Well here we are again. We find ourselves in the midst of another freezing cold Wednesday.

On this Wednesday, following the Super Bowl and the recent MTV vs. TCI debate, I feel it my duty, as the Ohio Guy, to make this nonsense the topic for this week’s column.

As I sat there with my friends watching the Cheese Heads and Pats square off on the gridiron, I began to wonder about the meaning of the whole event.

The room was packed with 20 or so friends stuffing their faces with the usual high cholesterol, heart-attack-in-a-bag, type snacks.

They managed to chase the fat grams with the occasional beer, adding to the overall health equivalent in the room.

The irony of the entire night was that the room would be filled with chatter all through the game and then immediately hush-up when the commercials began to roll.

“Shut-up! The commercials are on!”

Instantly the room would silence and we would all stare mindlessly into the screen, trying desperately to soak in all the idiocy.

What kind of world do we live in where we are ruled by television?

Where some of the supposed best athletes in the world, as brash and childish as they sometimes seem, are overshadowed by a Pepsi commercial with bears dancing the “YMCA” (which looked surprisingly similar to Andre Rison doing the “duck walk” into the end zone.)

According to the last figures I saw, 30-second commercial spots were selling for $1.2 million. A multi-million dollar business to entertain the entertainment starved.

The NFL might as well sell more commercials for the three- hour time span and show the game in the one-minute commercial spots.

As insane as that sounds in this capitalistic driven world, I would bet the idea has been brought up in closed, smoke-filled board rooms.

Moving along with the “big brother” theme, I will continue, like I touched on last week, with this entire MTV in Des Moines debacle.

I just can not understand the uproar this has created. I would hope there is no one out there who is really a slave to “The Real World,” even though it is a thought-provoking and intelligent show (yeah right).

I can not comprehend being a slave to the hours of commercials you have to sit through in order to see one stupid video that has probably been played into the ground more than the “Macarena” or “Ironic.”

So now it looks like the masses in Des Moines will get their MTV back sometime in the near future and be able to melt away more brain cells, watching “Singled Out” and eating all those fat grams.

My theory is the junk food producing companies, the NFL and MTV, all formed some sort of partnership together in order to destroy the youth of America and then complain about it later.

There are already signs of the trend beginning: “The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl” and “The Oscar Meyer Halftime Show” are just a few examples. Maybe next year the Super Bowl will be brought to us by Hostess or whatever company makes pork rinds.

Just a little food for thought.

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J.R. Grant is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Stow, Ohio, where it happens to be even colder than it is in Iowa.