Over the last couple of months, I’ve visited quite a few big chain bookstores in Wichita, Atlanta, and Orlando.

I see a disturbing trend.

The big soft comfortable chairs are disappearing.

Thats not completely true. There are still a few around the magazine sections, but none in the rest of the stores.

Well, except within the in-house Starbucks, Seattle Coffee or whatever.

Is this is a business decision? I should have asked a clerk. Maybe they don’t want people coming in, sitting down, reading, and then leaving. Instead, people will stroll through the stores, make a quick decision to purchase since there is no way to spend any significant time with the books, and leave.

Or maybe its to steer customers to the coffeeshop, where the bookstore surely gets a kickback.

Too disturbing for me.

The Crackberry Whores, originally uploaded by boredandblogging.

Sitting at a cigar store, enjoying a stogie, just not enough for the guys.

Is This Communist Russia?!?, originally uploaded by boredandblogging.

Bread aisle is practically empty at a busy local grocery store on a Sunday afternoon.

Delta Puddle Hopper from Wichita, originally uploaded by boredandblogging.

This never happens with AirTran. What is up with Delta?

Wizard of Oz Monopoly, originally uploaded by boredandblogging.

Yep, we are definitely in Kansas.

Bored in Wichita, originally uploaded by boredandblogging.

Watching reruns of Bones.

I admit it, I don’t understand my fascination with Lolcats.

I Can Has Cheezburger? is my browser homepage.

I might not be the only one suffering from this affliction, but its still pretty scary. But you can’t tell me stuff like this doesn’t make you crack up!

We went to JapanFest Saturday. Lots of vendors hawking their wares, a few food vendors, but we missed the good stuff and some of the lines were too long.

All the pictures can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boredandblogging/tags/japanfest/

How appropriate.

We have some visitors on our deck:

Found at BoingBoing: