A few weeks ago, there was an article on Yahoo about what kinds of dogs need which kinds of sweaters to stay comfortably warm in the winter. The article was apparently written with the same passionate profoundness that a good journalist would use when writing about something of actual importance.
For some reason, the whole thing came across as funny as hell to me.
Then I got down to the message board at the bottom, and discovered several hundred comments from people with additional advice not covered by the article itself, along with a whole bunch of specific stories about how some dog really loves its particular winter outerwear. Of course there were also a few people making jokes about the article, some of the dog stories, etc.
So, being in a bit of a smart-ass mood anyway, I added my two cents, and pointed out that these were just dogs. If they died, people could just get another one. Boy, did I ever not know what I was in for.
Within six minutes, thirty-seven people clicked the 'thumbs down' button beside my comment, and Yahoo hid it because of 'low user ratings'. (I only got three 'thumb's ups'.) In addition, there were several very colorful replies to my comment. One nice lady suggested that I should be incarcerated and tortured for the rest of my life. One guy offered to kick my ass. A couple of people suggested that I spend the rest of the winter outside with no protection and see what it is like. All of this, of course, just made me repeat my comment and the cycle repeated itself - several times.
Rumor has it that I will be a subject on America's Most Wanted some Saturday in the near future.
Since then, I have noticed a dog story every few days on either Yahoo or AOL. One was about which chew toys were safe. Another was about keeping old dogs strong. I can't remember the other few.
 |
| Daddy's Little Girl - Off Switch Engaged |
But it is interesting to me that in a world where so much is going on that is actually important and ignored by most people, how so many of us can be moved to such intensity by an article about a doggie sweater.
The world has gone mad, I tell you. The world has gone mad.