Posted 9:59 PM by Gene

And while the newsrooms suffer a nervous breakdown -- a cheer must have gone up when they heard their latest obsession might continue -- Bloomy gives us three factoids in a story about a million tons of feathers:

According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, there are 30 million fantasy players in the U.S. and Canada -- 54 percent more than two years ago. Most of them are pretty good at their jobs: According to a 2009 study by the University of Mississippi, the annual household income of a fantasy sports consumer is $92,750, Bloomberg Business Week reports in its Sept. 13 edition.

Outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates that American companies might be losing as much as $1.5 billion in productivity during an average football season because of fantasy sports.

So we get sound bites from a lobbying group, a football factory and a personnel firm known for rushing to the red lights of cameras. So many hacks can justify so many stories so many ways it becomes a question of whom can tell the baldest lie most credibly. And when they obsess over trivia as today they can inspire a national outbreak of the willies. How can we ever cut the Gordian knot of news?

And we are not mentioning that infernal nonsense again because it too is A MILLION TONS OF FEATHERS, and will be as gone the day after as any SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP.

And remember -- A MILLION TONS OF FEATHERS may seem lighter than A MILLION TONS OF LEAD -- until they land on your SKULL.

P. S. In Googling "a million tons of feathers" we found this factoid -- and however true or false it is an apt allegory:

An estimated 5 million tonnes of chicken feathers are produced globally each year as a by-product of meat manufacture. The raw material is tough and chemically resistant.

Currently the feathers are either disposed of in landfill or processed to make a low-grade animal feedstock.