Day one of a threatened three-day heat wave is behind us. Huzzah, because it was a little like being an ant under a magnifying glass. The older I get, the more interesting I find the weather, and judging from the Weather Channel demographics, it’s a thing; we all know old people can watch the radar all day. Yesterday, a big bruise of a storm marched across the Mitten, right down I-96. It was already pretty hot, but the storm brought a little relief, but not for long; it had a hot comet’s tail behind it. Driving home from Lansing Monday, the storm having cleared the east coast of the state (but not for long), I heard the temperatures — Detroit 76, Lansing 80, Holland, over there in West Dutchistan, 90.
Ninety-five or so today, so I got my workout in early, riding for an hour at 5:30 a.m. The things you see at that hour: Newspaper delivery people, insomniacs, impossibly early risers, lots of bunnies. It didn’t seem very hot until I got home, when, robbed of the cooling breeze, my head went off like a sprinkler.
Eh, all I had to do is take out the trash — it’s not like I needed opera gloves.
So, let’s go to the bloggage, because I’m t’ard:
I found even the trailer excruciating. Imagine what it was like to actually watch, and review, “That’s My Boy.” Eric Zorn found out — about the reviewing, anyway:
Eric D. Snider, Film.com: I exited the theater …. my spirit broken, my optimism shattered, my soul reborn under a thick, cynical shell. (It’s a) putrid comedy (featuring many examples of its) rancid screenplay’s festering laziness….Somehow stretched to an excruciating 116 minutes in length, the film offers seven or eight genuinely clever lines, but they are drowned out by the braying, pointless stupidity that surrounds them.
More at the link. Funny.
But when it comes to excruciating entertainment, can you really beat “Stars Earn Stripes?” It features Todd Palin. Gotta see the picture at the link; it’s like an asshole Avengers.
Man, I’m whipped. Let’s get through Hump Day, and cruise on into the back half of things.
Brandon said on June 20, 2012 at 12:56 am
“Gotta see the picture at the link; it’s like an asshole Avengers.”
Terry Crews was in The Expendables. Not an asshole, as far as I’m concerned. And certainly not Dean Cain! But Wesley Clark? Yes.
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Brandon said on June 20, 2012 at 2:16 am
And I wouldn’t call Laila Ali or Eve Torres assholes to their face.
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Dexter said on June 20, 2012 at 2:52 am
That Adam Sandler clunker looks like it sucks, but the new Steve Carell looks OK.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1307068/
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Brandon said on June 20, 2012 at 3:13 am
What Dean Cain is doing nowadays:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/07/whatever-happened-to-superman-hunk-dean-cain.html?obref=obinsite
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MarkH said on June 20, 2012 at 4:31 am
One of the things I don’t miss about the midwest is the heat & humidity, so I feel for you, Nance. Today here is supposed to be the same as yesterday, 55 deg. after mid-30s overnight, lots of sunshine.
The sad thing about Sandler films is that lots of people (who are they?) must be going to see them. They’re making money, or they wouldn’t keep making them.
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coozledad said on June 20, 2012 at 6:29 am
When they start cranking out the “Asshole Avengers” franchise, you know they’ll be trying to tap Todd or Sarah for at least a cameo.
Octomom’s got her own fingerbanger now, why not?
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 20, 2012 at 7:24 am
Say, as to yesterday’s title: I assumed it was an alphabetic turn on “by the numbers.” Reading “The Vagina Monologues” from a binder as public performance, Mitch phoning it in on a bad cell connection to his cerebellum, Bristol bemoaning her self-imposed fate; W, X, Y, & Z.
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alex said on June 20, 2012 at 7:33 am
The last Sandler film I ever suffered through must have been at least ten years ago—Bigelow the Gigolo or some such—and it’s hard to fathom how anyone is paying him to ply the same schtick or that he could make it any more facile and puerile. On the other hand, these reviews are so delightful I’m half tempted to see what the fuss is all about.
I, too, rose early this A.M. and have been running all over my property dragging sprinklers around and the parched earth is practically sizzling when the water hits. I draw water from a lake and pity the folks who have to rely on city water—and observe bans on watering—as they helplessly watch their plants perish. A lot of people around here don’t even avail themselves of the water at hand and it’s quite something to see vinca and ferns in the woods all curled up and brown. This is one bad-ass drought.
I predict that within five years we’re gonna see Sarah Palin take off her clothes on pay-per-view when all other media have tired of her.
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alex said on June 20, 2012 at 8:08 am
Who made this dolt a columnist?
