Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 15, 2024

And unfortunately, it’s now being interlaced with cameos of a rapper.

I have seen the fuchsia and it is a rather pretty plant!

Imagine if you could take a glimpse of the past or future – but only in sixty second snapshots of time!

I have noticed myself becoming less tolerant of long slow entertainments. And it’s certainly true that 40 years ago I was happy to spend hours on tasks that I now expect to be done with much more quickly. Not ALL tasks (I do woodworking) but how long does it take to fire off an email compared to how long it took to HAND write a letter… and how soon do I expect a reply? Right near the dawn of the internet, I remember buying a piece of software from a programmer who lived on the opposite side of the country. I inquired, he responded, I had some questions, he answered and I mailed him a check. All in one day. Which was about SIX WEEKS faster than it would have taken before email.

60 seconds? 60!!??? With today’s cell phones, internet browsing, and TV shows, most young people have trouble with anything requiring more than a 10-second attention span.

That long? I get bored after 15 seconds.

I’m 67 years old. When I started working, the photocopier and typewriters were the only office equipment you plugged into an outlet. Yet with internet, YouTube, etc., I have to admit my attention span has been modified and my inclination to move on to the next snippet of entertainment is real. The world has changed, humans will be different.

Nothing says single-minded, life-long focus like breakdancing.

I did watch a fair amount of the Olympics. What really annoyed me was the fact it appeared the advertisers felt they didn’t get enough time with their commercials on TV and started to split the screen in two to show their commercials (with sound) while still showing the competition without narrative. This was either a sneaky way of showing more of their ads which didn’t count as advertising time on TV because the games were still being shown, or a sneaky way of keeping the viewers looking at the screen when the ad came up because the competition hadn’t paused and they were involved with the event on the screen. Generally I’d get up and walk away from the TV when this happened truly annoyed at being bombarded with the advertising.

Andy Warhol overestimated by 14 minutes and 30 seconds.

Mr. Burke was correct. His description also applies to most tv sports programs and many news programs.

The idea seems to be, if advertising is short and fragmented, with flickering camera angles, etc, the viewer won’t see the flaws in the product or the information that purports to explain it.

Commercials.

Sixty seconds for some events is pretty long.

I think Gabby Thomas would be an exception to that stereotype

With forty seconds of ads.

Unlike a Springsteen concert.

With SnoopDog I thought maybe they had added who can roll the biggest joint as an Olympic event.

They are called “sound bites” politicians invented them to dumb down their voters.