Basketball or WWF?

Maybe I’m being too much of an alarmist. Maybe. But in some recent college basketball contests, I’ve seen a troubling trend, if trend it is. If I’m wrong and it’s not a trend, good. But...

Multiple technical fouls. Ejections. Right there on national TV. And I’m not just talking about the men. That’s right, ladies; I’m full of admiration for you. You’ve excelled, and earned your way into the big time, now welcome to big-time pressure.

How could this be happening? Well, I keep hearing the announcers talking about “letting them play.” I can’t help but wonder if “letting them play” has led to this, and maybe gotten a bit out of hand.

I’m interested in basketball, not the World Wrestling Federation or whatever it’s called these days.

(Time for an aside: Oh, yeah, my grandmother and I used to watch wrestling – we called it “rasslin” – on TV at night, from Chicago. We believed. The referees were blind, the villains were practically criminals. We would holler and scream. And we wouldn’t miss it for the world. Then two things happened. My grandmother died, and I turned seven. So long, rasslin’ and good riddance.)

I really don’t want to see that happen to college basketball. Like I said, maybe I’m too much of an alarmist. Maybe the cure for all this is still to “let them play,” but with a little more strictness. I’ve seen collisions that looked, to me, like they belonged on the football field, and that weren’t called either way.

Is it not possible to be “passionate” about winning without getting into a brawl? Or are we going to end up having pre-game shows with coaches and/or players wearing masks or other outrageous get-up and hurling insults at each other?

I hope that scenario is so ridiculous that it doesn’t have a chance of happening.

Let’s just calm things down a little, okay? I seem to remember a word – sportsmanship. Another – civility. Yet another phrase – respect your opponent. Let’s try to remember.

•••••

I saw something fairly recently that made me do a double take, but I put it out of my mind, figuring it couldn’t have been what I thought it was.

Then it popped up in my mind again, and I went back to it. And sure enough, it really said what I thought it said. An article stated that most teenagers reported that they felt “happy” or “peaceful” without their smart phones.

Say what? In this age of cell phone zombies? Or am I, as I mentioned earlier in this column, too much of an alarmist?

I have my reasons for being concerned. I see people every day who are apparently addicted to their little piece of technology. So addicted, in fact, that they tend to ignore the real world around them. And it often seems that the younger people get, the more potent the addiction.

And yet here comes this report, stating that most young folks, when their phones are removed from them, are happy.

I’ve never been addicted to my cell phone. I make or take calls when I need to. I finally gave in to texting, because I was missing out on some things. I check the weather. But I do not walk around with my phone in my hand and a vacant expression on my face.

Cell phones are useful tools. They are not the center of life. At least not for me. Maybe this is something kids have known all along without showing it. If so, maybe there’s hope, at least on the cell phone front.

•••••

I read that the Federal Reserve is asking the public for patience over the benchmark interest rate.

Not being an economics expert (in fact, being pretty much an ignoramus on that score), I’m not sure what reducing the interest rate would do. But the article mentions that President Joe Biden would like to see borrowing rates go down. Is that an important election issue?

Okay, there are a lot of issues being bandied around as major concerns going into this election year. There’s immigration, abortion, foreign policy, and crime, to name a few.

But what I seem to remember is the sign that was on the wall in the room where the Bill Clinton strategy was being worked out during his run for president. It was very simple. It read: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Love Clinton or hate him, that was pretty smart politics.

A jolt to the economy probably wouldn’t hurt things. Not at all.

•••••

All around town, folks have been cranking up their lawn mowers for the first time this year, some in joy, and some in sorrow.

Everyone knows that once that first mowing is done, one is committed for the duration. I am not one of the ones looking forward to it. I’m finishing my antibiotics and am getting healthy again. So I won’t have an excuse. Alas.