Against my better judgment, Kate and I have started watching “America’s Next Top Model” on Wednesdays. I figure it’s best to introduce potentially damaging cultural influences myself, so that she can learn the proper response to this nitwit propaganda — jeering mockery from the couch.
And so far, so good. I mean, what other possible reaction can there be to listening to that idiot panel of judges ganging up on these long-stemmed fillies for “not knowing your angles” or having “the wrong planes in your face.” As dumb as these girls are to line up for such treatment, theirs is the lesser sin compared to the rancid misogyny from the alleged adults in the room. And having never paid much attention to Tyra Banks until she was profiled in the NYT magazine not long ago — as a worthy competitor to Oprah, no less — I have only this to say: WTF? Why does she do that stupid caroling-voice thing in every other sentence? Of course, Oprah does that, too, so I see where she gets it.
I’m hoping that someday my progeny will be able to transfer these important life skills to judging photos like this. I don’t think Lucian Freud could have painted a more devastating portrait of decadence.
(It was Donald Trump, in fact, whom I first heard use the phrase “top model,” in reference to the first Mrs. T. Who never was a top model.)
I am down on celebrities these days. I turn to them for comic relief when politics gets to be too much, and what do they do? Disappoint me, every time, and yes, I’m including you, Oprah:
Chastising a celebrity is an exercise in futility. You feel like a kitten being held by the scruff of its neck, scrabbling wildly in the air without drawing blood. Pointless as this may be, though, I will try to talk some sense into Oprah Winfrey, who has decided to go into business with vaccine skeptic Jenny McCarthy.
Zingy lead, but he’s right — it’s ultimately pointless. That women like McCarthy, who not only claims childhood immunizations caused her son’s autism, but that she “cured” it through brave, “alternative” therapies, get soapboxes like this is not only unfair, but infuriating. I respect some aspects of alternative medicine. I’m not totally in bed with the AMA. (If I was, I’d hope they pay better.) But there’s an ugly undercurrent to causes like this that chaps my ass. If Jenny McCarthy can “cure” her kid’s autism, why can’t you? You must not care enough. After all, you got your kid vaccinated in the first place. I’m glad Arthur Allen, at the Slate link above, does not spare the details:
(McCarthy’s) boyfriend, actor Jim Carrey, is even more clueless. At the rally last year, I asked Carrey to give an example of a childhood vaccine we could dispense with. Tetanus, he said. That answer did not reflect a strong—or any, really—grasp of infectious diseases. Children who get tetanus—fortunately, it has been extremely rare in the United States since tetanus vaccination began in the 1920s—suffer horrendous pain, arch their backs, and go into terrible spasms before dying. It’s a very natural disease, to be sure, because the germ causing tetanus lives in dirt. It’s a germ that will be with us forever, and the only way to prevent it is through vaccination.
I wonder where these popculch dim bulbs stand on Gardasil, the cervical-cancer vaccine. In Hollywood, I’d guess you’re far more likely to know someone with HPV than autism. My guess is, they’re on board with it. Ditto with the push for an AIDS vaccine. No one is suggesting chickenpox parties for AIDS, or that pertussis and measles are no big deal, because once upon a time, everyone used to get them.
Perhaps our time spent saying the magic words along with Tyra — “four beautiful ladies stand before me, but I have only three photos in my hand” — will serve as early training on how to judge these pretty airheads who are so hard to avoid. It will be…a vaccination of sorts.
So, a little bloggage:
General Mills finds bloggers to be oh-so-much-more-compliant than pesky journalists. Ahem:
Bloggers, particularly moms, are an audience of such growing importance to General Mills that the consumer-goods company has built a formal network to feed them free products and enable them to run giveaways for their audiences.
MyBlogSpark has recruited more than 900 bloggers — over 80 percent are moms — to register to be eligible for everything from sampling campaigns to product coupons to news of a new ad campaign. General Mills plans to use the network to promote its wide portfolio of products in the food and beverage, beauty, home, electronics, health and automotive categories.
