Now that I live in LA, I also now work in an office. Aside from the fact that putting your hair in a pony tail is not the same as taking a shower when you work in an office, thus you must get dressed up every day instead of putting on sweats and lounging around, you also have conversations with people about things other than business, logistics about getting together, or child issues. They call it water cooler talk, and I love it.
I have a new friend at work who likes a lot of the same things as me. We were discussing television shows (we both watch The Big Bang – great show if you haven’t seen it). I asked him if he watches Idol.
“American Idol? Of course not.” The distain was dripping, no pouring, from his facial expression and I could tell he was taking me off his ‘take a five minute break and chat with someone in the office list’ as he inched his way toward the door of my office.
“Well, you are watching the World Series right?”
He moved back toward me with a tough, don’t you even think of going there, look on his face. “Yes, it’s an American pastime, and what is your point?”
“Well, what is the difference? You watch a bunch of entertaining games leading up to the crescendo of the World Series final game. You personally do not play baseball. You eat in front of the TV, and you have a favorite team you really want to win. What is the difference between that and American Idol? And, might I point out, oh snobbish one (he and I don’t work for each other so I can go there in conversation, or at least the employee handbook doesn’t say I can’t go there), that more Americans watch American Idol’s final ‘game’ than the World Series.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Yep, I can and I am.”
The conversation that ensued isn’t interesting to me, and since it’s my blog and he is a free American and can start his own blog, or answer this one if he chooses, means I don’t have to present his point of view. Suffice to say that he cannot conceive that anyone in America could compare the World Series to an American Idol final. I think he’s wrong.
Both are entertainment for the viewer and serve no greater purpose than that.
Both are on TV or in person shows. One costs more and has more events, but that’s just semantics.
Since becoming Obama Mini Me, I personally do not judge others and their tastes at all. I like American Idol because I love to sing, and if you follow my blog daily you know that liking to sing and being good at singing is not the same thing. I do not like to play baseball. I think it’s boring to watch, and does not call for brain power in the least. And while I recognize that pitching calls for some athletic prowess, it also messes up your shoulder big time (my dad was a pitcher) and physical abuse is not something I think should be America’s pastime. Should we talk about baseball catcher’s knees? I also think that when you consider the trouble baseball has had with cheaters who use enhancements to make themselves better at the game, you have to give Idol its due that no one lip sings while they have someone else’s voice piped in. In other words, there is no cheating on Idol and that alone makes it better than baseball. And, don’t get me started on baseball players and Madonna. But I don’t judge anyone who likes to watch it. Suit yourself. Be my guest. Go for it.
I think I really won that debate. Funny, I’m not sure my new friend has been in the office lately. He hasn’t stopped by.
Greater men than I say it best:
What is both surprising and delightful is that spectators are allowed, and even expected, to join in the vocal part of the game…. There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife’s fidelity and his mother’s respectability. ~George Bernard Shaw
I see great things in baseball. It’s our game – the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. ~Walt Whitman
It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. ~A. Bartlett Giamatti, “The Green Fields of the Mind,” Yale Alumni Magazine, November 1977
BTW – I still play the game, still have a glove (and mitt), bat and ball. I still look at my baseball cards from time to time. I also recently had a “catch” with my son.
Have you had a “sing” lately?
I grant you that both are entertainment, but so is this blog. Baseball is an event (so are other sports) that you go and see and be seen. When is the last time AI has a tailgate party? Do we have parades for the AI winner?
Let’s see if AI is still on the air in 20 years, the World Series will be!
Didn’t you know that you shouldn’t ask a question that could lead you to the wrong side of the track???
Yes, they have parades for the three finalists in American Idol and THOUSANDS of people come and cheer them on.
The 20 years thing is interesting. But the times they are a changing and one never knows. Bowling used to be a major sport and look at it now? Obsolete. Did mention I love bowling?
I will be back in town next week … see you at the water cooler.
Christine
Can I say that I really did look down on my wife who watches Idol? I get it now and will be respectful. I won’t watch it, but I will be respectful.
Nice job.
David