Happy Monday. That post on Friday was my first ever stab at fiction on this weblog. For the most part, I’ll probably avoid too much fictional posting as I’d like to keep this almost exclusively journalistic, but it popped into my head and sometimes when things pop into my head, it just starts to flow. I’d really love to hear your opinion about it – negative or positive. Really. I can handle constructive criticism. I can also handle, quite nicely, a compliment. Comment if you want.
I’ve realized that I find it pretty difficult to watch an entire professional sports game, no matter what the sport. I used to be able to watch an entire hockey game back in high school and during college, but NHL hockey is almost unwatchable these days, compared to ten years ago. No, this isn’t me being all “back in my day” or anything. It’s based on some simple facts – there are too many teams and the talent pool is spread too thin and the regular season matters very little.
But I’m not here to talk about hockey. I’m here to talk about my ever-dwindling attention span. I just cannot sit for three hours and watch a whole game. Come to think of it, I don’t think I can sit for three hours and do anything. Last night, though, I was able to get through the two-hour CSI. Now that was good. What a great show that is. Afterwards I caught a special on the assassination of JFK – a topic I find very interesting.
Forty years later (!!!!!), despite all the research, the movies, the documentaries and the books, there is still no definitive answer, no clarity on the events of that day. This particular special, aired on CNN, didn’t try to dredge up any whodunit stuff again, which I appreciated. The show interviewed reporters who were in Dallas that day, focusing on what they remember and how the events unfolded. It was truly compelling how some of this stuff made it to the airwaves. In one example, there was a crew from CBS who were upstairs in the Texas School Book Depository minutes after the shooting. They were filming the police handling the rifle and milling around the 6th floor window looking for clues. They finished filming, the cameraman took the film out of the camera, dropped the film six stories out the window and into the waiting hands of another crew member, who rushed to get it developed and aired. They aired the film as soon as they could – it hadn’t even dried yet and at the end of the clip, because it hadn’t dried, it began to shimmer a little bit. Incredible. Anyway, this being the 40th anniversary of the day our country commenced its downhill descent, I’m looking forward to seeing some of the other specials, particularly the ABC news special airing soon, which will staunchly defend the Warren Commission’s findings that Oswald acted alone.
During one of the commercials on that CNN special, I flipped over to the Patriots game as it was ending. The Patriots won the game and the teams were all on the field shaking hands, praying, etc etc and the two coaches, Belichek and Parcells, met up at mid-field for the customary coaches handshake. Only this time, they took it a little further. Upon meeting at mid-field, the two old friends stopped for an instant, gazed into each other’s eyes and locked themselves into a deep, passionate tongue-kiss…..I think we knew all along about these two…..
Song now playing: Steve Earle – “Taneytown”