Is there a day without a sport?
Remember when ABC’s
Wide World of Sports
was just on TV Saturdays…
and for only 90 minutes?
Baseball games were on the radio.
Now ESPN Channels 1-348 are on 24-7.
Just today WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS are being played and broadcast in
Professional Men’s Basketball,
Professional Men’s Hockey, and
Professional Women’s soccer.
I think there is a sport every minute.
Of course I could be wrong–
I watch only movies via NetFlicks,
37 HD Satellite Channels, BLU-RAY,
or in Theaters with rocking chairs,
cup-holders, 5 gallon popcorn buckets,
300 speakers, and IMAX.
Our grand-children watch small screens
under the covers after lights-out.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, June 9, 2015
Views from the Edge 
Once I heard that the reason for so many TV channels is to provide platforms for advertising products. The main agenda then is to increase consumption of these products. Of course advertising keeps the prices for those products lower because like anything else more sales of something makes it possible for the product to become cheaper thus more consumption. An old HS classmate of mine owns the largest auto dealership (Rydell’s) in North America. 80,000 units sold per yr through 61 dealerships nationwide. The philosophy is to sell the most cheaply to get more customers. It worked. Advertising allowed him to sell at a lower price. Where I’m going with this is that the ads serve to increase consumption thus producing more CO2. We have met the enemy & it is us (POGO). WE are in such dire straits with global warming now because of free enterprise that the only short term solution to climate change is to reduce our own individual carbon footprint. Tech fixes are too slow to bring on line it seems. See Naomi Kline’s book “This Changes Everything” for her explication about the immediate need to change personal consumption habits. We still need to work on long term tech fixes like solar panel adoption by power companies, but she says a faster remedy is to quit buying so much stuff, quit flying & driving so much & tearing down small houses to build bigger ones. At any rate Steve’s poem describes the fact that it isnt so much as our desire to watch more sports on TV but the need of advertisers to try capture our attention to sell us something. There is a “war for attention”, see French philosopher
Bernard Steigler.
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Gary, As always, your comment takes the discussion deeper. Namoi Kline’s book is a winner. I’ll check out Bernard Steigler. So honored you continue to pay attention to Views from the Edge! Hope this finds you well and driving and flying less!😎
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Gordon, This was posted by you June 11. I know, cause I found it on the August 1 post! Since I have written nothing good in 2-3 weeks, you may have to keep putting up my former stuff from you Archives… Mindless Steve
Steve Shoemaker 1148 County Road 1500 E Urbana, IL 61802 217-621-3796
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Thanks, Steve.
Mindless Gordon
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