I really need to keep up on the rest of the paper. As many of you know, I ignore the sports section. Sorry, sports fans, but it’s just too late for me. I read world/nation, metro, business and arts. There are many fine sportswriters in the world and I look them up when I can, but keeping up is something I don’t have time for.
So it was that I learned that a Los Angeles Laker named “Metta World Peace” elbowed an opponent during a game the other day and was ejected. Shouldn’t there be some explanation of the name? Wait, there was explanation of the name? Back when it was changed? From who? Ohhhh, Ron Artest. That guy. He started the brawl at the Palace. And now he’s calling himself World Peace, but I don’t get the Metta. Can anyone explain this? He sounds like he’s still a long way from peaceful.
During my time on the sports copy desk — a six-month stretch that will provide me with a lifetime of boring dinner-party stories — I came to think of basketball as Armpit Season. Picture after picture of armpits. It got old.
In ten days, I’m going to a Tigers game, however. Because free tickets + warm spring night (I hope) = awesome.
Bloggage tonight? Yeah, some:
A stupid Kathleen Parker column. (Yeah, what else is new, right?) A funny Charles Pierce comment on it.
David Simon has a blog (a website, anyway). E-i-e-i-o.
Dexter said on April 26, 2012 at 12:42 am
If the tickets are free, maybe they are down low in the field level. Watch out for foul balls screaming in there at you. The Tigers are a bunch of bad-ass sluggers , two of them the best in the world, so be alert. However, the Tigers are playing horribly right now and lots of booing from the stands is occurring. In a few weeks, all will be well and the fans will be cheering. A lifetime of fandom has convinced me that Detroit is the best sports city in the land.
I have told here before how I used to buy every newspaper I could get my hands on daily. I frequently would take a couple of them into the bar after work and finish some stories I had started at work. I’d leave the papers on top of a counter where the local papers were for anyone to read. The owner saw no one would ever touch anything but the sports pages, and he kindly told me to only leave the sports sections.
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Sherri said on April 26, 2012 at 1:19 am
The Metta came from the Buddhist world for loving kindness.
My favorite sports name change was World B. Free, a basketball player from the 70’s and 80’s. His birth name was Lloyd B. Free.
Here’s a deal for you: you read Kathleen Parker for me, and I’ll read the sports section for you. Gladly.
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Jolene said on April 26, 2012 at 2:48 am
That Kathleen Parker column almost made me laugh out loud. Such hysteria, and you know that if something embarrassing had happened, she’d have loved it. She is at the top of the list of columnists any one of us could do better than.
I do give her credit for saying what any person with an above-room-temperature IQ was thinking about Sarah Palin early and straightforwardly, but, really, how insightful or courageous do you have to be to say that She Who was an underprepared doofus?
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JWfromNJ said on April 26, 2012 at 4:08 am
Preaching to the choir here – on the few occaisons where “Lady Gaga” is mentioned in a story I have written she is referred to as, “Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, who performs as “Lady Gaga.” why? Because she pisses me the f off and so does her “music”
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Linda said on April 26, 2012 at 6:24 am
Yep, you have to avoid VISITING a state with a former Democratic candidate who sexually misbehaved, because voters will draw that straight line. Too funny.
Again, a rerun of the 80s, when Democrats who wailed on and on about Reagan’s bad taste joke about blowing up the world as if it were a violation of an international agreement. It made the Dems at the time look like pissant, hysterical crybabies, and insubstantial whines like Parker’s make Republicans look like that now. Whiny little people with no substantial gripes, with only spitballs to throw at a battleship. Because when you survey the Republican scene, even their standardbearer looks dinky next to Obama, who looks like he is growing into his power and prerogatives. Romney will look even worse at the convention, trying to look like the master of his party while he is licking the teabagger’s boots.
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coozledad said on April 26, 2012 at 7:06 am
Parker was designated to write the pivot from the Rohrbacher story this week. It had to be tough, reaching up her ass, when the Republicans who bunked with the Taliban are trying to tell us how much they really like “the ladies”.
http://wonkette.com/470655/congressman-dana-rohrabacher-r-the-taliban-gets-no-respect-from-afghanistan
I can see why Obama cheeses the Republicans off. He keeps killing their foreign assets: using Parker’s logic, Gaddafi and Bin Laden were Republican footsoldiers.
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alex said on April 26, 2012 at 7:59 am
Yep, you have to avoid VISITING a state with a former Democratic candidate who sexually misbehaved, because voters will draw that straight line.
It is North Carolina, you realize. Obama shows up there and the local GOP can say with a straight face that he’s there to seduce white women.
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basset said on April 26, 2012 at 8:01 am
I thought he just couldn’t spell “meta”… “a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter.”
Indeed.
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beb said on April 26, 2012 at 8:12 am
Charles Pierce swung and missed with the photo accompanying his rebuke of Katheleen Parker. Pres. Bush wasn’t playing in a plane when New Orleans drowned, he was busy cutting a borthday cake with John McCain. The flying over New Orleans happened later after he had been criticized for the cake-eating while NOLA drowned. The fly-over only added insult to injury to the disaster.
I wonder: if Obama should avoid North Carolina because some Democrat there is caught up in a scandal, does that mean Mitt Romney should avoid Florida because Republican policies lead to the death of Trayvon Martin? Should he avoid Arizona because of that whole Sheriff Arpaio thing. Should he avoid George where a black couple were arrested for owning a home
http://www.ajc.com/news/couple-held-at-gunpoint-1423138.html
or avoid Alabama where a gang of blacks beat up a guy who was harassing some blacks kids playing basketball in the street?
It’s a curious world where some people only read the sports section in a newspaper and other people will read everything but the sports section… “Mettas World Peace”? aren’t names like that forbidden under the anti-showboating claus in their contracts? Or is that just in football? And now you know what sections of the newspaper I don’t read.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 26, 2012 at 8:16 am
David Simon tries to wrestle with the whole “free” thing as he’s getting his blog going, and it’s a fascinating example of what the problem is: he’s giving away, blogwise, the stuff that right now more people are willing to make an effort to find and read, but that the marketplace is least interested in compensating. Commentary, and especially informed commentary, is theoretically easy to find and worth little, until you start looking into what constitutes “informed.” Movie & book reviews have been perceived to be of less and less value for decades, even before the internet’s ubiquity, what with more & cheaper means of publication. Local government watchdog functions have devolved into gotcha games and thinly veiled harassment campaigns by the chronically disgruntled, with few communities below a million even having one experienced, skilled practitioner digging into what works, what’s not working, and who’s quietly skimming off the public troughs.
