Let's Talk About Fall: 2016 Edition

It's Facebook Official: Autumn has occurred. And continues to occur. The equinox has passed and we mark this segment of our orbit around the sun as our fall season. There is so much to cover. At least one fourth of our yearly traditions take place (occur) this season.

"Whatever, just give me the bullet points, filthy blogger," said the rude website reader. "It's new TV episodes season and I have much much viewing to do. Like, I know it's mindless garbage structured around advertisements, but it just helps me relax at the end of the day. And as a HardWorkingAmerican, I just want to come home from my job (vital to the economy) and relax with an ice cold Bud Light Lime, some Cheeto's dust coated Burger King Chicken Fries, and kick back to some good old fashioned network television programming."

I understand your plight. Who knows what trending hashtags you might miss out on if you don't catch every second of Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X? Well, pop in a blank VHS and press record, because it's time to read about:

Pumpkin Spice

Love it, Hate it. The over-saturated flavor Pumpkin Spice has reached a tipping point. The p-spice stock has been on the quick rise over recent years and it's either going to enter the eternal pantheon of autumn indulgences, or it will be dethroned and forgotten like so many flavor trends. I feel we are at a critical juncture for p-spice and it will be immortalized or immolated very soon-like. More than likely, it's here to stay. If that is true then I'm going to need companies to CTFO about blasting it in my face.

Are there other flavors that could fill in for p-spice? Caramel apple, maybe. Apple pie. Who am I kidding. PS4L.

Oktoberfest

It has come and gone and it left me feeling underwhelmed. That's what she said. This is supposed to be the big "welcome to fall" festival to celebrate the German traditions of drinking beer and listening to polka and eating German food. Except my local O-Fest was charging way too much for a liter of beer and a bratwurst. The wenches were in short supply, but the trendy Americans in Alpine hats were aplenty. Is this kind of cultural appropriation inappropriate? Imagine Germans celebrating American Independence Day by serving $8 hot dogs and $16 tall-boy Bud Lights while wearing American flag clothing and listening to either Kid Rock or, like, John Philip Sousa. Seems weird.

Football

Sports. It's always fun to catch a few football games until your favorite local team loses more games than they've won and you give up hope on the Bengals again and say well maybe next year is our year. More importantly, are your favorite players sitting or standing during the national anthem? What is their message? "I am protesting this great nation, but will continue to fulfill my sports contract in order to make millions of dollars." Honestly, I don't really understand the reasons for this. Is it a display of general dissatisfaction with something about this country or its leadership? Or is it specifically a Black Lives Matter themed protest? Or is it just like you know people like being part of something--a movement--even if they don't fully understand the reasons or results they hope to achieve.

I think it's more that last one. People live their lives and as they get older they're like "this is it? this can't be it" and look for things to make it feel like they might make a difference or are doing something brave or important but it's all really as inconsequential as posting a status on a social media webpage for their friends to see and maybe talk about but still in the end it's a topsy turvy world where we're all striving our hardest to make sense out of anything as this rock we call earth hurtles endlessly through the vaccuum of space.

Politics/Elections

Can we please just stop? Neither major party candidate is my friend, yet they keep showing up in my Twitter/Insta feeds. Shouldn't elections be like choosing between a chicken sandwich or a hamburger? You'd be fine with eating either one but maybe you want one more than the other based on the policies of the hamburger? Instead it's always a strong dislike of both candidates, but one is maybe slightly less terrible than the other. South Park nailed it by describing elections as the choice between a Giant Douche or a Turd Sandwich.

I've taken some online surveys and they're like "if the elections were today who would you vote for" and I answer "undecided" and the next question is all "yeah, but if you had to chose one today who would it be?" and I'm like damn, neither of these two. I'm voting for Jackie Chan. And that's politics. You have to chose today! It has to be one of these!!! What happened to my voice? This surely isn't democracy. I don't feel represented.

I may do a separate post on voting and these elections on darkblacknetsite.

Halloween

What will the too-soon/in-poor-taste Halloween costume be this year? There's always something that someone daring tries to pull off and it makes everyone go:

For instance, I don't think anyone was a WTC-w/-airplane in 2001, but it still seemed pretty wrong though slightly amusing in 2002. So who's pushing the poor-taste envelope in 2016? Maybe a Bill Cosby rapist outfit, which: bonus points if you do blackface for this costume. Maybe something Islamophobic, terrorist related. The ghost of a dead unarmed black man killed by police. When did Caitlyn Jenner happen? That seems like more of a Matt Lauer costume though. I dunno, leave some comments down below about what offensive costumes might be out there this Halloween.

Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground

Them trees be poppin'. Where are your favorite hotspots for spotting hot colored leaves? I love the sweet decay and look forward to your photographs on social media. There was a poem we read in high school about the changing of the seasons and how we wait to see it happen one proud day but end up missing it because it's a gradual process that just sort of sneaks by without grand announcement. I think it was more about Winter to Spring, but I forget the poem.

Flannel/Sweaters

Warm clothing is making a comeback. Hide your body shame in billowing layers of thick comfy clothing. What's in fashion this fall? I really don't know. Hoodies are probably still cool, right? And LLBean Duck Boots with thick wool socks. Do you have the perfect flannel shirt for picking apples on the orchard? And like, are we still doing skinny jeans or can we go back to comfortable Brett Favre Wranglers. 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the holiday when Europeans tried to escape the tyrannical religious rule of England and bring tyranny and religion to the Americas, freeing the local heathens from their primitive ways. In return, the primitive "Indians" showed the Europeans how to "not die" in America. Then they celebrated by eating a Turkey with mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce and enduring relatives that you love like family even though they're crazy. The way we do Thanksgiving now is nearly identical to the way they did it back in, like, uh, 1621? The main difference in 2016 is headphonejackless iPhones and:

Black Friday

They didn't have Blizzle Frizzle back in the dizzle. I know, rite? How did those pilgrims and noble savages get their HOTTT DEALZ? Can you imagine if the natives already had Wal-Mart and 100" LED 4K UHDTVs? The Europeans wouldn't have even needed small pox blankets, they could've just trampled everyone to death to get the score on cheap Chinese consumer electronics. But on the for realz, what are are the hottt dealz this season? And when will stores start offering turkey dinners to people foregoing their families and waiting in line Wednesday night to get the first deals at 12:01AM Thanksgiving day?

What else is going on this fall? Pumpkin flavored beers are off the hook. Anything you want to talk about? Leave it in the comments or ignore everything forever whatever I don't care.