We’ve never understood the Oprah phenomenon (for all ye schmucks in boondocksville, the fat cow is the QUEEN of American talk show).

But then we’ve never understood a lot of stupid things that the hoi polloi go gushing ooh and aah about.

Sorry, understanding stupidity is just not our forte.

The sight of Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch and making an ass of himself on her show only served to further estrange us from the fat cow.

But when the latest issue of New Yorker (January 24, 2011) featuring a picture of Oprah a la Goddess Kali reached us today, we were intrigued enough to read the accompanying piece on Oprah’s new cable channel OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) by Nancy Franklin (p.72-74).

Oprah -The New Kali
(Image: New Yorker)

Much to our delight, Franklin slams the new channel:

OWN isn’t about experimentation or risk-taking; it’s about empire-building and image-inflating….From what I’ve seen so far, it’s numbingly unimaginative and middle of the road.

Well said.

But if the past is any guide, there are enough million dolts here who’ll eventually make the channel a success.

For those of you interested in reading the New Yorker piece on Oprah and her OWN channel, here’s the link.