Print never was what we thought it was, news-wise; spend enough time watching what happens to news holes as you scroll through microfilm from the 1820s to the present, and you realize how much of a newspaper is a carnival barker hollering at the rubes to go “this way to the Egress.” We content providers chronically think people pick up the paper to read our stuff, when that was never the primary reason people paid for the fishwrap, or even why we got paid, which is why we’re so confused now. We listened to those who shared our likes and dislikes, and let the Herb Tarlek stereotype blind us to how much our lives always were bound up with the Ad & Circ departments.
I think Nancy’s new gig, and these e-book pamphlets like what Politico is putting out on the campaign, are going to be the main way writers and reporters get paid to do what we do. I think we’ll see newspapers in general keep some print platform, but it will be free in general, with the cost for delivery to those who want a chunk of newsprint on their doorstep (that will long have a small, but measurable niche). The bills will be paid by ads, and the nature of content that supports those ads is still being worked out, but will be a small, barely decently paid cadre.
The rest of us will keep putting up blogs and pages and Facebook personas, doing enough free work to get enough interest to then periodically offer a pay-only longer and/or more detailed, more useful, more beautiful hunk of content (also once known as a book). And may Roger Ebert & David Simon live forever . . . all the more because I can’t figure out how we sift out the next ones who do what they do the way they do it.
http://davidsimon.com/introduction2/
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James said on April 26, 2012 at 8:50 am
I don’t know if someone mentioned this yesterday, but I was amazed to hear about this young lady, turned away from her prom for wearing a dress that represented the racist confederate flag.
Beyond the reprehensible politics it stands for, it makes her look like a fat pig. Stars and bars are not slimming.
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Connie said on April 26, 2012 at 9:19 am
Here we are again judging young women we do not know by how their bodies look in their clothing.
The link to the confederate dress story demonstrates one of my pet peeves about newspaper web pages. And that is, where the heck is this? The Jackson Sun in Gibson County. Where? Why do you not put your city and state somewhere where it shows up on all web stories? When I went back to look a second time there was a hospital ad that showed me it was Tennessee. Without that random ad I would not have a clue.
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Connie said on April 26, 2012 at 9:21 am
Enjoy the ballgame and bring cash. Cheers! Report finds Comerica Park beer is most expensive in MLB. http://www.freep.com/article/20120426/SPORTS02/120426012/beer-at-Comerica-park-Tigers?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
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coozledad said on April 26, 2012 at 9:22 am
Aw hell, James. There ain’t nothing wrong with that heifer that a pint of corn liquor won’t fix. They’s some would say if she’s anything like Tennessee during the Civil War, she’s wearin’ her a stars and stripes camisole.
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Peter said on April 26, 2012 at 9:27 am
My favorite Ron Artest story was when he was with the Bulls and in the off season he applied for a job at Circuit City because he wanted to get the employee discount and buy some stereo equipment. Corporate called him up and said he could just show up and do a promo and they’ll GIVE him whatever, and he declined – he wanted the job.
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nancy said on April 26, 2012 at 9:33 am
Just another fun day in Nance’s neighborhood:
(It was a bad day in Methland, from what we’ve been told.)
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Dorothy said on April 26, 2012 at 9:42 am
Thank you Connie for saying what I wanted to say but got interrupted by several phone calls. On BOTH issues. I had to click on the weather button to find out where the hell that newspaper was located. Whoever designed the website for that paper is an ass. As is James for saying the girl looked like a fat pig – that’s rude and insensitive. I don’t know who you are, James, but you aren’t going to make many friends around these parts by talking like that. Take a hike.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 26, 2012 at 10:10 am
It’s the “several months” part of the story that gets me — so she’s been angling for creating a scene since 2011? Sadly, the school gave her what I suspect Texanna wanted; if the lines don’t open at the intersection, and there isn’t a matching St. Andrew’s cross on the other side (can’t tell by the photos, but if we want to mock the youth and their choices, can we tell her date to tuck in his shirt?), I don’t see how you say it’s the Confederate battle flag sufficiently to justify expulsion. But this may have been her college financing plan: let’s hope the settlement goes to higher ed and not to making uniforms for her family re-enactor habit, which can get expensive whether you wear the Blue or the Butternut.
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Bitter Scribe said on April 26, 2012 at 10:11 am
One of Pierce’s commenters had a line that will stick with me: Kathleen Parker won a Pulitzer and Milli Vanilli won a Grammy.
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Sue said on April 26, 2012 at 10:45 am
basset, I thought it was meta too and didn’t know if Ron misspelled it or if that was the graphics intern on tv. I’ve never read an article about it, only watched ESPN reports and such. I don’t read sports like I used to – I only get the Sunday paper and I’ve let my Sports Illustrated subscription expire after many years (a combination of budget-cutting and a cold-eyed review of cost of a subscription vs. fewer and fewer pages in the mag).
I vote we cut James some slack. He’s commented here before and might have revealed a bit more about his attitudes than he intended, but if we told everyone here who overstepped to take a hike there’d be three of us politely discussing the weather and allowing Cooz in for local color.
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Charlotte said on April 26, 2012 at 10:47 am
Jeff — I know a couple of other writers who are also wrestling with the “free” aspect of blogging. Easy for me, I’ve never made a living off my writing (yay day job) but for writers who used to actually get paid real money, especially by print magazines, it’s tough.
So I’ll take your K. Parker and raise you one K. Roiphe: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/roiphe/2012/04/childlessness_remains_a_taboo_.html
Really Slate? More linkbait about who’s “right”? I meant to have kids, but it didn’t happen — so now I get vibed from both sides, pitied by the annoying mummies and snarked at by the smug “childfree.” Ugh.
