Pokemon...NO!!!

Ok, I'll be honest, I scarcely know what Pokemon is. I didn't get it first time around and I don't get it now.

But from all I can hear or see or learn about 'Pokemon Go' it is like a mind-altering drug.

So, it's an 'augmented reality' game, whatever that is?--played on a smart phone (which I don't own) by downloading an apt (or is it ap?--I don't do it so I don't know). You walk around and see what is right in front of you on your phone (which you could see for real if you put down your phone!) and these Pokemon characters appear in the 'reality' on you're smart phone. (If anything on a phone can be called, accurately, 'reality'.) Then you, what? Capture or kill them? I'm not sure.

So, your 'reality'--which isn't really 'real' if it's on your phone--is 'augmented' by this game I don't understand nor care to.

People are walking into traffic, falling off cliffs, bumping into people (with or without smart phones) and generally spending literally hours doing whatever it is you are doing in Pokemon Go.

Several universities have opened their football fields to make sure students playing Pokemon Go are safe. The Holocaust Museum had to post a sign forbidding people from doing Pokemon Go in the museum! On the other hand, Westboro Baptist Church, which has anti-gay protests are funerals for soldiers killed in duty (since LGBTQ folks are what cause God to make wars!) is an official 'Pokestop'--a place where you can get "Pokeballs" to capture the Pokemon and 'eggs' which grow into Pokemon. None of the Pokemon (which is a plural noun if you didn't get than already) must be gay since 'God hates fags', according to WBC.

People have apparently made 'Pokestops' in places without getting permission. One family I saw on line had dozens of people a day knocking on their door because their house was a Pokestop and the strangers wanted Pokeballs and eggs. Pretty annoying, I'd say. Also, playing Pokemon Go apparently eats up your power and may even cost you lots of money because of the data it uses (whatever that means--no smart phone, no charge for data!)

Four or five of the jokes on "Wait, Wait, Don't tell me" this week were about Pokemon Go. So, if the game has the attention of Public Radio it must be a phenomena since Public Radio is still trying to understand baseball as a cultural event.

I will never play it and promise not to write about it again. But since it's interfering with my Public Radio addiction, I had to mention it today.

The final segment of Wait/Wait asked the three panelists to predict what the next 'ap phenomena' (or 'apt' or whatever) might be. Jessie, a comedian, said "Pokemon NO...it doesn't do anything but it does blow up your phone."

Well put, Jessie.