General Mills can be confident the program will fill blogs with positive reviews. One of the requirements for participation reads: “If you feel you cannot write a positive post regarding the product or service, please contact the MyBlogSpark team before posting any content.”
Or risk losing your free cereal, I’d guess.
Bright shiny objects! Get them out of my field of vision! The NYT looks at the science of concentration. (Confession: I downloaded a program called Freedom, which disables all your computer’s links to the outside world — e-mail, internet, instant messaging — and can only be turned off by rebooting the machine. Of course I haven’t used it yet. Give up Google? How would I live? No wonder I can’t write anything of consequence.)
But I can write this. And now it’s off to the gym. Have a swell day, all.
Peter said on May 7, 2009 at 9:53 am
Somewhat off subject – this morning’s NY Times has a Gail Collins column about the Bristol Palin tour and thanks to this sentence my breakfast drink is all over the desk: “But surely, when it comes to combating teen pregnancy the Palin family has done enough damage already.” Amen to that sister!!
298 chars
brian stouder said on May 7, 2009 at 10:17 am
Oprah has the power….
the power to jam KFC’s all across the land
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30609401/
We went past our local KFC, and the thing was absolutely packed – with cars ringing the place for drive-through service and a throng inside…
but we have ’til May 19 to utilize our free Oprah chicken coupons, and with any luck our box won’t burst into flames!!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30095224/
(Maybe the Oprah power is also a curse)
Anyway – Shelby also watches that Tyra-tirade show, and I like it even less than a Coen brothers excursion into cruelty. But as you say, Shelby is of just the right age to take this in, and then reject it forevermore. It grates my parental instincts to allow this to be injected in her conscoiusness, but as the Proprietress says, it is a necessary innoculation
828 chars
jcburns said on May 7, 2009 at 10:24 am
Completely off subject…the AJC’s Jim Galloway (whose tweets somehow keep me just informed enough on politics down here) reports: Southern Baptist public policy agency says torture is wrong under any circumstance. Waterboarding included.
357 chars
Julie Robinson said on May 7, 2009 at 10:40 am
And let us all say Amen to the Southern Baptists.
Jenny McCarthy isn’t old enough to have experienced the childhood diseases that have been all but eradicated by vaccines. Measles, anyone? Mumps? Chicken pox? I had them all. I vividly remember being taken to get the polio vaccine as a young child. There was a long line at the local school for the vaccine, administered via sugar cube. My parents and many others were so grateful that their children would not live under the threat of that dreaded disease. We could see my dear aunt living the effects everyday, and she had a relatively mild case.
A year or so back Time had a story which told of a former vaccine opponent. What changed her mind? Her son almost died from one of these diseases, and now she advocates for vaccination. It’s what every loving parent should do for their children.
861 chars
Jim in FL said on May 7, 2009 at 11:07 am
I wonder where the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has been the last eight years…
95 chars
LA Mary said on May 7, 2009 at 11:09 am
Now I have to get that photo of the Donald and his robowife out of my head. His wife does the same squinty thing he and his robodaughter do.
140 chars
Hattie said on May 7, 2009 at 11:20 am
Well, I almost died of measles at age five, in 1944. My father was sent home from the army to be there at my death. These anti-vaccination people are crazy.
And I’m sick of celebrities.
186 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 7, 2009 at 11:31 am
Nancy, on concentration, re: NYMag link and h/t Amy, if Bogosian has sold all of 25,000 copies of his two novels . . . anti-concentration, how many unique site visitors did you have last month? I’m betting game, set, match to NN.C.
232 chars
Dave said on May 7, 2009 at 11:43 am
My father-in-law was a polio victim in the 1954 (?) epidemic, spent a year in a ironlung and walked with crutches or worked from a wheelchair until the end of his too-short life, shortened, by polio and the damage it did (55).
We both had all those child diseases and our children didn’t. I, too, remember going to the school on a Sunday to get the vaccination, for some reason, it seems like it was two parts and we went on two Sundays back to back. Is my memory faulty? Anyone remember anything like this?
