So: I don't know if I said that I'm in New Orleans at the moment. Being busy and traveling, it has been hard to blog, as always. I am here for the American Meteorological Society meeting, where on Wednesday I spoke on this panel about science communication. Audio should be available at some point. I'll link it. And I'm sticking around until next week, when I do a Storm World speech at Tulane University. More info on that here. But I'm also hanging out with the hometown crowd, and in that context, I recently went to a New Orleans Hornets game. Fun stuff, and the Hornets beat the Blazers, 96-81. But at the same time, I couldn't help noticing the following three annoyances:
First--and I've blogged about this before--the game opened with a prayer. Gag me. Totally distasteful and inappropriate. Second, every time there was a three pointer, the announcer described it as an "Entergy Power Shot." Yup, that's right. Someone sold the three pointer to Entergy. Third, every time there was a blocked shot, the announcer described it as an "H&R Block." No, I'm not kidding. Somebody also sold the blocked shot to the company that does your taxes.
Now, I found all this beyond distasteful. It's like the religious right and corporate America both had simultaneously come in and trashed basketball. ("The Republican War on Basketball"? Hmm...) And of course, I blame it all on George Shinn...the Hornet's owner, a "Christian businessman" who has tried to put prayer back in the NBA. As I said, gag me.
