Weekend Assignment #207: Too Much News?

This dog was not seized from a trailer in Avra Valley.

I've started and rejected two assignment topics tonight, the first because it wasn't original enough, the second because it called for me to revisit a rant I've already ranted, several times over. My brain is full of the news of nearly 800 dogs and birds seized from a triple-wide trailer this week, just outside Tucson. All day today, people have overwhelmed the local Humane Society, adopting the rescued dogs as fast as the beleaguered volunteers could check them over, clean them up and bring them out. (Nobody actually gets to take home one of the rescued chihuahuas, terriers, etc. under they are certified healthy, altered and chipped.) Meanwhile I've heard from two people with an animal rescue group about a mixed chow I'm interested in, and filled out their adoption application (NOT the one I wrote about last night). It seems odd that here I'm fussing over adopting one dog and trying to do everything right, and it turns out that many of the groups whose dogs I've been checking out online are currently taking in a huge influx of dogs from a trailer 20 miles from here.

National news is fixated on the seamy details of the downfall of the governor of New York, the fallout from two pointlessly dysfunctional primaries and every foolish thing ever said by anyone who ever met Obama or the Clintons. Meanwhile in Cardiff, fans have spotted still more filming of what promises to be the biggest, most insane, most baffling Doctor Who season finale in decades, possibly ever. And I've updated the St. Michael's web site, just in time for Palm Sunday - but I have no intention of doing a religion-based Weekend Assignment topic, ever. So what shall we talk about?

Weekend Assignment #207: Are you a news junkie, or not so much? Do you seek out news on tv, radio, in newspapers or online, or are you sick of the endless rehashing of the same issues? I realize it's all a continuum, from "I never watch the news" to "I keep it on all day, and read several newspapers" (or whatever). Maybe you vacillate, depending on what's going on in the world or your own life. What's your current level of interest?

Extra Credit: Is there a particular news story you have been following recently?

At the moment I'm listening to the local NPR station all day, but from time to time I get bored or annoyed and switch to a CD (Doctor Who or the Beatles). It's starting to get to me, though; most of the news about the Democratic presidential campaign has little or nothing to do with what the candidates would actually do as President. I'm going to have to bring more Beatles CDs to the office, and maybe some Clash. I supplement NPR with a little online news and a light browse through Tucson Weekly.

But I did go out of my way tonight to Google up the news about the puppy mill case. The Humane Society of Southern Arizona is seeking donations to help pay for the huge extra expense caused by this situation.

Your turn: are you soaking up news, or turning it off? Tell us about it in your journal or blog, and come back here and leave a link. I'll do a roundup a week from now. And as always, please include a link back here in your entry so readers can find out what everyone had to say. Thanks!

Karen