As for alternative medicine, goodness, I’m no medical expert but I have known three people who had cancer and somewhere along the way, became convinced that an alternative medicine healer could save them. I’m sure we would all grasp at anything in the same situation but the sad part is, they’re all three just as dead.
Some celebrities seem to have devoted everything to making it and that excluded any sort of decent, sensible education.
962 chars
nancy said on May 7, 2009 at 11:50 am
There was a great “This American Life” episode on a measles outbreak in San Diego. The MMR vaccine came along in about the middle of my childhood, and I knew a lot of people who had measles, none of them with serious cases. So I was shocked to hear about babies in this Cali outbreak who spiked fevers north of 105 degrees. I’d be ready to kill if my kid got that sick because of someone else’s willful ignorance.
Oh, and LAMary — that glower seems to be Mrs. Trump’s default expression. She must think it’s …hawt or something.
533 chars
MitchAlbomFan said on May 7, 2009 at 12:05 pm
– Intelligent Design
– Global Warming
– Second Hand Smoke
– The point where a fetus becomes a human
– The relationship between immunizations and other complications
You get the answers that either A.) reinforce your values or B.) you can understand…
… and then you stop asking questions. Done. Finito. That’s all she wrote. Hands over ears and “La la la la la!”
Okay, that’s fine.
The problem is that – once you have an answer you like – you don’t want anyone else to keep asking new questions either. You mock them and shame them and scorn them and try to bully them into shutting up.
That’s not very scientific.
These are the same people who brought you Thalidomide, Paxil, Global Cooling, Y2K, String Theory, and Janet Napalitano.
Pardon me if I keep my ears open for a better idea. Your willful ignorance, on the other hand, belongs entirely to you.
883 chars
MitchAlbomFan said on May 7, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Also note that 99.9999% of the scientific community thought/still thinks Cold Fusion is impossible.
Thank the deity of your choice that there are true scientists out there who believe it’s more important to keep asking questions than be loved by their peers.
You’d understand this if you read Ayn Rand with a little more… uh… objective mind.
358 chars
brian stouder said on May 7, 2009 at 12:17 pm
…and Janet Napalitano
You know, we just passed the one year anniversary of when I got to shake her hand, and thank her for bringing the sunny weather with her from Arizona to Fort Wayne
197 chars
A Riley said on May 7, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Am I the only copyeditor in the world who is bugged by the overuse of the word “mom”? Look at the article from AdWeek that the proprietress clipped.
In my lexicon, “mom” is a very familiar noun, too intimate for use as a descriptor of a market segment. There’s something about people identifying themselves as “a mom” in print that bugs me, too. Can’t put a finger on it. How about you?
390 chars
coozledad said on May 7, 2009 at 12:34 pm
When I worked at a bookstore, we always winced when people asked where the Ayn Rand was. Our books were still arranged by publisher, a system that enabled distributors to go to a section and shelve their own product. It made for a hell of a lot of customer confusion. It also gave us something to do on slow days.
Since 999.9% of people requesting Ayn Rand were nervous women with bangs, we began to group Ayn with other reading material they might find interesting. Sylvia Plath. Anne Sexton.
After awhile we relented a little and threw in some Catullus, and some of those “Best of American Erotica” collections, that the owner, a hardass fundamentalist didn’t know we had purchased used from a physics professor. Oh, and Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure.
757 chars
Danny said on May 7, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Well, my favorite use of the word “mom” is when Gilda Radner’s character, Lisa Lubner, would say it as a teenager with a severe case of nasal congestion:
“Oh, Momb, I don’t like Todd like that! I’m saving myself for my one true love, Marvin Hamlisch.”
261 chars
caliban said on May 7, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I know Nancy likes Iggy, and so do I, but MC5 was real Motor City, not Ann Arbor, and this just brightened my day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwV5Sqlhlgc
OF course, SRC was another more hospitable planet, like something HI dreamed way into the future.
