So, it seems we’ll have a royal wedding to look forward to next year. For what it’s worth, I approve. The couple has had a long time to get to know one another, presumptive sexual contact and enough mileage in the rear view that there will be no ugly surprises, or nothing they can’t handle.
Prince William seems to have been both well-raised by his parents and enough of his own person to learn from their mistakes. And his grandparents were obviously chastened enough by the disaster of Charles and Diana to finally revise the job description for the future queen. A royal or aristocratic bloodline is no longer required, nor is virginity. It’s a new century, your majesty. Women are different. And in a good way. It still astounds me that in 1980, Lady Diana Spencer was required to undergo a gynecological examination to ascertain her, er, soundness.
Obviously no one can know precisely what grammy told No. 2 as he set about making his choice, but as I said, he seems to have learned well. Some people say there are two kinds of women in the world, first wives and second wives, Dianas and Camillas. I was never much of a Diana fan, so forgive me, but I think he’s found a Camilla, with enough of Diana’s virtues to satisfy everyone. Which is to say, she will look good in a dress, produce an heir and a spare and not trail a string of caddish boyfriends who will loosen their tongues to the tabs. I like the way she wears her hair long and loose and a little messy, is beautiful in an entirely approachable way and doesn’t seem to make too much of a fuss over anything. In this, she is very much an English girl, and if she isn’t a blueblood, well, pfft. You see what shopping in the luxury section got his father. Teach her to ride and shoot and no one will be able to tell the difference in a decade.
This paragraph from the NYT story made me chuckle:
The romance has had its setbacks. The pair split for several months in 2007, amid speculation (always denied) that the royal family was dismayed by the lower status of Miss Middleton’s family and that Mrs. Middleton had chewed gum and used un-aristocratic words like “toilet” and “pardon” in front of Queen Elizabeth, William’s grandmother.
I thought all Brits said “toilet.” In fact, I thought calling a spade a spade, and a toilet a toilet, was a hallmark of the British upper classes. Euphemism, especially about bodily functions, is a middle-class trait. Excuse me, but can you direct me to the powder room?
So, bloggage? Not very much:
Lisa Murkowski, throwin’ down with the mean girl.
Via one of my Facebook pals, the Westboro Baptist Church meets the Winter’s Bone demographic. Guess who won?
A website I’d fallen away from, and am now back in love with — Cute Overload. I think “cute” is one of those very current concepts, like “soft,” which Hank explores at one lengthy paragraph’s length in “Tinsel” (which by the way is out in paperback, with an excellent cover, which you should stuff into stockings up and down your gift list). We swing between extremes in so many things in our discourse; you’re red or blue, the president is a saint or a Marxist, people you’ve never met read something you wrote and send you an e-mail informing you you’re a shithead who should die in a fire. And yet we can join our hands at the table of brotherhood over LOLcats and pictures of hamsters. Go figure. Crazy world.
And with that, I have to skedaddle. Much work to do today, plus I have to make a birthday cake. It’s November 16, the day we honor the arrivals of Alan, Kate, Adrianne from our peanut gallery and Alan’s late elementary classmate, Elvis Whitehead. So I’m off to buy chocolate.
Have a great day, all.
Connie said on November 16, 2010 at 9:43 am
Also my Dad’s 79th, must remember to call. And Cute Overload just makes me crabby.
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Peter said on November 16, 2010 at 9:43 am
I apologize to everyone for continuing yesterday’s comments, but Dexter, your comment about smoking back in the day made me laugh.
Dick Allen may have been the most famous Sox player to smoke, but manager Jim Fregosi would smoke in the dugout during games. If you had a sharp eye, you can tell when the pitcher was done for the night – the cigarette would come flying out of the dugout a few seconds before Fregosi would stomp to the mound. That guy would scare me more than Lee Ermey.
Doug Buffone said that back in the day, during half time of Bears games, the ball boys would have a tray of cigarettes at the tunnel, and the players would touch the tray and have a few smokes attach to their stickum, and then the ball boys would light them up during the half time talk.
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Julie Robinson said on November 16, 2010 at 9:54 am
Unlike Diana, Kate has had a good education, which should bode them well. Although I guess we aren’t allowed to call her Kate anymore, it will be Catherine. England has changed so much, it will be interesting to see if the grannies go wild buying the happy couple’s faces on tea towels.
Birthday blessings for all those celebrating today.
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ROgirl said on November 16, 2010 at 10:00 am
I found this article about the Middletons’ unfortunate middle-class behavior in the presence of aristocrats.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-art-of-etiquette-a-bluffers-guide-to-being-posh-445059.html
Vive la revolution!
One Friday in the Commons, Tim Sainsbury, a Tory MP whose family founded the supermarket chain, met Nicholas Soames, descendant of the dukes of Marlborough, who was kitted out in his hunting gear. “Going rat catching, Nick?” Sainsbury asked, surprised. Soames replied: “Fuck off, you grocer: you don’t tell a gentleman how to dress on a Friday.”
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LAMary said on November 16, 2010 at 10:01 am
Toilet? No, terrible. It’s a bog.
