The Current (Mn public radio)

I used to listen to 105.7 (Drive 105). They played all of the good
alternative stuff. Unfortunately, I was rudely greeted by Patsy Kline
one morning. I have nothing against Patsy Kline, but it was kind of
like taking a swig of orange juice when you expect to be drinking
milk....BLECH! Unfortunately, Drive 105 became Love 105. Not my cup of
tea. I wandered aimlessly through the dial looking for a new station
that played the music I liked, but couldn't find anything.

I then remembered that The Current advertised at the Mn Rollergirls
bouts. I tuned in and have been rather pleased. It isn't what I was
accustomed to, but I have been exposed to some artists I really enjoy
and hadn't heard of before. For example, today I heard Willy Mason.
Great stuff! If you are stuck in Radio Limbo since the Drive 105
betrayal, give the current a shot.

Critical Mass

While going to lunch with a friend today, I noticed something. Obnoxious seems to have a critical mass. Two seemingly normal people stepped into line just ahead of us, and the obnoxious just seemed to explode! They were just plain stupid. First, they completely blocked the entrance into the cafeteria. Next, their vapid conversation had to be so loud that those of us around them could not have a conversation because we couldn't hear each other. My friend's order almost got messed up because the person taking it couldn't hear us. In addition, they felt the need to try and order their meal in Spanish because the persons working behind the counter were darker complected and spoke with an accent. This turned into a quiz session: "How do you say broccoli in Spanish?" "How do you say garlic in Spanish? El Garlico?" They laughed loudly at their own "jokes" and went in different directions. As they separated, I happened to follow one of them. (She was going in the same direction I was) The obnoxious demeanor completely evaporated. She was quiet, normal, and no longer acted as if she were drunk at a teenage party.

What the hell happened? My conclusion is that we need to be able to quantify obnoxiousness, figure out at what collective quantity obnoxiousness erupts as in my aforementioned example, and then make people wear their quotients on a badge so that we can quickly do the mental math and evacuate an area if we so choose when it appears an obnoxious critical mass is about to be achieved.