One of the questions I get the most from people is “where is your office?”  You see, my employer’s main office is in the Milwaukee area, but we have an office set up here in Madison, right off the beltline.

When I try to explain to people where it is, I name a couple places that are nearby, and usually get blank stares.  Then, I say “it’s right over by Selective Video,” and they go “ahhhhhh….”

Selective Video is a porn shop tucked away in a valley just off Todd Drive near the beltline.  While nobody will ever admit to going there, everyone seems to know where it is.  Their motto: “We Never Close.”

Needless to say, being so close to an adult entertainment establishment, I’ve seen some pretty sketchy things going on in the parking lot.  Occasionally, some old, fat, bearded farmer type will pull up in a pickup truck, get out, walk over to another car where a comely young lass is sitting, they will talk for a few seconds, then they will both get back in their respective cars and drive away together – presumably to the same destination to engage in sweet, heartfelt, intimate $25 lovemaking.  In the back of their cars.

But here’s the question I have – why would these people choose the parking lot of Selective Video for their illicit dealings?  I mean, they could literally meet anywhere.  There’s a Culver’s right across the street – why not meet up there?

Does it just “seem right” to meet in the parking lot of a porn shop?  Does the venue make the meetup somehow more appropriate?  One would think that if cops were looking to shut down such behavior, they’d just sit in a car in a porn store or strip club parking lot and bust people seeking a low-dollar tryst.  So wouldn’t it make more sense to meet at Target, for instance?

Maybe they think meeting johns in porn store parking lots is way too obvious – so they figure the cops give them a lot of credit for their brains and instead set up sting operations at Rocky Rococo’s.  Almost reverse psychology.  Or maybe cops just like super slices.  Who knows.

In any event, I’d be shocked if stores like Selective Video stay in business much longer.  The internet just has to be killing places like that.  Why go by a video in a store you can get for free-ninety nine online?

I think I just answered my own question – the internet doesn’t have parking lots.