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beb said on June 20, 2012 at 8:21 am
Like most people I first saw Adam Sadler on Saturday Night Live. Unlike most people I wasn’t impressed. In fact every skit he was in tended to be cringeworthy if not completely repulsive. I never understood how his movies made money. His new one apparently under-performed on opening weekend so maybe our long, national nightmare of Sadler movies is about over….
Deuce Bigelow, Male Gigolo, (which I had to look up) was a Rob Schneider vehicle. I’m not sure if Sadler was in it. It’s not a Sadler movie but the distinction is slight.
Speaking of Asshole Avengers, wasn’t the the working title for “Mystery Men” starring Ben Stiller. MM is actually a pleasant little film, doing the superhero thing in advance of must of the big budget films. I wonder if “The Watch”, formerly “Neighborhood Watch” before that Zimmerman dude ruined the whole idea, will be more like Mystery Men or That’s My Boy.
Sarah Palin taking her clothes off? The only way to make her look attractive would be in a long shot with plenty of vaseline on the lens. Kind of line in Tootsie when the cameraman is asked to pull back and he asked if Cleveland was far enough. As for Slutty Palin going nude within five years. I think that’s a near-certainty.
I see that the military in Egypt unilaterally imposed new rules on the democratically elected government, because the wrong people were put in power. Ah, democracy. The people in the Gaza strip voted out the old, corrupt government and suddenly Israel cracks down on them, because the new, less corrupt regime was Hamas. Every body wants democracy except the people in power.
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basset said on June 20, 2012 at 8:26 am
My first thought was that the “stripes” would involve a whip across someone’s back. We can still hope.
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Jolene said on June 20, 2012 at 8:35 am
Sandler was on the Letterman show recently, and Dave was embarrassingly effusive about what a great career he’s had. I think, though, that he was mainly impressed by how much money Sandler’s movies have made, which, as I recall, was either two or three billion dollars. Somebody must like ’em.
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Julie Robinson said on June 20, 2012 at 9:05 am
Alex, my life is more serene since I restricted my N-S reading to the comics page and little else.
I think Sandler has some real talent, but like fellow SNL alum Mike Myers*, found success in stupidity and crudity, and has been unwilling or unable to rise above that level. As MarkH points out, it doesn’t say much for our country that his movies continue to find audiences.
*Exhibit 1: the entire Austin Powers series, although I did find the first Wayne’s World amusing.
I’m curious as to what the council here thinks about Hosni Mubarek’s supposed strokes/heart attacks. Coincidental timing or induced by the military?
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Bitter Scribe said on June 20, 2012 at 10:01 am
I completely agree with Julie, about both Sandler and Myers. Sometimes I wonder if it ever bothers Sandler that “Adam Sandler movie” has become a synonym for “crap,” but if it does, he probably hauls out his bankbook and forgets all about it.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 20, 2012 at 10:11 am
If I may beg your indulgence, since there’s nowhere else I can express this candidly other than to my long-suffering wife:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2012/06/20/a-full-accounting.html
Damn. Damn. Damn. (And that’s my quota for 2012.)
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Julie Robinson said on June 20, 2012 at 10:22 am
Cheating on tests and attendance records are the natural and logical consequences of No Child Left Behind, just as surely as the night follows the day.
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Deborah said on June 20, 2012 at 10:24 am
Jeff tmmo, those kind of fudged numbers happen all the time in corporations. People don’t seem to pay any attention to it and in fact applaud those who fudge for gaming the system. Sad.
And speaking of sad, I like Beb’s spelling of Sandler, it’s more descriptive.
Alex and Julie, I’m sorry you folks have that Dolt columnist representing your city’s opinions. Capital D, Dolt.
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Prospero said on June 20, 2012 at 10:27 am
The Dean Cain TV version of Supe was pretty good vapid entertainment, and he was reduced to Believe It or Not, but seeing Terry Crews in that list of participants hurts. Chris’s dad? Say it ain’t so. Anybody that hasn’t seen Everybody Hates Chris has missed the best 1/2-hour comedy on TV since Frazier kicked. He also played the President in Idiocracy, which was actually decent. This has to be bad karma biting him in the ass for taking part in the execrable Longest Yard remake that starred…Adam Sandler. Can’t really explain it, but I sorta liked The Wedding Singer. Well actually, it is explainable. The Sandler and Barrymore characters were actually very decent, nice people and it was easy to root for them to be happy. The new Sandler offaling, a Mossberg over-under 12 gauge to my head could not induce viewing.