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Sue said on November 16, 2010 at 10:11 am
I thought it was a loo.
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coozledad said on November 16, 2010 at 10:21 am
It’s time to replace the old euphemisms for the jakes. I’m going with “the beagle”.
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Mark P. said on November 16, 2010 at 10:22 am
I wonder who else in Britain is engaged?
My wife and I watched Winter’s Bone last weekend. My wife emphatically did not like it. I did. One reason is the authenticity. The problem with authenticity in a movie is that no one knows what authentic looks like after watching a lifetime of movies. Or what authentic behavior is. It reminded me of the emergency room scene in Bullitt. When I watched that movie again recently, the ER scene struck me as completely different from every ER scene in every TV series or movie I have seen except Bullitt. I learned why when I watched the accompanying, contemporary documentary. Steve McQueen wanted the movie to be authentic, so he used a real ER and real ER staff. And they don’t act like actors. That was true of Winter’s Bone, too.
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Snarkworth said on November 16, 2010 at 10:24 am
I’ve followed Prince William’s life with affection, since he was born a few days after Snarklet #1. Diana’s glamorous pregnancy paralleled my own humble one, and all of little Will’s developmental milestones –avidly covered in the press — were matched in our lives, until the royal stuff kicked in. I wish them both the very best.
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MarkH said on November 16, 2010 at 10:26 am
I’m with Sue on the Loo. (sorry).
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A. Riley said on November 16, 2010 at 10:40 am
Wills’ friends sound snotty, don’t they, sneering at Mrs. Middleton to the press.
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Linda said on November 16, 2010 at 10:56 am
Re: Loo. I worked with a lady from India once, where British expressions go to live to a ripe old age. I loved her exit for the lady’s room: “I’ve got to nip off to the loo” so much, I’ve stolen it.
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Dorothy said on November 16, 2010 at 10:57 am
When I visited my daughter in Manchester in 2004, at the end of her semester abroad, she reminded me more than once not to ask someone to point out the rest room. “Everyone calls it the ‘loo’ here, Mum” she said.
My friend Judy gave birth in June 1982, and when I was walking into her hospital room to see her and baby Luke, on her t.v. they were announcing the birth of Prince William. I had just found out I was pregnant with my daughter, so I always link those events in my mind. Also, the day Harry was born (9/15/84) was the day my sister Chrissy got married. I heard the news in the hotel room when I was getting into my maid-of-honor gown. I was 3 months pregnant with my son and lucky I fit into the gown.
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LAMary said on November 16, 2010 at 11:03 am
Loo is more polite than bog. Both versions are used in my household. I asked the in house Brit about using the word “toilet” in front of the Queen and he suggested one could say, “Missus, I’m dying for a piss. Where’s the bog?”
The word Loo comes from the room number assigned to the toilet in old hotels. It was usually room 100. And now you know.
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Jenine said on November 16, 2010 at 11:08 am
I think it’s surprising and admirable how CuteOverload has kept up the quality. And fulfills the internet’s purpose as a purveyor of funny cat pictures/videos. As a teenage girl with runaway anglophilia in 1981 I got up at o’dark hundred to watch the Chuck and Di wedding. That was enough and my curiosity about the royals just keeps on diminishing. Glad to hear the hymen has lost its cachet, what a crock.
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LAMary said on November 16, 2010 at 11:18 am
Yay John Stewart.
http://tv.gawker.com/5690894/jon-stewarts-harshest-john-mccain-critique-yet
Bleah Bill O’Reilly.
http://tv.gawker.com/5690853/bill-oreilly-gives-andy-rooney-a-reality-check
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Jeff Borden said on November 16, 2010 at 11:27 am
Reason to hate hypocritical Republicans #345,265,910 is newly elected congressman Andy Harris, who defeated his Democratic opponent in Maryland by continually attacking his support for Obamacare. So, in orientation sessions, the flip-flopping asshole loudly complained about having to wait until he’s actually seated to start receiving his government health care.
Nice work, asshole. You do your best to repeal health care for us proles but make sure you keep your own taxpayer-funded policy.
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Sue said on November 16, 2010 at 11:30 am
Thanks LAMary. I was thinking of linking that Jon Stewart thing today. The “It Gets Worse” PSA at the end of the segment can apply these days to so much more than DADT, and so many more people than John McCain.
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Jolene said on November 16, 2010 at 11:30 am
That was a great piece, wasn’t it, Mary? Rachel Maddow had a very similar piece on McCain based on the idea that cable news always goes for conflict with, in this case, the conflict being between John McCain and John McCain.
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Sue said on November 16, 2010 at 11:33 am
Jeff Borden, do you have a link for that?
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Jolene said on November 16, 2010 at 11:34 am
Jeff, Harris does, indeed, appear to be an asshole, but what he was complaining about was a 28-day delay between the time he is sworn in and the time his health insurance begins. Like other people who experience a gap in coverage, he’ll have to pay for that month through COBRA.
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coozledad said on November 16, 2010 at 11:36 am
Sue: Here’s one.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_11/026655.php
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adrianne said on November 16, 2010 at 11:37 am
Nance, happy birthday to your husband and daughter, my birthday buds! Chocolate should definitely be involved. Me, I had bagels and lox spread courtesy of my work buds.