Objectively, Ayn Rand would never have been satisfied with anything but a planet populated by Ayn Rand and maybe an anatomically correct Ann Coulter and a slave population to work the genuine simulated stones mines. Ms. Rand did give Jackie Susann a run for the Krugerands on the hack-unreadable-deathless-prose-rip-the-shirt-off-a-real-man-like-rock-Hudson list. Exceptionalism is anti-intellectual, and the last refuge for unspeakable bores with over-inflated egos when patriotism goes lame. George Will is making a run on the rail these days.
810 chars
LA Mary said on May 7, 2009 at 12:37 pm
M A F,
The number of assumptions you make about people who disagree with you is remarkable. I make one assumption about you which I consider a very safe assumption. You like really crappy writing.
197 chars
Sue said on May 7, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I prefer that when a “mom” runs a giveaway to her “audience”, she gives out crap from her basement, like the incomparable Bossy. It’s so much more personal, don’t you think? I can’t imagine General Mills condoning a “name that drain clog” contest. I can’t see a cereal promotion coming to any of the blogs I read anytime soon.
329 chars
beb said on May 7, 2009 at 12:38 pm
My daughter is addicted to “Speeders” and “World’s dumbest…” I’m hoping that she is taking in the lession that crime does not pay, and is not taking notes on how to avoid being caught on tape.
194 chars
Linda said on May 7, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Not surprized by Oprah’s indiscriminate air kisses. She helped rocket Matthew Lesko to fame by having him on her show, never seriously questioning his baloney on free money. And, of course, she got pants by her involvement with Mr. “Million Little Fibs.” If I had a name as big as hers, I would be more careful to keep to clean. But heck, that’s me being jealous.
365 chars
nancy said on May 7, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Who asked about my traffic? In the last 30 days: 7,759 users, 24,240 visits, 55,179 page views, average 4.5 minutes on the site. Fifty percent bounce rate, and I have no idea what that means, sorry. This is all from Google Analytics. I don’t think Eric Bogosian needs to check his rear-view.
291 chars
Linda said on May 7, 2009 at 12:54 pm
No more feeding M.A.F. Let him go back under a bridge and wait for a billy goat.
81 chars
alex said on May 7, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Since 999.9% of people requesting Ayn Rand were nervous women with bangs, we began to group Ayn with other reading material they might find interesting.
So Dwight a/k/a Mitch Albom Fan is actually a lonely lady who can’t get laid. That explains a lot.
261 chars
Sue said on May 7, 2009 at 1:06 pm
No, Dwight is three college students doing a paper that allows them to annoy people. I stand by my theory.
106 chars
mark said on May 7, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Linda,
You make his point for him. Ideas you disagree with? Just ridicule the person who holds them.
When did name-calling become so popular, other than in middle school?
Maybe the Obama Administration should deal with Iran by making fun of the suits Ahmandinajad wears, or his haircut, instead of confronting the ideas he espouses.
343 chars
jeff borden said on May 7, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Maybe Dwight or whatever he’s calling himself tomorrow should “go Galt” and simply stop posting. Why do I think Dwight has a volume of Rod McKuen poems on the shelf next to “Atlas Shrugged?”
190 chars
LA Mary said on May 7, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Eleanor Perenyi has died. Green Thoughts, a book she wrote in 1981, is one of my favorites. It was recommended to me by the owner of a small bookstore in Piermont, NY, and I trusted her judgement from then on.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/books/07perenyi.html
267 chars
Sue said on May 7, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Mark, do you really not see the difference between what Dwight is doing and the regular exchange of ideas and arguments around here? I admit things get out of hand sometimes, and provocative comments get reactions, but Dwight, pretty much alone among us, comes here for mischief and nothing else.
297 chars
MB said on May 7, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I’ll say in defense of both McCarthy and Carrey they have been most active in stating, not that vaccines need to be eliminated but they need to be made more green, the schedule we give our children needs to be reviewed, and we need to move away from vaccines that have been created and stored since the 1950’s. I’m no doctor, but it makes sense to think that we could do a better job of administering our vaccines.
