Category: Media

Coronavirus, Fear, and Airborne Toxic Events

Coronavirus is a bit like the Airborne Toxic Event in DeLillo’s White Noise. It’s out there, it’s a threat, there’s nothing we can do about it, so it just lurks there in the back of our minds, occasionally reinforced by headlines and half-heard news broadcasts. Another thing that might get us.

The trouble is, there are so many of these things already, that if we let ourselves think about them, we might become hysterical. Coronavirus — a murky danger that could and likely will happen to at least some of us, eventually.

This is how the Terrible Twenties begin, ushering in a time of rumor and fear, as well as genuine peril…

Today in Late October 2019

Inspired by the day’s world headlines:

spinning toward election
lawmakers reject proposal
fighters have left
forces captured
crisis turns violent
protesters pack square
so much damage
crisis despite slowdown
election blow
successor killed
dangerous situation
markets jumpy
police fire teargas
hopes resignation
won’t undermine stability

what do parties want to do?

police hunt for brothers
party appeals result
struggling to reform
rubble remains

hash cake accidentally served!
landslide kills dozens
wife held in london
child rapist released
racist abuse
amid protests
defy curfew
unfolding…

 

Special thanks to BBC and Reuters.

No News is Good News? — On Going News-Free

After the latest round of shootings earlier this month, I had a moment of nausea that led me to think it might be a good time for a news hiatus. The weather was gorgeous — high summer in Vermont — and an array of family were due to visit. So rather than read depressing headlines all summer, I decided to take a couple weeks off from the news. Maybe, I thought, it will make me happier and less anxious if I just don’t hear any of it.

In the process of undergoing this experiment, I learned a couple unexpected things. First, that daily life, even without news, has plenty of stressors all on its own, and secondly, that some news will out. Oh, and a third thing, that your friends, will eventually find you boring and run out of things to say when you’re around. Read More

Enjoying The Good Old Summertime News-Free

This morning, shortly after reading on my iPad that there had been a couple more mass shootings, including the one in California at the garlic festival, someone in my rural neighborhood got out a gun and started firing. This is not weird or unusual for this neck of the woods, but having spent many years of my life in the city, gunfire functions as an alarm. It’s a a signal to freeze, listen, and possibly seek an interior room of the house, which is is exactly what our cat did when he heard the first volley. Read More

Media Misuse of the Word “So”

Lately I’ve noticed that a great many commentators on television and radio feel obliged to begin every answer to every question with the word “so.” For example, the answer to “What did President Trump mean by his latest tweet?” might be “So, no one knows what is going on in the mind of Donald Trump, but….” The problem with this usage is that it is both unnecessary and incorrect.

There are many more or less correct uses of the word “so.” Read More

Frank Underwood’s Unexpected Comeuppance

This morning, we sat on the back porch talking about Kevin Spacey, who has been discovered to be a groper of young men.  Although groping people is a rotten thing to do, Spacey’s case seemed more complicated than that.  For starters, he already plays the biggest villain on tv, Frank Underwood.

We’ve been binge-watching House of Cards this year, trying to catch up with the rest of America, as we grapple with a vision of American politics that’s darker than Shakespeare.  The “hero” of this drama is not a likable guy.  Frank makes ruthless deals.  He has people killed and kills people himself.  He takes advantage of people in every way — politically, personally, and sexually.  And then he has the gall to turn to the camera, conspiratorially, to tell “us,” the audience, what we think and why we’re wrong.   He brings us into his web of deceit and makes us complicit. Read More

Magazines as Influencers and Data Merchants

Five days ago, my former favorite magazine Nylon, a young woman’s fashion magazine out of NYC, announced that they are ending their print edition, of which I am a subscriber.  According to their press release, they will concentrate their (increasingly confused) efforts on their web and social media presence in their new role as “influencers.” Read More