Is it the beginning of an era?

I can hear enough of the television in the living room to know it is tuned to OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network which launched yesterday.

I am inclined to think that Oprah Winfrey is going to take over the world. God knows she has enough money to buy a good chunk of it. And anybody who can make a star out of Phil McGraw and a bestseller out of The Bridges of Madison County can do pretty much anything.

But I'm going to hold on that prediction for now. I used to think the same thing about Sears Roebuck and Co.

By 1974 when it built the world's tallest building in Chicago, Sears was poised to take over the world too, what with their retail stores that sold almost everything; catalogue sales for everything else; private label major appliances, automotive products, electronics, tools, hardware, furniture and farm machinery, among others; All State for insurance, Dean Witter Reynolds for investments, Coldwell Banker for real estate, and the Discover Card. The only thing Sears didn't sell was cars.

But then hard times came, Sears started divesting itself of various parts, and it sold the world's tallest building and moved its headquarters to Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Then it merged with K-Mart.

Hoffman Estates began as a housing tract in 1959. We used to call it Cardboard Heights, because there were rows and rows of houses that were all made out of ticky-tacky and they all looked just the same.

Oprah and Sears have Chicago in common, but, for her sake, I hope that's about all. I hope she doesn't end up moving Harpo Studios to Rolling Meadows. And I wish she'd make me a star.