I think I’ve mentioned here before that one of my college classmates was Peter King, now a bigfoot sportswriter at Sports Illustrated. Another was Jay Mariotti, this guy. You should read that link; apparently life has taken a turn for the former Chicago Sun-Times scribe, who quit the paper in a huff after becoming convinced the web was the future.
Things have gone downhill from there, as the Gawker post points out. It’s so hard to reconcile this image of Jay with the guy I knew in 1978, whom I recall as quiet and hard-working. Well, things change.
Another classmate, one who yearned to be a famous sportswriter with every fiber of his being, was this guy. He wanted it so bad he sued the Plain Dealer for racial discrimination, although it never went anywhere. Now I see he’s landed on his feet, having published a book about cereal:
Even the most miniscule detail about breakfast cereal impacts Gitlin and his passion for pouring bowls.
About 20 years ago, he said he sat down for a spoonful of Alpha Bits and, much to his horror, Post had removed the sweetening.
“I was stupefied,” he said. “I went in my room and cried. Very soon after that they took Alpha Bits off the market, and when it returned it was pre-sweetened again. Post understood the error of their ways.”
That story’s from the Plain Dealer. Good to see they don’t hold a grudge.
What a long, tiring day it was. Spent most of it at a conference in Lansing. I still have to write about it, so I guess I shouldn’t say too much, other than this: The lunch was very good, the lunch entertainment even more so — a rapping organic gardener. No, I am not kidding. Did you know farmin’ ain’t easy? Did you know he gots to have his kohlrabi, spinach and chard, and the rest of the rhyme probably included the word hard? It so happened I’d just listened to an interview with Ice-T on NPR on the way in; he has a documentary film about the birth of rap and hip-hop he’s promoting. I wonder what rhyme Ice-T could do for kohlrabi. The rappin’ gardener:
And then I get home and discover the real news in Lansing yesterday was in the state legislature, which silenced a female representative for a day after she said the word “vagina” on the floor, and no, I’m not kidding about that, either. I encourage you to watch the video and tell me if you think she was out of line. My only complaint is a technicality; the male legislators pushing this bill don’t want to be in her vagina, they want to be in her uterus, but as we’ve discussed here before — we’ve discussed everything, haven’t we? — a lot of people like to throw the word vagina around, and many of them do so incorrectly. As L.A. Mary once said, “We’re really talking about the vulva, aren’t we?” If Lisa Brown had said that, however, I’m sure the entire House of Representatives would have burst into flames.
The lege isn’t exactly covering itself with glory in recent days.
But while we’re talking about ladyparts, I must say, I’ve grown to like “Girls,” after its somewhat rocky start, and I think this Onion AV Club piece gets the show (along with “Enlightened”) exactly right. If nothing else, I admire Lena Dunham’s willingness to bare her highly imperfect body week after week after week, knowing the sort of shit that’s talked about her on the internet:
The world of entertainment still, all too often, values women only as objects of beauty to be placed on screen and ogled. I have no problem looking at a beautiful woman, but the world is full of other women who have profound, intelligent, often hilarious things to say, and Dunham is very quietly making a space for those voices on TV, in a way that’s revolutionary both in terms of the show’s gender politics and in terms of its presentation.
Or look at it this way: If this show was called Guys, and its showrunner/protagonist was in every other way similar to Dunham/Hannah—a dorky, slightly overweight guy who bumbled his way through Brooklyn, trying to find his purpose and working his way through a calamitous love life—would any of these criticisms have popped up? Would the people being uncharitable toward Girls have been uncharitable toward that series?
Lena Dunham’s body is no worse than that of Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Segal or any number of young male protagonists we’re expected to believe are sexually successful with women who look like Elizabeth Banks and Mila Kunis. And her love interest on “Girls” is actually in her league, in many ways. So fuck all that.
The decline and expensive fall of the Michigan film tax incentives, by moi, complete with sidebar, also by moi.
But that’s no note to leave on. So let it be this: Great weekends to all!
Brandon said on June 15, 2012 at 4:35 am
“I wonder what rhyme Ice-T could do for kohlrabi.”
Lil Wayne or Eminem could find many words to rhyme with kohlrabi.
===
Did you ever mention Escanaba in da Moonlight? There was a feature in Harper’s a while back about the making of that movie.