415 chars
nancy said on May 7, 2009 at 1:45 pm
OK, MB, I’ll bite: Why do vaccines need to be made greener? What’s wrong with them the way they are now?
If there’s no link to autism, if the side effects boil down to things like soreness at the injection site and/or a mild fever, why does the schedule need to be rethought? One of the problems with the San Diego measles outbreak was, many of the unvaccinated kids were on the “slow” schedule, and hence hadn’t had their measles shots at an age when measles can really hit them hard.
The only shot that didn’t make sense to me was HepB, which was given to Kate on day one of her life. “Why now for a sexually transmitted disease?” I asked, and the best answer I got was, “because now is a good time to do it.”
718 chars
Rana said on May 7, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Oh, and LAMary — that glower seems to be Mrs. Trump’s default expression. She must think it’s …hawt or something.
I think she’s trying to “smile with her eyes.”
D. and I had always been pro-vaccine, but we turned pretty hardcore about it after this winter, when D. caught pertussis. It was damn terrifying watching an adult trying to deal with it (you know you’re in the land of cold comfort when you reassure yourself with the knowledge that the worst that might happen would be the afflicted person passing out because they couldn’t breathe). The thought of a child or an infant struggling with it was horrifying. And, apparently, it is on the rise because no one’s getting boosters as adults, and fewer children are being vaccinated in the first place.
Schemes like General Mills’ annoy me, because they tap into some sort of weird groupie-ness to get free advertising. At least these women seem likely to get coupons or samples as partial compensation; the willingness of naive-but-enthusiastic sellers to devote hours of their time spamming for Etsy on Twitter or elsewhere – for free – completely boggles my mind. Rallying behind a cause I can understand; rallying behind a commercial entity that is interested only in making money off of you is bizarre.
But then, I’ve never really understood some people’s affection for wearing advertising logos on their clothing, either.
1412 chars
Rana said on May 7, 2009 at 2:13 pm
There’s something about people identifying themselves as “a mom” in print that bugs me, too. Can’t put a finger on it. How about you?
For me, it’s always been that a mother is someone you should treat with respect and consideration, while a “mommy” or a “mom” is a trivial person who has reduced her identity down to having reproduced. At least that’s the connotation I’ve usually sensed in the ways those words are used. Compare “I’m Jennifer’s mother” with “I’m Jennifer’s mom” or worse, “I’m Jennifer’s mommy.” It’s part of the same sort of push to sell mothers and pregnant women childish clothing and accessories (like diaper bags) in hideous pastel prints instead of more professional or stylish products appropriate to a grown woman.
“Mom” is a title I grant to one person, my mother, and it is only appropriate because I am her child. (If D. were to refer to my mother, or I to his, as “Mom” it would be weird. I do recognize that YMMV.)
973 chars
Bob said on May 7, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Mark,
You say:
“Ideas you disagree with? Just ridicule the person who holds them.
When did name-calling become so popular, other than in middle school?”
But that overlooks the many times when pertinent name-calling amplifies a reasoned case against flawed ideas. An example: If it were up to me, “freeloader” would be AP style for second and subsequent references to vaccination-boycotters. Their freedom not to vaccinate their own children depends on their willingness to freeload on herd immunity provided by others’ vaccinated children.
550 chars
Rana said on May 7, 2009 at 2:18 pm
“Bounce rate” measures how many pages a visitor looks at on the site before they leave. 100% bounce rate implies that they showed up, stared briefly at the front page (or whichever page their search brought them to), and left without clicking on anything else. The lower the bounce rate, the more pages they are looking at before they go (roughly). A lower bounce rate is good, especially for new visitors.
409 chars
LA Mary said on May 7, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Rana, years ago Viva (not a paper towel;a Warhol model) wrote an article for the Village Voice about maternity clothes. She said that maternity clothing companies were trying to make women look like virgins at the one time in their lives when it’s obvious they fuck.
