Thursday, November 05, 2009

This Week's Sign That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us

When I was an older kid I started reading my Dad's copy of Sports Illustrated. I did it because I loved my Dad and wanted to read what he was reading. It's the same reason I was a Kentucky Wildcat basketball fan and the same reason I went to bed lots and lots of nights with my black transistor radio secreted away under my blankets, tuned very quietly to Marty Brenneman calling the Cincinnati Reds game.

My favorite parts of the Sports Illustrated magazine were Frank Deford's columns (which I sometimes didn't understand, but sometimes made me laugh out loud), the little corner of page two or three where they featured a few small town athletes who had done something amazing in their sport that week, and the small section entitled "This Week's Sign That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us." Coming from a fundamentalist church where I was completely terrified of the Apocalypse, this irreverent little section of bizarre superstitions or outlandish sports behaviors made my week. To this day, when I see something incredibly silly, bizarre or outlandish there's this tiny little voice in my head that whispers, "It's a sign that the apocalypse is upon us!" and I think of Sports Illustrated and my Dad.

All of this wordiness about magazines and sports and irreverence is to introduce what may be a new feature for this little corner of the blog world – This Week's Sign That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us.

When I was in Wal-Mart this morning I saw this.

The voice in my head totally screamed it – "This Week's Sign That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us!!!" I'll leave the commentary as to why this may be signaling the impending end of the world to your personal opinion.

I see stuff that makes me think this a lot. Usually it makes me laugh. I think Thursdays will be the day to look for new signs.

No comments: