There’s something out there that makes you go completely bezonkers in a way that’s so dorky it’s kind of cool. I know there’s something and you can’t deny it. That is, unless I’m the only dork. Yes, well…

The thing is, the other day, I heard that Benton’s own Cliff Lee just had a stellar first game of the MLB playoffs for his first season as a Philadelphia Philly. He even stole a base for the first time in Phillies post-season history. It was such a big deal that the phrase “Cliff Lee” was in the top ten things being talked about on Twitter.com. But that wasn’t the dorky thing that made me crazy happy. That was something that’s supposed to crank your motor. What made my grin get bigger than my face was another topic trending on Twitter. “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.”

Do you know where I’m going with this? It was a TV hit with the youngsters in the early 90s. Actually, it was about as 90s as you can get, since it was set in a Southern California high school, and the culture was everything an Arkansas teen aspired to back in the day. It was a really funny show, and it even starred a guy from North Little Rock, Corin Nemec.

I didn’t miss an episode. I watched it like I watched “Friends” in the late 90s. I watched it like I watched “The Office” this week for Jim and Pam’s wedding.

Yes, I do things other than sit in front of the computer all the time. I occasionally sit in front of the television. With a laptop. Or a phone with Internet access. What?

Back to the trending Twitter topic. Why on God’s semi-green planet would that show be trending 16 years after it stopped airing? Topics get on Twitter’s top ten list when it’s what people are talking about right at this minute.

According to Quantcast.com’s estimate, the number of people using Twitter in a day currently hovers at just under five million. It’s impossible for me to figure up exactly how many people were on Twitter talking about Cliff Lee at that moment in time, but the phenomenal part was that even more people were talking about “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose!” Why? Must! Click! Top Topic!

And then the world turned all rainbowy and unicorny because the news everyone was going wild about was that the raddest show ever to dress the male lead in flowery rayon shirts and pleated tan slacks with white high tops had finally put its episodes on DVD. Yesss!!

I immediately phoned my husband to let him know the news and give him the mission to find it and bring it on home to Momma. (That’s me, by the way.) Not long after, he called back to report that he had done a quick search on Netflix.com and the first season of Parker Lewis showed up. All was right in the world.

Now to prove to you that I’m not the only goober to go nuts about something dumb. My husband had a birthday in August. No, it hasn’t been since August that he dorked out on something. This is just a good example, okay, so just listen. He is a big gadget freak just like me. We have to have the new stuff, and if we can’t afford the new stuff, we at least have to be among the first few to know about it.

I’ve had a netbook for a while now. It’s a teensy laptop computer that is made specifically to be convenient to bring with you wherever you go. It’s not for high-powered stuff like gaming or editing video. It’s engineered mainly for surfing the Internet. Jim just didn’t think that was the thing to get. But then he realized that lugging his fat, heavy laptop around to his various coffee destinations was getting rather cumbersome. You can relate, no?

As it inched closer to his birthday, he would run his eyeballs over the pages of the electronics flyers that came in the Sunday paper and click his way through various Web sites touting the benefits of this or that petite ‘puter. The day came when he blurted it out. It was not what I expected.

“Shelli, I’ve been thinking that I want a netbook for my birthday, but I think I want a pants presser instead!”

This column was printed in The Benton Courier on Sunday, October 11th, 2009. See more of Shelli's columns here.