More Incomprehensible Stuff
I found myself at a garage sale last Saturday. I don't seek these things out from habit, but sometimes it just seems you have to stop and see what's up for sale. Truth is, you just never know when you'll see something that's irresistible.
There was a baseball cap for sale. I use hats almost every day when playing tennis. This one was in good shape, navy blue with a golden "M" on the front. It was mine for...a quarter! "Mark" starts with "M", after all. It should be the perfect hat...just as soon as I can find a way to get "Michigan" off the back.
I have written before that there are things I just don't "get". This past weekend had a number of things that I can't begin to comprehend, at least not without knowing much more. The Colorado shooter is the first one. A shooting at a political event has at least some kind of plausible motive, but shooting movie goers? Randomly? After weeks of planning and arming himself? It doesn't compute. Of course, we're early in the whole mess, so there's a chance we'll come to understand more, but we may never know completely. And by the way, why does it seem that all these flipped-out shooters are younger white guys? I don't get that, either.
The Penn State debacle is a bit easier to understand. College football at a place like State College, PA is beyond huge. No one would choose to put the brakes on that gravy train even if you didn't care much about football, because it's the gridiron guys who make it possible to field the women's swim team, the softball team and the wrestling team. even if each of those are very good. Add to that the coach (Paterno), who had run the outfit for longer than anyone under a hundred years old could ever remember. Put it all together and you get "group think" - the kind of attitude which says "let's keep this within our family. We should be the ones to deal with it." You think that way for more than two seconds and you are on the slippery slope to coverup, which is what they did, as long and as completely as possible. Yes, all the PSU athletes, all of them innocent, will pay a huge penalty, but it was necessary, nonetheless. But I would have thought that a group of leaders would have done better, and don't understand why they didn't.
Finally, there's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. What?? Remember an entry here a year ago which honored the Mormon pioneers? Pioneer Day comes around every year, and the Choir broadcasts a program to local meetinghouses to mark the event. The thing is, in the last two years, the pioneers have gotten short shrift at the expense of completely different themes. This year's was, I think, just "Music". It went almost 90 minutes, but the pioneers were remembered in just one song. The rest of it seemed a little like Lawrence Welk, or some kind of variety show, but without the variety. They had a guest from the UK, a striking blonde singer/dancer, plus the Choir, the organ and the orchestra that both accompanies and does their own stuff. There was no rap or punk, but, with those exceptions, the show could not have had less to do with the pioneers. I, once more, don't get it.
There was a baseball cap for sale. I use hats almost every day when playing tennis. This one was in good shape, navy blue with a golden "M" on the front. It was mine for...a quarter! "Mark" starts with "M", after all. It should be the perfect hat...just as soon as I can find a way to get "Michigan" off the back.
I have written before that there are things I just don't "get". This past weekend had a number of things that I can't begin to comprehend, at least not without knowing much more. The Colorado shooter is the first one. A shooting at a political event has at least some kind of plausible motive, but shooting movie goers? Randomly? After weeks of planning and arming himself? It doesn't compute. Of course, we're early in the whole mess, so there's a chance we'll come to understand more, but we may never know completely. And by the way, why does it seem that all these flipped-out shooters are younger white guys? I don't get that, either.
The Penn State debacle is a bit easier to understand. College football at a place like State College, PA is beyond huge. No one would choose to put the brakes on that gravy train even if you didn't care much about football, because it's the gridiron guys who make it possible to field the women's swim team, the softball team and the wrestling team. even if each of those are very good. Add to that the coach (Paterno), who had run the outfit for longer than anyone under a hundred years old could ever remember. Put it all together and you get "group think" - the kind of attitude which says "let's keep this within our family. We should be the ones to deal with it." You think that way for more than two seconds and you are on the slippery slope to coverup, which is what they did, as long and as completely as possible. Yes, all the PSU athletes, all of them innocent, will pay a huge penalty, but it was necessary, nonetheless. But I would have thought that a group of leaders would have done better, and don't understand why they didn't.
Finally, there's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. What?? Remember an entry here a year ago which honored the Mormon pioneers? Pioneer Day comes around every year, and the Choir broadcasts a program to local meetinghouses to mark the event. The thing is, in the last two years, the pioneers have gotten short shrift at the expense of completely different themes. This year's was, I think, just "Music". It went almost 90 minutes, but the pioneers were remembered in just one song. The rest of it seemed a little like Lawrence Welk, or some kind of variety show, but without the variety. They had a guest from the UK, a striking blonde singer/dancer, plus the Choir, the organ and the orchestra that both accompanies and does their own stuff. There was no rap or punk, but, with those exceptions, the show could not have had less to do with the pioneers. I, once more, don't get it.
posted by Mark at 8:59 PM
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