I have seen this film, one of the ten-best films ever made, conservatively, about sixty times, including a couple of times at an old-fashioned giant screen at the Uptown Theater in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C., one of the great remaining theaters in the country, and located not far from The National Zoo.
Going to see a new film on that big screen and then walking around the zoo was a frequent pastime of yours truly and my pals on weekends.
To my mind, you simply can not consider yourself a well-educated and sophisticated person without having seen this film a few times and come to understand the brilliance of Lean's depictionof the simple and complex stories running parallel to one another throughout it, along with the myriad complexities and conundrums that puzzle us to this day.
There's always something new you see in it with every showing, and a lesson or allusion you can draw in comparing some aspect of it to something else.
I consider myself a bit of a David Lean buff since I have seen just about every film he's been associated with. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000180/
Maurice Jarre's genius with this score never fails to impress, no matter how many hundreds of times you've heard it. (I've seen it so many times that I know which scene goes with which part of the score.) Three years later, Jarre wins the Oscar again for Dr. Zhivago, the second of his three Oscars.
Maurice Jarre conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1992 performing his Oscar-winning score.
PBS NewsHour video: New York Times Names First Woman to Executive Editor Job. Jill Abramson speaks to NewHour host Jim Lehrer about her new position starting in September. June 3, 2011.
Page One: Inside the New York Times hits theaters June 24th, 2011
TheWrap'sEditor in Chief Sharon Waxman adroitly sizes-up Jill Abramson's selection as new executive editor of the New York Times -a fine choice, it's just not particularly inspired, or inspiring.
More thoughts of my own are below Sharon's last two posts that connect-the-dots on the Abramson story that lots of people I know will be watching VERY closely -like me.
For the record, I've been reading the NY Times daily continuously for over thirty-five years, starting when I was at JFK Junior High in North Miami Beach, circa 1974 and continuing when I got next door at NMBHS.
Every morning as I walked to school from our family's home on N.E. 159th Street & 14th Avenue in NMB, I picked up a copy of the paper next to the then-Wolfie's Restaurant on the south side of the 163rd Street Shopping Center, often getting a Black & White cookie, before walking thru the shopping center, back before it had the fabric roof installed, as the two schools were just north of it.
(The sugar from those cookies came in handy at NMB since I was on the early shift and had Spanish with Mrs. Adderly at 7 a.m.!)
No matter where I've ever lived in the United States, when I wasn't subscribing to it, I've always known every single nearby location where aNYT could be purchased, whether at a news stand or a vending machine. And I do mean EVERY one, too.
My stack of NY Times Sunday Magazineswhile in high school at North Miami Beach came in handy more times than I could tell you here, and I can still remember certain key stories or fashion essays, which is how I knew who Carrie Donovan and William Safire were long before I got up to Bloomington and IU.
There and then later in Evanston and Arlington County, my stash in banker's boxes was, if not symbols of upper-ward mobility or conspicuous consumption, at least signs of organized affinity hoarding.
The information cache in Arlington, 99% of it anyway, eventually wound-up in the hands of the Friends of the Arlington County Library to sell when I had to return to South Florida in late 2003.
My treasure trove of magazines and journals were referred to by some friends, "The National Archives Annex." Usually good-naturedly, though NOT always.
Something they didn't have on the cover of the Timesmagazine when I was in Junior High in the 1970's -this kind of amazing photography and color composition.
Above, The Self-Manufacture of Megan Fox by Lynn Hirshberg, How America's leading starlet made herself up for the multimedia age, NYT 2009-11-11, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin for The New York Times
Jill Abramson’s Twitter Account, and a Vision for the New York Times
By Sharon Waxman
published June 3, 2011, 6:29 am
It would be more interesting that Jill Abramson was named executive editor of The New York Times if the paper was not on such a knife’s edge for survival.
Much respected, Abramson can only be considered dynamic when compared to her predecessor, the bloodless Bill Keller. Keller is so laconic that his own wife has commonly disparaged him as a cocktail party killer.
Before reading my comments, see this intriguing insight into Abramson that was in the Wall Street Journal'sBest of the Web column by James Tarnato, a column I've been reading -and occasionally contributing items to- since I was living in Arlington County.
