Rising gas prices the lamest reason to be emo ever?

In case you haven't noticed, gas is fucking expensive again. What? You didn't know $2 and up is the definition of fucking expensive? Well it is, we established that a while ago. Granted none of us travel all too often so it's nothing that's too high on our radar. Although we are worried that we might have to put Joe Goldeen on a suicide watch. His blog is downright depressing. Perhaps most depressing is the last couple sentences from the hilariously titled "Will 2009 bring an even crazier gas story?" post:

"It's been a wild ride this year. Look here for me next year (I'm taking a few days off), continuing to chronicle San Joaquin County's gas scene."

I'm not even sure where to begin. We could start with the fact that fluctuating gas prices was deemed a crazy story even though gas prices always fluctuate, it was just slightly more dramatic this year. Or the poll off to the side that left out the obvious 4th choice "For the love of God why are you still writing about this?" Then, of course, there's the fact that every one of his blogs ends in a request for your gas stories, yet he doesn't seem to have posted any (at least not on the front page). Joe's lonely, will someone please tell him about the time they topped off their tank when the pump clearly said "no topping off"? Bonus points if you did so while talking on a cell phone!

But instead we'd like to focus on the last part. Apparently there's a gas scene. You know, like how 209Vibe covered the music scene, Fitzy covers the affluent white folk scene, and we cover the local media scene (to varying degrees of success). I know there's not really a whole lot to do around these parts, but someone spending time driving around and documenting the rise and fall of the price of a gallon of gas is so depressing it makes me want to curl up in a dark corner in the fetal position with The Cure blasting in the background.

Isn't Joe the business reporter anyway? His blog description now says Health Care/Gasoline but it used to say Health Care/Money or something similar. Considering we're in the middle of the biggest recession since the Great Depression and that President-Elect Barack Obama made health care reform one of his main campaign issues, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that maybe the business/health care reporter should be writing about business and health care. Sure, gas prices are part of business. But that's like three blog posts tops, not a post every time the price of a gallon fluctuates by a penny.

I'm not saying completely ignore the issue. I'm saying that there are better ways to tackle it. Write about how gas prices are affecting the price of produce. Get together with David Siders and write about how the erratic prices are affecting the city budget. How do they predict how much money will be allotted towards filling up the tanks of fire trucks and police cruisers? If they underestimate it are they just fucked? If they overestimate it do they get to throw the spare cash into a Christmas party pool? There's more than one way to skin this cat. Or did the Record already use up all of these angles during their 3-part(!) series on gas prices?

Long story short, it's time to move on. It's not like the biggest business story in decades is currently happening or anything.