Auburn now has a tie to the show about nothing.

Native Auburnian and State University of New York at Oswego assistant professor of sociology, Dr. Tim Delaney, has written a book called “Seinology: The Sociology of Seinfeld.” The book describes basics elements of sociology and how characters and episodes of the hit television show “Seinfeld” personify these sociological principles.

Although “Seinfeld” last aired original episodes in 1998, Delaney finds that his college students relate to his use of the show to teach sociology, thanks to the syndication of episodes shown constantly on television.

The chapters in the book, such as “The Workplace,” “Sex and Gender Issues” and “Crime and Social Control,” describe sociological theories and then illustrates them with episodes from the show. Delaney uses the example of George Costanza's difficulties in understanding how people are expected to behave in the workplace. George always worked hard to avoid work, and his interactions with his co-workers and bosses as described in various episodes always bring a chuckle.

Delaney is clearly a huge “Seinfeld” fan. He uses relevant episodes as references, such as the time the college reporter thought that Jerry and George were gay, or Elaine's difficulties in dealing with her co-workers at J. Peterman or the many, many women that Jerry dated (Delaney states there were more 100!), to illustrate how “Seinfeld,” which was called “a show about nothing,” was in reality a show about something. His book describes how the four characters, Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer, were constantly trying to live within the boundaries of what society calls normal. The humor was in how they usually failed.

Auburn native Diane La Rue's

lifelong goal is to read a book a week. E-mail her suggestions

at aruediane2000@yahoo.com