One thing I’ll say for Sandler though, I prefer outright aggression to the passive kind from Steve Carrel’s “work”. I’ve never found The Office remotely watchable, and his movies, like 40 Year Old Virgin, if you gave me a bunch of Thorazine and sat me in fromt of it, I’d find a way to escape. Same for anything with Seth Rogen, Zach Galifinakis. Michael Cera’s in that category too, but not so much he can ruin an entire movie by his presence. Those guys in a cast? I’d rather watch Happy Gilmore again and see the Bob Barker bout.
It is depressing to see Wesley Clark in that lineup, too. The anti-Schwarzkopf managed to add a touch of class to a presidential primary, a heroic achievement, and deserves much better from a grateful nation.
Jeff (tmmo): Here’s something you might find worthwhile that I came across after conversing with you the other day about the Yeahbutt Democrats that are never satisfied with anything Obama does:
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jun/18/curse-political-purity/
The folks that complained that the Bain strikes were too much like GOP tactics are mostly the Yeahbutts, and their argument is largely “We don’t want to stoop to their level.” I say, it’s better than letting Robert Bork appoint himself to the SC. And I say, litmus tests and political purity are what make the modern GOP so dangerous to the Constitution.
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Joe K said on June 20, 2012 at 10:29 am
With you on the early workout, I ran 7 around lake Gage this morning around 7am.
got done and hit that cold fresh spring fed water, Orgasmic. When I played rugby we used to have a tourney during 3rivers, we played at Franke park, the pitches were always rock hard. We would wear Gym shoes instead of cleats because the cleats got no traction. This summer reminds me of those games, but man did we play hard, partied hard afterwords also, some time I’ll have to relate the story of 8 rugby teams having a party in the old greyhound bus depot in downtown Fort Wayne.
Pilot Joe
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Prospero said on June 20, 2012 at 10:34 am
Joe,
You may want your lawyer present for telling that tale. Barracuda, barracuda.
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MaryRC said on June 20, 2012 at 10:36 am
Sandler has tried at times to make more serious movies, for example Spanglish (he wasn’t bad) and a couple of others which I haven’t seen, one called Funny People. But they failed at the box office. I’ve seen it said (or speculated) that these latest terrible offerings are Sandler’s way of saying “OK, you want trash? Here’s your trash!”
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LAMary said on June 20, 2012 at 11:11 am
Punchdrunk Love wasn’t bad. I think I was one of the four people who saw it. Anything else I’ve seen has been awful. Even the billboards for his movies are awful.
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Sue said on June 20, 2012 at 11:22 am
It appears that the Executive Privilege tables have been turned:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/obama_asserts_executive_privilege_on_fast_and_furious_documents.php?ref=fpa
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Joe K said on June 20, 2012 at 11:28 am
Pro’s
Most times we disagree but you made me laugh out loud. I have participated in a cuda or two
Pilot Joe
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Dorothy said on June 20, 2012 at 11:32 am
The only Sandler movie I’ve ever seen all the way through is Punch Drunk Love. I really, really liked it. So much that I sat through it a second time because I thought my husband would like it, too and wanted to see it with him. But please don’t ask me to sit through any of his other movies. IMDB.com shows he has four more coming out/in production after That’s My Boy. He must be surrounded by Yes people.
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Charlotte said on June 20, 2012 at 11:34 am
I can’t stand Sandler’s movies, but I’ve had a soft spot for him ever since Chris Farley died. Because my brother went to camp with the Farleys (also with Randy Hopper, disgraced Wisconsin senator), we wound up at the funeral. Saddest funeral you’ve ever been to, and Sandler was beside himself. A complete puddle of weeping, heartbroken mess. For that, I’ve always loved him, since all of us uptight Irish Catholics were gutting it out by sitting up very straight and biting the insides of our cheeks.
And MarkH — the weather out west is one reason I never went back to the Midwest — I get off a plane in Chicago in the summer, hit that wall of humidity, and want to throw up. Cold last night up here, but we’re having weird lines of afternoon storms. Love the rain, but my arthritic 12 year old spaniel is having a hard time …
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Sue said on June 20, 2012 at 11:40 am
Charlotte, plus he loves his dogs.
I’ve heard Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell are genuinely nice people who keep making awful movies because people keep throwing money at them to do so. It wouldn’t surprise me if one or both of them end up their career like Bill Murray, rich enough to take roles they like and smart enough to pick interesting ones.
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Heather said on June 20, 2012 at 11:42 am
Here in Chicago we’re on the last day (I hope) of a four- or five-day 90-degree-plus heat wave. I hate AC but as I’m working from home today I may need to turn it on soon. I was in Milwaukee this weekend for a ladies’ getaway and it was a little cooler there. Years ago a friend of mine said we should all move there en masse as it was like Chicago in the 40s. I don’t know if that’s exactly accurate, but we did enjoy the total lack of traffic on a Saturday.
