Why Can't I Buy Just the Olympics

For first time in 30 years I will not be watching any Olympic events.  It's a tragedy really but such is the cost of the free market, or maybe the not so free market.  A couple of years ago the "free" channels all went over to digital.  At that time we bought a converter box to go with our antenna and were able to pick up exactly one channel.  It was so not worth it.  We turned to Netflix and Redbox for most of our entertainment.  Hulu and PBS.org gave us any current shows we wanted to watch.  Radio and the internet became our primary news sources.  Occasionally we'd toss around the idea of getting cable and then decided we have better things to do with our money.  Really I didn't feel like I was missing anything.  Until of course this week, when it became obvious I wasn't going to get to see the Olympics competitions, but instead would only have access to highlights overlayed with ridiculous commentary.  We're not going back to the box and antenna.  It didn't work last time and frankly it annoys me the way they switch between events.  We looked it up on NBC and you can watch anything you want, if you happen to have cable that gets the MSNBC channel.  We briefly discussed getting cable but the idea of spending all that money just seemed crazy.  I just want to watch the Olympics.  I don't want to buy 90 channels of cable to do so.  This is my major beef with cable.  The time of forcing people in to packaging is done.  Sell the stuff al la carte!!!!!!! If I could buy access to just the Olympics so that I could watch the competitions I wanted to, I would total buy.  Since I can't.  I just won't watch.  Which means my kids won't watch either.  So a lifetime of tradition dies right here and won't be passed to a new generation.  When I was trolling around sites trying to find a way to get the Olympics without having to buy cable I saw people calling my generation the Napster generation.  They said we were cheap and that we thought everything should be handed to us for free.  I disagree with that.  I don't want things for free, I just don't want to pay for stuff I don't want to see.  The cable companies will continue to try to push through their package deals though and so I will continue to refuse to pay for them.  Maybe in two years MSNBC will get a clue and sell the stuff directly from their website!  Down with the age of cable TV and here, here to the rise of internet TV!

And to my lovely internet can I thank you for these juicy tidbits.  They kept my family in stitches for hours, although Captain E asked me why being constipated was an Olympic event :)

Matt King/Adam Pretty/Al Bello, Getty Images

Check out the rest of the article at This Is How Olympic Divers Really Look.  (Andrew H.)

Also found this lovely tidbit.
Second 28 is my favorite!