Letters to the Editor
debaser
Published Letters: 653 Editor's Choice: 11
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football blues
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maybe it's just me, it probably is, but I'm finding myself terribly bored with football lately. Granted it may be that my team Green Bay (whom I never get to see save for those highlight shows) has been through some pretty lean years, but I find myself watching football just 'cause. Just 'cause there's nothing else to do on a Sunday afternoon, and nothing else on tv (granted, there's still nothing better to work through a hangover than football and pizza :).
I think it might have something to do with the media saturation we're getting now. I mean, from 10 am on every Sunday every damn channel has their interminable pre-game shows with essentially the same cast of ex-players, ex-coaches and random sports dudes yammering at the top of their lungs about each and every game, trying to find compelling story lines to make each game significant. When the fact is, sometimes a dud is a dud, no matter how you gussy it up. Every Sunday feels about as hyped as the Super Bowl...am I the only one that finds this kind of wearying? And that doesn't even go into the local coverage (I get "Buffalo Bills Corner with Steve Tasker" or some such thing ad infinitum all weekend)
I'm not really trying to pick a fight with the football fans, but I was wondering if anyone else is feeling the same? Has football become far too much spectacle and less sport?
any thoughts?
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a new strategy
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]After three weeks of generally piss-poor choices, I remain woefully dead last in my office pool. No really, dead last. Even further down than the middle-aged ladies that picked the Browns over The Bengals 'cause they like the colour brown!
So this week, with nothing to lose, (my dignity already in tatters) I've gone and used all of your choices (even the WTH).
With any luck your pigskin prognosticatin' will help me reclaim even just a shred of self-worth!
(wow, now I know what addicts mean about hitting rock bottom! Here I am taking my cues from a cartoon sports writer, like some kind of sucker. ;)
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I dunno
[Read the article: Should Beyoncé bow to Malaysia's dress code?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]On the one hand, wearing skimpy clothes and shaking and shimmying on stage is relatively benign (outside of reinforcing negative body image issues in younger girls/women...but that's a discussion for another day) and it's kind of daft to force her to not do something so essentially silly.
But on the other hand, She's there to make money. And as such should probably be required to follow the regulations that country decides on, no matter how daft they are.
It might be different if her attire was part and parcel of some kind of political statement - like if she was trying to subvert gender norms and the conservative government of Malaysia was trying to keep a lid on that, then I could see her as some kind of crusader, but she's not - all she's really selling is titillation...which isn't exactly a noble cause or anything...
I guess if she wants the money she should just put on a blouse and sing her songs...
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For Shame!
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]King,
How could you neglect to write about the University of Toronto Varsity Blues Football team (my alma mater)losing its 48th in a row, thus breaking the Canadian University Football record held by their crosstown rivals (and my girlfriend's alma mater) the York Yeoman??
all I get is baseball this and baseball that! Why can't you write about precisely what I'm interested in?
After all, if you don't mention it, does it really even happen?
(alright, back to work...enough with the silliness)
p.s. The Rockies really are great fun to watch...but I disagree with the earlier posters who said no one cares about them outside Colorado. They're regularly shown on the highlights up here, if only on the nights Francis starts (1st Canadian starter to win a playoff game?)
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I'm with you
[Read the article: Selling (out) girls' self-esteem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Tracy,
Here's at least one guy that totally agrees with you on this one. The Dove ads have driven me insane since they started running...it's really the most odious form of advertising I've ever come across, all "we understand you ladies, and the pressure you're under to look a certain way. Don't worry, we love you for who you are (never mind the fact that we've been the ones peddling these stereotypes for years, we've just realized that now it's economically viable to pretend to be a 'caring' company! And CERTAINLY never mind that we're still just peddling beauty products..hey look over there! There's a slightly overweight model, who is only barely outside the accepted norms of attractive!)"
and now to find out that the same company that peddles this tripe is the exact same one that peddles the tripe that they purport to be against? It makes my blood boil.
two notes:
1) For the people who defend AXE as "simply a joke", grow up and get a new excuse. That's the same rationale of the racist asshole at work who tells a horribly offensive joke about minorities and then gets mad at people who ask for a little common decency. Those ads make me cringe, they remind me how absurd men can truly be,
2) For those who say "get over it, it's only an ad". Well, ads matter. In case you haven't realized it yet, we live in a completely corporatized society. A small example - take any city (outside major urban areas). Where's the central meeting place for people? THE MALL. Which is, need I remind you, a wholly Private space...there is really no such thing as public space anymore. If corporations are to be given free reign over pretty much every aspect of life, then they should be held somewhat accountable.
(and lest you think I'm some sort of namby-pamby effete boy, let me tell you that I'm a full blown, hockey-mad, beer-drinking, hetero dude...just one who also happens to think from time to time)