The big news in Lawrence today…
Would you believe, that the bowling alley in the KU student union building is gonna close? Yep, top of the fold on the front page of the Lawrence Journal World newspaper.
It’s a little different on the web site, because the lead stories are constantly changing.
However, placing a bowling alley closing story in the premier news hole says something about journalism in Lawrence, Kansas. It even helps explain why something as insignificant in the scheme of things can dominate an entire city.
It’s called news judgement.
And so unless some KU professor is taking a bullet for killing his wife 10 years ago or a troubled teenager from Topeka is going down for sawing the head off a pizza shop owner who took advantage of her and tried to force her to get a boob job, this is what passes for small town news.
So yes, please don those black armbands and pay your respects.
Because today is the sad occasion where we learned that after more than 60 years, the mighty Jaybowl is closing.
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;But there is no joy in Mudville — the mighty Jaybowl has struck out.
Now please pass the USA Today section so I can get some actual news.
So now the KU student body as well as the football team can’t go bowling. (rimshot)
Nice one but…
Don’t forget about that new coach from Texas. Who rumor has it may have looked at Danny Manning’s $1.9 million Lawrence mansion. The one with a regulation size basketball court in the basement!
Getting the after-class drink on and bowling a few games at the Jaybowl was a damn tradition. I feel bad for the kids who won’t get a chance to do it!
Apparently they’re gunning one another down now in video games
Closing the bowling alley; that took balls.
(rimshot)
Fake birds.
“above the fold.” The other phrase is “at the top of the page.” Tsk.
I prefer “above the fold,” it’s more newspaperish
actually, in my experience was borrowed from newspapers and is used to describe the same thing on a website; material that appears above the monitor cutoff before having to scroll down.
they had really cut back their hours this year every time I went past it seemed to be closed or was hosting a bowling PE class.
I guess it’s an end of an era kind of thing basically…
Will bowling ever come back – or better yet – come back big enough to warrant a bowling alley in the Student Union building?
Probably not, but anything’s possible.
Ah to have first world problems such as these…