272 chars
alex said on June 15, 2012 at 7:08 am
The Michigan legislature right now makes Indiana’s elected body of knuckledragging miscreants look like the pantheon of winners of the Nobel Prize. They’d have silenced Ms. Byrum just for having one; it wouldn’t have mattered what she said.
As for anatomical correctness, I still chortle when I recall a certain Fort Wayne drag queen who knew all her ladyparts by their names, which she misapplied to great comic effect. “I need me a big fat black dick all up in my fallopian tubes,” or “I’m holdin’ a big stash o’ rock up in my clit.” Uterus was another one she used interchangeably with the P word. To her it was all one and the same. And she used the C word as an adjective, one that was intended as high praise, to describe any outfit or automobile she found particularly stylish. Last I heard, she was the proud new owner of some external ladyparts, though sans fallopian tubes, a clit or a uterus. Not that it would have made any difference to her. I’m sure she was delighted simply to have men seeking entertainment at the front door instead of in back.
1064 chars
beb said on June 15, 2012 at 8:11 am
I wasn’t as shocked by the lege banning one of its women members from speaking for a day as was my wife because I’ve been reading the great Steve Benen on Rachelmaddow.com. Rachel has been following the Michigan legislature for a while, and in particular its use (or misuse) or the “effective immediately” mechanism (most laws don’t take effect until the start of a new legislature). The law requires a super-majority vote to approve. But the Republican leadership have been taking voice acclamation. And ignoring Democrats when they insist on a roll-call vote to prove that the Republicans really required number of votes. So I’m not surprised they would tell a woman she can’t have the floor (to speak) for a day because she mentioned the V-word. Of course it just makes them out to be a bunch of ballless wonders that they can’t listen to some criticism from a woman.
But a key element to the story that Nancy didn’t mention was that this happened during a vote on a draconian restriction on woman’s rights to an abortion. They were really shocked to hear her say vagina, they didin’t want her to object to their plan to seize possession of the wombs of Michigan women.
“I like my kohlrabi,
it’s slightly peppery,
mix in my cabbage,
that’s how I get my ruffage.”
I await Coolzedad’s better rhyhms.
1321 chars
James said on June 15, 2012 at 8:12 am
Whenever I hear kohlrabi, I think “Call my rabbi.”
So maybe Adam Yauch coulda rhymed that sucker.
Too soon?
114 chars
coozledad said on June 15, 2012 at 8:25 am
What’s a pinhead legislature doin hatin’ on my nature
Fuckin bathroom Bobby gavelling me into the lobby
bitch is stone ridin’ his kimosabe’s kohlrabi
told his old lady “taint nothin’ but a hobby.”
But she dosed his Prep H with some weapons grade wasabi.
?
284 chars
Minnie said on June 15, 2012 at 8:37 am
Yes. Vulva, dammit. Get it right, you legislators and comedians.
64 chars
nancy said on June 15, 2012 at 8:54 am
Kohlrabi/wasabi — smacking forehead now. Thanks, Cooze.
56 chars
Julie Robinson said on June 15, 2012 at 9:40 am
There are a couple of good quotes from the women legislators in the Detroit News story. From Lisa Brown: “If I can’t say the word vagina, why are we legislating vaginas? What language should I use?” From Barb Byrum, who tried to introduce an amendment restricting vasectomies unless it would save a man’s life: “If we truly want to make sure children are born, we would regulate vasectomies.”
I have to quote them because I haven’t finished spluttering yet and I can’t string together a full sentence.
505 chars
mark said on June 15, 2012 at 9:57 am
nancy-
Your pieces about the film industry tax incentives are nicely done.
77 chars
alex said on June 15, 2012 at 10:07 am
Funny we should be discussing “kohlrabi” in song…
For years, whenever I’ve heard O Fortuna from Carmina Burana, which is all in Latin, one of the refrains has always sounded to my tin ear like the words “He who eats kohlrabi.”
I’ve always dreamt of writing a parody of this song and now I will most certainly have to steal “weapons-grade wasabi.”
355 chars
Bitter Scribe said on June 15, 2012 at 10:34 am
The beginning of Jay Mariotti’s career coincided with the end of Mike Royko’s. Royko used to take Mariotti to the woodshed every now and again, at one point calling him “the village idiot.”
189 chars
Sue said on June 15, 2012 at 10:39 am
Yes, it’s uterus, as in:
The Republicans want to shrink government until it’s small enough to fit in a uterus, unless it involves an actual uterus, in which case Big Government all the way.
