Scrantonicity ~ “Manager And Salesman”

Well, with Sabre barging in from that colorful, lawless swamp known as Florida, there hasn’t been a whole lot of “Scrantonicity” to celebrate lately. Furthermore, it’s a darn good thing that Kevin Greene already wrote his hilarious LITO piece “New York City-icity.” Because now Dunder-Mifflin does not even have a headquarters in the Big Apple, so we’ll no longer have to pretend that we don’t see the southern California palm trees behind the low-rise office buildings forming the, uh… “Manhattan skyline.” What we do have to look forward to is irate LITO readers from Florida, upset that Sabre’s home offices look “phony.” Some Floridian will probably write an angry article for LITO titled “Tallahassee-icity.”

Besides the ubiquitous Crystal Club Soda machine in the breakroom, there was one Scranton reference in this episode. And it was a funny one, too. Michael Scott, in his brief return to sales, found a new Dunder-Mifflin client in Curves, which he referred to as a “gentleman’s club” in Carbondale. A fairly small town about 15 miles up Route 6 (aka the “Scranton-Carbondale Highway”), Carbondale, Pa has been mentioned several times on “The Office” now, most famously for the gas station where Ryan didn’t buy any fresh yams. My favorite reference is from “Niagara,” where Dwight hooks up with a girl at Pam and Jim’s wedding, and he is quoted as saying “She’s a dental hygienist from Carbondale, and she makes love like one; she’s a bumpkin.” How can you even read that sentence without laughing?

There was a charming moment where Andy and Erin almost bumped into one another, and they began riffing about the resulting “traffic jam,” in a way that illustrated how closely matched their weird senses of humor are. Erin wailed “Traffic jam on Route 3.” Route 3? According to Wikipedia, Route 3 is also known as Market Street… in Philadelphia! The Office writers missed a good opportunity to use a local highway where a 20 car pile-up makes sense. The aforementioned Route 6 would have worked, given its ghastly history as the road where Dunder-Mifflin’s own Ed Truck was decapitated. Better still would have been Route 81, the interstate that runs through Scranton. But, maybe the writers know exactly what they are doing; maybe they know that the character Erin, who’s not even aware of Snoopy the dog, would never be able to “riff” using real local state highway designations.

Finally, I couldn’t help but wonder about Jo Bennett’s two Great Danes. How did she even get those behemoths to Scranton from Tallahassee? Were the dogs flown into Avoca International Airport, located halfway between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre? The cargo-hold unloading of two dogs of that size in that small airport would make a great deleted scene, at the very least!

Which reminds me of the last time we were at Avoca International Airport, on our last visit to Scranton. We flew in for my sister’s wedding, and were flying back out on Thanksgiving Day, traditionally one of the slowest flying days of the year. My wife and I boarded the 737, and it was ready for take-off, and we were the only passengers on board! We had the entire 737 to ourselves, with three flight attendants to attend to our needs. So, of course, I started thinking about how easy it would be to join the “Mile High Club” on this flight. Then… at the absolute last second… some bubbly, effervescent “Andy-Bernard”-ish salesman climbed on board, breaking the enchanted spell of having the plane all to ourselves. My “mile-high-club” dream quickly descended back down to earth. As “Andy” settled in to the seat right next to my wife and me, he actually turned to us and said “So… It looks like it’s just us! What do you guys want to talk about?”

Hopefully, the next Office episode, “The Delivery” will provide more material for “Scrantonicity.” Maybe Pam’s baby will be born in the same hospital as I was, the Community Medical Center… it’s a small community, so it’s quite possible! We’ll see on March Fourth.