Specifically, read the opening piece titled, All the News That's Fit to Scrub "Absolute truth"? At the New York Times, it's more like Minitrue which includes some great pithy observational comments from Tarantoandblogger Ann Althouse, and a nice tweaking of
Now you know why I said to pay attention to the video at the top, no?
In my opinion, Sharon Waxman's Friday column was MUCH more incisive than anyone else's analysis I've read -and I've read a lot- on not just the well-known and generally understood problems at the Times and it's odd mixture of both high-minded sense of duty and the more immediate need to make (and keep) a buck in the digital age, but also on Abramson's laconic personality and whether that will prove helpful or hurtful to making some necessary changes there, laconic NOT being a synonym for inspiring or motivating.
And, of course, her well-deserved tweaking -but not Tweets- of Bill Keller's well-known social media myopia, even though Times readers are MUCH more likely than other newspaper subscribers to not only have a Twitter account, but actually have something worth saying and reading!
It seems counter-intuitive that someone like Keller, at the nexus of so much useful information and insight, someone who always says the right measured thing on his appearances on The Charlie Rose Show, should be the one who actually thinks they're going to tell/lecture society -and his own readers- that they're engaged in folly.
(In that respect, Keller's myopia is akin to the Miami Herald's/McClatchy's current management keeping their head firmly in the sand when there's a million compelling stories down here in South Florida that they are consciously ignoring, but which a real energetic and properly-motivated newspaper would be doing amazing things with, a point that I've made here many times in the past with specific examples of stories they slept on.
They even bury their own reader blogs that they launched and triumphantly hailed but two short years ago -of which mine was among the originals, to my own surprise, since they never contacted me- but have now ignored them to the point that they "promote" them with nary a graphic or icon on the page but merely the word, South Florida Blogs.
At the very bottom of their web page.
I even forget they exist -and I'm listed.
in the year 2011, despite the fact that many smaller newspapers or niche online publications have them -and have had them for years- the Herald still doesn't even have a simple widget that websites or blogs can post to run their stories about sports or South Florida news or... to send readers their way.
In many respects, to me, the current Herald is like a mediocre college newspaper circa 1992 -their whole world is about to change drastically, but instead of having faculty advisors who are prescient, they have ones who think this Internet thing will have little relevancy for them, so they keep ordering nothing but more barrels of ink.)
I last wrote a lot about the Times here on the blog in April, when I just wanted to unburden myself of some tidbits and random thoughts from my time spending lots of time in and near their Washington bureau, though there was a LOT that I intentionally left out.That post was Memories of D.C. bureau of N.Y. Times; Cool stuff from NYT Graphics: Key states for Obama in 2012; 2010 Census interactive map
Eye Street trivia -I shared this with Rick Berke himself many years ago -Separated at Birth:NYT'sRick Berke and ESPN'sbaseball analyst Tim Kurkjian.
Another take on the whole Bill Keller conundrum is at Forbes' online media blog
Forbes Magazine
Media blog
NY Times Editor Bill Keller: The Exit Interview
By Jeff Bercovici
June 2 2011 - 8:00 pm
Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, caught media watchers off guard today when he announced that he’ll step down in September, with managing editor Jill Abramson replacing him. After eight years of leading a 1,200 person newsroom through wars, recessions, elections and political sex scandals, he’s returning to being a full-time writer. I caught up with Keller, who told me what made him decide to walk away now, what he finds “damned annoying” about Arianna Huffington, and why he’s hoping the next three months will be filled with worldwide chaos.
A March 21st post of Alan's titled,A shock video to keep news execs up at night
highlighted this video below, and I agree; check it out and think about how different the Miami Herald would be today if someone like this was in charge:
New York Times Dealbook video: When Fashion Meets Finance. Reported by Mac William Bishop, May 6, 2011. http://youtu.be/un8PHTmlfyI
Groovy! Newest incarnation of Fashion meets Finance now offers patina of high-mindedness -former wannabe-philanderers are now do-gooder philanthropists. Conspicuous consumption has now morphed into charity work. Now THAT'S how you successfully re-boot! http://www.fashionmeetsfinance.com/ NOT that this would ever work in Miami!
