So I angered Susie today by going off on yet another rant about the Steelers and their 5 network affiliates, two newspapers, and 12-15 radio stations. Not to mention all the advertising that they've managed to buy on people's windows, cars, etc.
As I was driving home, I had to switch off three stations or risk having the "Here We Go" song stuck in my head. So by the time I got home to my mother-in-law (who was babysitting) I was plumb Steelered out.
Now, I have the patience of a saint (alright, hold it down), but I was trying to figure out what's been setting me off recently. After getting Gage and heading out to do a little shopping, I saw a sign at the Mall at Robison.

"Due to overwhelming requests, Mall Management has decided to close the mall at 5:00 on February 5th for the Superbowl."

That was finally the last straw. I almost went to lodge a complaint at the service desk. Yes, the Steeler's made the Superbowl and 99.9% of the city seems to be ecstatic. The other .1% would like to crawl into an underground bunker to reappear on the 6th and check for our shadows to see if there's going to be 6 more weeks of the black and gold.

So, my hackles were raised pretty much all day and passing person after person in Steeler's garb did nothing to appease my attitude. And then, it finally clicked as I neared the end of the mall and saw the All-Christmas store having their yearly liquidation sale. It was the same feeling of resentment I had toward the Christmas holiday and music on the radio.
That's when the epiphany struck. It's not Christmas that upsets me, it's not even Christmas music that upsets me. It's not that the Steelers made the Superbowl and the Pens are in the toilet bowl (though that doesn't help). What bothers me most of all is the abject lack of respect for the American consumer.

That's right, I said lack of respect.

The powers-that-be have decided that simply telling you once and letting you make up your own mind is not sufficient. It has to be crammed down your throat over and over until it becomes a pre-programmed second nature. And I realized that I reject all attempts to make me think what people want me to think. It's this constant barrage that makes me dislike normally happy events like Christmas and yes, even the Superbowl. It's like holding a conversation with the egotistical Ivy League student who works in the fact that he graduated from Yale at least four times in a three minute conversation even though he's wearing a Yale sweatshirt, Yale hat, and a Yale ring, with a Yale license plate on his car and a bumper stick that says, "Go Yale!"
The first time it comes up, you're mildly impressed...by the end of the conversation you want to beat him with a polo mallet. It's like the amazing marketing campaigns for movies like "Monster's Ball" and "A Beautiful Mind", both of which sucked, but for some reason got tremendous word of mouth due to the all out media blitz.
Christmas has gotten so bad that it occurred to me that with the exception of getting gifts for Gage I was ready to scrap the whole thing. And as any parent of the child that has grasped the opening of presents can attest, the look on the child's face is priceless, so it's a lot to give up in the midst of the complete media blitz. The Superbowl passed this point a while ago, but since Pittsburgh has only had a cursory involvement in years past, it was slightly easier to ignore. This year, with direct involvement, it's beyond the point of bearable. Even some football rabid fans that I know are crying, "Enough, already!" It's a running gag in our office whenever a piece of actual news slips through. A couple days ago, there was an 80 year old man who was out on his roof (it was never discovered why). His wife was out on the roof with him. He slipped and started to go over the side. She made a grab for him and they both went over. He lived, but she passed away from the injuries sustained in the fall. This was a sad story and would normally have been given a space in the run of hometown news. However, it was barely a blip on the one affiliate that did cover it. We realized that if they had been wearing Steeler's sweatshirts and hanging a terrible towel on the Steeler's mannequin resting in the black and gold striped armchair motif on the roof of their recently repainted black and gold house, they would have been the lead story on all the major networks.
So, it's not that I hate football, I'm very apathetic toward the sport. It's not that I'm against the Steelers, most seasons they're barely registering in our household. I can't stand being forced to feel a certain way by a media that's so blinded to what is or is not news it's simply become the PR extension for whatever event is going on at the moment. That's why my new favorite holiday is Arbor Day.