190 chars
paddyo' said on June 15, 2012 at 11:23 am
Jay M. was a trainwreck long before all this. I don’t know where the guy you knew in college first went off the tracks, Nance, but by the time I came to The Denver Post in 1989, he was already notorious. He was not missed when he blew off to Chicago . . .
The Gawker piece was instructive, but man, after a while it just read like another pathetic sports-shouting show — which, maybe, was the writer’s point.
Anyway, I prefer Roger Ebert’s graceful-by-comparison farewell when JM punked out of town for his Internet misadventure.
660 chars
brian stouder said on June 15, 2012 at 11:26 am
That article makes Mariotti sound like a Jim Rome wannabe, without the self-awareness that Jim Rome has*.
Last year I was in the same room as a bunch of young fellas who were “watching” an NFL football game. They were “watching” rather than watching, since they were all busily working their hand-held devices (now there’s a double entendre, eh?) and were anxiously tracking the progress of players in other games all across the NFL, as they were all in ‘fantasy leagues’; the effect of which was that none of them cared about any specific game, at all.
The effect was very like an open-audition for a slot on ESPN; all about artful bragging (or artful self-pity), with actual cleverness only occasionally (accidently?) thrown in. And in that context, there was an endless chatter – or “smack” talk – about whichever player just killed their weekend or made their day (in whichever game).
A limp salad would have been more enjoyable (to me)
*this is sarcasm!
1000 chars
Connie said on June 15, 2012 at 11:43 am
Today I wrote a thank you email to my state legislature representative, Lisa Brown. I told her that in 25 years in Indiana I never had a rep who truly represented me, and I appreciated having one now that I live in Michigan, and thank you thank you thank you. And to keep it up despite the “punishment”.
305 chars
Bitter Scribe said on June 15, 2012 at 12:32 pm
I remember when Mariotti came to Chicago. One of his first columns scolded Michael Jordan for refusing to go to the White House for a photo op with George H.W. Bush after the Bulls’ first championship. He learned very quickly that you do not blow into Chicago and dump on Michael Jordan.
287 chars
Prospero said on June 15, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Jay Mariotti made his career out of calling Frank Thomas the Big Skirt. Apparently Jay didn’t think the big guy was tough enough. Of course, Mariotti proved his toughness by beating up women.
Good one Sue. It’s astounding how many politicians care more about the pre-born than the post-born, particularly while claiming to be disciples of Jesus. Apparently those MI legislators learned anatomy from Ken and Barbie.
And Tonto’s name for the masked man rhymes pretty well with Kohlrabi.
How does anyone take Jim Rome seriously, when he called Jim Everett Chrissie and was punked by the guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uczUKTwgqeY
643 chars
Jakash said on June 15, 2012 at 12:48 pm
That’s cool that you went to college with Peter King, NN. I know he’s written about having gone to Ohio U. before, but didn’t realize that it would have been at the same time as you. Along with the articles he has in the magazine, he writes this lengthy column, Monday Morning Quarterback, for SI dot com, as he’s the top-dog NFL guy at SI. I breeze through the first 4 pages, not really reading much, generally, since I’m not much of an NFL fanatic, to get to the last page where he offers his non-football observations. These I enjoy. They include tidbits each week under the headings “coffeenerdness” and “beernerdness”, which are my favorite parts, along with his occasional travel experiences. Not much similarity between him and Mariotti, that’s for sure. I believe Prospero has referred to the column before, so I assume he’s also a fan of Mr. King.
863 chars
Kirk said on June 15, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Brian, glad you made clear that you were being sarcastic about Jim Rome. There aren’t that many good sports-talk guys to begin with (though I like Dan Patrick), but clowns who speak in fake radio growls don’t merit my attention, no matter what they say.
253 chars
Sherri said on June 15, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Sounds like Mariotti lost the difference between schtick and life. His schtick was neither original nor interesting, unfortunately. As much as I enjoyed watching Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick back in the day on Sportscenter, the people who followed didn’t understand what it was that made them interesting.
I’m in the middle of a rewatch of Sports Night, the Aaron Sorkinfied version of Sportscenter. If you like Sorkin, and never watched it the first time, check it out, even if you don’t like sports. It’s not really about sports. If you did watch it the first time, it holds up remarkably well. If Sorkin grates on you, well, you won’t like this either, because it’s vintage Sorkin.