This video reminds me a lot of the low-seat bar area at the W Hotel in San Francisco, circa 2000. There were, literally,SO many attractive women crammed into the place that it was actually disconcerting, but not for me and my former housemate from Arlington County, who was now living out there, but for the new women arriving into the area, as they took one look around at how crowded it was with over-the-top beauty and just fled, perhaps in terror. Jamie and I just watched in disbelieving amazement! In these new photos from theWwebsite, it doesn't look the same as it did, which is a real pity: http://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1153&language=en_US
New York Times video: NYT reporter Janny Scott talks to NYT's Deputy News Editor Megan Liberman about her book on the life of Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham. Produced by Ben Werschkul.
See also this excerpt titled A Young Mother Abroad from Janny Scott's book, "A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother”
What's that, you say that there's yet another big media story that has generated little-to-no local news coverage in parochial and off-the-grid South Florida? No, that's not at all unusual, is it? Zero coverage as of now despite how popular and revered it is among the army of liberal news junkies who are 'chronics' on South Florida's more popular current events blogs, who say its name like a mantra? Hmm-m... what gives?
A story that as of 3 p.m. had generated ZERO coverage at the Miami Herald even though everyone knew it was coming: http://pd.miami.com/sp?aff=1100&keywords=Huffington+Post&submit.x=34&submit.y=12
Not to worry, TheWrap'sDylan Stableford has an update at his Media Alley column on the latest news regarding Bloggers class-action lawsuit against AOL, The Huffington Post and Ariana Huffington. -----
The Wrap Bloggers File Class-Action Lawsuit Against Huffington, HuffPo, AOL (Update) By Dylan Stableford April 12, 2011 @ 7:22 am
A group of Huffington Post bloggers led by Jonathan Tasini filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday against AOL, Arianna Huffington and the Huffington Post over their unpaid status.
The suit, filed in the Southern District Court of New York, accuses Huffington, AOL, HuffPo and HuffPo chairman Kenneth Lerer of unjust enrichment and deceptive business practices.
Read the rest of the post at: http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/bloggers-file-class-action-lawsuit-against-arianna-huffpo-aol-26368
-----
New York Times Media Decoder blog
Huffington Post Is Target of Suit on Behalf of Bloggers By Jeremy W. Peters April 12, 2011, 12:49 pm
The Huffington Post is the target of a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed in United States District Court in New York on Tuesday on behalf of thousands of uncompensated bloggers.Jonathan Tasini is leading a $105 million lawsuit against the Huffington Post on behalf of unpaid bloggers.
Read the rest of the post at: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/huffington-post-is-target-of-suit-on-behalf-of-bloggers/ Be sure to read the heated Readers Comments to this NYT post wherein supporters who brook no dissent against their patron saint, push back hard against the very people who wrote the articles on the HuffPo they were forwarding via email to their friends just a few weeks and months ago because they agreed with them.
But now, because they speak out against Ariana Huffington and her business practices, those very people areENEMIES OF THE STATE: their own insular state of mind. http://community.nytimes.com/comments/mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/huffington-post-is-target-of-suit-on-behalf-of-bloggers/?sort=oldest
A friend in the New York Times' Washington bureau has shared these fascinating web links with me, and I've posted them here since you'll likely find 'em of use in the next few months, too. Especially if you have a blog or website, since the info provides you with lots of predicates for future posts!
I later found out that it was also mentioned at theirTwitter site: http://twitter.com/nytgraphics which I'm now Bookmarking, and I suggest you do the same. For my purposes and interests, this is actually better info than this recentForbes graphic on internal U.S. migration, which recently got a lot of attention. To be fair, though, this one does show the dynamic of the fight vs. flight response among those of us currently living in South Florida: Map: Where Americans Are Moving Jon Bruner http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-interactive-counties-map.html As you may recall me having mentioned on the blog a couple of times(!), while I lived up there for 15 years, I used to spendLOTS of time over at the Times'Washington bureau as well in the lobby there at the Army-Navy Building -one block from the Orioles team store, two from The White House. (It's a beautiful building that just screams "class," but unfortunately, all my DOZENS of photos of it as well as the people I met and knew there, whom I mention below, are up in storage in the D.C. area, otherwise I'd post some photos here.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_and_Navy_Club_Building I've referenced here before how that lobby was like Grand Central for everyone congregated before, during and after work, talking about sports, films and politics -and gossiped before there were blogs. I think that may actually have even been where someone first told me about blogs. (Michael Kinsley?)
