It's been a few weeks since I posted something here because I've been pretty busy. Last weekend was ACPT, and if you click the link and scroll down to the "Judges and referees" section, you can find my name listed among many others in small print. It was awesome. As I describe to you what I did for pretty much the entire weekend -- scanning thousands of puzzles into a computer and checking that they are scored correctly -- it probably doesn't sound awesome (I literally did not leave the hotel for even a millisecond from the moment I checked-in Friday evening to the morning I checked-out Sunday afternoon), but it was. It's the people and the energy -- so many brilliant, fun, weird people to talk to; such a interesting, stimulating, festive atmosphere.
Will Shortz was there, which was wonderful. As you might know (I mentioned it in a previous entry), he had a stroke about two months ago, so there was some question about whether or not he would be able to attend the tournament. But he made it, and he seems to be doing well--or at least as well as possible for somebody who recently had a stroke. He's in a wheelchair, and there is no life in the left side of his body, but he can speak clearly enough, and most importantly he's still with it upstairs. The intellect is still there. That's the part I worry about as I slowly (and yet much too rapidly) ascend into old age. As far as I'm concerned, the body can go, as long as I can still think straight. I'd rather be like Stephen Hawking, only able to speak through a computer by twitching my cheek muscle, than get dementia and die not knowing who I am or who my loved ones are.
Of course, I'd rather maintain both my mental and physical faculties right up to the very end. That's the goal. It's possible. William Shatner is 93, and he was on Real Time with Bill Maher the other day. He's a little slower than he used to be, naturally, but he's still doing his thing -- performing, interviewing, adventuring. He said he's going to Antarctica soon. I doubt I would have much desire to go to such a place in my mid-nineties, but that's largely because I have little desire to go there now. But I hope, when I'm closing in on the century mark, to be in good enough condition and spirits that I could go there in theory.
Shortly after I got back from the tournament, S had to leave on a business trip. It was just two days this time, but Lil' S1 happened to get sick the night before she left. So, I had two kids on my own, one of whom was quite ill. He was hacking and wheezing and snotting it up all the while. It wasn't Covid -- I tested him -- but I treated it like it was Covid. I kept him home from school for two days and quarantined him in his room (he didn't have the energy to get out of bed much, anyway), and I wore a mask every time I went in there. S makes fun of me for this -- for being so worried about getting sick whenever the kids get sick -- but it's like, why shouldn't I worry, and why shouldn't I take precautions? Getting sick sucks, so if I can avoid it by keeping my distance and/or wearing a mask for a few days, mild inconveniences, it seems worth it to me. It's not like Lil' S1 cares. He didn't want to hang out with me, anyway. He just wanted lie in bed and watch, read, or sleep.
And anyway, I should be the one making fun of S, for always insisting that we give the kids "medicine" when they're sick -- Children's Dimetapp or what have you -- even though that stuff is total bunk. The only reason I give the kids that stuff or take it myself is so that I can say to S that I did so. Actually, this gets at a philosophical parenting difference between S and I. When our kids have a problem, often her first instinct is to do something -- anything is better than nothing, as far as she is concerned. Whereas my first instinct is often to do nothing -- sometimes things just need to work themselves out on their own.
It's like, when the ship gets rocky for your child, do you help steady it, or do you just provide them moral support until they reach calmer waters? S is more the former; I'm more the latter. But we are able to co-parent pretty well together, because neither of us is too militant about it. Ultimately, we both just want what's best for our children, even if that means that things aren't done our "way." In parenting as in baseball, the only rule is it has to work. Unfortunately, in parenting, unlike in baseball, there is nobody keeping score, and most the time you have absolutely no idea if what you did worked or not.
In other news, if you run in the same political/cultural circles as I do, you probably came across this piece by NPR editor Uri Berliner about how NPR has "lost America's trust," by becoming too ideologically-driven, too focused on identity-based restorative justice, too homogeneous in perspective. And this, in turn, has led to a dwindling audience. It's impossible to say for sure if he's right or not, on the whole -- there are myriad reasons a huge content creator like NPR might struggle to maintain its massive consumer-ship in today's media landscape -- but I can say for sure that he is right for me, personally. I used to love NPR, and now I only listen to one of their podcasts, It's All Politics, and that's mainly because it's so short, I can burn through it on 1.5-speed in under ten minutes. The reasons I mostly stopped consuming NPR content are exactly the reasons Berliner gives in the article.
Basically, over the past ten years or so, NPR has transformed itself from a media organization with a reasonably broad (perhaps left-of-center) appeal, into one that only serves a niche demographic -- highly educated, upper class individuals, who put "In this house, we believe..." signs on their lawns. And if your content is designed for a niche demographic, you are going to end up with a niche audience and the revenue numbers to go with it.
The thing is, if NPR loses its broad appeal, it's not that big a deal, but, as I've written about before, I fear this same sort of thing is going on with the Democratic party, and this is that big a deal. It's not even so much the party itself, as it is institutions that are associated with the party by being left-coded -- like universities and certain media companies (like NPR) -- but in an election, what people think a party stands for matters more than what a party actually does stand for. Biden has a lot of liabilities as the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November approaches -- his age, inflation, the border, the war in Gaza -- and I think this perceived "nichefication" of the Democrats is just one more.
And on that fun thought... until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment