"Art" imitates "art"

Apparently, the 19 Minutes staff isn't alone in thinking about the ridiculousness of televised poker on "sports" TV. Frank Deford's commentary on NPR's Morning Edition today lamented the lack of interest generally afforded to women's sports on television, noting:

Who, pray, would ever have guessed that sensible human beings in these post-millennium times would crave to watch other people sitting down playing poker? But that's what, with apologies to Mencken, the boobus televisionist Americanus wants today, and so that's what we give them. Unfortunately, women don't support their sisters playing games nearly as much as men watch their brethren in athletic pursuits. Women don't boo very well at all. Now understand, this is not another case of frailty, thy name is woman. Instead, verily, it is a tribute to the sensitivity of the daughters of Eve that they have their priorities so much straighter than us benighted guy sportaholics.

Deford's piece also took the less-conventional stand that golfer Michelle Wie's forays into the men's golf tour are, in general, bad for women's sports.

The 19 Minutes staff wouldn't presume to tell Ms. Wie whether she should compete against the likes of Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and Hiroyuki Fujita (who?). But it would be something of a disappointment if women's sports in general became the expletive-laden, Dennis Rodmanized, fights-in-the-bullpen spectacle the men's games have too often become.

Televised poker, on the other hand, might benefit from a good donnybrook between contestants and spectators now and then. Come to think of it, that might liven up televised bowling, too. And professional billiards.