Life In The Office

One of these days there is going to be an Office episode with absolutely no Scranton references. There won’t be a single product placement that hasn’t already been pointed out, nor a local name-drop, nor an outdoor scene to be dissected for its correctness… and therefore there will be no “Scrantonicity.” I know that episode is a-comin’ eventually, and I had this feeling that it just might be “Doomsday.” That title was just too prophetic to be ignored. “Doomsday” would be that day… except… that it isn’t. “Scrantonicity” scrapes by once again!

Jim Halpert is talking to Darryl as he sits behind his desk. The coffee cup in front of Darryl has the logo “C & C” on it. A quick Google check show that there is a C & C Masonry company located just outside Scranton in my hometown of Dunmore, Pennsylvania. So C & C Masonry is the first “concrete” sighting of the episode. It’s good to start out with a solid foundation.

So Jim suggests to Darryl that they plan a double date to watch some local roller derby. That would be the Wilkes Barre Scranton Roller Radicals. They play… or they “compete”… or they do whatever it is they do at the Skateaway Arena on Blackman Street in Wilkes Barre. A quick check of their website is pretty eye-opening, as their team slogan is “Fun and fishnets.” And, for those so inclined, if you think you’ve got the “right stuff,” you can have a tryout; like the website says: “We’re looking for fresh meat.” Gosh, I can just picture Jim and Pam cheering wildly in the stands for the hometown Radicals. That would be fun when one of their rival Roller Derby teams skates into town, like the New Jersey Hellrazors or the Red Bank Roller Vixens!

Gabe goes into Toby’s corner to warn him in advance that he will soon be dating Val. Toby is seated at his desk with his Temple University Degree on the wall and his Tobyhanna foam “Toby Bone” behind him. But what I saw that was a little disturbing was the calendar over Toby’s shoulder. Even though the show is supposed to be in “real time,” Toby’s calendar is still showing the month of October. No wonder there are so many billing errors around that place. They are entirely too casual about the actual date!

After the implementation of Dwight’s “Accountability Booster,” everyone is shown running around the office in a dither. Visible on Stanley’s desk is a toy truck that is marked “Kane.” I found a Kane CPG Logistics company located in the Stauffer Industrial Park of Scranton. “CPG” stands for “Consumer Packaged Goods,” and their company slogan is “Kane Is Able.” So, that’s the second slogan we’ve mentioned, along with “Fun and Fishnets.” I don’t know if Kane is hiring, though. Their website doesn’t mention that they’re looking for fresh meat.

Meanwhile, back at the office, Phyllis shouts out “Remember, we have to get Regal Escrow their refund by five.” There is no “Regal Escrow” in northeastern Pa, but there is one in Chula Vista, California, down near San Diego. It sounds like an insider “shout-out” from someone on the show. A few minutes later, Angela asks if a “late notice” was sent out to “Ryan, Hart and Wolf,” or maybe it is “Rinehart and Wolf.” In any case, there is nothing by either of those names in Pa, so it is probably another “inside joke.”

Andy is shown sitting in the front of the office by the reception desk, next to a stack of “Weekender” newspapers on an end table. As LITO reader Michele pointed out, the Weekender is Wilkes-Barre oriented, as opposed to the “Electric City,” which is Scranton-centric. Maybe that’s why Jim has a sudden interest in the Wilkes Barre Roller Radicals!

Jim is given the task of finding Robert California, who is playing squash somewhere in Scranton. Well, that probably wasn’t too difficult tracking him down, because of the dearth of squash courts in the area. There is one squash court at the Scranton Country Club in Clark’s Summit. I was also able to find one court at the Wilkes Barre YMCA, advertised as the only squash court in the Wyoming Valley. In my research, I found that squash has lost a lot of its former popularity to handball and racquetball, due in part to the lack of “bounciness” of the squash ball. And indeed, in the scenes with Jim Halpert, the squash ball was just kind of flaccidly flopping around the court, when it wasn’t striking Jim in his core, hard and fast.

Gabe sends Darryl out to get coffees, and he specifically asks for a Frappuccino, a trademarked Starbucks beverage. But Darryl comes back and hands out coffees with a local logo, that I wasn’t able to make out. I keep thinking I’ll be able to identify that mystery coffee company eventually.

Dwight is shown digging a hole in front of Schrute Farms, which again, doesn’t look too shabby when it comes to approximating northeastern Pa foliage. It doesn’t look very November-y, though. Then, Andy tosses Dwight a hat with the Sunoco Oil Company logo on it. I haven’t seen that logo in years, because there are no Sunoco gas stations out here in Washington. There were several in my neighborhood around Dunmore, though. I used to gas up at Barry’s Sunoco on Boulevard Avenue, which is still there, still pumpin’ away.

Finally, this is ever-so-peripherally related to Scrantonicity, but it is worth mentioning: My brother lives outside of Carbondale, and he goes to a fitness center on Route 6 in Eynon. There he knows a guy named Jerry. Jerry sat in on the Letterman show audience the other night, and when David Letterman found out he was talking to “Jerry from Scranton,” he made a big deal out of it in his opening monologue, at about the 1:17 minute mark. The crowd went wild. I’m guessing the popularity of “The Office” has a lot to do with that cheering.

~ Bob