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Charlotte said on April 26, 2012 at 10:50 am
Oh, and the MWP/Ron Artest thing makes me sad. He was doing so well, and had become a touchingly open advocate for mental health treatment in a population where that really makes a difference. From the video, it looks like he had what my (not mentally well) mother refers to as a “snap out.” Poor Harden — a player I really like — that must still hurt a week later.
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Minnie said on April 26, 2012 at 10:50 am
Connie @ 12. I had just come back here to make the your same complaint when I saw that comment. Makes me crazy to have to root around for the state’s name.
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Joe K said on April 26, 2012 at 10:56 am
Dorothy,
You might want to remind cooz the same reminder you gave James. Cooz I would almost bet the farm that you thought it was wrong of Rush to say something about Chelsie Clintons looks, I did, yet the first thing you say about this girl is she’s a heifer? Where is the difference between you and Rush? I saw a short interview with some of the kids in her school and both black and white kids had no problem with her dress.
Pilot Joe
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 26, 2012 at 11:27 am
The worth-following @Pourmecoffee on Twitter noted that the rumbling sound you feel more than hear is the result of all those Philadelphia fans warming up to boo tonight, when the NFL draft gets going.
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CindyL said on April 26, 2012 at 11:28 am
Well, this story is blowing up all over. You know it’s an interesting day when a story about Fort Wayne Indiana makes the New Zealand Herald and the Jakarta Post. http://todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/26/11409626-catholic-school-teacher-fired-over-fertility-treatments?lite
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alex said on April 26, 2012 at 11:41 am
Jeez, you’d think Fort Wayne was the biggest stick-up-the-butt place in the world. And you’d be right. I live here. I know it is.
I’ll defend James and Cooz both regarding that fat pig/heifer. Everyone here knows I’m no sexist and do not objectify women’s bodies. Everyone here also knows that I don’t pull any punches when it comes to redneck scum.
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Joe K said on April 26, 2012 at 11:46 am
So Alex in your world, you get to be judge and jury on who and how you make discouraging comments?
Pilot Joe
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alex said on April 26, 2012 at 12:14 pm
That’s disparaging comments, Joe. And why not? That’s what your hero Rush Limbaugh does.
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Bob (not Greene) said on April 26, 2012 at 12:16 pm
The cop tased the streaker? For running away? The cop was in no danger and backup was on its way. That was uncalled for IMO. Pretty awesome to have the video, however. Yay, phone cameras.
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Jeff Borden said on April 26, 2012 at 12:18 pm
Joe,
The biggest difference is that the comments made here are seen by a few dozen people and are not acted on by a major political party. The Oxycontin Kid is heard by millions and he helps drive the agenda of a major political party.
I’m sick to death of the whole damned debate about the Stars and Bars, just as I’m sick to death of the efforts to paint the traitors of Dixie as noble citizens defending a way of life from an encroaching federal government. Those who joined the Confederacy were committing treason. Period. Fuck this “noble cause” bullshit.
Meanwhile, it’s funny to see the rightwingers with their pantaloons in a bundle over Obama’s appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s show. Just because the GOP is about to nominate a man with less personality than a refrigerator is no reason to complain that the president is charming, cool and at ease with others. . .traits Willard the Windsock has yet to master and traits all his millions cannot buy.
And when, pray tell, do we get to hear about Mittens’ stash of cash in the Caymans and Switzerland? If he’s so damned proud to be an American, why is so much of his fortune earning interest in foreign lands?
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Prospero said on April 26, 2012 at 12:22 pm
Dexter, the best in the world is the big guy that plays in LA, and was the obvious MVP last year. Alex and Joe. Cut that shit out. GOPer women were all born heifers. That’s why they look like McCain’s daughters, and why they are GOPers. And they are grownups, Joe. When Flush did the White House dog gag, Chelsea was about 13. Asshole should have been arrested and sent to his just bumfuck desserts.
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Sue said on April 26, 2012 at 12:25 pm
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a ‘fun day’ here, and this is shaping up to be a doozy.
Bets on when Nancy has to step in?
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brian stouder said on April 26, 2012 at 12:30 pm
If mom stops the car, we’re all in a heap o’ trouble
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Jeff Borden said on April 26, 2012 at 12:33 pm
I just saw on tbogg’s site that some of Andrew Breitbart’s keystone cops are complaining that NBC violated campaign law by giving the O-man a slot on Fallon’s show and that the network owes Mittens equal time.
Groovy. I would love to see Mittens chatting with Jimmy Fallon and grooving to the Roots. Somehow, I think this is a wish of mine that will not be granted. Mittens doesn’t do spontaniety well.
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Prospero said on April 26, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Metta World Peace is hilarious. If it weren’t for the extra “t” in his first name. The David Brooks of NBA hoops.
Jeff, the thing about Stars and Bars, other than it’s a great book, is that the cracker assholes can’t even get their flags right. And your rant about Biff RMoney is right on. If redneck dickheads cared about the Flag, they would not have let it get co-opted by Hell’s Angels, I don’t think.
Jeff, are you sure that’s how to spell sponteiety?
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Linda said on April 26, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Jeff Borden:
I would love to see Mittens chatting with Jimmy Fallon and grooving to the Roots. Somehow, I think this is a wish of mine that will not be granted. Mittens doesn’t do spontaniety well.
Shows what you know! I bet he would leave them something nice in the tip jar. A buck or two.
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beb said on April 26, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Brian Stouder @34. Yiou got me to laugh out loud. Kudos!
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Jakash said on April 26, 2012 at 1:24 pm
This query is prompted by Bitter Scribe’s comment about Kathleen Parker’s Pulitzer. (But it is not meant to draw a comparison with either Ms. Parker or Milli Vanilli.) I’ve been wondering what you journos around here who may be familiar with Mary Schmich’s Tribune column think of her winning this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. As far as I can tell, nobody’s mentioned it here. I know, though, that several of you seem to be from Chicago, and I believe it was Jeff Borden awhile ago who remarked that the Tribune is “not a paper (he) looks forward to reading”, or something like that. I’ve got no vested interest in this question, am just curious and would be interested to hear what folks think about it. I’ll just say it seems a bit surprising to me. She’s a fine writer, but (and I have absolutely no qualifications which might give any validation to such a judgment) she doesn’t seem to have a particularly high batting average to me.
