Friday, October 16, 2009

Throw away post: And what do you think about Balloon Boy?

I caught a bit of the drama yesterday; and, this morning I learned of the huge controversy about whether Falcon's (who would do that to a kid) parents staged the "tragedy."

I don't care too much either way. I do feel a bit tainted by having read the "Entertainment" section of CNN.com to get what I know about this national obsession.

4 comments:

Sonja's Mom said...

On the news tonight the sheriff said that this was "an unusual family" so nothing would surprise me.

fermicat said...

This kind of story is one of the many reasons that I hate TV news and refuse to watch it.

Jenn said...

well balloon boy interfered with me watching the weather channel before I ran down to get the girls. I had no idea what I was going to run into because TWC was broadcasting it like they were CNN... and why... because it was a retired weather chasers son? blech. Glad the boy is OK.

The Curmudgeon said...

This was on the TV in the bank when I stopped in Friday afternoon -- and when I stopped by the drugstore that evening to pick up a prescription the pharmacist was talking about it. I was able to fill him in about the kid being found in the garage attic.

Now they're saying it's all been a hoax... which it may have been... but the behavior exhibited by the kid is very typical and instinctive: When kids do something that they think will get themselves in Big Trouble they run away and hide. Thus, accidentally launch a balloon and run and hide in the garage.

Or -- and I had a case like this many years ago -- two little kids -- something on the order of five and six -- accidentally set the curtains on fire while using a lighter to spy for Christmas gifts.

Mom had left that at home... alone... for just a few minutes while she went to pick up their big sister from church. A 10 minute roundtrip... tops.

But the fire sucked all the oxygen up in the well-constructed suburban house. It was out in just a couple of minutes: The Christmas tree started to burn and stopped. The wallpaper burned.

The little kids were found, hiding, under a bed in their room.

Both very dead.