690 chars
Dorothy said on June 15, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Thanks for that tip, Sherri. I’ve heard from several people that Sports Night is worth viewing – I’ll get it from Netflix one of these years. We started watching Breaking Bad since AMC is re-running the first four seasons in the wee hours of the morning, started this past Sunday. Yes indeed we like it very much! Now I’m furiously trying to remember much of what I’d heard/read about it without cheating and finding spoilers on line. I’m the ants-in-the-pants type when it comes to stuff like that. Six episodes down, forty more to go!
540 chars
Brandon said on June 15, 2012 at 2:21 pm
Escanaba in da Moonlight
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escanaba_in_da_Moonlight
88 chars
Connie said on June 15, 2012 at 2:29 pm
Escanaba in da Moonlight. I hated it. It’s a fart movie.
58 chars
brian stouder said on June 15, 2012 at 2:43 pm
A genuinely freaky Friday article, involving a fart movie “star” (Baldwin) – which has fairly interesting photographs attached
http://www.chem.info/News/2012/06/Material-Handling-Jury-Sides-with-Costner-in-BP-Spill-Lawsuit/
The lead (and nut) paragraph:
Kevin Costner said his reputation was at stake as he defended himself against accusations that he cheated fellow actor Stephen Baldwin out of millions of dollars in a lucrative BP contract for oil-cleaning machines after the 2010 spill. Baldwin and a friend were seeking $17 million in damages, saying they could have made at least that much in the deal. A federal jury sided with Costner and gave them nothing. Costner smiled and shook his attorney’s hand as a grim-faced Baldwin left the courtroom.
774 chars
Julie Robinson said on June 15, 2012 at 2:55 pm
Sherri, we were big fans of Sports Night, and as usual for shows we like, its run was too short. I never realized that it was from Sorkin but now that I think about it, the snappy dialog is his classic style. Bonus: it’s available streaming from Netflix. Thanks for reminding me of a terrific show.
299 chars
del said on June 15, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Way off topic, but remember those gun enthusiasts who descended on a Birmingham (MI) city council meeting with firearms on display to advocate for the right to carry (and show solidarity with the teenager who was ticketed for openly toting his firearm near the movie theatres in town)?
Well, the next day a 45 year old man working in that city as a heating and cooling company employee accidentally shot himself at 11:15 a.m. as he adjusted his gun.
In the penis.
So there is that.
http://www.freep.com/article/20120615/NEWS03/120615029/Man-shoots-himself-in-the-penis-in-Birmingham?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
630 chars
nancy said on June 15, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Actually, not off-topic at all, del. One of my FB friends out there noted that the Freep and B’ham Patch said the guy shot himself in the penis, while the Eccentric newspaper went for the throat-clearing “private parts.”
Some people are simply uncomfortable with frank language.
282 chars
Bitter Scribe said on June 15, 2012 at 4:19 pm
Ouch. Normally I love it when gun nuts get theirs, but some things are too painful for schadenfreude.
101 chars
alex said on June 15, 2012 at 4:20 pm
I know a nurse in a local hospital who described a yayhoo who shot himself there with his own concealed weapon. He was one of those rare Darwin Award recipients who managed to take himself out of the gene pool yet remain very much alive.
237 chars
Connie said on June 15, 2012 at 4:23 pm
He may face charges of reckless discharge of a firearm. As if he hasn’t been punished enough.
94 chars
nancy said on June 15, 2012 at 4:26 pm
And it was a through-and-through! Amazing.
Meanwhile, aggravated douchebaggery from the douchebag news source of choice.
246 chars
brian stouder said on June 15, 2012 at 5:05 pm
That is definitely a fine example of aggravated douchebaggery, and I am definitely going to use that term again, soon!
Fox News is just being Fox News, I suppose. Earlier this week at Red Cross, the guy next to me had control of the TV, and it was a solid hour of Fox News before he finished his donation, and I got the choice of TV station.
The nice thing was, they know me there, and when that guy finished, they poked it over to MSNBC for me before I even had a chance to make the request. (although come to think of it, it was also entirely within their power to place me elsewhere in the room….hmmmm).
It was a funny juxtaposition of the same stories; Fox was emphasizing (and attacking) the president saying “the private sector is doing fine”, while MSNBC was emphasizing Romney specifically targeting “teachers, firefighters and police” for firings (talking about going off half cocked!).