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Connie said on April 26, 2012 at 1:24 pm
I thought those fair time / equal time laws were no longer in force.
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nancy said on April 26, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Mary is a friend of Eric Zorn, who is a friend of NN.C, so all I’ll say about her work is that it is, for the most part, not my favorite.
However.
What I think is going on with the Pulitzer for commentary is the same as the one for editorial cartooning — there just aren’t that many contenders anymore, and I can’t help but think there are lots of lifetime-achievement awards coming out of it. You know: “We’ve seen you in this pile for a few years now, and it’s your turn.” They can’t pin the NYT and WashPost every year, after all.
I’ve sort of fallen out of touch with daily-newspaper columnizing, except for the ones I see in my local papers. When I do check in, I’m disappointed by how weak it is, overall. Y’all know how I feel about the Freep stable. (The News provides my health insurance, but this is true — writer for writer, I think they have a better group. Although Brian Dickerson at the Freep is my overall fave, and makes up for about 30 percent of the Mitch Albom product.)
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Dorothy said on April 26, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Exsqueeze me Joe? When did I call anyone a heifer? I called James out for saying the girl in the picture was a fat pig. I guess I must have missed cooz saying something equally disparaging about an 18 year old girl wearing a dress that looks like it was made in honor of the Confederate flag. If you can point that out to me, I’ll be glad to get in his face about that, too.
While I’m on the subject, you can take a hike, too. I’m not really in the mood to suffer fools today.
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Joe Kobiela said on April 26, 2012 at 1:55 pm
The point Iam trying to make is you who lean to the left are doing the same thing that you criticize the right for doing. Name calling and character assassination. Heck just read what pros wrote about me because I disagreed with him.
Pilot Joe
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Hattie said on April 26, 2012 at 1:59 pm
When will we be hearing about Obama’s mistress and love child?
That Parker woman: what a tool. Not a very sharp one, though.
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Sue said on April 26, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Uh-oh, Dorothy, what’s up?
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 26, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Disparaging, discouraging . . . “where never is heard, a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day . . . Everybody now!”
I still think we should be piling on the young woman’s date and his untucked shirt. Now that’s a subject worth brawling over. Tuck it in, and stand up straight, son — you call that a handshake? Let’s try that again.
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Judybusy said on April 26, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Dorothy, Cooz did indeed call the young woman a heifer (see #14) and I was offended by that and by James’ fat pig comment. I also agree that Rush Limbaugh calling Chelsea ugly on national radio was far, far more offensive. Oh, and then there was that student slut thing a few months back. It’s worse because–as someone upthread pointed out–he’s got such a large mike and has a lot of influence. Gawd, what I’d give to have Nancy Nall with such a big megaphone!
Brain at 34, I’m shutting up now, cuz I hate it when she stops the car!
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John (not McCain) said on April 26, 2012 at 2:10 pm
“I’m sick to death of the efforts to paint the traitors of Dixie as noble citizens defending a way of life from an encroaching federal government. Those who joined the Confederacy were committing treason. Period. Fuck this “noble cause” bullshit.”
As a native of Alabama, who spent the first 30 years of his life living there, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida, I’d just like to say that I hereby approve of and wholeheartedly endorse the sentiments expressed above. The only problem I have with Dixie losing the Civil War is that the feds left too many of those worthless traitors alive. Screw them and the anti-American scumbags who fly their flag.
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Dorothy said on April 26, 2012 at 2:13 pm
Sue – Connie, Cooz and I are scolding James (#11) for calling an 18 year old girl a fat pig. The sarcasm in Cooz’s statement (#14) is escaping our dear Joe. That’s all. Just another day at the office here @ nn.c.
Yes Judy I now went back over the comments but I’m convinced Cooz was being a smart ass. There’s a fine line, I know, but I’m accustomed to how Cooz writes and it looks like sarcasm to me.
Oh and Jeff (tmmo)? I thought the same thing about the kid’s untucked shirt but decided to give him a pass. He has enough problems what with his date not wearing a floor-length gown and all.
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Jakash said on April 26, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Thanks for the response and interesting perspective, NN. “Mary is a friend of Eric Zorn, who is a friend of NN.C…” Which is why I hesitated to bring it up, and would certainly not mention it on EZ’s blog, where I initially became aware of this one.
Jeff (tmmo), I enjoyed your thoughtful 8:16 comment, as well. I’ll be curious to see if home-delivered newspapers “will long have a small, but measurable niche” as you suggest. I don’t see how that can be true, given the rapid acceptance of electronic means of receiving the paper, but would be happy if it is.
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Bitter Scribe said on April 26, 2012 at 2:48 pm
Jakash–I have always considered Mary Schmich an annoying lightweight. Eric Zorn’s enthusiasm for her is like his enthusiam for lax gun laws (and lately, for not “rushing to judgment” on that Florida guy who killed an unarmed teenager): a puzzling anomaly.
Her getting the Pulitzer left me scratching my head, but Nancy’s explanation seems dead on.
You’re right not to mention your feelings about Schmich on Zorn’s blog. When I did once or twice, it was promptly deleted.
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Sherri said on April 26, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Don’t get sucked into the “lefties do it, too” game. Yes, they do sometimes; nobody is perfect. But the difference is like the difference between somebody dropping their lunch garbage in the park versus backing a garbage truck up to the park and dumping the contents daily.
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Sue said on April 26, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Today’s thoughtful commentary from Rush, whose audience is a tad bit larger than Nancy’s:
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/04/26/472098/rush-limbaugh-on-hillary-clinton-all-she-is-is-a-secretary-who-needs-to-wear-spanx/
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nancy said on April 26, 2012 at 2:59 pm
I should probably add that my feelings about Mary Schmich are truly neutral. I don’t think she’s all that great, but neither do I think she’s terrible, either. If she were in my daily newspaper, I’d probably read her first three grafs every day, then move on to something else. That’s sort of deadly in a columnist, but I freely acknowledge that I’m not every reader. She obviously has a following.
