Where have all the sophistiques gone?

In Chicago, multi-leveled chain bookstores where the epicenter of intellectual endeavor and stimulating sophisticated social gatherings.

White collar workers would step out of their high rise office buildings to stand in aisles between "The Economist" and "Stock Market Weekly". College students from downtown DePaul University, south Chicagos' Univeristy of Chicago, north Chicago's Loyola Univeristy, and west Chicago's University of Illinois would all mingle among the pronounced truths of Immanuel Kant, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Kafka.

Of course there were the occasional nerds who would sneak up to the third floor to buy complete seasons of Law and Order SVU, Bollywood movies or Star Wars Special Edition.....

In the bookstore cafe, students from all across Chicago would pour over stacks of text books armed with a frivolously long-named coffee concoction and sophisticated, overpriced bakery goods.

Last weekend, I clapped by ruby red shoes together in the parking lot of Kitsap County's Barnes and Noble after the harsh and forced realization that no, I am not in Chicago anymore.....

About to enter the local Barnes and Noble I saw a middle aged, overweight woman exit the pretentious double doors. She was wearing an old shirt under her overalls, which I might add were unbuckled and flapping loosely over her jelly-donut flab. To this I might simply have smiled an thought, "to each her own". But then, the woman turned to the lady she was walking out with and screamed, "You touch me like that again and I'll knock those false teeth right out of your mouth!"