Goodbye, Entertainment Centers!

Over the holidays and into the new year, I came across several folks who had come to the same conclusion: The traditional entertainment center - the huge chunk of furniture designed to hold a number of components alongside a large TV set - is going away. More and more people are finding that new TVs don't fit those good-for-a-lifetime, pass-them-on-to-your-children, big-footprint displays.

One woman told me she'd given a flatscreen TV to her parents only to be asked to take it back because it didn't fit their entertainment center. One guy said he'd taken the top off his entertainment center to accommodate his new TV - and in another case I heard recently, the problem was solved by removing a side panel of the entertainment center so that the edge of the TV could poke through.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the website devoted to kludges was soon filled with an assortment of new configurations for what used to be an entertainment focal point.

I know of two cases in which the owner is using the top of the entertainment center as the site of the new TV - but that leaves the challenge of the gaping hole in which the TV used to sit. I'm thinking large flower arrangements might do the trick.