Social Climes : Attention Blue-Light Shoppers: Surf the Net

Attention Internet Shoppers: While we find nothing more enjoyable after the holiday season than cruising the retail world’s ransacked aisles for bargains, hard-core stay-at-home Internet surfers will be happy to note Kmart has put up a shopping center alongside the Information Superhighway--the first of the, er, econo-priced retail chains to do so.

The outlet’s shop-at-home service, Kmart Home Delivery, is now available to subscribers of America Online. Shoppers can modem their way to 8,000 of the store’s products; prescriptions get same-day delivery. Right now, though, the service is being test-marketed in Phoenix only. The rest of us still have to leave the house.

A Chat With Tammy Faye: The Social Climes Staff recently spotted an ad on the Internet placed by Fox-TV looking for studio audience members for a new talk show starring the former make-up-enriched PTL co-host Tammy Faye Bakker (now Tammy Faye Bakker Messner).

Needless to say, we had to find out the scoop. According to a Fox producer, it’s actually a project in development and the studio will be taping mock run-throughs at least until the end of January to test the viability of the concept.

Essentials/What You Need to Maneuver the L.A. Scene: Calling all dads. It’s Saturday and you’re spending the day with your kid. Stroller ready to roll, you head for the mall. After all, where would any self-respecting parent be seen on a weekend? You make sure you have everything--diapers, bottles, toys, blankets, baby sunscreen.

But don’t leave home without the most important piece of equipment a father needs on baby’s day out: a portable television. Dads of the ‘90s can’t be expected to spend quality time with their offspring and miss the game.

That’s why Information-Age fathers are packing mini-TVs and sneaking in a few minutes while the little lambs are asleep. OK, so the screen’s tiny and everyone looks like Lilliputians. It still beats hanging around an electronics department for hours.