2404 Hype 360

I find myself reflecting on how we go round and round these days with hype and suchlike.  Sometimes to the point where we lose actual meaning.  Or at least perspective.

Like all the much ado about not much that appeared after the Seahawks loss in the big game.  I saw a couple of our regional newspapers with big headlines that said "Last Call" and "Deflated."  The headlines themselves reached their normal goal, relatively bad puns on recent events.

It was the size of the type that got me.  Each of the papers in question had the letters in 4-inch tall type.  I don't know what that is, 360 point or something, but it was big.  I guess you could call it Hype Type.  Whatever.  I've seen historical headlines when we got into World War II that were smaller. 

I'm not saying sports aren't important.  114.4 million Superbowl viewers can't be wrong.  I'm just saying we should reserve the really big headlines for the really big things.  If go to that degree and waste 4-inch tall type on a football game, what are we going to do when we have a real apocalypse? 

Then there's the other type of degree thing.  As when people change their minds.  A magazine writer I read described a flip-flop of opinion of a politician and he called it "your basic 360-degree fiasco."  Wait a minute. If a person changes his opinion to an exact opposite opinion, he would be going 180 degrees.

Hey, math is important.  And so is geometry.  It helps us keep things on track and in perspective.  If a person went 360 degrees he went a complete circle.  So he was right back where he started.

Maybe the newspapers and politicians all need a spin doctor. 

America, ya gotta love it.