Life In The Office

The latest Office episode, “The Chump” has provided the Scranton Chamber Of Commerce with a memorable slogan that just might catch on: “The Paris of northeastern Pennysylvania.” I can see how this will grow in popularity, finally reaching a point where the city of Paris begins to refer to itself as… the “Scranton of north central France.” Now that’s catchy. This will probably lead to an increase in tourism in both cities, as tourists flock to scintillating Steamtown and the extra-awesome Anthracite Coal Museum in Scranton, and then they just might be inspired to visit “sister city” Paris. There’s a pretty big tower there, and some other old stuff, too. (yawn) But au revoir to all that for now. We’re here to talk about Scranton.

The first local reference can be found on Erin’s cloth grocery bag containing the Eagles-inspired ice cream. The sack is elegantly inscribed with “Wegman’s,” an upscale supermarket from the area. NBC has been emphasizing a “green theme” with its shows, and the reusable bag fits in nicely with that, as sort of a subliminal reminder. Another subliminal reminder can be found on the side of the refrigerator in the breakroom: there is a small poster that says “PennFuture.” The Office seems to be featuring a lot of subliminal messages lately. On an unrelated note, I’ve also been thinking about sex a lot these days. What’s up with that?

Back to the breakroom refrigerator; that has been a treasure trove of “Scrantonicity,” especially this season. My motto has become “When all else fails, get thee to the refrigerator.” This episode, I spotted a poster for Boscov’s, which is a traditional, old-school department store at the Steamtown Mall. Since we know that Kelly haunts the small chain stores like “Platinum Cat” and “Fancy Girl,” then the Boscov’s flyer must be there for Pam, Angela and Phyllis. I’m not sure which store Meredith chooses to do her shoplifting, other than “Victoria’s Secret.” Also on the side of the refrigerator is a card for the real-life Scranton attorneys at “Foley’s Law Firm,” which may be there for quick reference when Meredith occasionally gets caught indulging in her “five-finger discounting.” Something tells me that Creed has a need for the law firm from time to time, too. There are other “Scran-tastic” references on that refrigerator that are just too small for me to read, like a yellow business card with what appears to be a penguin on it. Could that be for Vance Refrigeration? He IS located right across the hall, Phyllis IS his wife, and it IS a refrigerator. OK, that’s “win-win-win,” which I never get tired of saying.

The cuckolded coach’s high school is only identified as the generic “Scranton.” That’s understandable. It would have been a hoot to have a real local school mentioned, like they’ve previously done with Dunmore and Valley View. But the whole “adulterous coach’s wife” bit is a bit unsavory, so I can see why they steered clear of that. Also, the background at the baseball game looked at least (ahem) somewhat like Pennsylvania’s landscape. I’m grateful that they are taking the time to “photoshop” the palm trees out of there.

I’m quite proud of my detective work on this “catch.” When Michael Scott pulled Meredith’s cake out of the refrigerator, there was a brief glimpse of a distinctive logo on the side of the cake box. I didn’t recognize it immediately, but I started googling “Scranton bakeries,” and I found it on the second attempt! Now we know that Meredith’s lemon cake came from “Gerrity’s Bakery.” The logo is a photo of the lady next to the saying “Where Mom is always in charge.” My sister from Scranton shops at Gerrity’s, and that lady is the real-life owner of the store. When my sister recently saw her bagging groceries, she said… “Hi, Mom.” Who cares about this stuff besides me? Probably nobody, but I get the feeling Dwight Schrute, P.I. would be proud of my investigation.

The last reference was a dandy: the news crew that accosted our clueless Dunder-Mifflin boss at the end was the real-life NBC affiliate from northeastern Pa, station WBRE. As a kid who watched his fair share of cartoons, I’ve been saying the phrase “WBRE-TV” ever since I was “knee-high on a grasshopper,” to quote Michael Scott. That was a clever way for NBC to plug itself, getting the exploding printer “scoop” on local rivals WNEP (ABC) and WYOU (CBS).

Something tells me that NBC’s WBRE TV will be all over the HOT  “breaking story”  of Sabre’s defective printers. If it lives up to its promise, it will be an EXPLOSIVE season finale! (one more time)

~ Bob