Since we’re talking about Dean Cain I of course have to mention that I met him about ten years ago at some local fashion event. He was an amiable guy–of course everyone was fawning over him as we don’t get celebs here all that often, and even a C-lister like him gets people all aflutter.
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Jeff Borden said on June 20, 2012 at 11:50 am
I am afraid to take out my camera for fear that a Palin will jump in front of it. Now it’s Tahhd’s turn? Just shoot me now.
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John (not McCain) said on June 20, 2012 at 11:51 am
Punch Drunk Love is the only romantic comedy I’ve ever liked, but it’s more in spite of Adam Sandler than because of him. All he really does is repress his Adam Sandler-ness. It’s the director (PT Anderson) and co-star (Emily Watson) that bring all the goodness.
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Prospero said on June 20, 2012 at 11:56 am
Just sayin’ Joe, you might want to check those statutes of limitations. I always preferred mayhem with pads on, but certainly attended a few rugby parties. Someone had to be sober enough to triage the casualties.
Sue@23, Issa took over that chairmanship with the stated intention of going witch-hunting. This is especially galling because Issa barely escaped prison for GTA and arson for profit in CA when his brother took the rap for him. The convoluted rightwing conspiracy theory here is that the Administration is pursuing its agenda of “coming for everyone’s guns” and making Honest gunshow dealers look bad by “slow walking” weapoons into the hands of Mexican narcocriminals. This is a willful distortion of facts, since Fast and Furious was designed and instituted while Bush was still President.
Does anybody else think it’s what’s wrong with Citizens United in a nutshell that Adelson is handing over $10mil for RMoney to fight back against those scurrilous Obama attacks on Bain and RMoney when the fool backed Gingrich not two months ago and 100% financed the half-hour Bain attack movie for the eft? I mean, I’m glad this guy is throwing away his cash, sort of, but even some idealogue dickhead like Scalia should be able to understan the lunacy he’s let loose by determining that money is speech and corporation are people, and none of the big spenders are accountable for their behavior.
The justice department has turned over more than 20thou documents to Issa’s committee, and the committee is demanding 80thou more. I say cooperation requires turning over the docs from Cheney’s tea party with Enron to write US energy policy first, then talk. Pretzeldent W also used executive privilege in the shameful Pat Tillman coverup, and to protect TurdBlossom after he exposed Valerie Plame.
Borden, that’s hilarious.
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brian stouder said on June 20, 2012 at 12:17 pm
X, Y, Z
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Connie said on June 20, 2012 at 12:28 pm
I’m not the movie goer many of you seem to be. I think the only Adam Sandler movie I have actually watched is The Wedding Singer. The last movie I saw in the theater was The King’s Speech. Last movies I watched on In Demand are Cowboys and Aliens and Contagion.
This afternoon I am off to visit the Overdrive Bookmobile at a neighboring library. I see it will be visiting Ohio next month, so if you are looking for help with your local library’s ebook download program – most likely it is Overdrive – it’s coming to buckeye land soon. http://www.digitalbookmobile.com/Calendar.aspx
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Sherri said on June 20, 2012 at 12:33 pm
I didn’t even like Punch-Drunk Love, so I’ve stayed far away from anything else with Adam Sandler in it. Maybe someday Hollywood will start making movies for people other than arrested adolescent males. Of course, Adam Carolla says it’s because chicks aren’t funny.
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MichaelG said on June 20, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Just got back from Chicago (Tinley Park) where, over the weekend, I attended my 50th High School reunion. Interesting and a good time.
Gotta love the TSA. On the tram heading for the security check point at SMF last Thursday, I noticed a very attractive forty something woman dressed nicely in dark slacks and a form fitting, white patterned blouse. I know, I know, but while I may be old, I’m not dead. I lost sight of her until I was tying my shoes after clearing. I looked up and there she was, about ten feet away being frisked. The TSA slag was feeling her up quite intimately with both hands under the woman’s arms, the woman standing stoically with her hands in the air and her eyes closed. Then the slag grabbed her breasts from behind and I had to turn away in embarrassment and finish tying my shoes facing the opposite direction. I saw maybe two or three seconds worth of the humiliation. It was horrible. God knows what the poor woman was thinking while she was being groped so brutishly and intimately right out in public. I don’t even want to know what the TSA slag was thinking.