I don’t know if you remember what maternity clothes in the seventies, sixties and earlier looked like, but there were a lot of little bows and peter pan collars involved.
440 chars
LA Mary said on May 7, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Speaking of maternity clothes:
http://jezebel.com/5244284/hi+res-takes-forever
83 chars
Dexter said on May 7, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Off topic, but absolutely stunning, OMG ! Just LOOK at these “awkward family photos”!
http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/
121 chars
James said on May 7, 2009 at 2:52 pm
JC:
Regarding evangelicals and torture… here’s an early version of my take on that subject.
150 chars
Hattie said on May 7, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Hey, let’s not stop with measles. Let’s bring back cholera and diphtheria to thin out the herd!
Jesus people are getting more ignorant by the day!
147 chars
Sue said on May 7, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Dexter: Where did you find that link? I’m bookmarking it.
59 chars
mark said on May 7, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Bob,
I guess we may be talking an issue of degree. “Freeloader” in the circumstance you are talking about makes sense to me. It relates to the merits of the discussion, as your post explains.
That doesn’t strike me as an attempt at ridicule at all. “Go away you bible-thumping knuckle dragger” or “baby-killer”, on the other hand, never struck me as an effective rebuttal or as adding much to the debate. Invective aimed at the issue is a lot easier for me to tolerate than simple nastiness aimed at the person.
522 chars
Dexter said on May 7, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Sue, I listen daily to “The Ron and Fez Show”, XM 202, Sirius 197.
DJ Newstyle & The Germ Freak are friends of the show…they emailed the link to the show (“Awkward Family Photos”). Here’s a link to DJ’s site:
http://djnewstyleshow.com/
243 chars
Danny said on May 7, 2009 at 4:11 pm
James. Inightful. Do you have a later version with a frame of Jesus clubbing baby seals?
89 chars
James said on May 7, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Danny:
I have no idea what you’re talking about. Are you trying to have a conversation, or pick a fight? I’m here for the conversation.
138 chars
moe99 said on May 7, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Nancy, have you read the essay by Walter Pincus in the Columbia Journalism Review on the state of journalism today?
http://www.cjr.org/essay/newspaper_narcissism_1.php?page=all
Good stuff to think about.
211 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 7, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Nancy, Bogosian doesn’t need to check his rearview because you may well have passed him six miles back . . . hipster cred aside, you probably tickle more neurons per week/month/year than most “published authors.” That being my point.
Of course, no one has asked you to play a villain in an action movie lately, either. Or have they? (Say yes, nothing like a meaty villian role, as Alan Rickman knows so well.)
415 chars
MichaelG said on May 7, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I was at Kaiser Monday for my annual and they surprised me with a booster vac for tetanus, pertussis and something else that escapes me at the moment. While the young lady with the heavy Russian accent was poking my arm, the Dr. was wondering out loud about tetanus. He said he hadn’t heard or read of a case of it in years.
Nice that the Suthren Baptists are against torture. Have they changed their stance vis-a vis women?
430 chars
Julie Robinson said on May 7, 2009 at 5:33 pm
It was probably diptheria–when I got my last tetanus booster, it was a DPT shot, just like the kids get. More doctors’ offices stock it that way because they aren’t as likely to use just the tetanus alone.
207 chars
caliban said on May 7, 2009 at 5:54 pm
How does one admit to reading Ayb Rand? How would the world have changed if that woman ever got laid?
Seriously. When I was about eleven, I thought Invictus was the most profound statement of purpose and brilliant poem ever put to page. When friends suggested <i<Atlas Shrugged, I said, whoa, that’s Nazi bullshit.But you’re an intelligent lot. And I;d bet idealistic, and, at least in your callow days, impressionable.
I hold this is a badge of honor I knew all along Cyndi could write and sing and Madonna was a media ho. You doubt? Money Changes Everything vs. the execrable Papa, Don’t Preach.
