Horror is highly valued in our culture. I am thinking specifically of those events considered to be fodder for the front page or banner headline. Often it's bad news earning its very own logo. The latest advance in the "Scare-the-Bejeezus-Out-of-the-Masses" department is the naming of winter storms. This pointless practice surely has not helped calm anyone down, least of all me.
I'm guessing the executives involved believe they'll get higher ratings and thus more advertising dollars talking about a snowstorm if they call it something foreboding like Zeus or Hercules, rather than the less-threatening
Frosty, Fluffy or Mittens. Imagine if you heard that winter storm Snowflake was on its way: What fun--sledding and hot cocoa and snowball fights! Instead, the news of an approaching Cold Front is delivered as if the German troops were advancing on Poland. Well, I'm sick of it, I tell you. Enough gloom and doom. From now on, before this new year gets old, I will shun negative thinking.
Half the things we worry about never come to pass anyway. A startling example of this occurred in my own home last night: Our cable service had gone out, likely from winter storm Ion, resulting in no TV or Internet. Mitch called the service department at Comcast and held on, listening to that recording about how important he is to them and how they were experiencing an unusually high volume of calls and so maybe he should hang up and go fuck himself. Finally someone answered and explained that they were experiencing a power outage in our area. (Oh really.) Anyway, the guy said that they were "working on it" and were hopeful that they "might be able to restore partial service by the morning."
Mitch hung up. We sighed and headed for the kitchen, but before we had even left the room the TV came on. The Internet was working fine too.
I'm guessing the executives involved believe they'll get higher ratings and thus more advertising dollars talking about a snowstorm if they call it something foreboding like Zeus or Hercules, rather than the less-threateningFrosty, Fluffy or Mittens. Imagine if you heard that winter storm Snowflake was on its way: What fun--sledding and hot cocoa and snowball fights! Instead, the news of an approaching Cold Front is delivered as if the German troops were advancing on Poland. Well, I'm sick of it, I tell you. Enough gloom and doom. From now on, before this new year gets old, I will shun negative thinking.
Half the things we worry about never come to pass anyway. A startling example of this occurred in my own home last night: Our cable service had gone out, likely from winter storm Ion, resulting in no TV or Internet. Mitch called the service department at Comcast and held on, listening to that recording about how important he is to them and how they were experiencing an unusually high volume of calls and so maybe he should hang up and go fuck himself. Finally someone answered and explained that they were experiencing a power outage in our area. (Oh really.) Anyway, the guy said that they were "working on it" and were hopeful that they "might be able to restore partial service by the morning."
Mitch hung up. We sighed and headed for the kitchen, but before we had even left the room the TV came on. The Internet was working fine too.
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