Shout it out

Do you find yourself shouting at the television these days because your Covid-19 fatigue has reached new heights? We do. A favourite target for our ire is Justin Trudeau who regularly assures us that the vaccine program is “on track.” At one press briefing he must have used the phrase half a dozen times. All of which is punctuated by his quick intakes of breath, an unlikely but annoying leftover from his days as a drama teacher. In fact, the only Canadians I know who have received shots are both in their 90s and live in retirement homes. They deserve the early help; some of us might get a jab by June. Some “on”, some “track.”
Chrystia Freeland is another irritator who has taken on airs. Have you seen her media interviews, conducted in what appears to be a specially created stage set complete with desk and backdrop? She wears a wide smile, demonstrates unnecessarily with her hands, speaks in what can only be described as a simpering tone and repeats the journalist’s name several times. The overall effect is unctuous, to say the least.
TV ads for products and services are little better. The slip-and-fall lawyers are particularly galling as are burger outlets with takeout offerings stacked so high with jalapenos that you’d need a firehose to actually eat one. And what about all those new drugs with spiffy names that are plugged on the evening news reports of the American networks? The accompanying camera work showing footage of families at play is meant to take your mind off the announcer’s palaver about multiple possible side effects. The upshot is that it would seem no one could possibly live through a month’s prescription usage without contracting some fatal condition.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil, an entrepreneur has opened a “rage room” where, for about C$6, you can enter, grab a hammer and then smash old computers and printers until your stress about Covid has been safely assuaged. In Canada, maybe there could be a hockey room where you take slap shots at a fake goalie or throw ready-made snowballs at leering faces pasted to the walls. Me, I don’t need any such outlet. I’ve got my television to shout at.