SPEAKING THE UNSPEAKABLE

OK, I’ll say it: this Wisconsinite (who admittedly is not a Packer fan) is sick to death of Brett Favre. Not of the man personally; I’m sure he’s a decent, upstanding citizen whom anyone would love to have as a next-door neighbor. But, as I watched a four-minute orgy of self-congratulation on the FOX 6 news tonight, with a bunch of Packer fans positively giddy that Favre will be returning for another season, I officially decided I’m done with the guy. He’s a sure-shot, first-ballot Hall of Fame player, and I’m glad I got to see him play. But I can’t stand the personality cult that surrounds him anymore.

Again, I don’t fault Favre himself for this. I’ve learned enough about him to know that he would be perfectly happy if nobody talked about him at all, ever. And I’m sure you non-Wisconsinites don’t know what the big deal is. For a solid three and a half months now, we’ve had to endure a steady stream of “will he or won’t he?” talk from every imaginable source. Not just sports talk radio–I’m talking about the political talk shows as well. And every other possible avenue of discourse. It seems that, for the last couple months, nobody in this state has really had any interest in talking about anything else.

It’s been a hard couple of years for the guy, I know. I also know that nobody would’ve faulted him for deciding to hang it up, since his wife is sick, he’s had a flotilla of personal tragedies to deal with, and (WARNING! THE FOLLOWING PHRASE MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO PACKER FANS! PARENTAL GUIDANCE IS SUGGESTEDREQUIRED! NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR SPILLED BEVERAGES!) he’s just not quite the dominating quarterback he once was. He benefits from playing in the second-weakest division in the NFL (only the NFC West is worse, and only because the Cardinals and 49ers are marginally worse than the Bears and Lions), and without Ahman Green, he’d get sacked more often than a 40-oz of Mickey’s. He’s still respected, mind you. But who’s afraid of him anymore?

Anyway, he’s coming back for one more season, and bully for him; I truly wish him luck. Can we talk about something else now? Anything else?

MILESTONES AND MILLSTONES

Apologies, dear reader, for the dearth of posting over the past few weeks. I would hasten to point out that it is Lent, a notoriously busy time of year for people in my line of work, but the real reason(s) I’ve not been posting much have more to do with non-computer viruses than the church year.

Egads. I’ve been struggling with a persistent low-grade upper-respiratory infection for over a month now. It’s a cruel beast, one which doesn’t quite make you sick enough to stay home from work, but frequently leaves you finding yourself stunned and dopey in the middle of the day. How bad is it? I can’t recall the last time I stayed up past 11 o’clock at night–and I customarily don’t make it to bed until 1 AM. The only consolation in the whole thing is knowing that everybody else I know has more or less the same thing, so we can all feel sorry for each other.

I’m also working on material for the Runs Good site, which should be launching any day now . . . no, really . . .

Runs Good will be more along the lines of an electronic ‘zine than a blog. That means that I’ve got to have enough material for the launch to make sure that the site’s worth reading. And I’m finding the process of writing and researching substantial articles is tremendously tedious, especially for somebody with a 4-month-old in the house. (Serena’s not that demanding, really; she’s just more entertaining than writing ever will be. And I love writing.)

Meantime, in less than two weeks, TBP will celebrate its second anniversary. I am uncertain how I’ll mark the occasion. Perhaps I’ll open a brand-new bottle of NyQuil I’ve been saving for a special event.

As always, thanks for reading, and, in keeping with TBP’s tradition of providing lowbrow links when the posts have been scarcer than Enron apologists, here’s a link to a handy book about portable chemical toilets.