Things Fall Apart, A Three-Part Series -- Part II: Can A Remote Control Just Conk Out?

Yeah, it happened a couple weeks ago, I think?  I wanted to turn on my TV, which is between five and ten years old but doesn't seem to have any problems with it, and I couldn't do it with my remote.  I thought the batteries finally ran out, but I switched them and it still didn't work.  Which made me believe that, after years of no trouble, my remote control just crapped out, utterly and immediately.

In an example of how Amazon has warped all our perceptions when it comes to shopping, going online to buy a replacement remote was my first instinct ... not remembering that Target or Wal-Mart might have them, I don't have to wait for it to be delivered, and it might be cheaper.  But the one I saw at Wal-Mart ... well, it might be a pipe dream, but they are not the exact same remote control I have.  I don't think the ones available have all the buttons in all the places my original equipment remote have them in.  And, this is cosmetic, but my original has "SAMSUNG" written on the bottom, and the one I saw.  (I also went to Target but they didn't have a remote in my brand ... and come to think of it, I have not gone to Best Buy, although maybe I should have.)  So I bought a remote which has a picture of an exact replica of my OEM remote, and I bought that, knowing full well it might just be the same close-but-not-quite remote I saw at Wal-Mart.  I'll take that chance.  And so I ordered it, like, more than a week ago.

Amazon says the remote won't come until early February at the earliest.  Really?  You can't find a Samsung Original Equipment Manufacturer remote control in any of your warehouses in the States?  You have to get it from South Korea ... or have it made in South Korea, and then get it sent by, apparently, cargo ship and then Pony Express?

I don't know if this is a concurrent development or if it's just coincidence, but for the past couple weeks I cannot get Channel 4, the local CBS affiliate.  I tried scanning (this was just before my remote conked out), and it still didn't come in.  Weird.  So I have had to go out to the dining room TV whenever I wanted to watch Colbert or AFC NFL Games.  I can't wait for this remote control to arrive, and then I need to figure out how to get all my channels on my television set.