And I will say – MSNBC’s pundits and yappers also looked at what the president said, whereas on Fox you would never, ever hear Romney targeting the teachers, firefighters, and police.
1122 chars
MarkH said on June 15, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Wait a minute. A Daily Caller scribe gets completely out of line at a presidential news conference, Smith and Wallace at Fox rightly call him and Daily Caller out on it, and we go after Fox? Unless Nancy’s douchebag of choice was Daily Caller after all…
255 chars
nancy said on June 15, 2012 at 5:52 pm
It was.
7 chars
Prospero said on June 15, 2012 at 5:56 pm
What in the world would have the papers reported bout the self-wounding HVAC repair guy had he been she. I mean, surely you can’t print vagina in the newspaper in Michigan. It’s just offensive. Guy needs to have a conversation with Plaxico Burress.
And aside from the hilarity of Fox News worrying about the President, That Daily Caller Reporter made an ass of himself trying to make a political point by interrupting the President’s comments.:
The exchange, in full:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/full-exchange-between-obama-daily-caller-reporter
“Q What about American workers who are unemployed while you import foreigners?”
Maybe it’s my ears, but I didn’t hear anything in the speech about importing foreigners. That is ridiculous and the guy’s manner was confrontational. Sorry, but that question smells like an unreasonable attack by a political hack rather than a legitimate reporter’s query. But whaat the hell, the guy works for the little tampon Tucker Carlson. Anyway, he gave a fine display of his own refusal to listen to and understand an important policy statement. Good Joe Wilson immitation, though.
Rep. Steve King is already making noises about suing the President over the new policy. Speaking of douchebaggery.
1269 chars
brian stouder said on June 15, 2012 at 6:05 pm
Well, MarkH, MSNBC et al took heat (rightly) over Chris Hayes’ remark about “heroes” on Memorial Day, and Carlson was yipping for Fox – so the douchebag fits Fox just as well as the loud-mouthed yout, I think.
209 chars
Jolene said on June 15, 2012 at 6:48 pm
Carlson doesn’t work for Fox, Brian. He’s the editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller, a pugnaciously conservative web site.
184 chars
Prospero said on June 15, 2012 at 7:40 pm
Campaign posters, anti-Buchanon one is like something modern GOPers might try.
I knew that James Thurber had written children’s books and Ian Fleming wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but Aldous Huxley, Gertrude Stein? Carl Sandburg wrote stories for his daughters. Salman Rushdie wrote a kid’s book? Thurber’s The 13 Clocks is terrific, and not just for kids. And the Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty is another book that appears to have been written for children, but is a very good read for their parents as well. It’s adapted from the Tales of the Brothers Grimm.
The truly annoying thing about that Daily Caller jerk at the Rose Garden was his deliberate stupidity, and how what he said had nothing to do whatever with what Obama was saying. Guy was being obtuse on purpose. Anybody that wants to claim that racism is not part of this disrespect has a more optimistic opinion of human nature than I.
1242 chars
Brandon said on June 15, 2012 at 8:02 pm
http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/15/video-neil-munro-explains-his-exchange-with-president-obama-in-rose-garden/
109 chars
Prospero said on June 15, 2012 at 8:41 pm
A very cool live version of Get Back for McCartney’s birthday.
177 chars
Jolene said on June 15, 2012 at 9:15 pm
Look who supports the president’s decision re immigration.
204 chars
Crazycatlady said on June 15, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Coozledad wins the ‘NN’ Rap Battle. Homie did good, yo.
55 chars
MarkH said on June 15, 2012 at 11:39 pm
Not a good argument anyway, Brian, as we would expect that from Carlson, wherever he works.
91 chars
Prospero said on June 16, 2012 at 9:49 am
Shouldn’t “farmin’ ain’t easy” be “It’s hard out here for a veggie pimp?”
