Signs of the Times: Plenti-full Playground Placards 

B4 and after: The adds, otherwise at SUPER bull time, known as Commercials, especially the ones that have been fine tuned for this momentous occasion, some of which are designed to get us in the mood..."worked up!" and others, if we stuck around...watch late night TV (it's what it used to be called) -- feature products whose effect is to help us ease into slumber...especially if we, one more time watched, heard, "Breaking News!" Ads and commercials about stuff we didn't know we needed and services that "you'll eventually find yourself..." Plus, of course the ones that were Taylor made, that add-ed up to the biggest SUPER Bull waitings (longest commercial breaks), the ones we were willing to endure to see if T&T would once again lock lips.  So, it was only inevitable, that the Student Council at our school was faced with what type, where, when they would allow their hallowed hall walls and playground perimeter (i.e., fence) to be adorned with adds, and after allowing them to creep in, have to appoint a committee to vote on the best, worst. The ones that have us both coming and going...on the way out and back in, in case you are confusing it with something dirtier than our blacktop...This late night, early morning post is about what happens when we resort to raising recess! revenue through such means, necessary to fund our fun...

NIL - "It's Elementary!" So said the presenter, with the kind of gusto befitting the occasion..."They've been doing it at the upper echelons for a long time now...we're simply extending a good thing to all you, in the so-called lower (grade) schools..." While we had not fully expected this, we hoped that before we advanced to the middle, then high schools, and even to the "collegiate!" level, that this whole thing promoting "student athletes" which, by the time those repping the NIL reads more like "athletes who happen to be students...part of the time..." What we had started hearing about from a few grads who had made it big...got some endorsements, not quite the Michael Jordan level, but enough to bring some in-tuition...the kind of cash and other apparel that comes with the whole industry now known as Name-Image-Likeness. "But wait, it gets better..." said the presenter (kind of a QVC kind of pitch)..."Now, thanks to Us in the "Creative Content" department, the ones that keep coming out with the newest commercials you've gotten used to, expecting bigger and better each year...we've come up with even a better way to elevate more of you...NOW, even if you are not among those that  educators like to refer to as the Best and the Brightest (Honor roll-ish types)...even if you are Joe Average, Debbie Downer, Plain Jane, not the Swiftest in the bunch...even YOU, can now, get your...

Name-In-Lights! "All you have to do, to help get this deal going (the pace of his voice quickens, the plot thickens) is to get hold of your parents' credit card..." Like daze of old, when such ads were allowed to run, just a month or so before Christmas...the kind that could get the kids grounded big time, staying in from recess! if/when the parents found their bank account strained, if not drained (as in "nil")

"Wait, there's more" Or will be after a few "Commercial announcements": Lost and Founders.