I Don't Cry for Paterno

While I am a graduate from Penn State University (PsyBS. `92), I've never considered myself to be part of the "bleed blue&white" crowd. To me, Penn State was where I spent five falls, four springs and three summers collecting a piece of paper and getting a lot stuff out of my system.  My reduction of the experience to bland descriptions of my time there is not to be construed with me saying that I didn't enjoy my time at Penn State. It's not to say that I didn't go to a lot of football games, parties, etc. I'm simply putting it out there that I didn't have a lot of personal investment in being a "Penn Stater".

That said, it's hard to spend that significant a chunk of time, surrounded by a particular culture, and not absorb at least some of it. The lure of the cult and Blue&White is hard to resist. And, even if you don't end up bleeding Blue&White, you are changed for having been there.

I was also very fortunate to have been at Penn State when Joe Paterno was still looked upon by many as some kind of quasi-deity and/or paragon of virtue. It's hard not to buy into that. It's hard not to want to buy into that. And so, to a degree, I did.

In watching the current horror-show unfold in the news, I can't help but be saddened by it all. The rational me always knew that Paterno was human. The rational side of me always knew that, as a human, he had to have flaws. And, while being rational allows you to not be completely taken by surprised when those flaws come to light, it still doesn't stop that gut-punch feeling when they finally do.

In the end, though, I don't know what's sadder: that he didn't (and couldn't possibly) live up to the legend, or that there seem to be so many people eager to participate in the sadistically gleeful feeding frenzy around the destruction of that legend. Watching it all is like watching when a malicious older sibling takes special joy in the distress caused by telling a younger sibling, "Santa isn't." I take that back, I do know which is sadder.

Mixed Blessings at Halloween

Ok, so, I live in a decent-sized neighborhood. Certainly, this neighborhood is rather much larger than the one I grew up in. There's also a fair number of families with children in this neighborhood. Yet, each year at Halloween, the number of trick-or-treaters that show up are rather low. Each year, there's more leftover candy than there is candy given out (we like to provide a variety, so we get a bunch of different candies). Invariably, you have a predictable progression: young/new parents with very young children for the first hour. Older (pre-teens) for the next hour. Teens, invariably not in costume, to close out the evening. Throughout, you also have the "drop-off" kids.

The "drop offs" are invariably kids from PG county. You can tell that they're from PG county by the license plates of the vehicles. I can only guess that they don't recognize/have Halloween in Maryland, as all of the drop-off vehicles seem to be MD-plated. Generally, you'll see them get dropped off at some corner, and then the driver of the vehicle speeds away at a speed WELL above what's prudent for the occasion or even just the speed limit. I guess it's ok to drop your kids off in the neighborhoods with the good candy and risk mowing down the kids that are already out.

Overall, Halloween is such a non-occasion. It seems that the only people that really go out for Halloween are the adults with the various Friday and Saturday night drunken-slutfests ("ho ho ho" isn't so much what Santa says at Christmas but what you can point and say as you watch the parade of "I only feel like I can get away with dressing this way one time of year" tartlets.

Now, as a man, I certainly appreciate the eye candy. So, I'm not using "ho" or "slut" in a pejorative sense. It's more an expression of frustration at the whole state of affairs where Halloween is way more for adults than it is for kids. It's just "lame" (to borrow a term from when Halloween still seemed to be popular with the pre-adult set).

Guess ECW Wanted More Air Time

On the one hand, I'm bummed that Caprica got cancelled. After all, I really liked Battlestar Galactica and the story/universe its writers put together. Caprica also showed similar levels of production value and was fairly story-driven. I really wanted to like Caprica. Unfortunately, I just never really did.

The show always came off as a little too emo and a little too unsubtle. It was like the writers of Dawson's Creek were trying to tackle the issues of religious extremism and big brotherish responses. That's why, after two episodes, I started referring to it as "Dawson's Cylon".

I guess on the plus side of the cancellation, there'll be more room for RASSLIN' in the schedule!

Can't Set the Bar Low Enough

I have very low standards for my fellow man. Unfortunately, humans never fail to disappoint. Readjusting the bar doesn't seem to help. No matter how low you set the bar, someone's going to go sliding under it.

It's like that whole "if you try to make something idiot-proof, they'll just come up with a better idiot" thing.

Expressing Dissatisfaction

Nine times out of ten - maybe even more frequently than that - when you bother to write to a business to declare your dissatisfaction with your interaction with them, it's a wasted effort. However, I still, frequently, bother to muster up the effort. Dunno whether it's actually because I'm expecting a satisfactory response or if I'm just not a "keep it to myself" kind of guy.
/me shrugs
Whatever. Sent one such letter to German Gourmet (a little shop in Falls Church, VA that I'd always previously enjoyed going to), a little while ago. Interesting to see what, if any, response I get.