Annoyed

And not just by this nonsense...

They didn't get to that part of the deal in that country music version of my day job, did they?

 Yeah, I've been down there to Murfreesboro plenty of times. What we have in terms of road construction, those hillbillies have in terms of rush-hour crashes. At least five a day, every day. Without exception. Somehow you didn't see a whole lot of waiting in traffic on that video, did you?

The crashes haven't been that plentiful around Detroit lately, but our orange barrel season is in full swing. That shit is annoying. Today's brilliant arrangement had them closing three lanes on I-96 to the west of Brighton this afternoon. A quick review of the in-house interactive atlas here at the Fenian Godfather Institute turns up an interesting tidbit. There are only three lanes on I-96 to the west of Brighton. Assholes.

But no, that's not what really annoyed me today. There was something else, as there always is. I was on my way to work this afternoon when I decided to flip on the sports station and see what was the latest chatter about the Tigers. Pretty decent winning streak, finally doing some hitting, poised (maybe?) for a decent second half... let's talk about it. Instead, they were discussing Penn State. Screw that. Change the channel.

After I started working and knocked out my first store, I decided to scroll down to the sports station and see what was what. Jerry Sandusky... for fuck's sake.

I finished the second store on my first load and headed back to the dairy to grab my second run of the day. After enduring that insane traffic jam, I decided to try the sports station one more time. The Tigers were playing in an hour or so, so I thought there might be some pre-game chatter. Nope. Joe Paterno. Come on, man...

I had four stores in the Toledo area for my second run.  I was able to catch bits and pieces of the game when I was between deliveries.  We're losing by three, then we score three in the ninth.  Awesome.  We take the lead in the eleventh, then we blow the lead in the eleventh.  Shitty.  We get the lead in the thirteenth.  Awesome.  We blow the lead and lose in the thirteenth.  Shitty.

By the time I had wrapped up my deliveries, I had a little more than an hour's drive back to the yard.  I was hoping to hear some analysis of the game.  I'm still trying to decide if this is another 2008 or another 2011.  The team spent most of both seasons in the realm of disappointment.  In '08, the supposed World Series contenders were truly awful.  Last year, they made a good run to close out the season and then made it within a couple of games of the World Series.  What will this year's story be?  Time will tell.

I switched over to the sports station.  "Coming up next... we'll dive into the Penn State issue.  Still a hot topic of discussion..."

One of two things is the case here.  Hopefully this is not a hot topic of discussion and these radio people are just misreading the situation.  Because otherwise it actually is a hot topic of discussion.  And that would sadden me.

A pervert molested kids.  Maybe some people who knew about the pervert didn't do enough to stop him.  Sad story all around.  End of discussion.  What is to be gained by keeping this topic alive forever?  Even if I concede that there was some 'awareness' value to the endless discussion of the issue at some step along the way, it's just getting to be sick at this point.  Leave it alone.

I decided to listen for a few minutes and see if there was something new that made the topic worthwhile.  Apparently not.  There was merely an endless sequence of calls, each trying to outdo the others in the anger department.  I'll reveal myself as an outlier here and now.  I'm not outraged by the Sandusky issue.  I don't know Sandusky and I don't know any of the alleged victims.  Right or wrong, I have issues of my own to worry about.  I don't have the energy nor the inclination to be distraught about things involving people that I don't know.

I am a human being, so obviously I don't relish the thought of children being abused.  But something about the whole nationwide tabloid aspect of this thing is just sick to me.  Does anyone think that the victims are being helped by any of this?  'Cause I can clue you in right now - they're not.  Whether you screech about the death penalty for Jerry Sandusky or the NCAA death penalty for Penn State, you're not helping anyone or anything.  You're just satisfying some sick voyeuristic tendency of your own and, quite frankly, it's more than a little creepy.  Let it die.  Do yourselves and the world a great service.

But, knowing what I know about the world, I understand that there must be some kind of demand for this topic.  Otherwise the radio shows wouldn't waste their time on it.  Time is money.  And listeners are money.  Consistent listeners over the course of time are big money. 

So more than a few people are really interested in this topic.  Nobody seems to be interested in any of the more pressing topics, either in a big-picture sense or a sporting sense.  The focus lies on a perverted pedophile and the fallout from his crimes.  That's what drives ratings right now.

And that really leaves me... annoyed.