73 chars
Prospero said on June 16, 2012 at 10:40 am
The GOPer howling about the “doing fine” remark is an exercise in perfect political sophistry and deliberate obtuseness. They know exactly what President Obama meant, and they do not want to admit or have any voters listen to the facts of the Administration’s 27 months of creating 4.3 million private sector jobs while GOPers and teabangers were killing more than half a million public sector jobs, i.e. cops, firefighters, teachers, as Willard Windsock would say.
http://mediamatters.org/research/201206150004?lid=1197826&rid=66872592
And what the hell is this about:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/x-37b-air-forces-secret-space-plane_n_1600538.html
676 chars
brian stouder said on June 16, 2012 at 11:02 am
MarkH, I agree with you that Carlson was just being Carlson. And indeed, Fox was just being Fox, giving him a gig on their network (as they do Sarah Palin and Glen Beck and whoever the rest of those people are!), just as MSNBC regularly gives a forum to people like Toure or Melissa Harris Perry or Melinda Henneberger or EJ Dionne.
It’s all fair, and it all reflects honor or dishonor upon their respective networks
419 chars
Prospero said on June 16, 2012 at 11:28 am
There is a word that fits Tucker Carlson, perfectly: weenie.
And, here is a classic takedown of RMoney’s idiotic attack on first responders and teachers:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/why-exactly-does-romney-w_b_1594874.html?utm_hp_ref=daily-brief
GOPers like first responders and teachers alright, they just want their employment privatized and run in the marketplace. Because that’s worked so well in the justice system, for faith-based prison operations, and in failed charter schools like the one Bachmann wanted to make into a Christian madrassa without educational merit. And for police operations in Iraq. And guys like Eric Prince give big bucks to GOPer pols when tha contracts keep coming no matter what sort of atrocities his psych employees commit.
779 chars
Brandon said on June 16, 2012 at 2:51 pm
http://wonkette.com/475487/hero-michigan-rep-frank-foster-identifies-appropriate-words-for-lady-parts#more-475487
113 chars
brian stouder said on June 16, 2012 at 4:01 pm
Brandon, wow.
13 chars
Prospero said on June 16, 2012 at 4:14 pm
I’ve always been a fan of the Bronte sisters, so this caught my interest. I always said my daughter was named for Emily B. Her mom says for Emily D. Either way, great literary figures I think. I figure the stories as the sisters told them to each other were probably pornographic anyway.
It’s a funny think about calling someone tha C word. In England, it means something quite different, as Jarvis Cocker does in this great song that plays over the credits in Children of Men:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbGmAKXJoos
Seems pretty obvious Mr. Cocker is talking about somebody exactly like Honorable Frank Foster of the Michigan House of Representatives.
795 chars
Prospero said on June 16, 2012 at 6:12 pm
More fun with guns:
http://wonkette.com/475333/ex-senate-candidate-stands-his-ground-shoots-guy-whose-ground-it-allegedly-also-was
I mean, Americans can be really fracking embarrassing.
191 chars
brian stouder said on June 16, 2012 at 9:57 pm
By the way, the photo in the post isn’t a “Where’s Waldo?” (with regard to the proprietress), is it?
Pam and I attended a very pleasant cook-out earlier today near the west end of Rudisill; it was great stuff, with lots of interesting conversation from various others, including a real-live newspaper man/reporter. By the end of the supply of hotdogs and salad, we had most of the problems of the world identified, if not solved.
433 chars
Prospero said on June 17, 2012 at 12:14 pm
Brian, sorry about the smartassery, but Rudisill sure sounds like an OTC flatulence remedy.
RMoney, meet petards.
Petard no. 1. Rubio’s not going to help out on this one Willard.
Petard no. 2. On this one, he should probably go back to school for a Civics Class. This is something most Americans know, and this doofus doesn’t. And he wants to be President? Not the first time he’s come up short on something about how government works in the USA. Flaps his lips and KABOOM.
I’m sure Mittster is a fan of Harry Wayne Casey and the Sunshine Band, so guess it’s time to Shake, shake, shake your Etch-a-Sketch, dumbass.
Alex, that’s funny about Carmina Burana, and I’ll never listen to it the same way. He who eats kohlrabi, sounds like what they used to call a shibboleth in olden times. Away to differentiate between friends and enemies on dark battlefields. Something to do with cultural differences in what phonemes people could pronounce correctly It’s been repurposed by the modern GOP, only thse days, the term is “dog whistle”.
1324 chars
Prospero said on June 17, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Rodney King was pronounced dead early this morning, after being found in circumstances eerily reminiscent of the death of Brian Jones:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/17/rodney-king-dead-dies-age-47_n_1603604.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D170536
Those LAPD cops are still laughing their asses off that they got tried in Simi Valley and got off scot free.