Then when I got to my hotel and opened my bag, which I had checked, there was one of those stupid notifications from the TSA stating that they had creeped my luggage. The jacket, slacks, tie and shirts that I had so neatly, so carefully packed were piled in a tangled heap. They creeped my bag again on the trip home but the clothes were used by that time so it wasn’t so bad.
Thank God for the TSA and their eternal vigilance. I feel so safe.
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beb said on June 20, 2012 at 1:10 pm
I think the first Austin Powers movie was pretty smart and funny. Sure it had it’s crude moments but how do you parody a James Bond movie except by making “Bond” a crude ass. The rest of it, Dr. Evil and his out of date sense of costs, Number Two who was doing quite well being an evil corporate leader, Seth Green as Dr. Evil’s practical minded son. Those parts were so spot on. Now the rest of the series were just continuations of the potty humor.
What Julie said @16: When testing becomes the only determinator in schools then teachers and principals were cheat to met those goals. This was discussed in a fascination chapter in “Freakonomics” about the relationship between Teachers and Sumo Wrestlers. The wrestlers need to win a certain number of matches from a subset of all their matches so those on the bubble with arrange trade with those who have already made their quota, a win where it counts for a loss later.
Deborah: I’m happy that my chronic misspelling of things has given you a laff today. Apologizes if I’ve misspelt your name.
And a +1 to Jeff Borden@29.
Remember the old story about not fixing a hole in the roof because it’s raining. I think it’s time to be the AC units up from the basement … only its too hot to do anything.
MichaelG: and the teapartiers in Congress think that all we need to do to fix TSA is to privatize the agency. When the truth is we could probably do just fine without them at all.
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MichaelG said on June 20, 2012 at 1:16 pm
I’ve never seen an Adam Sandler movie and based on what I’ve read here, never will. I saw Ken Levine’s take down of Adam Carolla today. What a jerk. Carolla I mean.
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Brandon said on June 20, 2012 at 1:33 pm
http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2012/06/adam-carolla-is-moron.html
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Dan B said on June 20, 2012 at 1:50 pm
The Wedding Singer was, I thought, a genuinely good movie. I haven’t seen anything else from Sandler and have no desire to. Of course, I don’t see that many movies, anyway.
A comment that I saw that seemed related to several of the topics that have come up so far, from a very good post about the current mess at the University of Virginia (http://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/2012/06/18/no-fig-leaves),
“I think this is one of the great snake-oil myths of the last thirty years: that corporatized management in public institutions produces efficient attention to return on investment, careful use of human resources and so on. What it really produces is the ability to hide operations behind the veil of the private, shield management from accountability, and to have ‘customers’ (e.g., citizens) who have no choice but to accept the product as offered.”
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Peter said on June 20, 2012 at 1:58 pm
Beb, while I would agree with you on Austin Powers, I think the French OSS117 films are better parodies, and they’re done on the premise that OSS117 (Jean Dujardin of The Artist) is a clueless chauvinist, a Middle East expert who hasn’t heard of Islam.
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Suzanne said on June 20, 2012 at 2:16 pm
The other interesting comment from that Swarthmore blog is this: “The idea that managers in business are generally competent at this sort of thing is belied by most all of the evidence I have seen working in marketing for a number of years in a variety of positions. Most managers aren’t in place long enough to care about knowledge of their space…” Amen!
I’ve worked in both for-profit and non-profit/government funded entities, and I’d say I’ve seen way more incompetence in the for-profit. I have no idea why conservative Christians who will tell you all about the depravity of man and how badly we need to be saved from ourselves seem to think that a business degree grants life and salvation to all who partake in it, and turns to abject sinner into a champion of goodness and justice. Businesses, they seem to believe, fail only because of the greedy and lazy employees, never the utter incompetence or avarice of the management. Never.
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Deborah said on June 20, 2012 at 2:20 pm
I’m having one of those days at work where I have absolutely nothing to do. Lots of clients on vacation, and general slowness in the summer. So boring. I keep checking back here for comments to keep me from going to sleep. The heat doesn’t help the sluggishness, although after returning from my sweaty lunch walk, I’m freezing in the air-conditioning. I’m off for a few days, and all next week because of the Santa Fe move. If I can just make it through the next few hours…
edit: Sue I’m saving your comment to use on my right-wing sister when the time is right: “I have no idea why conservative Christians who will tell you all about the depravity of man and how badly we need to be saved from ourselves seem to think that a business degree grants life and salvation to all who partake in it, and turns an abject sinner into a champion of goodness and justice. Businesses, they seem to believe, fail only because of the greedy and lazy employees, never the utter incompetence or avarice of the management. Never.”
