By Peter Covino
Lifestyles Editor

I’m not missing you at all.

If you are a Bright House Networks customer, you probably have noticed that WESH-TV suddenly disappeared from the TV line up this week as part of a contract dispute between the cable company and WESH affiliate owner Hearst Television.

I am not here to take sides, but I actually like getting my local news out of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Bright House has replaced WESH-TV with the NBC affiliate  WBRE from Wilkes-Barre, a former UHF channel, whose coverage area includes scenic Scranton.

I can always switch over to WKMG (Channel 6) or WFTV (Channel 9) for local news.

But for pure entertainment, I will be watching WBRE news until the contract dispute is over.

WBRE is the news home to Mark Hiller, Candice Kelly, and weatherguy Josh Hodell.

Hodell actually goes on the rooftop of wherever WBRE broadcasts the news, to tell everyone listening in northeast Pennsylvania if there is a 30 percent chance of rain or not. If he tried that out of a high-rise in downtown Orlando in July, there probably would be a 50 percent chance of him being struck by lightning.

The entertainment value increases ten-fold with traffic jockey Rusty Fender. Yes, that is his name apparently.

I only caught a glimpse of Rusty as he was giving his report on the traffic snarl in Wilkes-Barre (I think a traffic snarl in Wilkes-Barre  only happens when a pretzel truck overturns after hitting a slick spot in the road wet from beer).

Rusty has hair that would stop traffic. Actually, I think he just rents it or leases it by the month. You have to see it to understand, but somewhere in Australia, a naked kangaroo shivers.

The news highlight of the day when I was watching: There was a big fight over at the local Chuck E. Cheese restaurant.

The mom who was giving the birthday party for her kid at the popular pizza joint for kids, apparently started stabbing some of the birthday guests when her ex-husband showed up at the birthday with his new girlfriend. The unhappy mom stabbed one guest with a pair of scissors and also used a brick on another.

Maybe she just didn’t like anchovies on her pizza.

And Bright House customers in Central Florida are not the only ones who have to cope with unexpected summer TV replacements. DirecTV and Viacom are in a much bigger showdown.

Viacom has pulled the plug on all of its programming (that is more than 20 channels including MTV, Comedy Central, Spike TV and VH1).

That dispute affects some 20 million customers nationwide.

I guess my only comment to that is — wait, MTV is still on the air?

Watch this space: I am fervently checking office mail for the arrival of my very first tablet, the Nexus 7, Google’s new 7-inch tablet. It may not be an iPad killer, but it apparently really has the Kindle Fire people nervous.

Talk to me, I’m lonely. Love Bright House? (Hate Bright House?) Miss Tony Minalfi (WESH weather guy). Send an email, ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) send a Tweet (ICmovies).

Hire a clown stripper.