Who among you knew Faulkner was a drunk that couldn’t even keep his characters atraight. Once people saw the horror of As I Lay Dying, how did anybody unleash this boring hack on the general public?
Bud seriously. Ayn fucking Rand? She’d be fired from As the World Turns for ripping bodices and salivating over male enhancement. She couldn’t write to save her life. But really, who cares? Her idea that we’re all crabs in a bucket is PNAC Republicanism distilled. We just care about ourselves.
People don’t react that way. People do the most amazing things. Cheney had other priorities. Kerry pulled guys out of the drink. W just wandered around and never showed up. Republicans are perfect;y willing to get your ass killed, as long as it iiiisn’t theirs.
These days, I buy Bob Dylan and WB Yeats, mand maybe Barrack.
1481 chars
LA Mary said on May 7, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Seconded, Caliban.
18 chars
brian stouder said on May 7, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I vote ‘Aye’ to Caliban’s motion on the floor, seconded by Mary
63 chars
Scout said on May 7, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Caliban has an interesting (to channel Cokie) delivery, but I have to say I find myself agreeing to the main points.
116 chars
Linda said on May 7, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Mark:
So what great idea did I shoot down with an ad hominem attack? M.A.F. did not bring up anything to support any idea. Read his posting. Could you tell whether or not he agrees with McCarthy’s ideas on vaccines? He only came here to ridicule people who disagreed with her. That’s not a person with an idea, that’s a troll. Arguing with a troll is useless. I argue with ideas, but blow off trolls.
412 chars
Danny said on May 7, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Who among you knew Faulkner was a drunk that couldn’t even keep his characters atraight. Once people saw the horror of As I Lay Dying, how did anybody unleash this boring hack on the general public?
I can’t agree with this point. Faulkner, though not the most enjoyable reading, is important. And he knew what he was doing with “As I Lay Dying.” Again, not my fave, but he matters.
394 chars
Hoosier said on May 7, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Wanna get rid of MAF (or whomever)- don’t read his posts and if you do, never, NEVER respond to them.
101 chars
basset said on May 7, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Can’t think of any circumstance under which I would watch the Top Models, alone or with my kid. “Redneck Wedding” on CMT or the Saturday-night polka show on RFD, now, that’s a different situation.
197 chars
brian stouder said on May 7, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Here’s a little news, which I think is another example of overpaid executives who couldn’t plan a two-car funeral.
You might have heard about the big promotion wherein Oprah and Kentucky Fried Chicken teamed up to offer a coupon for free chicken dinners, valid until Tuesday May 19.
Yesterday (Wednesday, May 6) we went to the KFC on Getz road here in Fort Wayne, and saw that the place was completely swamped; the lobby was packed and the drive-thru was jammed – so we skipped it.
This evening (Thursday, May 7) we returned there, and it was much more peaceful – two cars in the drive-up and an empty lobby – so we approached the place. But immediately upon telling the person working there that we had a coupon for the chicken, we were informed that “KFC Coporation is no longer redeeming those coupons” due to the overwhelming response they got.
When we got home, a quick Google trned up this –
http://www.kfc.com/coupons/raincheck.asp
so it seems Oprah’s national free chicken deal turned out to nothing more than fuss and feathers – at least for us!
One cannot help but wonder how much of a black eye the geniuses at KFC are going to sustain over this….and by the way, while the press release promises rain checks, we were not offered one, and no mention was made of them; it was only after reading the press release here at home that we even learned of the existnece of “rain checks”
1424 chars
Catherine said on May 7, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Perhaps Oprah will give KFC the full James Frey.
48 chars
CrazyCatLady said on May 8, 2009 at 1:30 am
Yuck! Free KFC Chicken? Oh, HELL no! Oprah would have to pay me to eat that industrial- waste-product-Secret Recipe ™!! lol
126 chars
Dexter said on May 8, 2009 at 3:56 am
RetroBite: Iggy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8In-2HE90c&NR=1
68 chars