I ask for an intelligent point of view from someone honestly finds Days of Our Lives to be the epitome of daytime soaps, and I get "KeLLY," an AOL user who apparently has never heard that the caps lock button can be pressed a second time to turn it off. But then again, I suppose for some people a single button on a keyboard has all the vicissitudes of a SETI console.

point blank......YOU ARE A HYPOCRITE. YOU CLAIM TO HAVE STOPPED WATCHING DAYS AND DO NOT MISS IT AT ALL, BUT YOU KNOW EVERY DAYS STORYLINE UP TO DATE...ARE YOU A CLOSET DAYS VIEWER?

You want the honest truth? Probably not, considering the nature of what you just wrote here, but I stopped watching Days regularly in early 1997 and stopped watching period in early 1998. Yet I seem to know every Days storyline up to date? Gee, I wonder why that is. Is it perhaps that the show moves slower than Ma and Pa Kettle in the Indy 500, and more predictable than Rush Limbaugh's opinion of any Democrat-endorsed bill.

I also have help from people who, despite also being fed up with the crap Days spits out, still watch the show. But I wouldn't expect you to be able to think that long enough to considering the possibility. Point blank, Elvis has a better chance of rising from his grave and singing a polka rendition of The Star Spangled Banner in Atlantic City before a Mike Tyson-Marilyn Manson steel cage wrestling mach while eating a bacon double cheese burger and chili fries than you do beating Dan Quayle in a spelling bee of vowels.

BESIDES THAT POINT....DAYS IS FAN FAVORITE...JUST REVIEW THE SOAP OPERA DIGEST AWARDS...THEY CHANGED THE NOMINATION BALLOTS BECAUSE DAYS WAS SWEEPING THE SHOW EVERY YEAR. NOW YOU SEE THAT EVERY SHOW GETS THE SAME AMOUNT OF NOMINATIONS PER YEAR. ALTHOUGH DAYS HAS NOT SWEPT THE SHOW IN A WHILE, THEY BRING BACK A MAJORITY OF THE AWARDS... TRADITIONAL STORYLINES ARE BORING AND RECYCLED!!!!! HOW MANY MORE TIMES ARE WE GOING TO SEE RAPE, SWITCHED AT BIRTH OR ABORTION STORYLINES? IF THAT'S WHAT YOU PREFER THEN HAVE FUN, BUT DON'T CRITICIZE DAYS BECAUSE THEY WANT TO DO SOMETHING SHOCKING AND DIFFERENT.

Shocking and different. I suppose unjustifiable 180 degree turns by all the characters and climaxes that have no relation to the plots they're allegedly wrapping up would be pretty shocking. I suppose it's also very different, too, since no other show in the history of television could possibly write something that poorly.

Tell me why The Killing Pool storyline is so great. Tell me why a character suddenly thrown into the middle of the plot without any explanation, who gets killed and her relative doesn't even blink, is great storytelling or a solid mystery. You can't, can you?

AND YOU WOULD BE A LIAR IF YOU SAID THAT YOU HAVE NEVER THOUGHT OR TALKED TO YOURSELF UNDER YOUR OWN BREATH AFTER HAVING A CONVERSATION WITH SOMEONE. RECALLING PAST EVENTS LIKE THE CHARACTERS OF DAYS DO IS NOT UNUSUAL...IT IS HELPFUL FOR NEW VIEWERS TO UNDERSTAND WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON.

How is it helpful when it's the exact same thing after every commercial break every day? Just because someone's a new viewer does not mean they're as dense as you are. You are not the epitome of life; you're a pimple, a booger hanging off someone's nose, the undigested kernel of corn in a piece of shit. It does not take characters saying the exact same thing for twenty straight episodes for new viewers to be clued in on what's going on. Why is an entire show of characters rehashing previous shows better than, say, a summary recap at the beginning of the show like the ABC soaps use? Why is it not enough to see a quick recap to see for yourself where a character is coming from and then figure out why he/she is doing something? Why is talking down to the viewer more entertaining than actually INVOLVING them in the story? What is entertainment if it isn't interesting or involving?

So you're relating mumbling under one's own breath to Nicole talking to a picture for half a show? A driver cuts you off in traffic and you shout an expletive is the equivalent to "I wonder who called me on the phone? Maybe it was Lucas. Let me find out. Star six nine"???

FOR SOMEBODY SO ANALYTICAL MAYBE YOU SHOULD ANALYZE HOW MANY SOAP OPERAS HAVE DAYS RELATED STORYLINES..... ONE MORE THING......YOU CLAIMED TO BE A DAYS FAN BUT TO ME YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A SELL OUT......YOU MAY CHOOSE TO STOP WATCHING THE SHOW FOR YOUR OWN REASONS BUT WHERE THE HELL IS THE COLLEGE DEGREE THAT SAYS YOU ARE AN EXPERT IN FILM/TELEVISION?

What exactly is your definition of "sellout"? Do you even know what a "sellout" is? Do you even know what planet you're on? What color is blue? Alan Jackson is considered a sellout for turning one of his hit songs into a car commercial. Bruce Willis is a sellout for doing films he knows are horrible just to collect a paycheck. How am I a sellout if I want a show I used to love to stop putting out crap, fix their problems, and be good once again? If I find the dreadful storylines Peter Reckell has to go through while his character is completely butchered to be too painful to watch, that makes me a sellout? If I wish the show would stop hiring attractive young people with no acting abilities whatsoever and want the legitimate actors on to be given material that would actually make use of their talents, that makes me a sellout?

As for your very last sentence, I'm allowed the right to stop watching Days for my own reasons, but these reasons aren't valid unless I have a college degree in television expertise? That would be like me telling you that you're allowed to watch Days and enjoy it for whatever reasons you want, but you don't have any right to your reasoning and justification for your enjoyment. Praise and criticism are cut from the same thread. If one has to be "educated" to be able to criticize something, then by the same token you'd need the same sort of "education" to be able to know when to praise it. If you were to look in the dictionary under "contradict," your face would be right there next to Bill Clinton's.