It’s Superb Owl Sunday! Come to My Party!

By | February 8, 2024

 

 

 

It’s Superb Owl Sunday! Come to My Party!

For one brief but ugly moment last week, I deserted the cynic inside me. I left the comfort of cynicism intoxicated by the sweet poison of hope. Don’t worry. I’m back in full vigor now. No more rose-colored glasses for me. There is comfort in cynicism. I have my security blankie back. I am my old cynical self again.

This Sunday is “Super Bowl Sunday”. A Sunday I call Superb Owl Sunday. See, I call the Super Bowl the “Superb Owl”. Now you think about that for a few minutes.

Anyway…

I notice that restaurants and some stores in my little town are closing early because of it. I find it odd that Bob Evans, which closed at 8:00 PM on Christmas Eve, is closing at 6:00 PM on Super Bowl Sunday. The sign on the door says “We will be closing at 6:00 PM on Sunday, February 11, 2024 for the Super Bowl.” The store where I buy my USA Today newspaper also has a sign on its door. The sign reads: “We will be closing at 6:00 PM on Sunday, February 11, 2024 for the Super Bowl.” That same store closed at 10:00 PM on Christmas Eve.

You gotta love this, I tells ya!

The USA is spying on its citizens and our cell phone calls; we’re involved in two (or is it three? ) wars and aching to get into another. People are dying, cops shooting people, people shooting cops, and presidential hopefuls running amok, yet America seems all worked up about a football game.
Hey! It’s great to be a cavalier American! You have to admire America’s ability to shrug stuff off and carry on — it must be leftover from our days as members of the British Empire — you know stiff upper lip and carry on…and that sort of thing.
We laugh in the face of the starving, we sneer at the sorry state of world affairs, and we act as if we have no problems. People living in other countries must think we’re eating fattening snacks and getting intoxicated most of the time. A bunch of drunks are all waiting for a football game.
(Did you know our national anthem is an old English drinking song? Check it out. This year it will be sung by Reba McEntire – whom I’ve heard of – and now it’s in vogue to stick “America The Beautiful” into sporting events – I guess because most people can’t sing the National Anthem very well – it’s hard to sing when you get to the “rockets red glare”. 
Anyway, someone named Post Malone is gonna sing “America The Beautiful”. I’m sad to say, that until this moment when I googled Post Malone, I had no idea who he was. He’s a guy with funny teeth and lots of tattoos on his face.
Every grocery store I’ve visited recently has aisles full of chips, beer, pop, wine, margarita mix, cardboard statues of scantily clad young ladies, and football players in uniform. All the drinks, snacks, and cardboard people are presented in gala “Super Bowl Party” displays. Festive banners, ribbons, and streamers abound. No one would ever guess that the world had a single problem.
I read in USA Today this week, that the average millennial spends $150 per person on junk food and drinks on Super Bowl Sunday. Can you imagine how many hungry kids we could feed for $150?
But it’s Superb Owl Weekend,  folks. What… me worry?
Restaurants in my town are closing early because they think everyone will be home eating pizza rolls, pizza, sandwiches, and swilling wine, margaritas, and beer. But hey! What about me? Or are they using the Superb Owl as an excuse to go home early – like on Christmas Eve? 
I am not going to watch the Superb Owl. And I might want to go out to eat after 7 PM or buy a newspaper after 6 PM. But I can’t. Everything is closed. I have no choice but to sit at home and brood. One thing for sure I will not be watching is the Superb Owl.
Do you even remember who won the Super Bowl last year…or even who was in it?
Whatever network is carrying the Super Bowl is off the air from noon until midnight as far as I’m concerned. Did you hear that coverage of the game starts at 11:00 AM Eastern Time? Guess when kickoff is? Kickoff is at 6:30 PM. Guess when the game will end? I’m guessing somewhere around 10:30 -but the post-game will run on until midnight. We just can’t get enough of football and cardboard people.
You know they have a lot of high-dollar commercials to squeeze in. Lots of “TV timeouts”. The last time I watched a football game on TV, my beloved Ohio State Buckeyes get their butts kicked by Missouri. Even during that college game, the commercials were so long that I almost forgot what was going on in the game.
But all this hoopla over a football game?
People are paying thousands of dollars, for tickets to the Superb Owl/ In case you want to go, you can’t –it’s sold out. Companies are paying tens of millions of dollars to advertise during the Super Bowl. People are spending their last dollars on junk food, beer, and soda pop for their “Super Bowl Parties” yet, here in the richest country in the world, millions of kids will go to bed hungry or without a decent place to live.
You gotta love our priorities!
We must look like fools to the rest of the world. We have become a bunch of infantile whiners who complain about inflation and our do-nothing congress, yet spend money we don’t have on over-priced potato chips, Fritos, Pepsi, chip dip, Miller Lite, Bud Lite (don’t even think it), wine, margarita mix and other foods and drinks with no nutritional value, but lots of alcoholic potential.
It’s important to have a Super Bowl Party and sit around a 100″Super HD2200 LEDTV– it’s only $198.00 a month at Chirp’s Rent-to-Own– and guzzle alcohol while unabashedly engaging in gluttonous revelry.
All that money was just wasted. Just think of the number of families that could be fed if just one of the advertisers gave to the poor what one 30-second Super Bowl commercial costs. It doesn’t seem very fair, does it? Tomorrow those same revelers will be complaining they don’t have the money to pay their mortgages or buy gas for their SUVs – some won’t even have lunch money for their kids. So what? They saw the Superb Owl!