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Sherri said on June 20, 2012 at 2:27 pm
I had the er, pleasure, of being felt up by the TSA about a year and a half ago, soon after they put the enhanced pat down measures in. I was flying soon after surgery for an ACL and was still in a knee brace from mid-thigh to mid-calf. My screener told me she’d feel under my breasts with the back of her hand, like that was supposed to make me feel better. Fortunately, I wasn’t still in much pain from the surgery, so it didn’t hurt when she stuck her hand down in my brace. And I was able to bear weight without my crutches, so I could send the crutches through the X-ray machine. Of course, I still had to take my shoes off.
Security theater at its finest.
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Joe K said on June 20, 2012 at 2:38 pm
I love the tsa, I hope they get more invasive. keeps us charter pilots in business. Doing a trip Thursday, Pontiac to Milwaukee, one of the main reasons is no tsa.
Pilot Joe
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MarkH said on June 20, 2012 at 2:51 pm
Seriously, who in the hell is Adam Carolla?
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Deborah said on June 20, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Mark H, my thoughts exactly.
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Sue said on June 20, 2012 at 3:17 pm
If you want to see ‘women’s humor’, watch the coffee shop scene from Bridesmaids.
I can’t help feeling that Adam Carolla is well aware of what women’s humor is all about and it scares the shit out of him. “If men knew what women laugh at, they’d never sleep with us again.”
Well, Cooze would. Wouldn’t faze him at all, I suspect.
Plus, poor Steve Carell is probably going to spend the next five years explaining that he’s not a total douche and that was someone else who said those horrible things.
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MichaelG said on June 20, 2012 at 3:22 pm
I don’t know anything about Carolla other than what is presented in Levine’s blog. I do know that Levine is a very highly respected comedy writer and that his daughter is also a comedy writer. It seems Carolla hit a nerve.
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Sherri said on June 20, 2012 at 3:58 pm
Adam Carolla wishes he were Adam Sandler. He did “The Man Show” with Jimmy Kimmel.
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coozledad said on June 20, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Sue: I always thought good humor writing is the same as any other good writing, and to some extent any good piece of writing has all the elements of a good joke. Any time I hear V.S. Naipaul going on about “why the woman cannot write-a-the novel” or hear some bitterly unself-aware grave straddler like Chris Hitchens puke up “women cannot make-a-the funny” I know I’m hearing the distress call of a third rate intellect covering his balls in terror.
How’s this for an equally sexist riposte: Women have to be talked into giving it up. They’re more verbal.
Your male writer, on the other hand, will be sufficiently overwhelmed by the flashing of some parts to shed the ability to form complete sentences. I think we know who’s going to write a better, funnier, more brutal account of the ensuing minute and a half of love’s old song.
Perhaps alone among the men of his age, Goya understood this:
http://www.artsunlight.com/artist-NG/N-G0002-Francisco-de-Goya-y-Lucientes/N-G0002-045-the-straw-manikin-el-pelele.html
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Brandon said on June 20, 2012 at 5:02 pm
Adam Carolla
I remember when he co-hosted Loveline on MTV with Dr. Drew Pinsky.
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brian stouder said on June 20, 2012 at 5:08 pm
A link to an interesting Cafferty article at CNN
http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/20/how-can-republicans-attract-voters-other-than-old-white-men/?hpt=hp_t2
an excerpt:
The problem is, the proportion of white voters in the electorate has dropped from 88% in 1976 to 74% in 2008. At the same time, minority groups grew from 12% to 26%.
And the capper question: Here’s my question to you: How can Republicans attract voters other than old white men? Tune in to the Situation Room at 4pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
I think Jack’s off, a bit (so to speak).
If all the Republicans did was actively work to not drive people away, they could worry a lot less about trying to attract people who aren’t old and white and male.
And in fact, if the old white males figure out that the GOP man-crush for that Wisconsin member of congress who looks like Eddie Munster means the END of Medicare and Social Security, they’ll lose them (and all their angry spittle), too.
(and who knows? Tomorrow being Thursday, the US Supreme Court may well follow the summer solstice with their own scintillating societal smash-up. We shall soon see…)
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Jolene said on June 20, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Fascinating afternoon time-waster: A detailed infographic re Civil War casualties.
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MarkH said on June 20, 2012 at 5:33 pm
I have posted this before, but I’ll say it again, because, well, it came up here again today:
The sooner the nude photos of Sarah Palin appear (hell, Bristol, too, because why not?), the sooner every last vestige of honest curiosity about these people will be satisfied and they can go away. And then we can be done with them because after that, who cares? They will be banished to the entertainment pages, TMZ and Maxim (Hustler?) for the requisite short shelf life there. Bad for Prospero and Jeff Borden, though, depriving them of material here.
