Wednesday 8 April 2020

What I Predict

Somewhere in the 1860s to 1880s....as Europeans started to arrive and settle out on the great plains of America....a new term was created: 'Prairie Madness'.

No one can say what journalist or intellectual started the phrase, but it generally meant that the isolation, living conditions, extreme weather and 'nothingness' had your emotions bottled up.

Depression would start up, and alcohol consumption increased.

I expect toward the end of April, that COVID-madness will be coined by some journalist.  A dozen-odd experts will appear on CNN to say they are experts on the topic, and spend hours describing the conditions.  Some people will go then and spend years in therapy....trying to get over the disease. 

Then along the way, someone over at Fox News will coin the phrase China-virus madness, and some guy at NPR will coin the phrase Corona-madness. 

This Baseball Plan

This week, there's chatter over the plan put out there for major league baseball.  Basically, all 30 clubs would be sent to Phoenix and they'd play in eleven fields around the city.....staying in local hotels the whole summer, and avoid contact with fans (yep, no fans allowed in the parks).

Only people in the stadium?  The teams, coaches, administrative staff, telecast crowd and umpires. 

The day would be planned out with not only double-headers, but back-to-back games with teams A/B, followed by teams C/D.

Some folks suggest that they'd make up for the lost 35-odd games by adding a dozen double-headers to the schedule, with some of these parks having three games in a single day. 

The public?  No one is saying much.  It's a bit of a shock. 

Advice for White House 'Correspondents'

1.  If you get picked to ask a question, and you start off a long-winded 150-word 'statement' (not the question itself) and then reach the 12-word question itself....the people at home now grasp what you attempted to accomplish.  It's like that stupid Vegas magic act that was supposed to be ultra super-secret, and they figured out that the 'mechanism'.  So cut the 'statement' and just ask the stupid question.

2.  When you utter the phrase....'some scientist said' or 'a expert said'....then you fail to mention the guy's name, you've just proven the fact that you didn't do your homework.  All the President has to do is ask you.....who is the scientist or expert?  Then you look extremely foolish because you don't have the name.

3.  Thinking that you 'train' the President and teach him leadership qualities?  You, a mere journalist....having leadership or management qualities?  Oh please, what a joke.

4.  Prepare yourself for this.....a large segment of the nation now watches the White House 'product' in its entirety.  So if you look super-foolish, and it used to be that the network would just that delete that stupidity out....well, the rest of us see the whole segment and just laughing.  So you might to be at the top form of your game.

5.  Asking a very detailed question, using the phrase 'worst-case' scenario....just leads the President to utter the response that he's working with the average to best case scenario.  Your attempt to lead to the proper answer to make your people happy....failed miserably. 

6.  Finally, if you come off looking like you attempted to trip up the President....you ought to be barred from the next couple of conferences.  No one likes that type of behavior in a chaotic crisis period.