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Peter said on April 26, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Sorry I came on so late, but I second Nancy’s comments. I don’t think Mary Schmich is irritating, but it is lightweight. Although if I had to choose between her, Kathleen Parker, and that yahoo at the Journal, well, that would be an easy decision.
And can I ask the embarrassing question: just how DO you pronounce that last name? As far as I know, it’s not: shmish, shemitch (hey, that would be good for Albom!) or shemeesh.
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Jakash said on April 26, 2012 at 3:37 pm
Peter, my understanding is that it’s Schmeek.
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Prospero said on April 26, 2012 at 3:37 pm
Is there any rational basis for preferring Eric Zorn’s columns to those of Mary Schmich? Don’t think so. At least neither ever went down that Barnacle road and started making shit up.
Joe, I don’t think I’ve ever insulted your appearance instead of your consistent and hapless right-wing gullibility, but if I have, my apologies. I have no idea what you look like.
Is there an XXXXXXL version of Spanx to fit Flush Limbo?
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Prospero said on April 26, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Jeff (tmmo), the amazing thing about Politico is that people find it liberal-slanted. Give me a break. If it’s slanted, it’s slanted toward the Obama-can’t-do-anything-right-because-he-didn’t-get-single-payer left, nor ordain gay marriage.
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Bitter Scribe said on April 26, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Prospero: Eric Zorn’s columns are light years ahead of Mary Schmich’s. He’s consistently been one of the deftest, most articulate and incisive progressive commentators out there. He’s also maintained one of the few blogs where commenters of all political persuasion feel welcome (although lately it’s been attracting way more than its share of smug libertarian asswipes).
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alex said on April 26, 2012 at 4:35 pm
The point Iam trying to make is you who lean to the left are doing the same thing that you criticize the right for doing. Name calling and character assassination.
Joe, you’re missing the point entirely. It’s their values and beliefs we abhor. It’s their willful ignorance. It’s their duplicitousness. It’s their exploitation of you, my dear man. Calling them on their looks and their character defects is just part of the tit for tat. It’s venting. You know, like you did when a black president got elected.
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DellaDash said on April 26, 2012 at 4:38 pm
As long as I’ve been coming around, I’ve seen more unobjectionable pitstop postcards from Joe the Pilot as he hops around the country, than irritating opinions. (Really Joe, you’re a dang Rushite? Well, so is my mother and I love her anyway.) Am I wrong, or didn’t Joe’s fond daughter post here recently (expressing affection for her father)? That has a lotta traction with me.
The first thing you learn in debate is to never get personal. Mud-slinging is feeble, offensive, and not constructive. If you abhor someone’s ideas, attack the ideas.
Not to say that wit, snark, and black humor isn’t delicious…but it takes skill to walk that line without falling off the edge.
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Jakash said on April 26, 2012 at 4:39 pm
“Don’t think so.” Wow, Prospero, I gotta say that from somebody who, on any given day, offers all manner of sweeping opinions praising or dissing varying writers, musicians, TV shows, movies, politicians, etc., etc., that’s a remarkable comment. The columns are very different, and I would imagine that there are MANY who distinctly prefer one over the other.
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Sue said on April 26, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Della, at some point Nancy is going to have to post a genealogy chart over on the side with all her other stuff to help us remember who’s related. I think Joe’s brother posts too (Dave?). My sister Holly is an occasional poster here. Little Bird is related to???
Who else?
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Connie said on April 26, 2012 at 4:46 pm
My husband is just a sneakpeeker not a commenter.
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Prospero said on April 26, 2012 at 4:50 pm
Sorry, y’all, but I see EZ as sort of Ward Cleaver. And that, as is true of anything else I type, Jakash, is my opinion, and I’m entitled to it. Some people understand that there is no equivalency between tying a dog to the car roof and being fed cooked dog when you are six. And most people understand Mrs. RMoney has never had to make ends meet. People that want to argue differently are full of crap, and the umbrage wars are more phony than the mommy wars.
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Peter said on April 26, 2012 at 4:56 pm
I have to vent about CindyL’s post. The part of article that got me was when the lady said her bishop and her pastor were taking her to task about the IVF. Wait a second – how did they know? Did she tell them? That wasn’t too smart; sometimes it’s good to keep quiet. She said that her supervisor knew of the procedures and was praying for them – did that supervisor tell someone? Isn’t that a violation? Did someone from the church find out by reviewing insurance payments?
This really bugs the crap out of me. I understand that a religious organization can have certain standards, and I understand that if you work for that religious organization you need to agree or at the very least be mum about those standards, but if you do something in private and keep in private, should you lose your job over it? It’s not like she made sex tapes after work or took the paycheck and blew it at the casino.
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Prospero said on April 26, 2012 at 4:57 pm
Joe, you’re missing the point entirely. It’s their values and beliefs we abhor. It’s their willful ignorance. It’s their duplicitousness. It’s their exploitation of you, my dear man. Calling them on their looks and their character defects is just part of the tit for tat. It’s venting. You know, like you did when a black president got elected.
Exactly. Like the Swiftboat anti-Kerry campaign in ’04. Stolen Valor Act. I don’t imagine most supporters of this law saw anything wrong with the bullshit spewed by the Swiftboat liars. Guess you thought that was all’s fair, eh, Joe? Morons believed in that shit and millions died.
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Bitter Scribe said on April 26, 2012 at 4:59 pm
Ward Cleaver? WARD CLEAVER??!?!
Prospero, I think you might want to take another look.
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Jakash said on April 26, 2012 at 5:13 pm
Oh, Prospero, far be it from me to suggest that anybody’s not entitled to their opinions. You, especially, given what a fine and entertaining wordsmith and Renaissance man you are. It’s just that there are certainly rational bases for Bitter Scribe’s expressed preference there. And there are rational bases for preferring the new Pulitzer Prize-winner, as well, I would suppose.
