[This post was originally published on The Living Room Tumblr.]
My Twitter hiatus was shot to hell last week by the Week From Hell – a week that, as Becky put it on Facebook early Friday, “started…with the gruesome story of Kermit Gosnell, moved on to the marathon bombings, had a deranged Elvis impersonator send deadly ricin to Congressmen and the president, watched a massive fertilizer explosion akin to the Oklahoma City bombing explode in West, Texas and capped it all off with a deadly firefight on the streets of Boston where the marathon bombers were throwing IEDs at police and now, a 19 year old is the subject of what promises to be an epic manhunt.” (“Next week better bring a cure for cancer,” she added.)
Actually, as it turned out, Thursday night’s deadly firefight – which coincided with the death of one police officer and the maiming of another – didn’t quite “cap it all off”: Friday saw the historic, disconcerting shutdown of the entire city of Boston (though the “epic manhunt” thankfully had a happy ending, as the surviving bomber was captured alive), and more locally, a bomb threat near my office (though that turned out to be nothing); and then Saturday, while Becky and I were enjoying rest and relaxation in Vail, Colorado saw its deadliest avalanche in 50 years and a shooting at Denver’s 4/20 marijuana rally.
So, yeah. It was a really shitty week – aside from the whole Vail thing, that is. (Actually, although planned long in advance, Becky’s and my weekend getaway in the mountains ended up being somewhat reminiscent of our day in Malibu the weekend after 9/11: an opportunity to escape from the week’s awfulness, and just relax and enjoy each other’s company.)
As The Onion put it:
WASHINGTON—Calling the last four days of American life just…I mean, talk about a goddamned punch in the gut, citizens across the nation confirmed today that, Jesus, this week.
This fucking week, sources added.
Christ.
(Also, this.)
You’ll forgive me, therefore, if I don’t exactly fault Red Sox slugger David Ortiz – who was, needless to say, far closer than most of us to the week’s heart of darkness, being in Boston and all – for summing up his emotions in a slightly impolitic way at the first post-marathon, post-manhunt Sox game at Fenway Park (which I had the privilege of watching live from Vail):
On Twitter, where I usually try to keep things PG-13 – self-censoring the worst curse words (as in the title of this post) – I dropped my own share of F-Bombs during the course of the week. So I feel where Big Papi is coming from. As I wrote afterward:
I hope the FCC and America’s armies of concerned parents stands down. If ever an F-bomb was appropriate, it was there.
— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy)
I wasn’t watching w/ my kids, but if I had been, I’d be fine with it. I’d explain that that’s a naughty word you should almost never use…
— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy)
…but if you’ve been thru what Boston has, & you’re really really proud of your city, THAT’s when it’s appropriate (when you’re a grownup)
— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy)
The FCC, thank f***ing goodness, agrees:
David Ortiz spoke from the heart at today’s Red Sox game. I stand with Big Papi and the people of Boston – Julius
— The FCC (@FCC)
So yeah. Now, let’s hope for a better f***ing week.
By the way, I’ve been running a stealth liveblog throughout my #hiatus, which consequently became a liveblog of my Twitter coverage of the Week From Hell:
And now, I slink back into the digital underground, in hopes of a more successful third week of #hiatus. I shall defeat you, @thrashsoundly!