And, beb, I disgree with you at #10. SP still has a bit going there.
So, OK.
Sherri, thanks, I do now remember Carolla from the travesty that was The Man Show.
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brian stouder said on June 20, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Jolene – that was indeed an interesting infographic.
One thing they left out, which would more than double the gross casualty total – but which would not be divisible by battle – is the toll that sickness took.
Indeed, it makes one paraphrase the president’s remark to (Meigs?) – when the General in Chief (McClellan) himself had typhoid, and we had already lost at Bull Run, and the Union army was in a defensive crouch around Washington DC: the bottom was out of the tub.
That war is just so vexing; or more specifically, our 21st century memory of that war causes me great discomfort.
That war wasn’t that long ago; the same “no compromise” attitude that took such root then seems to be budding and readying to bloom right now; and people that one would expect to know better, for example the Senate nominee of the Party of Lincoln from the state of Indiana – Lincoln’s boyhood home….who seems to be a genuine know-nothing stooge, and who has every chance of taking a seat in the Senate; THAT guy mangles the meaning of Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech into an incoherent mish-mash…..
Jolene, if I turn this into a 200 word letter to the editor, I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, Mourdock is busily ‘splainin’ what he really meant about favoring allowing employers to drop insurance coverage for, say, cancer – if they want to save costs.
If he wants to borrow a Lincoln-ism, he might refer to his healthcare “ideas” as root hog, or die
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Deborah said on June 20, 2012 at 6:03 pm
Jolene, Great infographic. I love stuff like that. If you want a real day waster go to this site http://chartporn.org
This is one of my favorites from Chart Porn http://chartporn.org/2012/05/08/why-do-i-feel-thirsty/
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Sherri said on June 20, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Brian, what I’m finding more vexing is that nobody seems to remember 1931, much less than Civil War. Read “The Lords of Finance”, substitute the Euro for the gold standard, take out talk of war reparations, and it’s hard not to feel like you’re reading today’s headlines. Will Greece be the Creditanstalt moment?
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brian stouder said on June 20, 2012 at 6:27 pm
Sherri – an excellent, excellent point.
Because, in the truest sense, every war is a ‘civil war’, your 1931 example is spot-on.
There is a book called “Paris 1919” about the efforts to close out the “Great War” and move forward, and the ultimate – and utterly comprehensive – failure in that effort.
If we take a unitary look at the horrible collapse of civilization in Europe in 1914, and the 1918 time-out (lasting just long enough to raise another generation of people) and the 1939 resumption of the slaughter, as really being one protracted human event, it is easier to see how quickly know-nothingism and simplistic thinking and mindless villification can take hold, and how HARD it is to put that stuff down once you pick it up.
People forget that, ‘we the people’ are all just folks, too; and we (Americans) are not immune to the same sort of folly that befell Europe not so long ago
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Jeff Borden said on June 20, 2012 at 6:37 pm
MarkH,
I will find plenty of new material. I sincerely, truly, with every fiber of my being wish this collection of fame whores, grifters, intellectual weaklings and outright evil, lazy, lying sacks of shit would disappear from this planet. Yeah, they’re the same as the Kardashians, but every time one of those overhyped assholes says something, it doesn’t generate headlines in POLITICAL stories.
Hank’s review was a lovely and wonderful autopsy and the best review I’ve read among the handful I’ve seen on the revirginized Bristol’s latest efforts to generate cash without really working. If there has been a positive review of this effluence, I’ve yet to see it.
Rather than a nude photo shoot, I envision a “foxy boxing” contest between Mooselini and an aging Tanya Harding, who has already beaten another conservative icon in Paula Jones. It will be ugly. When the spotlight starts to dim, the Palins are going full-metal Snopes on us.
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Suzanne said on June 20, 2012 at 6:47 pm
“People forget that, ‘we the people’ are all just folks, too; and we (Americans) are not immune to the same sort of folly that befell Europe not so long ago” Yes, but there are a great number of people in this country (voters, too) who truly believe that we are different, that God loves us more, and that He would never allow us to fail.
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Jolene said on June 20, 2012 at 6:49 pm
Another great infographic: This one concerns the history of empires in the Middle East. (Forgive me if I’ve posted this before. It’s been around for several years, and I find it fascinating.) The changes portrayed over time are, of course, not the result of peaceful change. When you consider how much blood has been spilled there, it’s hardly surprising that it is still such a troubled territory.