387 chars
brian stouder said on June 17, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Prospero, that Rodney King news is depressing.
Apart from that, I would have missed this on a quiz, but Henry Rudisill is remembered with a street name as he was “greatly revered as one of the founders of the Lutheran church here”
http://archive.org/stream/streetsoffortway00mcco#page/n23/mode/2up
So, you got me to learn something today. Interestingly, there is talk of renaming one of the most critical arteries in the Fort Wayne street grid. Clinton street (named for DeWitt Clinton) goes right through the middle of town, and the idea is to rename it Martin Luther King Blvd. I think that would be fine, although it would surely be an uphill struggle with the businesses and residences along that thoroughfare. It would be easier to dump Ronald Reagan’s name off of the I-469 bypass, and rename it MLK….but saying that makes me think Clinton is much the better choice, simply because it would be difficult!
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120606/LOCAL/306069977/0/SEARCH
And, one last thing. I mentioned a new summer song that I really like, and since I know that three links in the same post would strike me out and put me into the Proprietress’s penalty box, see the very next post for a genuinely good song, and indeed – the video is (for once) up to the task of artistically capturing the song.
1344 chars
brian stouder said on June 17, 2012 at 3:22 pm
And here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY
Apart from that, the Rodney King news you shared is depressing; he was too young.
That visitation we went to in northwest Ohio last week was for an 86 year old farmer, who was the father of the wife of my older brother. I am told that he never, ever spoke of the war, although he was very happy to fly to Washington DC a few years ago, and view all the big memorials and so on; most especially the United States Marine Corps Memorial – he would insist on correcting anyone who refers to that one as ‘the Iwo Jima’ memorial.
He graduated from Alvordton High School in 1944, and immediately joined the USMC. He was amongst the second wave to hit the beach at Iwo Jima….and indeed, compared to that Ohio kid, I have truly never had a ‘bad day’ in my life!
834 chars
Prospero said on June 17, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Brian, I’d like to see the physical book from which that digital image was made. That plate is beautiful. The image of Colonel Swinney and Swinney Park reminds me of the only other person I can think of with that surname. The football coach at Clemson “University” is named Dabo Sinney. Clemson folks, understandably a bit sensitive about their ag school roots, make sure to pronounce it Sweeney, to avid any connection by FB rivals with swine of any sort, although, I find the given name Dabo stranger for an obvious good ol’ boy. At Clemons, the booster club for sports programs has an acronymic motto, IPTAY. Around the south, this is commonly said to mean, I plow thirty acres yearly.
It struck me about the Rodney King story that cops said his body was discovered by his fiance. Seems to me, for all of his public life and its aftermath, King never had a wife, but always had a fiance. I just hope he had people that loved him, that he had found peace, and that in the hereafter he gets some whacks at those cops that beat him, especially that ghoulish smirking skull, Stacy Koon, who was obviously the ringleader in the assault.
The thing that makes that Gotye song fascinating is the way “somebody” becomes objectified, “a body”. Unusual subtelty for current pop. Like Joe Jackson or Graham Parker Or Elvis Costello back in the day. And the vocal similarity to Gordon Sumner is striking.
1409 chars
brian stouder said on June 17, 2012 at 4:48 pm
And the vocal similarity to Gordon Sumner is striking.
And he LOOKS a bit like Sting, too.
The first time I heard the song it just hit me perfectly. I was essentially ignoring it ’till Shelby (our almost-14 year old) asked me to turn it up…and the semi-Police sound was pleasant enough; but the female vocalist riposte at the end is just marvelous. Genuinely good stuff; I mentioned to Shelby that 20 years from now she’ll hear that song and remember this summer
477 chars
brian stouder said on June 17, 2012 at 7:24 pm
Boy, the vampire franchise must not have been exciting enough
http://interactives.wane.com/photomojo/gallery/1014/63086/mug-shots-in-the-news/stephanie-meyers/
on second thought, never mind!
PS – loved the articles on the movie-making tax credit issue. Seems to me that it created something where there was nothing, so killing it makes no sense….but then, less and less makes sense to me, anymore
409 chars
Prospero said on June 17, 2012 at 7:36 pm
Killing a job-producing tax credit program makes perfect sense to GOPers these days. Anyway, jerks like wannabe Jack Abramoff aside, GOPers have a kneejerk antipathy for movie types. Do they give GOPers money? Have them to fund-raising dinners? Love America and the Constitution. Nope.