I certainly get the Ward Cleaver bit, which is funny. I don’t picture Ward as being a journalist type, nor an atheist, nor a lefty, but whatever. Straight-shooter, moral backbone, perhaps a tad serious. Gee, Beave, I guess I can see those similarities.
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Prospero said on April 26, 2012 at 5:14 pm
Joe, you’re missing the point entirely. It’s their values and beliefs we abhor. It’s their willful ignorance. It’s their duplicitousness. It’s their exploitation of you, my dear man. Calling them on their looks and their character defects is just part of the tit for tat. It’s venting. You know, like you did when a black president got elected.
Exactly. Like the Swiftboat anti-Kerry campaign in ’04. Stolen Valor Act. I don’t imagine most supporters of this law saw anything wrong with the bullshit spewed by the Swiftboat liars that talked up W’s service guarding that OClub bar in Tejas. Guess you thought that was all’s fair, eh, Joe? Morons believed in that shit and millions died.
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coozledad said on April 26, 2012 at 5:15 pm
I think I was writing in character. Heifer is a term right-wing southern males use to describe women who have begun menstruating. That young woman’s possibilities are already out the window, destroyed by the ignorant sacks of human shit who raised her.
Flying the flag of the first iteration of Nazism in this country should be met with the same penalties it can get you in contemporary Germany: imprisonment and fines. Failing that, it should get you spat on in the street or a tablespoon of green snot in your hushpuppies. Treason isn’t protected speech. In the other states of the former Confederacy, Tennessee enjoys the reputation of being pushovers and cowards, so it’s as anachronistic to see them flying it as it is to see it flapping off some Jersey moke’s ass.
It’s not that girl’s flag, anyway. It’s the flag of a minority population of planters who would have regarded her as an insect or a fucktoy.
This was my point.
Oh, and fuck that rightard false equivalence shit. You’re not some abused minority. You’re simply hated by the majority because they’re sick of your hateful whiny ass titty baby tantrums. There’s a huge difference. The fact you are not equipped to understand this by no means makes it wrong to call you amoral, or a dumbass.
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Scout said on April 26, 2012 at 6:33 pm
coozledad @71: that last paragraph was just. So. Beautiful. I may need to stitch it on a pillow or something.
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Jolene said on April 26, 2012 at 6:38 pm
The NYT reports that thousands went to Woodstock today for Levon Helm’s wake.
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alex said on April 26, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Peter @ 66—
The article that was in the local paper a few days ago said Ms. Herx told her supervisors at the school what she was doing because she needed the time off to do it. It wouldn’t have occurred to her—and it didn’t occur to her supervisors—that there was anything wrong with what she was doing. Evidently some horse’s ass got wind of her situation and decided to make an example of her and turn her into a poster girl for evil.
With church officials, such judgment calls always come after the fact. Things any rational person would find acceptable can unexpectedly be turned into an unpardonable sin at the drop of a hat. Around 1961 there was a cardinal who quite earnestly went to the Vatican to announce a great new discovery that would solve the biggest dilemma faced by every Catholic woman—the birth control pill. He was so excited to be doing something constructive and positive and wanted to spread the word. Of course, you know what kind of reception he got, as well as the rest of the story.
Another story you may recall was when Dr. Nancy Snyderman was invited to give a commencement address at a local Catholic college. Bishop John D’Arcy managed to find a television interview she had done some ten or fifteen years previously regarding medically necessary abortions and publicly disinvited her. She hadn’t endorsed abortion. She had simply stated a medical fact. So the poor graduating class instead got our lately disgraced Congressman Mark Souder (who got busted fucking another man’s wife in a car) scolding and lecturing about sin instead of what surely would have been a memorable and uplifting address by a local girl who made good.
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ac jones said on April 26, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Don’t you just despair that partisanship has driven us so far apart that this lingo “Oh, and fuck that rightard false equivalence shit. You’re not some abused minority. You’re simply hated by the majority because they’re sick of your hateful whiny ass titty baby tantrums. There’s a huge difference. The fact you are not equipped to understand this by no means makes it wrong to call you amoral, or a dumbass.” seems reasonable and logical. can’t we do better than that?
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Deborah said on April 26, 2012 at 6:55 pm
My photo shoot is over. Yay, it actually happened. It was horrendously windy and cold though, on LSD, behind one of the other Mies buildings near mine. There were about 15 people comprising the photographer, stylists, producer, creative director and a bunch of assistants. Little Bird documented it all on her iPhone. I think it was fun, not sure yet.
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Little Bird said on April 26, 2012 at 7:09 pm
A geneology chart would be helpful. I am Deborahs daughter.
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Joe Kobiela said on April 26, 2012 at 7:21 pm
Alex I no more care that Obama’s black then I am that your gay. It means nada, sorry you can’t seem to get by that. Jen is my daughter, Dave my Brother, were on opposite sides of the fence politically, but I would fight to the death for him.
Sitting here waiting for game 7 at the colosium. Let’s go KOMETS! !!!
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coozledad said on April 26, 2012 at 7:26 pm
acjones: I just went to vote today in North Carolina where your sycophants have basically forced a vote on an amendment to the state constitution to deny benefits to same sex partners, people in common law marriages, elderly unmarried couples pooling their resources, and god knows who else because a Republican legislative mill can capitalize on the stupidity endemic to the big-box churches.
It has far less to do with “polarization” than it has to do with your side’s willingness to stick its head in any bucket of shit for a dollar.
Polarization, to you, seems to mean when people are calling your hateful, lying asses out.
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ac jones said on April 26, 2012 at 8:04 pm
So thought provoking, Cooz. Why didn’t I employ your black/white clarity in my reasoning? I don’t have a side that I know of. I do know simple minded rhetoric when I read it, though. You do draw a mean crow–I’ll give you that.
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ROGirl said on April 26, 2012 at 8:09 pm
As a non-Christian, I wonder how Jesus would feel about the institution of the Catholic church, and the men who profess to follow his teachings.
