It's Awards Season!

Let's face it, Gentle Reader, the first few months of a new year are really, really dull. After all the hullabaloo of the end-of-the-year holidays and all the anticipation that the new year is going to be different, we more often than not find ourselves back in the same dull grind. The air is usually cold (or cooler than normal if you're here in Austin), the sky is more often than not gray, the disappointment over failing to keep a new year's resolution (i.e., the body failed to spontaneously or near-spontaneously shed 20 or 30 pounds after only a few workouts and a few days of restricted eating) is high, the sales are lackluster (do you really need to stock up on towels, Rubbermaid totes, Hanes tightie whities and other "whites" and storage "solutions" every friggin' year?) and a sort of holding pattern descends as we all sort of bide our time until spring arrives. So what can bring a little excitement, a little anticipation back to our lives?

Awards seasons!

Doesn't everybody love an awards show? Doesn't everybody now get an opportunity to get an award now that we have so damn many awards shows? I mean, when I was a kid, I remember we had the Oscars, the Tonys and the Grammys--and this peculiar thing, usually on ABC, called the American Music Awards, but that was more of a concert on TV rather than an awards show. Then, later, came the MTV awards, which multiplied faster than horny rabbits, which, I think, fulfilled some ancient prophecy that then opened some mystic door to all kinds of other awards shows.

(The People's Choice Awards? Why do I give a dilly damn what the brain-dead readers or viewers of USA Today or Parade magazine or some other low-end, lowest common denominator media outlet choose? But, hey, last night Batman cleaned up! Check out a fun play-by-play over on Newsarama.)

It seems Awards Season has extended its tentacles and ensnared local public schools as well. The boy came home yesterday with a note about his elementary school's upcoming awards assembly. Yeah, an awards assembly in January. Just what kind of awards are we giving out in the middle of the school year? Why must we now honor kids after only one semester? Hell, if this were college and kids graduated and left in December, I could understand have two awards assemblies a year, but this ain't college.

I dunno, Gentle Reader. Call me...crazy? Sane? I just don't understand why we need an awards assembly after only one semester. Do we really think that kids' egos are that fragile and need constant boosting with meaningless awards--that accompany so much of the meaningless work they're required to do to meet meaningless metrics? (But hey, once these kids are adults, they'll be all ready to be drones in the workplace, where doing meaningless work to achieve meaningless metrics in the hopes of winning meaningless awards is de rigueur). And don't give me any B.S. about self-esteem.

Sheesh, and they wonder why Millennials have a raging sense of entitlement....