook “debates” seem to bring out the lunatic fringe of trash-talking know-it-alls who are proud that they have been brainwashed either by the Republicans or the Democrats and gauge the value of their responses to the number of times they use the F word, the C word, and the S word. Gosh, all this makes Opie and Andy and Aunt Bea look pretty good.

As Flavorwire reports, “‘You are not my family,’ Kim Cattrall told former co-star Sarah Jessica Parker, via Instagram. ‘You are not my friend.'” Okay, but does airing these squabbles in public enhance your lives or your public’s lives? It sounds pretty “high school” to me.

Perhaps I should mention that I never watched “Sex and the City” because it aired on a premium channel and nothing about it tempted me to add HBO to my cable menu. Yes, we had cable in those days and, like the show, cable also is so yesterday.

Like “Seinfeld,” my impression of some “Sex and the City” cast members was that they were basing their lives on one show. So what have y’all done lately, I wanted to know. If those shows were, as Dr. Phil might say, “defining moments,” I can see why y’all can’t seem to move on into the present of 2018. I have a bit of empathy for that problem because even though the good old days really weren’t that good, some aspects of them were defining moments, even if that doesn’t include the episode where Opie shoots a bird out of a tree with his slingshot.

So, I can be nostalgic, too, but isn’t it time to move on?

–Malcolm