Did they like it?

I wonder if the Washington Post liked yesterday's NFL kickoff on the Mall. Wait, let's read:

"American bad taste is the most powerful bad taste in the world. That seems to be what was really being celebrated on the Mall last night at an excruciating 55-minute rock concert ostensibly convened to herald the new pro football season and televised live on the struggling ABC network."

Hmmmm, I don't think that Tom Shales, style columnist, liked it. He goes on to go after the President (like that's hard, he's an idiot) for likening American values to American football, then he goes after Brittney and all her sluttly glory and the comericials that everyone on the Mall was forced to watch. And Shales ends with: "You'll have to be a giant corporation to take over this precious public space and, in effect, spill a ton of garbage all over it."

The Post in an another article one that wasn't so slanted, quoted a Naval officer likening American football to war. I think that the Naval officer was being serious, but having that quote definately made fun of the tribute to the troops that the kickoff supposedly made. The not-so-slanted article describes the event as a, "gaudy fete for football," and National Mall as, "a pop stage with fireworks."

I guess in the end it wasn't that bad for local transportation. There were no great traffic snafus and now the NFL and the Metro have to resolve a small matter of a bill, I say make the NFL pay! But overall, I guess it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, but then again, I would be iterested to know just how many people didn't come into work yesterday or left early to avoid the crowds, that's probably what made the difference. That and the turn out was 3/4 less from last year's Times Square kickoff.

On a completely somber note: what's with all the odd deaths lately? First a formerly Amish boy is killed after a tomato throwing incident. Then there's the story of the the PA man who died with a bomb chained to his neck after robbing a back and being apprehended by the police. What people will do these days, it's really frightening.

Finally it's the week-end and it looks like I've got my travel schedule under control. Woo, Montreal here I come! Downside: dealing with french cannucks. At least the cannuck I lived with spoke english. Yay for scuba! While I'm cheering, yay for turks! It's been a couple of odd last few weeks for me. Been insanely busy, and then it's been weird living in a college town, I'll post more later.