Two more things…If you’re one of those people who don’t care about football but are going to watch it for the commercials, let me tell you something. That’s kind of like not going to church all year long but suddenly showing up on Easter Sunday.

And about those commercials…Those commercials cost millions of dollars per minute. Do you think Budweiser, PepsiCo, and the other advertisers are paying for those? Really? They’re not, you know. You’re paying for those. Every dollar they spend gets figured into their cost of doing business and when the cost gets too high and their profits get too low they’ll raise the price of their products and you’ll end up paying the price. Or maybe shrink the size of the package and charge you more.

So laugh at the commercials if you want. Just remember, in the end, those companies are going to stick it to you and they’ll be laughing at you when you pay $10 for a six-pack of Pepsi.

Take a look at how much Pepsi Cola company paid in bonuses to their executives last year. Still laughing? If you want to laugh and save time, just visit www.youtube.com the day after the game. You can watch all the commercials there without sitting through almost 4 hours of over-hyped football. You can even watch YouTube videos while you chomp on chips and swill beer. I know. I’ve done it.

If there is anyone else out there who isn’t taken in by all the hyperbole… you’re welcome to come to my Anti-Superb Owl Party. It starts at 6:30 PM. At 7:00 PM I’m going to turn on FreeVee and watch six straight episodes of “Perry Mason”. Do you remember Raymond Burr?

We’ll have fun, we’ll save money, and you’ll all drive home sober.

I’m having snacks too. You can have your choice of salad or you can choose one of my Lean Cuisine frozen dinners. If you get the munchies, I have pretzel rods and popcorn. I don’t have beer but I think there may be a half bottle of cheap Aldi wine left over from Christmas. I didn’t buy any extra food, munchies, or beverages for my Anti-Super Bowl Party. I will eat the stuff I already have. If I run out, you’ll just have to settle for “Twilight Zone” on my 46″ LCD TV. Sorry, it’s not a 100″ Super High 6000K TV. If you don’t like my food, bring your own. I have paper plates and plastic forks and spoons for ya!

I have plenty of coffee and water too. So if you get thirsty you can have your choice between coffee or water. You won’t go thirsty at my Anti-Super Bowl Party. I might even have a few jelly donuts too. Don’t complain though – when they’re gone, they’re gone – I’d go out and buy more but, remember? Everything is closed at 7 PM for the Superb Owl. But—don’t come early just for the jelly donuts. I will not answer the door before 6:30 PM. I probably won’t be dressed until then.

And don’t come late! I might decide not to answer the door after 7.

The six episodes of “Perry Mason” should be over by 9:35 PM, so you’ll get home in plenty of time to get some sleep so you can get up for work the next morning. We don’t have any “post ‘Perry Mason’ ” interviews or analysis scheduled although that might be fun. I won’t have any camera crews in the locker room because I don’t have a locker room – we could all crowd into my bedroom but I don’t think so. When the sixth episode of “Perry Mason” is over, you’ll be expected to leave without complaining about what crappy parties I host.

By 10:00 PM I’ll be in bed reading. You can only come to my Anti-Superb Owl party if you promise to leave right after the sixth episode of “Perry Mason” is over. You are not going to sit around at my house and talk or pretend to enjoy my company. Why should you? No one else does. Also, I hate small talk almost as much as I hate the Superb Owl.

Consider yourself warned!

I’ll be hospitable as long as you’re quiet during “Perry Mason” and don’t complain about the food. You can have all the water you want to drink, but if you want something else when the half bottle of wine is gone, you’ll be out of luck. You’ll either have to leave or go without. It’s the best I can do. I’m counting our pennies around here, and I am not going out to buy a bunch of junk food because you’re coming over. Bring your food. If you eat a lot bring a lot of food.

If my party sounds like a great evening to you, you’re my kind of person.

Bring some food and drink… party hearty! After all, it’s Superb Owl Sunday!

3 thoughts on “It’s Superb Owl Sunday! Come to My Party!

  1. Nora

    What time did you say?. I’ll be there as long as you don’t interrupt “Perry Mason” episodes. I may be five minutes late so save me a donut. Gosh! I love Superb Owl Sunday! Can I bring my pet Owl? I also have some stale pretzels which I’d be happy to share….we’re going to have a blast! lol!

    Reply
  2. Maria W

    As usual, your observations are right on. We won’t be watching the game here either. We’ll be watching our regular TV and eating our regular snacks and enjoying our evening.

    Reply
  3. Holly Stewart

    We won’t be watching the Superb Owl either. We also will be eating what we already have in our refrigerator. It’s sad how greedy and selfish this world has become.

    Reply

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