If the girl in the confederate flag dress had been within the societal parameters of attractiveness, would it have made any difference? Of course not. She would have still be an ignorant bigot in a cheap polyester frock made to resemble a confederate flag, that talisman of the bigots and ignoramuses (ignorami?) who yearn for the myths of yesteryear, who will never acknowledge that a black man was legitimately elected to the office of president, and who will never let go of the fear of the unknown that keeps them so afraid of everything that they’re told to be afraid of by the gasbags, entertainers and asshole moneybags who are bankrolling everything.
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coozledad said on April 26, 2012 at 8:29 pm
It’d take a strabismic 12-fingered banjo picker to miss which side you’re on, ac. The mealy-mouthing last minute equivocations are the giveaway; the lumbering sweaty casuistry. That and bullying those you perceive as easy meat. You might as well paint an identification strip on your back.
And if you’re trying to say there’s a distinction between Randian sexual infantilism and the sadistic perianal wish fulfillment of Republicans, then you’re even worse off than I thought.
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Connie said on April 26, 2012 at 8:29 pm
Deborah was the whole crew on LSD or just you? 🙂
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DellaDash said on April 26, 2012 at 8:36 pm
OT – I’ve just been asked to read a poem (or 2) at a fundraiser called ‘Roots, Rhythm and Rhyme’ to benefit a local youth outreach program.
I’m blanking out. There’s such good poetry around, but I only know about prose. I like the poem at the end of ‘Night of the Iguana’ about an olive tree. And here’s my all-time favorite quote:
“I should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of silent seas”
…but I’m not going to read ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Pufrock’…way too heavy and cerebral.
Any suggestions? Please? It’s this Saturday night.
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Deborah said on April 26, 2012 at 8:40 pm
Ha ha, the whole crew Connie, the whole crew.
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Kim said on April 26, 2012 at 9:02 pm
Woot to Della Dash @ 61! My suggestion to you for a poem: Henry Austin Dobson’s “The Paradox of Time,” which offers the lines “Time goes, you say? Ah, no, alas! Time stays, we go.” If you are a Chicagoan, this is inscribed on a Lorado Taft sculpture “The Fountain of Time” at the University of Chicago. I told Bob(NG) about this recently (I think – time stays and memory goes with us) and it’s really stuck with me.
That, or Ted Kooser’s opening poem in “Lights on a Ground of Darkness” – very Midwestern and moving.
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brian stouder said on April 26, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Connie, it took me a several seconds to get that, but then I guffawed!
I finally clicked the link to the girl with the dress*, and it struck me as much ado about not much. It looked to me like it was home-made, or at least home-modified.
Generally, it immediately reminded me of Nancy’s link a week or two ago, concerning overly-revealing dresses that would not be acceptable at school proms and the like. The dynamic seems to be that everyone wants to turn heads and wear something memorable…and, schools being schools, the administrators get placed into fairly tricky “learning opportunities” by their students.
For example, that girl may well have ‘gotten away’ with her dress if she didn’t have the stars on her sash; there is room for subtlety and suggestion rather than overt stridency and statement.
Aside from all that, I have a book recommendation for ac jones. Lately I’ve been very much enjoying Eric Foner’s book “The Fiery Trial” – which one a Pulitzer Prize! – about Lincoln and slavery. It is very, very good; short (300 pages), readable, thought provoking, and honest.
It is always enlightening and amazing and troubling, to me, to read about the history of the United States of America, and especially about the time when our institutions and government and Constitution broke down and comprehensively failed.
The thing is, those failures echo all the way to the current day; and not in the words and rhetoric, but in the hearts and souls of our people.
Lincoln (and many others) were very big on the idea of colonizing people freed from slavery; Lincoln held onto that fantasy well into the war. The overt assumption was – these enslaved people are not ‘real’ Americans – they belonged elsewhere. But Foner points out that the percentage of black, native born Americans exceeded the percentage of whites who were native born in America; for example white immigrants from Germany and Ireland were pouring into the country.
And this impulse is very directly echoed by the “birthers” who insist that our current president is from somewhere else, or at least has a – how did Newt say it? – Kenyan anti-colonial world view?
*Jeff – the caption on the photo where the boy has his shirt untucked, and it indicated the photo was taken at a fitting session – so his untuckedness can be forgiven!
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Connie said on April 26, 2012 at 9:07 pm
But DellaDash I love Prufrock! How about some cowboy poetry? My favorite is “Reincarnation” by Wallace MacRae. Great language, great story, fun ending. That’s got roots. http://cowboypoetry.com/mcrae.htm#Rein . Or there is always “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/coy.htm, “Had we but world enough and time,”. So many of my favorite read aloud poems are in the Norton Anthology of Poetry still floating around from college. And of course for real entertainment most Emily Dickinson poems can be sung to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas”.
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Sue said on April 26, 2012 at 9:07 pm
Nancy,
I’m watching Rachel Maddow right now.
Font size? Really?
I thought Wisconsin had gone insane. Scott Fitzgerald wouldn’t have thought of that.
Font size.
What The Hell.
edit: and if you’re wondering, no I do not mean Scott Walker. Walker does what he’s told, Fitzgerald is Mr. Initiative.
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Joe Kobiela said on April 26, 2012 at 9:11 pm
KOMETS tied 3-3 start of 3rd.
Pilot and hockey fan Joe
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Dave said on April 26, 2012 at 9:17 pm
Didn’t know the Dave I’ve seen on rare occasion here is Joe’s brother. I’m not Joe’s brother.
As ROGirl posted, I’ve also wondered many times how Jesus would feel about those who profess to follow his feelings and not only the ones in the Catholic church.
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Connie said on April 26, 2012 at 9:17 pm
To make matters even worse in Michigan one of the two board members who voted against putting it on the ballot is an employee of the organization that brought the font size challenge against the petitions. Sound like a conflict of interest to you?
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Kim said on April 26, 2012 at 9:21 pm
Connie – love “To His Coy Mistress”! It’s the let’s get down to business anthem. It would be hilarious (read: ironic) at a youth outreach event.
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Deborah said on April 26, 2012 at 9:21 pm
Sue, please elaborate about Rachel Maddow and font size.
