Giving up social networking for Lent

Blame it on the Olympics
Blame it on the Olympics

I haven't given anything up for Lent since Heinz Ketchup in junior high school. OK, I stole the idea from my friend Debbie, as I thought it was pretty creative. Granted, she absolutely adored ketchup, and I was more of a tartar-on-my-fries kind of gal. But I gave up the bottled red stuff anyway; why would I want to sacrifice something I truly loved? Ah, the joys of being Catholic.

This year when Fat Tuesday arrived, I announced on Facebook that I wasn't giving up anything for Lent. Well, thanks to the Winter Olympics, that's all changed. I've given up social networking from noon to midnight every day, since my Facebook friends and fellow Twitterers are posting results and ruining my Winter Games!

Of course the true culprit here is not social networking but NBC Sports. As I grumpily posted in my Closet Canuck blog, we West Coast viewers are getting screwed.

Not only are we forced to watch NBC's coverage three hours after the actual events take place, we're stuck with saucer-eyed Bob Costas as the main man. Hey Bob, what's with the bad dye job? At least you could have gone for Olympic gold, silver or bronze in your tresses. Talk about poor color commentary.

And then there's KING-5, our local NBC affiliate, which is acutely aware of the thousands of ticked-off viewers. On the station's website is a page titled  

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