ESPN is not...

a Myers-Briggs personality type or is it? I used to say that in a joking way, sort of a reactionary, Larry the Cable Guy type line. When guys sit around in the morning over coffee and discuss, even argue about some pro golfer's club selection on the sudden death holes in last weekend's "You Gotta Wear Depends Under Your Knickers" Open at the  Ancient & Royal Golf Club in Bumsmash England I have to wonder if the world hasn't changed in some fundamental and tragic way.  How does this stuff get on TV to begin with?

If you can stand it, watch a few minutes of golf on TV. You'll quickly see that it doesn't even need a live TV camera to depict the drama. They could do it with still photographs. If I could stand it I would get a stop watch  and graph the action time of a golf tournament. I'll bet I would find that total to be almost nothing compared to the time the camera spends trying to show a nearly invisible egg size white sphere allegedly flying through the air.

If the fact that television covers it isn't sufficiently bizarre for you, consider the people who actually want to see this live and I use the word live cautiously. They pay pretty big bucks for a tournament ticket then shuffle along with rest of the golf herd out to the something-teenth fairway to take up their positions, maybe 100 yards from the tee. There they stand 10 people deep in an undulating mob, perhaps holding a cardboard periscope, to see over the anxious heads between them and the grass where Tiger Woods will walk by in hopes of getting a 15 second glimpse of His Tigerness on his way out to his ball which is probably another 100 yards down the fairway. Be still my heart, this is even better than watching Jello set up. Suddenly we have a context for understanding those people who find curling to be high drama.

The topic is rife with opportunities for more comments but I Tivo'd the World Series of  Darts last night and I want to go and watch it to see how the Guiness Stout team captain did in the last round. It's just his second year on the tour but the word is that he is a shoo in to be named to darts Hall of Fame.

Comments

[sixsmom]

Sure it's boring, but you don't have to wear earplugs. In our city people watch cars go around in a circle and lose their hearing.

Of all the comments on the human condition putting down people for their interests is pretty petty. If you want to put down those who ONLY watch ESPN and watch ANYTHING on ESPN, that's another thing.

Some places people spend hours alone at the computer tring to communciate. They write(usually insightful) blogs, sending them out in the hope that someone is reading. That is certainly a fundamental change in our world, and some might consider it tragic.

[Jim Brodhead]

Interesting comment with good points. Thanks! The point of my posting was really about the "ESPN culture" which I tried satirizing by my close having to do with my recording the "World Series of Darts" part at the end. That was not as clear as I intended I suppose. And for what it's worth, even as a resident of the south I do not comprehend the charm of NASCAR or any other auto racing for that matter.

As for the part having to do with people's interests, it wasn't meant to be a personal put down in any way so much as a satirical commentary on what might be termed a human foible. Some of my best friends watch golf on TV. I would rather watch Jello set up in the fridge but since the light goes out when you close the door it's tough to televise that.