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coozledad said on April 26, 2012 at 9:21 pm
Depends on how youthy, Della. Two Brautigan poems: “A Boat” and “1942” maybe?
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nancy said on April 26, 2012 at 9:25 pm
Deborah, here’s the story they’re talking about. There was a referendum challenge to the state’s beefed-up emergency financial manager law, and more than 260K signatures were disallowed today, because the font size on the petitions was ruled too small. I heard they had two printers there who testified it was the correct size, but because the font was Calibri, it looks smaller.
A fubar’d clusterfuck for sure.
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Connie said on April 26, 2012 at 9:26 pm
And following up on ROGirl’s comment, I wonder how Jesus would feel about the good group of Christian women who did this. A nice churchgoing lady called up Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to tell him that she and her friends are praying for all the women involved with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to get breast cancer. Seriously. The phone call was followed by an email http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2012/04/25/youll-know-they-are-christians-by-their-love/
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Connie said on April 26, 2012 at 9:31 pm
Kim, “To His Coy Mistress” doesn’t really hit you as a seduction poem until the end. (The grave ‘s a fine and private place,But none, I think, do there embrace.) I also like Browning’s “My last Dutchess” where you realize the speaker probably disposed of that Dutchess and is now negotiating for a new younger one.
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brian stouder said on April 26, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Rachel has been all over Michigan’s anti-democratic/draconian brand of politics, for several months now. Indeed, it is essentially “unAmerican” (if anything can be) to enact laws that grant unilateral, arbitrary and dictatorial powers to one person, and which dissolves locally elected boards and councils and the like…and then derails an abundantly genuine, grass-roots, clearly expressed wish from “We, the people” to reign that garbage in.
But, before I become all unhinged about that, click this link to see Fort Wayne’s dingo puppies, which I was yipping about a few days ago (the girls and I loved seeing them, this past weekend):
http://www.wane.com/dpp/entertainment/wild-on-wane-dingo-puppies?ref=scroller&categoryId=20000&status=true
edit – one more video, for Pilot Joe. I suppose this is what is meant when pilots talk about “yaw” (and why they tell you to fasten your seatbelts)
http://www.wane.com/dpps/news/international/video-rough-winds-toss-planes-landing-at-airport-wd12-jgr_4150654
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4dbirds said on April 26, 2012 at 9:39 pm
My what a feisty bunch today.
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Connie said on April 26, 2012 at 9:43 pm
Or any Robert Frost poem. You do know that you can sing “Stopping by a woods on a snowy evening” to the tune of Hernando’s Hideaway?
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Connie said on April 26, 2012 at 9:45 pm
Yup feisty. And now it is time for bed.
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Joe Kobiela said on April 26, 2012 at 10:10 pm
KOMETS win
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brian stouder said on April 26, 2012 at 10:10 pm
By the way, speaking of our modern political environment – two weeks ago I stuck a nice red, white, and blue Obama/Biden 2012 sticker on the back window of my car.
One of the shriner guys I work with (don’t get me started) then placed a hardcover book on my desk, by some grand exalted mystical pooh-bah (or whatever), also in red, white and blue, about America’s unique and exceptional liberty and freedom, and the dire threat posed by “international communism” (I couldn’t find a copyright date, but it has to be from the mid-60’s or thereabouts).
I have not commented about the presence of the book, nor have I moved it (although I have buried it a time or two, as paperwork and the like comes and goes), and the fellow who I believe placed it there has yet to say anything. We shall see how this plays out…
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Bitter Scribe said on April 26, 2012 at 10:10 pm
You do know that you can sing “Stopping by a woods on a snowy evening” to the tune of Hernando’s Hideaway?
Or practically any Emily Dickinson poem to the tune of The Yellow Rose of Texas?
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DellaDash said on April 26, 2012 at 10:12 pm
The youth are teenage…the sponsor is the Global Education Center, so there’ll be some Lorca, Maya Angelou, maybe Nikki Giovanni. My djembe teacher is going to be backing up a Peruvian piece with his drum posse. I’ll be one of only a few white presenters, so I gotta represent.
‘To His Coy Mistress’ is brilliant, but probably too subtle for this event. I like ‘Reincarnation’ a lot, even though I’d have to put on a corny shit-kicking accent to do it justice. Brautigan is looking good! Very good! Maybe something Mark Twain. I also just realized there’s poetry in Ondaatje’s ‘The Collected Works of Billy the Kid’, recommended by Prospero…haven’t finished or returned it yet…beautiful language about the appealingly gory wild, wild west.
Tomorrow my nearby branch is closed, so I may have to go to the Main Library downtown to track down every suggestion here I can’t find online. Or…hmmm…go to Parnassus and spend a few more dollars at my local indie? Poetry day.
Thanks everyone. Muchas Gracias!
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Suzanne said on April 26, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Poetry? It is Poem in Your Pocket Day and there are a whole bunch of choices here: http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/409
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Prospero said on April 26, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Scribe, That reminds me of the great Steve Allen off the cuff: “Battista Fleas, I’ve been bitten by Battista…” There goes my eyeball, in my highball. I sure as shit hope that comes back to haunt Rubio. A true Battistaite bloodsucker, if there ever was one.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 26, 2012 at 10:47 pm
Actually, the fascinating thing about the supposed Emily Dickinson factoid, Bitter, is that this is only true of the poems Higginson & what’s-her-name, Mabel Todd Loomis (? not sure) selected and/or edited into a stock rhythm. Her actual body of work is all over the place, but the Philistines who culled her collection lifted up those that had an easy and obvious meter.
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James said on April 26, 2012 at 11:01 pm
Sorry… Wandered off and 100 comments later…
Connie: yes that was insensitive of me…
… Almost as insensitive as wearing a dress that’s a confederate flag.
Sorry… What I meant to say was that she looked like a racist pig.
Better?
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Brandon said on April 27, 2012 at 3:44 pm
“some Jersey moke’s…”
Coozledad, have you ever been to Hawaii? I know New Jersey has guidos (and guidettes) and mooks. But we have titas and mokes.
==
And Ochocinco translates as “eight five.” “Ochenta y cinco” would be more accurate, but isn’t as catchy.
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