Just as the purveyors of so-called "reality" TV would prefer us to call it "unscripted programming" -- though that begs the question of why so many of them seem to employ writers -- the people at the Sci-Fi Channel are looking for a little more respect through obfuscation.

So from now on, folks, it's not "science fiction" -- a genre long associated with geeks, nerds and Trekkie conventioneers -- but "speculative fiction."

The only problem, of course, is that the very nature of all fiction is speculative.

I mean, even "Law & Order," which rips its stories from the headlines (and then issues disclaimers to the contrary) contains elements of speculation.

But if your speculation involves space aliens, time travel -- or like the December 2005 miniseries the Sci-Fi, sorry, Speculative Fiction Channel was touting today, the Bermuda triangle -- well, I think we need a separate name for that.

And until today I thought we already had one.