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viewsToday's Rant: At the End of the Day, A Final Word and a Drink
By Alisa Steinberg, Friday, January 7, 2011At the end of this day and for the beginning of this year, a final word to the news media: please don’t use the phrase “at the end of the day” ever again.
I’m not kidding.
As New Year’s rolled around, I began to reflect on my resolutions, which were pretty normal – lose a couple of pounds, take more risks, get that moldy thing out of my refrigerator (what did that start out as again?) – and then I thought - wait. Why do I have to make any resolutions this year? What’s driving me crazy aren’t the things that I do, but what specific groups around me are engaging in – buffoonery disguised as common sense, twisted logic masked as civic concern, and moreover, a nuance of phrase turning into an overused crutch. Like I stated before – the sentence “At the End of the Day” needs to end in the news cycle; actually, throw it in the cycle, along with all the other worn out phrases (No worries has been there for a while), and then press the button for spin into oblivion, because that’s where it belongs.
In 2010, every time I turned on the television news – usually what I would leave on for hours – I’d hear 99.9 % of the media people and politicians wrapping up at least one of their thoughts with at the end of the day when it didn’t need to be used. Then I’d find myself talking to the TV – “Guys, you don’t have to end all your diatribes with this empty sentence. How about, oh, I don’t know ... Giving us some meaningful facts instead?” (And don’t worry, the little people in the TV didn’t talk back to me).
But what did I get? The Chris Matthews Show: “Well, Chris,” a pundit said, “at the end of the day ...” Aaaghhh. Please make it stop, or I’m going to have to do the Hemingway thing – drinking. Because At the End of the Day is a media and political crutch (‘cuz I haven’t heard people I know say it. Thank God for his tender mercies.) that I can’t bear to listen to anymore, and so if this continues, I’m going to need my own crutch – libations. (Did Hemingway like Sake?)
No jote.
Talking about hitting the bottle – a good deal of the politicians must think that millions of unemployed Americans are swigging jiggers of Vodka by the hour, because they actually believe that these people don’t understand that the last unemployment extension bill wasn’t actually a benefits extension. They know it’s a fabrication; there is no extension of unemployment benefits with the passage of this bill – it still, at the most, the same 99 weeks of unemployment benefits given to people who were laid off and are still unemployed by no fault of their own. What the bill actually did was provide an extension of eligibility for unemployment benefits within those 99 weeks. So you, dear politicians, are going to have some explaining to do – especially when at the end of the month, the U.S. Labor department comes out with the numbers of people who have exhausted their 99 weeks of unemployment and still don’t have a job (this report will be the first of its kind for the Labor Department), and when the 99er group keeps growing and growing until they wind up at your doorsteps. Forget about drinking – you’re going to need some hard drugs to deal with the 99ers and their families, and then the overall public who’ll be watching your every move.
Because now they get it.
Talking about hard drugs, pollsters and news anchors have to be doing some if they actually think we don’t notice that everyday there are new poll numbers out and each number seems to be contrary to the one told us only minutes beforehand. Also, we’re hardly ever given the names of the reporting polling organizations (and a little old lady trying to make cash for her knitting club by calling the phone book’s “A” section and asking political questions, doesn’t count). It’s buffoonery at its best. You can throw out as many numbers as you want, but in the final analysis, it’s about the actual number of jobs created and consumer sales sustained that will affect the resulting numbers of the 2012 election rather than the skewed polling of media outlets and partisan organizations.
You better believe it.
And as I’m writing this blog entry, the television is on right next to me and former governor Howard Dean (Vermont - D) is speaking on The Ed Show about the issues of the Republicans trying to repeal the Healthcare Bill.
Please. Let’s just move on.
The number one resolution for this year: the media and politicians should treat the people who viewed and voted them in with the respect that they deserve – by being honesty and hardworking ( ... and I don’t mean for the special interest groups) ... and by refurbishing some of their vernacular ...
The Ed Show is still on and so is Howard Dean, saying, “... At the end of the day ...”
Aaaghhhh!
One of my New Year’s resolutions has been broken. Pass me that bottle of Stoli’s and then wake me up in 2012.
Thanks to everyone who participated in Chick Lit Shorties’ “Technology Twist” contest featuring my novel “Text Me, A Tale of Love and Technology” and congrats to all the winners! Also, thanks to all my readers who’ve made “Text Me” an Amazon.com Best Seller! ... You can purchase “Text Me, A Tale of Love and Technology” and “Rantalicious: True Tirades from a Woman on the Edge, “ my new collection of humorous essays, in both print and eBook edition at Amazon.com , BarnesandNoble.com, and other major book retailers. If you’d like additional information, please go to www.alisadanasteinberg.com .
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