Back then, while I had my weekly edition of Variety mailed to my home in Arlington County, I had my Daily Variety subscription delivered to the Army-Navy's concierge desk because both my home as well as my office at the time were NOT within the rather microscopic courier delivery zone in D.C. for their Gothamedition. http://www.variety.com/Home/
Thanks to a friend who worked there in the building and did me a huge favor, I was able to get the Daily dropped-off at their concierge desk with other deliveries for the building, since it was within the zone.
That was no doubt largely due to the presence of the NYT and Minneapolis Star-Tribune Washington bureaus upstairs, and the MPAA, the Motion Picture Ass'n. of America(and their then-president, Jack Valenti), directly across the street and down the block a few hundred feet. The MPAA was THE place where I always wanted most to work.
(Yes, sometimes you have to be smart enough to take advantage of the system at hand and the facts-on-the-ground for even minor details like getting timely daily delivery of a trade newspaper like Variety.) I'd get off at the Farragut West Metro station every morning and stop by there on my way to work and run intosuch well-known Times' luminaries as Rick Berke, Tom Friedman, Neil A. Lewis, Johnny Apple, Jill Abramson, Carl Hulse, Todd Purdum, Maureen Dowd or Steven A. Holmes. Lots of very smart and talented people.
Steven and I and our great mutual friend Jim D. shared SO many Cokes and hot dogs and stories over the years across the street from the TimesHQ, next to our favorite hot dog vendor, who had the best spot in downtown Washington for hearing good insider information -Eye Street & 17th, N.W. We solved many of the country's problems -and the Redskins'- there on the sidewalk munching on hot dogs and gulping Cokes.
Steven wrote a terrific book that managed to be both fair and honest -just as he told me it would be in advance- about the late Ron Brown, the Clinton Commerce Secretary who had been such a powerful figure in Washington and beyond while over at Patton Boggs, was the Chairman of the Democratic Party, but who, tragically, perished in 1996 in that awful plane crash in Croatia with so many others, an event that shook-up Washington in general, and so many people I knew so badly, that many of them could hardly talk for days afterward. Ron Brown: An Uncommon Life http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/05/28/reviews/000528.28wrightt.html Here's the video of a 2000 appearance of Steven and some other Times reporters and editors on the Charlie Rose Show talking about their amazing series, "How Race Is Lived in America," http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/3629
After I left Washington, I later read that Steven had become an A.M.E., Assistant Managing Editor, at the Washington Post, a very important position that has few counterparts in South Florida journalism, based on what I have seen the past seven years, sad to say. More recently, he was the Post's Deputy National Editor, where his experience and ability to see the hidden narrative in a story no doubt came in very handy, and then in 2008, he joined CNN. Sometimes, because it was such an amazing place, I even ran into people like Ambassador Sol Linowitz, someone whom I'd only seen on TV, who by then was working upstairs at the Coudert Brothers law firm. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/obituaries/19linowitz.html
You never really knew when you walked thru the lobby door who would be around, talking about the latest Redskins or Orioles game, miserable hot weather, or whatever was the story du jour over at The White House or Capitol Hill, et al. Not to sound like a a snob, but I suppose some of you here in Hallandale Beach and environs can perhaps now better appreciate why running into folks over at Panera's or Starbucks and hearing them rail about the latest common sense outrages committed by Joy Cooper or Mark Antonio, isNOTquite the same discussion hearing these folks I knew, some better than others, share what they knew, heard and saw in the corridors of power, such as it was and is, in our nation's capital. Obviously, everything else seems pretty blah after years and years of that on an almost daily basis. By the time the Metro train in the morning had left Foggy Bottomon its way east, I began to look forward to seeing my copy of Daily Variety and imagining what sort of clever headline they'd be running. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_%28magazine%29
That is, unless Maureen Dowd had accidentally taken the copy with my name on it by mistake, since she and I were the only two people in the whole 12-story building who subscribed to it. That miscue was why so often I read it at lunch and people I knew would spot the mailing label and say to me, sarcastically, "But you aren't Maureen Dowd?" She has red hair." Rimshot! But as I've mentioned here previously, I always defended Maureen on that minor matter as well as matters of deeper substance when people in Washington attacked her unfairly, whether on radio or social events I attended, usually based on what someone else had written about her that they were simply parroting, and hence, didn't know the true facts or context behind.