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Sherri said on June 20, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Brian, I agree, “Paris 1919” is a good book, also useful for understanding what happened between the wars and all too reminiscent of what’s happening again. Do you have any recommendations for reading about why the Great War happened, the forces that caused the collapse of civilization in Europe in 1914? I don’t feel like I’ve ever gotten a good understanding of that.
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MarkH said on June 20, 2012 at 6:58 pm
Dang, Jeff, and here I tought I was giving you and Prospy an out. Even for you guys, Palin & family have to eventually be ceded to the Why Bother file. I’m just hoping to accelerate the event. For someone who has been labeled She Who(must not be named), she sure gets named and talked about alot around here. She has ZERO of anything to offer and it amazes me that even Fox seeks her, uh, opinions on a regular basis.
EDIT — And, yes, I would likely sink to pay-per-view for a look at a Tonya/SP smackdown.
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MarkH said on June 20, 2012 at 7:03 pm
Sherri – very detailed, but Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August has always been a go-to book for understanding the origins of WWI.
http://www.amazon.com/Guns-August-Pulitzer-Prize-Winning-Outbreak/dp/0345476093/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340233271&sr=1-1&keywords=the+guns+of+august
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brian stouder said on June 20, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Sherri – the best thing I’ve read about the Great War is also one of only about 10 that touch that subject, so assign limited credibility to this, but: I really seemed to learn a lot from Lyn Macdonald’s “1915; The Death of Innocence”. Her book captures much; and rather than relegate the words of the people who were direct participants to the footnotes and endnotes, she constructs her narrative and then weaves supporting letters and journals of those people directly into it.
Another interesting book was The German High Command by Robert Asprey; taught me about that Kaiser fellow, and Hindenburg and Ludendorff.
One more book, that possibly captures the Mitt Romney/top-down/1% view of powerful people (men) of that day is Kitchener, by John Pollock.
Aside from that, but further to the idea of stridency and ideology, there’s this remarkable bit of news from Nancy’s old news paper.
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120609/NEWS/120609601/1005/PREPSPORTS
This is the local hard-right lip flapper who took over for the last local hard right lip flapper, who replaced the local lip flapper that Nancy used to occasionally go on-air with, and who was deemed NOT hard-right enough.
What’s remarkable is, I found the newest guy to be flatly racist and inflexibly hard-right…and, if you believe the chatter from one of the hard-right local bloggers (“Angry White Boy”, if that tells you anything), the newest guy got fired for NOT BEING HARD-RIGHT ENOUGH, too!!!
I Googled around, and the righties seem to be crowing and clucking about how they went after local advertisers and got the guy fired.
And in his place? Sean Hannity’s national show now spews.
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alex said on June 20, 2012 at 9:25 pm
I’ve been all over and seen just about everything but as Brian’s link above suggests, I have probably never seen a higher concentration of belligerent morons than right here in Hoosierland. Nance one time summed up the Fort Wayne mentality perfectly: “We like it like it used to be.” And that goes for hair styles and eyewear on the surface, certainly, but is really about female subjugation and racial intolerance at the core.
I don’t know why I thought living in a middle- to upper-middle-class enclave would isolate me from it. This sort of mentality is so ingrained that even such well-to-do citizens as Dick Freeland and Don Willis talk like teabaggers and go to churches where they gyrate and speak in tongues. Or so I’ve heard.
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Sherri said on June 20, 2012 at 9:37 pm
Thanks for the recommendations, Brian and Mark.
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Suzanne said on June 20, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Alex @66. Yes. I quit a job in Fort Wayne some time ago as it become increasingly clear that the unstated motto of the place was “Oh, for the wonder years when women and blacks knew their place.” I was afraid of what being around that every day would do to me.
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Dexter said on June 20, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Things I have learned that surprised me:
Jim Varney was the most-highly thought of comedian among his peers. It was said he could improv with just the hint of any topic and have the room howling in less than thirty seconds.
Any of you folks ever see his stand-up act?
Cedric the Entertainer is the nicest man in the biz. The people I heard discussing his appearance on a live interview show said he was “sweet” and “nice”, and he jumped in and filled a couple gaps when some glitches messed with the production somewhat.
Taxi Driver, worked up into 2012
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 20, 2012 at 10:44 pm
If anyone is looking for some Ohio cosmic connections during the next few days through the weekend, there are summer solstice events with a Native American spin from here in Newark, OH through down by Cincinnati on Saturday (and the SunWatch Village Powwow south of Dayton Saturday & Sunday):
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/06/16/ohios-magnificent-earthworks-offer-heavenly-and-earthly-delights-all-summer-118726
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