Spin. It's not just for politicians anymore

The Real Doctor and I are subscribers to Sirius satellite radio. We got in early, when they still offered a lifetime membership for a lump sum, so it's a nice deal for us. The service is generally excellent, and I highly recommend it. (It's especially nice if you often find yourself driving through radio deserts.) Although I don't make any use of most of the channels (e.g. the Elvis channel, the 80's channel, the metal channel, the Christian Rock channel, the New York City traffic channel, and many more), I love the classical music programming (Opera 24/7! Classical music that isn't Vivaldi or Pachelbel!) and the news menu.

Until recently, part of the news menu was two channels of NPR. There was some redundancy, but not much, and it was nice to have the choice of two news-ish programs that did not insult the intelligence. However, for whatever reason, the Sirius/XM management decided to cut back to only one NPR channel. When you try to tune in to the other NPR channel, you get a message that says, with the most enthusiastic radio announcer/huckster voice possible:

From now on, all the great shows you love on NPR can be found on one great channel! No more switching back and forth to find your favorite shows! All the shows are on one convenient channel!

The message continues on in that vein, not mentioning that in fact, some shows really have been dropped or only air at 2 A.M.

In other news, REJOICE! The chocolate ration has been raised to twenty-five grams!