Another Kennedy Death

This week has been a bit frustrating, thanks mostly to my continued lack of home computing, but also in part to various issues at work (I'm running up against the old fact that programmers in general don't like fussing around with useful things like project specs) not to mention the 'net connection was down there as well as at home for a while.

I'm feeling somewhat random. The whole JFK Jr. thing is making me ill; as a Globe column this morning remarked, maybe it would have been asking too much for the media to handle this in an understated fashion, but still I feel justified in resenting their behavior. I'm sure the man had some redeeming qualities (even if no major media outlet mentioned them until this week), and the death of any human being may well diminish all of us. However, his death was hardly a tragedy on a national scale, and I'm sure the Kennedy family would appreciate just ONE chance to grieve a dead relative in something resembling privacy. If I was a Kennedy I would have left the country and possibly joined a religious community by now just to get away from it all.

On another note, the unfolding WGBH list-swapping scandal reinforces my somewhat cynical belief that the defining characteristic of human beings is our tendency to believe we're smarter than we are. This is a case of purest stupidity run amok, or cases since it seems to have been somewhat widespread. I look at people who do these things and wonder how stupid someone can possibly be. Then I begin to suspect that these people aren't particularly different from the rest of us, and I wonder with a certain amout of fear just how stupid all of us are. And still they let us walk around and drive cars and so forth, even when we repeatedly demonstrate that our judgement is about as sharp and incisive as a banana. Back to the savannah, folks, and brush up on your grooming techniques, maybe take remedial Avoiding Lions 101. Perhaps if we simply step aside another, smarter species will evolve to rule to the world.

Just a final bit of utter weirdness, since my mind still seems stuck on the morning paper. Yesterday morning commuters were greeted to their bemusement by a homemade sign draped over a billboard, from someone asking "Cat" to please forgive him. Of course this required followup by the diligent (and apparently bored) folks at the paper; the sign's maker, one Tim, was eventually tracked down, as was Cat, for a story on the front page of the Metro section. For those who are waiting breathlessly on the edge of their seats, Cat currently does not plan to forgive Tim despite his dramatic plea.

Is it me, or is life more like TV every day?

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