I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore

January 7th represents many commemorative days. For example, it's I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore Day.

"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

--Howard Beale, in 1976's Network — the first anchorman to die over ratings

"You can never go too far."

— Ferris Bueller, Ferris Bueller's Day Off

That depends on what you stomach. Ask Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago.

On January 7, 1990, the Leaning Tower of Pisa went too far, leaning so much it had to be closed to the extra weight of tourists. So, you'll know things went too far when things lie in pieces (née, Pisas) on the ground.

January 7th is also official Bobblehead Day.

These seemingly different monikers present an interesting juxtaposition. The anhorman is a talking head, among the pundits who are also talking heads. They can be seen, in the mind's eye, as bobbleheads. And they walk that fine line between reporting the news and embellishing it for entertainment. That is, for ratings. After all, "breaking news" is so much more exciting than just news.

So where's the story this challenge was supposed to invoke?

THE BOBBLEHEAD WHO WENT TOO FAR

On July 15, 1974, a female anchor led off her segment by saying, "In keeping with the practice of presenting the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts news, TV 40 presents what is believed to be a television first. In living color, an exclusive coverage of an attempted suicide."

The attempt succeeded when she shot herself on camera with a Smith & Wesson revolver.

This, like most suicides, was called a permanent solution to temporary problems — a pithy slogan meant to educate those for whom it's too late.

How far is too far?

Suicide is depression gone too far. Suicide is the tower lying in pieces on the ground, as tourists gawk. Broken things are breaking news.

The most common cause of suicide is inadequately treated depression. Yet, society pushes that tower, however far it leans. And when permanent solutions break, we can only do what the station manager did after that newscast:

FADE TO BLACK.