It’s not a criticism, it’s an observation.
We are between greatness and worthlessness

Mike Cox

Martha and I dated a few times after I parted company with the Mother of My Children. She insisted we have a platonic relationship, which was okay, except I was expected to pay for all our entertainment; and she was expensive to entertain.

Guys initially were attracted to Martha. She looked better in jeans than anyone I’ve ever known, but had a bad habit of talking down to people.

One of our dates involved a local production of a musical performed in Chattanooga. Most people’s involvement with musicals centered around singing along with the UT band as Rocky Top was played, so I didn’t expect a savvy, informed audience.

The people in attendance found the musical incredibly entertaining, or at least they were trying real hard to be nice. The cast was awarded with several standing ovations. I wasn’t that impressed, but it didn’t hurt me to stand up a few times.

As we left the auditorium, Martha, a trained singer who saw shows like this on a regular basis, criticized the crowd for the ovations. She felt many of the audience couldn’t recognize real talent, and were awarding mediocrity. We received a few dirty looks from the locals but made it to the car with no trouble.

Martha’s take on the entertainment that night was unnecessary, and it unveiled her as pretentious, but her observation has proven to be on target. Mediocrity has become an epidemic in the US. American Idol alone proves our standards are falling. Standing ovations are so commonplace today, they have lost their meaning. Most Richland County Council meetings have at least one.

McDonalds, Britney Spears, The Amazing Race, Thomas Kinkade, Paris Hilton, Vin Diesel, and Dean Koontz prove we’ve lowered our standards a lot. There’s even an Abba museum.

I saw a feature last week about a guy who collects macaroni and cheese boxes. The guy has over 350 of them and claims to own every American made package of mac and cheese ever made. The Food Network wasted TV time telling his story. Makes you proud to live here, huh?

We all heard about the folks who camped out for days to buy a new video game. Altercations and near riots materialized at several locations. Since geeks were involved, the incident wasn’t too surprising, but before they cleaned the trash from the Best Buy parking lots, a new, cheaper, more popular video game was suddenly in demand. Now it is in demand. A video game.

But the thing that sent me scrambling for a copy of Revelations to check for signs of the Apocalypse was a little tidbit I saw in a magazine yesterday. It seems Chick–fil–A has groupies.

There are people who travel hundreds of miles, camp out for a couple of days, just to be present at Chick–fil–A’s grand openings. Sure, they can get a couple hundred bucks in coupons, but they spend more than that making the trips. Imagine being married to a Chik Fila groupie. That’s worse than giving Britney Spears a standing ovation.