News/ Not News

Before we get started on the explanation of our game.  I will update you on the progress of the blog designing.  If you were here yesterday, you can see nothing has changed.  I have attempted to change several things, only to have to quickly hit the Undo button and yell silently in my head "Undo! Undo!"  For now you will just have to continue to enjoy the orange swirly background.

News/Not News.  This is the game I play when I am watching the news (which honestly, I try not to do too much for an assortment of reasons) with my husband.  I can play with other people, but it's generally alarming to strangers when I do it in places like the doctor's office or the bank.  It usually involves me commenting that whatever is being announced as news isn't. 

Once you tell me that it's going to snow and how much, we're done.  That is the "news" portion of the story.  Repeating it a bunch of different ways and throwing in snow facts isn't news.  It's filler.  I get that you may have 3 more minutes of t.v. time to fill, but I don't need to know that not only is it going to snow, but in the past during the winter, it has often snowed.  Or that snow often causes a lot of problems with traffic.  That is what we call the "not news" portion of your report.  If you have to fill time, share something helpful, like which stores still have snow boots or snow shovels. 

I used weather as my example, but real news works the same way.  The fact that they caught the guy who shot Giffords and all those other people is news.  The fact that he supposedly had on a red g-string when they caught him is not news (it's not even all that interesting).  It's not news because it doesn't tell you anything more about what happened or how or why it happened.

And don't get me started on sports commentators, who are the biggest offenders. I should tell you that my obsession with playing the sports version of this game is in part why we are here at Blog Central.  When I go on a tear about the ridiculousness of news or sports reporting and give my own running commentary of the way things should be reported, my husband will often look over at me and smile and say "You know where would be a good place to share this?  A blog."  This appears to be a statement meant to encourage me to write a blog, but I am starting to think he maybe just wants me to stop interrupting what he's listening to.  But really, why does he need to hear 3 guys who used to play sports discuss a game that is over and that he watched first hand?

How is it "news" for someone to share that whatever team lost could have won if they played better and got more points?  Running commentary during the game is also painful.  While we are waiting for plays to be set up or a time out or whatnot, fill the time by telling me what time and channels the good t.v. shows are on later after the game.  Let me know what new restaurants are opening in the area.  It is not news to tell me the number of games played this season that had one odd number score and one even number score.  It is not news to tell me that the coach thinks Sundays are the best days to play except for when everyone on the team needs new shoe laces at the same time; then Tuesdays are the best day for that week.  This is the kind stuff sports guys ramble off to kill time.  Hmmm, so, too late on the not getting started on the sports commentators.

So as not to belabor the point (again, perhaps too late) I will just say the game Art/Not Art is very similar and all you need to know is that most modern art falls into the "not art" category - even if you enjoy looking at it.  It's kind of a big giant Emperor's New Clothes scam.  Nobody wants to say it, but we all know it's true.