Sunday, August 22, 2004
CRYBABY NO. 2
Women's basketball is usually a topic for Fraterslibertas (it seems to aid their eternal and frequently successful quest to generate hate mail). But today's Strib article was in the Variety, not Sports section, so they probably missed it.
I didn't. The plotline was advertised as players who are also mothers of small kids. Seems like a tough combo (of some interest to me as a mom who holds down a job, admittedly a sedentary one, but I've got blog duties too!) so I ran my eyes down the page (the accompanying photo of the cute toddler didn't hurt my interest either).
And stopped at only the fourth paragraph:
The fault is probably an untalented writer who can't convey that a situation is sad (maybe because it isn't, or at least isn't very) without cueing the schmaltzy swelling strings. She cried dammit! You should cry too! Or maybe a ham-handed editor screaming "we need drama, more DRAMA!"
Or maybe it's a sinister plot to prove that these highfalutin' career women are really little girlie-girls when you look past the flashy exterior. Yep, the paper's whole lefty bias thing could just be a clever cover ...
I didn't. The plotline was advertised as players who are also mothers of small kids. Seems like a tough combo (of some interest to me as a mom who holds down a job, admittedly a sedentary one, but I've got blog duties too!) so I ran my eyes down the page (the accompanying photo of the cute toddler didn't hurt my interest either).
And stopped at only the fourth paragraph:
In a few days, Brian [the player's husband] will fly back to their hometown of Detroit with the baby, and Stacey's eyes will well up with tears even talking about it.Why oh why does this idiot newspaper always have to portray its story protagonists as vestibules of tears? The weepers are frequently professional women (no, it wouldn't make me feel better if they were men) and we're told they cry at the drop of a hat (crybaby no. 1 is a veterinarian; yes, I've suddenly become enamored of numbering my themes).
The fault is probably an untalented writer who can't convey that a situation is sad (maybe because it isn't, or at least isn't very) without cueing the schmaltzy swelling strings. She cried dammit! You should cry too! Or maybe a ham-handed editor screaming "we need drama, more DRAMA!"
Or maybe it's a sinister plot to prove that these highfalutin' career women are really little girlie-girls when you look past the flashy exterior. Yep, the paper's whole lefty bias thing could just be a clever cover ...
