Heard it From a Tomato Sandwich…
REO Speedwagon would have to rethink their whole shebang these days. “Heard it from a friend who, heard it from a friend who…” As someone who once was the co-proprietor of the Black Cat Detective Agency circa 1988, and who received as many condolence messages to Columbo’s passing as his own family, I am always on the case. Encyclopedia Brown, Harriet, these are my people. REO, your methods of investigation are lazy and haphazard.
But nowadays? The stuff you used to have to sleuth out, to piece together, to slap down your quarter on the gas can for, is delivered — whether you want it to be, or not.
The trick isn’t in the discovery, it’s in how NOT to discover. Keeping yourself away from information anymore requires effort. My Super Bowl bet every year is not who’s going to win, it’s who can go the longest without finding out who won. It’s HARD.
In the Ye Olden Days of And Lo! There Was a Speedwagon! you did have to rely on he-saids, and “Hey, I wonder what you-know-who is up to these days?” You’d have to dig. Ask around. Now, it’s delivered. Life stories, live news feeds.
The question is, is it better to know? Is any information ultimately better than not knowing? Is ignorance really still bliss, or just a blatant misspelling of “denial?”
Do you want to know — or not?