She could take her lumps just like everyone else, since that comes with the territory of being a political columnist, especially a famous one that millions of people around the world read. I certainly didn't always agree with her, obviously, but I also knew lots of positive things about her that most people didn't or couldn't know, just from being around so often. When a mutual friend of hers and mine lost his young son in a terrible hit-and-run incident in suburban Maryland, she was constantly reassuring and trying her best to keep his spirits up, even when he was barely keeping it together, and his presence sometimes made everyone else feel so sad because of how heavy the tragedy was clearly weighing on him. She didn't have to, but she did. Even when a lot of people who knew him a lot better and worked with him should've been doing so -but weren't.
So with all that in mind, at a certain period of time in Washington, when more than any other media figure in town, Maureen was finding herself the constant brunt of criticism -that was untrue and unfounded- at venues she was not even present at, I found myself in the unexpected position of publicly defending her and her record versus mean-spirited rumors and innuendo. Some people think that because they read her column, they really knew her; they didn't, of course. It sounds like a cliche, but it's true. There was aLOTofTHAT condescending and patronizing talk around when I was up there and I was always more than happy to acquaint those people with the true facts, since Maureen was easily the most misunderstood political columnist in D.C
I participated every year in the NYT's popular NCAA Basketball pool which was a pool that was, literally, worldwide, and even pulled for Purdue a few times, if you can believe it. (That happened circa 1994, when I was dating a Purdue grad, I hasten to add. She was smart, funny, thoughtful and beautiful. Hey, I'm loyal to IU but I'm only human, you know)
The best Washington-based performer in their pool every year -among some very smart people and devout college sports fans- was usually the-then teenage son of Warren E. Leary, the Times'terrific since-retired Science correspondent. He covered the alphabet soup of Washington-based Science agencies and foundations fromNASA to NIH to the NSF, the National Science Foundation, which was located one block from my home Metro stop in Arlington, Ballston.
A friendly and engaging Nebraska grad, Warren Leary wasTHE biggestCornhusker fan I ever met in Washington, even more so than many of the folks from the Nebraka congressional delegation and their staff on Capitol Hill, which is REALLYsaying something.
Well, except when Coach Tom Osborne got elected to Congress for a bit before going back to Lincoln to become Nebraska AD.
New York Times video: Navigating the Bracket Which teams have the makeup to go all the way, and which teams are potential upset picks? NYT sports reporter Pete Thamel and NYT political analyst Nate Silver of Five Thirty Eight blog give their take. Produced by Justin Sablich, Tamir Elterman. http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/03/14/sports/ncaabasketball/100000000725879/navigating-the-bracket.html
See also:
Chicago Tribune Obama talks chalk with NCAA picks By Michael A. Memoli, Washington Bureau 6:34 p.m. CDT, March 16, 2011 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/ct-talk-obama-ncaa-picks-0317-20110316,0,3277711.story
At IU, we had a name for someone like President Obama who picks all the top-ranked teams to make it to the Elite 8: a butt-kissing corporate shill.
Who’s No. 1? Investigating the Mathematics of Rankings By Patrick Honner amd Holly Epstein Ojalvo March 14, 2011, 3:02 pm http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/whos-no-1e-investigating-the-mathematics-of-rankings/
Five Thirty Eightblog When 15th Is Better Than 8th: The Math Shows the Bracket Is Backward By Nate Silver March 15, 2011, 11:40 pm
Suppose that, lucky you, you’re the coach of a team given a No. 8 seed in the N.C.A.A. tournament bracket.
This is a less-than-ideal position: provided that you win your first-round game, you’re due to face the No. 1 seed in the second round. Read the rest of the post at: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/when-15th-is-better-than-8th-the-math-shows-the-bracket-is-backward/
For more info: http://ncaabracket.nytimes.com/2011/bracket/men/ http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/t/pete_thamel/index.html http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/TheNewYorkTimes
Just a coincidence that three anti-Glenn Beck news stories/columns appear in same week?
