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Daren in Brief - MARCH TO MADNESS
by Daren Foster

Shakespeare on TV

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Daren in Brief
March to Madness

by Daren Foster

I’m watching last night’s NCAA men’s basketball final and it struck me that, wow, unlike in years past, I am not absolutely and totally being driven insane by excruciatingly excessive commercial breaks. Huh. I wonder why that is? The recession and ad time not being bought up? A corporate about-face and realization that they were simply killing the game by a thousand commercial cuts?

Then it dawned on me. Almost from the get-go, the game was a blow-out, the result never really in doubt from about 5 minutes in. So there’s more of a flow and fewer stops and starts for strategy timeouts. The network was left mostly to feed from “official” breaks in the action. Last year’s championship game was much closer, going into overtime, so there were many opportunities to fit in ads and slow the game up.

So our choice as viewers seem to be thus: enjoy a tension-free, lop-sided game with very little drama but relatively unmarred by commercials or sit through a nail-biter while enduring a barrage of breaks in the action brought to you by our sponsors.

I guess a third option would be to stop watching televised sports altogether.

Speaking of which, judging by last night’s season opener, the Toronto Blue Jays are on pace to go 162-0 and Adam Lind is going to knock in nearly a 1000 runs this year. Rebuilding? Who’s saying rebuilding?