Computer Funk

There are a couple of things I do by habit when I sit down at my computer, which is several times per day.  1) check to see if I have any new emails  2) look at the headlines at MSNBC or CNN.  The problem with checking email is that I almost never get any.  On my home email account I only receive things I have subscribed to, which includes various newsletters, the Word of the Day and Quote of the Day, from which I reap little gems like this:

All God's children are not beautiful. Most of God'schildren are, in fact, barely presentable. 
   -- Fran Lebowitz

I dont get interesting email at home, and at work 80% of emails are bearers of complaints, billing errors, and new rules.  And advertisements of course.

And the problem with reading the headlines should be fairly obvious.  But today, I am especially hostile toward all the news sources’ combined glee at reporting to the world about a particular traffic jam in Los Angeles.  As if this were something new, as if we all didn’t get stuck in traffic jams from time to time.  But if LA has highway repairs, we interrupt the budget talks.  What is this – traffic jams of the rich and famous?  A reality TV show is in the making right now, bet on it.

And accompanying my hostility at this journalistic solecism, this breech of reporting judgment, this insult to the rest of the disinterested nations, this insinuation that the fruitcakes in California are beset with burdens too great to be borne and the rest of us should pay attention, to add injury to insult is the unimpressive, not humorous, little word someone invented for the event - ‘carmageddon’.  Ha ha.   Yes, someone was just too clever when they thought of that one.


So, a big highway in LA is getting some repairs, and the residents are panicking like the arrival of a Blue Letter in the Hudsucker Proxy while the rest of the world is adding another reason to avoid Los Angeles to their long lists, and the hopelessly myopic news community is pooping out clever little attention grabbers, comparing traffic delays of LA commuters to the eschatological battle between the forces of evil gathered together in the Valley of Meggido against the Jesus Christ returned to earth for final judgment of all nations.

Just an ordinary day.