Of course, since so few American TV/print reporters, editors or producers actually read and speak passable Arabic, or are the least bit knowledgeable about the Mid-East, they can't very well write about Libya intelligently, now can they. Which is why beyond the actual news value of what happened to and with him last week, there were so many stories and columns in the American press about Charlie Sheen, because you don't have to know anything to write or talk about him... Everybody's an expert.
Before you read the following three stories/columns, here's something to keep in mind, since facts actually matter.
The Glenn Beck Show on Fox News Channel is drawing 300,000 more total viewers than ALL cable news competitors in the time period COMBINED. Just saying...
If I was the news director at a local TV station in a major market in the United States and my eyeball numbers were more than the total of ALL the other local TV stations COMBINED, plus, I was also leading in the 25-54 demo to boot, and my adversaries were saying that I was in a slump, I'd take that kind of losing streak and laugh all the way to the bank. And so would my family! CNN would take that kind of losing streak right now at 5 p.m. Eastern in a heartbeat. And so would MSNBC and CNBC.
But they can only dream of a such an upside-down news world now, since at 5 p.m., they're merely ants at the picnic, not the guest of honor. They're barely noticeable unless one of them crawls on your arm or leg -and completely harmless and useless- so you just flick them away with your finger and they go buh-bye. Just saying...
Apropos of these stories, coming soon, I may soon have a blog post here on some real actor/celebrities who actually HAVE lost their hold on film audiences at the box-office, but you rarely if ever see the sort of joyful negative stories on them in the American press like the stories below on because... well, they really, really don't like Glenn Beck -or his audience. Just ask them, they'll tell you.
Hmm-m... note to self: Their film grosses fizzling and reviews not-so-positive, have Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Anniston, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt lost their juice?
New York Times The Media Equation The Fading Power of Beck’s Alarms By David Carr March 6, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/business/media/07carr.html
---- None of these pieces have mentioned the most obvious and most likely reason for the lower numbers.
Beck's TV show, which I watch everyday, usually, the 2 a.m. repeat, has been pre-empted more often than usual due to what was going on in Egypt, often for pointless -often nine-hour old- coverage of Tahrir Square in Cairo when NOTHING was happening. Reminder: Just because you point a TV news camera at something doesn't mean it's news.
Because of those pre-emptions on the repeat show at 2 a.m., before RED EYE, I actually saw some Fox News weekend panel program I'd never seen before, which itself was a few days old and was clearly intended to run-out-the clock until 3 a.m. came around.
Additionally, there have been many more repeats since January than at about any time since Beck joined Fox News Channel.
Seems like I even recall him being sick and having surgery, though I can't recall the exact details.
Sometimes, there's no conspiracy, it's just that there's either no program to see, or the one that airs is one you've already seen twice before -I don't need to see it a third time.
I love pizza, but sometimes when I was out with friends in the D.C. area, after a movie or ballgame or whatever, sometimes when asked what I was in the mood for, I'd choose Vietnamese, unless I knew that we were near a great pizza place.If it isn't what you want the way you like it, TV, like pizza, isn't the same. Similarly, with all the news about Tunesia, Egypt and Libya on Beck's show, why would loyal viewers who really don't care about foreign policy compared to domestic or economic issues watch something they really don't have any interest in, something that isn't their cup of tea? I love well-played basketball, esp. top-tier college basketball, not surprisingly, considering I only went to college at a school like IU where basketball is much more than tradition but a culture.
Still, I haven't watched the NBA All-Star Game since about 1990, and haven't watched more than 20 minutes of the NBA this entire season. It's not interesting to me since nothing matters until May.
Or, maybe those fans see a repeat or a pre-emption and finally get around to watching one of those prime-time shows they've been continually taping for weeks and STILL NOT started watching yet, so they think, today is the day I start watching 'em, otherwise I'm deleting them all. Just saying... sometimes, lower ratings are not so mysterious.
And when you STILL have MANY more viewers than all your time-slot competitors combined, it's really absurd to talk about a SLUMP.
When the Yankees of the 1920's amd '30's actually lost a game or two in the World Series instead of sweeping their opponent in four games, were they in a slump, too?
