Culture Clash

I was running on the treadmill earlier, and listening to the new podcast of "This American Life." They devoted to the entire hour to this tangled Southern family saga of kidnapping and deceit. While I'm on the elliptical, listening to something white people like on my iPod, something else white people probably like, the guy on the treadmill was watching "Beauty and the Geek" with the sound way up. You want the feeling of clashing culture, trying jacking up the sound of public radio so you can hear it over some idiot college girl complaining about her purse, or whatever it is they complain about.

At least I had my iPod. Last time somebody had Fox on the TV and the lie-detector show came on "The Moment of Truth." I just quit in the middle of my workout and left. It seems funny to me, people who are smart enough to be MIT grad students but watch dreck like that. But I suppose I have sports, the mindless entertainment in my life. Less than two weeks until real baseball!

For the record, my Final Four: North Carolina, Wisconsin, UCLA and Pittsburgh. Nobody's giving the Badgers any respect, so I will.