Wow brian, that picture is horrifying. And Ketamine is twice as much a trailer trash drug as Oxy.
386 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 17, 2012 at 8:51 pm
A long afternoon in the platform holding zone for an event here in Newark, Ohio [koff] Romney rally [koff] was educational if exhausting, and my son led the crowd in the requisite fascist symbolic gestures. He did it well, in an environment calculated to stress even an experienced public speaker.
About 1,700 turned out, and the crowd management would have been a credit to Temple Grandin. My fifth wheel role left me largely hanging about at the elbow of the Ohio Romney advance team head, and he just talked into his iPhone earphones’ built-in speaking input — that made him stand out, because every other person within fifteen yards of us was talking into their sleeves and wearing dark suits with reflective shades. Kevin was in a dressy shirt that needed pressing, and had an iPhone in one hand, an iPad in the other, and a sheaf of papers in the other. Yes, I know, but somehow he was doing that. Perhaps the whole alien invasion thing is true after all.
If Portman isn’t the running mate, he’s going to be the de facto one (I’m in the minority that thinks a symbolic minority choice like Rubio would do more harm to the Florida senator’s career than good); Portman wasn’t dull and listless, he was a skilled crowd manager himself. Strong speech, and more content than what was to follow. He knows Ohio business and industry and it shows, without coming off as wonky.
Ann was impressive up close as she is on a distant stage; she’s clearly in it to win it. I ended up during the rope line post-speech time talking to Matt Romney, father of twins plus two (or was it three?) more. He’s a bit younger than me, and has three or four more “Number #1 Dad!” mugs than I do. In response to my asking, he talked (convincingly, I thought) about how it actually gets more interesting as you campaign around, because if you don’t look at each community and try to size up “what’s interesting, what’s unique here?” and find something you’re glad you got to see or learn, then you start to react in a rote, mechanical way. He also was quick to volunteer, with no prompting and no obvious cues from me (as far as I could tell), that he thought Barack Obama was an impressive man, with a wonderful family, and that he’s glad he’s turned his gifts to public service, but that he’s quite certain (surprise, surprise!) that his chosen staff is not the right team to manage national affairs both economically and globally.
“So the challenge really is: how do you justly run a campaign against a good man whom you believe is wrong?” I offered, and Matt Romney said “Exactly. I think we are, but when things get rough, it’s tough.” We talked about Scouting, and sons, and how to make the most of time without falling into the “quality time” trap . . . and then the pack began to shift towards the bus.
As things wrapped up, had lots of conversations with our local political leaders. They’re split in fifteen directions among fourteen of them about how to address the health care question, but all agree that resolving employment uncertainty is crucial to getting employers to start hiring faster. None, that I could find, agree on how we get there.
Made some contacts with Portman’s staff on future discussions over affordable housing and World Heritage Status for the Hopewell era Native American earthworks, and got to know a Church of God in Christ (COGIC) preacher from Columbus who did the invocation, and we talked about apprenticeship and training for church leadership. It was far from a red meat crowd, and Mitt served up hot stew, fresh but from the same old family recipe we’ve been serving for years. Not sure what kind of Tabasco or Cholula it needs, but a vegan option isn’t on the menu.
In diet and politics, I think we need to move towards the Bittman-esque model of “meat as garnish,” and the entree serving of American Dream can’t just keep being that each generation gets more beef in the freezer and steaks on the grill than the last. At a certain point, you just can’t eat more red meat. The good life, the better life, is going to have to be redefined. I think that’s known, even on the right, but how to describe that new American Dream still hasn’t come to the party chiefs, whispering like their staffs into their sleeves.
But rounding out the day, I’m still watching and enjoying “Rio Bravo” on TCM. And am very proud of my son’s calm and clear delivery at the microphone for the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s not singing the National Anthem, but either one takes a certain skill in front of a crowd.
4535 chars
brian stouder said on June 17, 2012 at 10:22 pm
Jeff, excellent report; thanks very much! And indeed, good to hear that the fine young son has dad’s public speaking skills. It must have been a very proud moment for you, on Father’s Day.
Portman seems to check all the boxes – chiefly, that he will not do harm.
As soon as tomorrow, the US Supreme Court decision may well be handed down, and then?
Any port (or Portman) in a storm, at that point.
407 chars