I'll be the first to admit there is a lot of stuff I don't get, but what especially has me tied up in duhs these days is the popularity of poker-playing on television.
You can't click around for more than a few minutes anymore without running into one of these TV card games.
I just don't understand the appeal.
I mean, if you find watching unattractive people playing cards entertaining, it seems to me all you have to do is go to a family picnic.
Now, I assume the TV card sharks sitting around the table are supposed to be slick, but you sure couldn't tell by looking at them.
Half appear to shop at Las Vegas Goodwill, and the rest dress like they had first picks from World Strip Poker Championships' lost-and-found bin.
Everyone, of course, wears designer sunglasses - dark shades and light shades, and wrap-around shades, and mirrored shades, all of which give new life to an ancient philosophical inquiry:
Do sunglasses make us cooler than we really are?
Many of the players also sport head gear, cowboy hats, and baseball caps, and visors. And some of those who don't wear hats wear hair.
Cleavage is another staple, which would be fine if it were just the females who were doing the flashing. But they aren't.
Many of the middle-aged males seem to be under the impression that a half-unbuttoned shirt accessorized by gold chains that disappear into a thicket of chest curls is alluring. It's not. It's alarming.
The card games are presented like sporting events, with close-ups of the hands, instant replays, and running commentary. Perhaps this is why they are mostly carried by sports channels.
I'm sorry, but there is no way poker is a sport.
Among the criteria necessary to achieve sports status is a requirement that participants be in some kind of shape. And for the record, being in some kind of shape is significantly different from being a shape - you know, like round.
Another thing a sport needs to be considered a sport is action, and unless the game is slapjack, I don't see where cards qualifies here either.
Perhaps the strangest aspect of televised cards is the trash talking. It seems kind of lame, kind of like they're trying too hard to put the stud into the stud poker. I think the problem is none of the players wears guns.
If you have ever watched "Deadwood," you know that people who wear guns when they play cards tend to stay away from trash talking. In fact, they hardly talk at all, and if they do, it is almost guaranteed one of the other players will respond, "Shut up and deal."
This remains good advice.
source : the courant
