Even media studies scholars cry at weepy television shows.

Two weeks ago, I started a post:

> I’m staying in, relaxing, watching whatever happens to be on while I work on my patches for tomorrow. I end up watching Three Wishes, which, on the face of it, is about granting people their dearest wishes. A 20 year old man with a bad stutter receives a fantastic new device like a hearing aid that cures his stutter. An octogenarian gets to play jazz piano in a club again. Louise (septagenarian?) gets to ride in a NASCAR race car.

> Amy Grant says: ‘all the pieces come together to make a beautiful picture for the rest of your life.’

>Hootie and the Blowfish close the show.

> Then Law & Order Criminal Intent comes on. Crime porn. A myth a minute.

The guy getting the anti-stutter hearing aid got me all misty. At the climax of the show, there were many shots of people crying in the crowd as they watched Amy Grant crying and the adopted woman and her birth mother crying as they meet for the first time. It occurred to me how strange it is that we have weekly weep shows. What purpose do these shows serve? Are they the new myths, the stories we tell about ourselves to define the world? How do they differ from the stories told around fires, in village squares, in books and in pictures? The effect is visceral, but the data set is large and the influences are many and commingled. Our juices get stirred — what shape is the swizzle stick?