This is actually a very interesting thread, JS Online readers reacting to this question: “How much time do you think you will have wasted this week talking or reading about the Packers? Go ahead and waste some time by tell us about it here.”
A surprising number of respondents are of the whiny, I’m-sick-of-the-Packers variety. And they’re serious. Take this one, for example.
I, too am not a Packers fan and am really sick of the 24/7 coverage they are getting. They are a bunch of overpaid athletes, who certainly wouldn’t make this big of a deal about our lives. It is really frusterating that I can’t turn on my TV or radio without hearing about what the Packers are doing. I don’t care. I have a family and friends that are much more important than some sports team. Give me real news. I want to know what’s going on in the world. Not if one of the Packers hurt their little toe. Maybe we should all be thinking about what we could do to make our city, state, country, and world better and safer. I am really glad to see though that I am not the only one that feels this way.
– Clare, Milwaukee, WI
Well. Someone needs to get Clare a Pabst or twelve, and maybe a few extra for her houseful of cats. Clare finds it frustrating that she can’t turn on her television without seeing something about the Packers. I dream of having that problem. It’s one of the reasons I constantly think about moving back to Wisconsin. Clare also tells us that she “wants to know what’s going on in the world” — a complaint she registers online. Hmmm. If anyone knows this “Clare,” tell her that there are these things called “websites” on this new thing called the “Internet.” In an instant, she can get lots of news about what’s going on in the world. In fact, if she just types in CNN.com or BBC.com or even FoxNews.com, she can probably find an entire website dedicated to the news of the world without so much of a mention of the Green Bay Packers. One final note. In her complaint about too much Packers, “Clare” begs the local stations to return to their original programming. “Give me real news,” she writes. When was the last time “Clare” watched the local evening news? There is no real news on it. All of this coverage of the Packers has replaced only the ridiculous scare segments that gobble up all of the non-weather minutes of the local news. “How your bed can maim you! Tune in at 10.” “Herpes from your dentist? The citywide epidemic at six.” “Playgrounds or Killing Fields? What parents need to know about their kids and the monkey bars.”
If the local television news covered only the Packers we would all be smarter for it.
Back to your cats, Clare. Back to your cats.
UPDATE: As it happens, I caught some of my local (Baltimore) news tonight. The greater Baltimore/Washington, DC, area got an inch of snow today and the first report was about the severe dangers associated with snowfall. The story featured a demonstration of an old lady shoveling snow, in order to show people how to do it without injuring their backs. “Push, and just shovel it off. See, I don’t have to lift any of it up.” Yeah, too bad, they’re not getting this kind of “real news” back in Wisconsin.
packergeeks 
January 17, 2008 at 11:29 pm |
And there is another marvel of technology also available to Clare; it is called a remote control. At any time, should she so choose, she can just push a button and it all can go away. But with so many negative things going on in the world, one wonders why Clare would not welcome a bit of fun and good news, for a change. Perhaps she has terminal crumudgenitis.
January 18, 2008 at 2:07 pm |
This post is pure gold.