The silly season... 19.08.09
Last year, I think it was,
a saw a comedy skit on some tv show or other (I think it
was Harry Enfield) where two guys appeared on Dragon’s
Den with their invention of a new month - A month that
would have a second Christmas in it, but a Christmas in
the middle of summer.
But, according to the very unimpressed Dragons, there
was a problem and that was where this month was going to
be placed and where they would get the days for this
month.
And so the skit fizzled out but you know I’ve been
thinking recently that there might be something in that
plan after all.
What’s more, I even have a suggestion as to where they
could find the days if we were to have a new month -
they could take it from August, because for years now
I’ve never really liked this month.
And hold on now, don’t panic if you have a birthday or a
wedding anniversary or an important date in August,
because that would still fall on the same day, but just
in the new month. |
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Actually, why would you
panic? It’s not like I have the power to suddenly do
away with August and replace with a new month, even if I
want to, is it?
I’m not sure why I dislike August so much. Perhaps it
goes back to years ago when the end of August meant the
end of the school holidays and the impending arrival of
the new school year.
And if that is the case I’m wondering what the current
batch of school-goers must think when they hardly have
the thinks thrown into a corner from the previous school
year when the back to school specials begin for the
next.
Maybe it’s that, or maybe it’s just that August, well
it’s not June is it folks.
It’s the month when all of a sudden we realise that the
days are not as long as they were when we were in mid
summer and the darkness of winter isn’t far away.
Perhaps it is that, or a combination of all those things
but more likely it is down to the fact that a few months
after I began working in the newspapers I was introduced
to what is known in the newspaper game as ‘the silly
season.’
Newspapers hate August. It’s the month when all the
council meetings and courts and politicians and stuff go
on holiday. And say what you will, these things all help
prompt news stories and help fill the paper.
But nope, not in August. No, this is the month when you
ring somebody and you get an answering machine or a tone
on the mobile that says ‘we’re in Spain or Turkey or
France’ and we’re not answering cos it’ll cost us a
fortune.
Of course if they are in France they won’t be reading
the news either because while they don’t have a silly
season, they have what they call a ‘dead season.’
Apparently it’s the same thing. In Germany it’s called
the summer news hole and Poland, Norway and the Czech
Republic all apparently refer to this as the Cucumber
time or season.
Why this is exactly, I’m not one hundred per cent
certain. I kinda like cucumbers, well, I don’t dislike
them as much as say onions, but I’m guessing here that
maybe this reference is because many stories at this
time of the year are a bit watery.
Whatever the reason, I’m thinking that a new month, one
that replaces August and perhaps even takes in that skit
idea of a second Christmas, could work.
For a start we know how much Christmas helps boost the
economy through consumer spending, so if we were to have
one in this new month it could help kick start us out of
recession.
And of course there are always lots of events happening
before Christmas, concerts and cribs and such and there
would be plenty happening and no news drought. |
If I had the power you know
I think I’d make every effort to have something like
this brought in and put an end to August as we know it.
Maybe then we’d see the end of a month when editors up
and down the country scratch their head and wonder -
‘how the heck am I going to fill this space this week?’
A month when we get silly stuff. Stuff that in the other
eleven months of the year wouldn’t see the light of day.
I was going to say, like this column. Then I realised
this silliness goes on all year round… |
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A DROP OF
PORTER is
the weekly
column of
Inishowen
Independent
editor,
Liam Porter. |
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