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LAMary said on November 16, 2010 at 11:41 am
I posted a link for the idiot congressman twice and it’s not showing up. Here it is again. Now I’m sure I’ll see it three times.
http://gawker.com/5690981/anti+obamacare-congressman-doesnt-understand-how-health-insurance-works?skyline=true&s=i
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Sue said on November 16, 2010 at 11:46 am
Jeff Borden, Cooz, and LAMary – that information deserves to be shared everywhere. Remember that man’s name.
He’s an anesthesiologist and he can’t afford to pay his own premiums in private insurance for awhile? Or, maybe he or a member of his family can’t get insurance at all because of a preexisting condition? Perhaps some enterprising reporter can ask those questions at his next Town Hall.
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Sue said on November 16, 2010 at 11:52 am
I still like the idea of an insurance lottery for our fine elected reps. Depending on the percentage of Americans without access to health care, that percentage of congresspeople and senators lose theirs. Names out of a hat decides who loses their health insurance. How many more Americans have lost their insurance in the last two years as the health care reform fight went on? The percentage gets bigger.
I know, silly idea, but talk about an educational opportunity.
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MichaelG said on November 16, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Mary @14, you posted what I was going to say about bog vs. loo.
I can’t see Gawker here at the office. The new filters have eliminated a lot of ordinary sites.
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Jeff Borden said on November 16, 2010 at 12:09 pm
There’s more depressing information out there today about the number of Americans who are not “food secure,” meaning they are not sure if they will have enough to eat. The number is 15% while one in four Americans –one in fucking FOUR– are receiving some kind of food assistance.
But we need to tighten our belts and embrace austerity so Paris Hilton won’t pay more taxes and corporate America can keep shipping jobs overseas while pocketing tax breaks.
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Jenflex said on November 16, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Love this neologism from my friend the D.C. correspondent for Bloomberg: he was saying he got to meet the new Congresscritters yesterday.
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Julie Robinson said on November 16, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Sue–brilliant.
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Jeff Borden said on November 16, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Here are a few paragraphs on how many Americans are looking for help just to find food. . .
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that in 2009, nearly 50 million Americans — 15 percent of U.S. families — were “food insecure,” meaning they were “uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food to meet the needs of all their family members” — either they didn’t have enough money or lacked other resources to buy food. One in 10 families with children worried about food at some point in the year. Between 500,000 and 1 million families were so strapped the children had to go without eating at some point….
The United States is increasingly a safety-net nation, with one in four Americans now enrolled in one of the 15 federal feeding programs. Forty-two million people currently receive monthly benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps. That’s up by 10 million from a year ago….
Feeding America, an organization that runs a nationwide network of food banks and bills itself as “the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity,” said the number of people seeking help from its food banks has increased 46 percent over the past four years, from 25 million to 37 million.
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Jolene said on November 16, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Wow! Am watching Cheney speak at the ground-breaking of GWB’s library in Texas. He has lost an amazing amount of weight. Looks like an entirely different person.
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Scout said on November 16, 2010 at 12:48 pm
In one of my former places of employ, there was a small oil landscape hanging in the rest room painted by an artist named John Loo. We all thought that was extremely appropriate.
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Jeff Borden said on November 16, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Damn, Jolene, now I need to pray for a lightning strike!
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LAMary said on November 16, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Lightning may only give him more power.
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A. Riley said on November 16, 2010 at 1:25 pm
I thought “loo” was older than that — in some novel placed in early-modern London, people walked close to the buildings so they wouldn’t be in the line of fire as some cheerful housekeeper opened a window above, shouted “Gardy-loo!” and flung the contents of the night’s chamber pot out the window and into the street.
Gardy-loo — gardez-l’eau — watch out for the water, French.
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Jolene said on November 16, 2010 at 1:54 pm
According to Wikipedia, the origin of “loo” is uncertain. There are several theories, but none of them seems especially compelling.
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coozledad said on November 16, 2010 at 1:57 pm
I wonder how much of a draw the GWB library will be. The foosball wing might net a few. The hall of fetal remains might catch some of the Branson crowd. The carrier deck landing with a flight simulator and premature victory celebation? The pink Peruvian flake room?
Or you can wonder around in the blacklit, climate controlled “redacted” room, with night vision goggles, accompanied by ferocious German Shepherds.
They ought to staff it like one of those teenage fundie “hell houses” where they graphically depict bad outcomes, but with fake blood spattered Young Republicans instead.
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Jeff Borden said on November 16, 2010 at 2:13 pm
I imagine the same people who visit the Creation Museum in Kentucky will flock to the GWB Library, Cooz. Both destinations traffic in absurdities.
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LAMary said on November 16, 2010 at 2:46 pm
I bet they’ll have the original copy of My Pet Goat under glass.
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LAMary said on November 16, 2010 at 2:54 pm
I looked at the Wikipedia link about Loo origins and I now am very overinformed about toilets. It brought back some memories of squat toilets in French bars, negotiating same in jeans and knee high boots after several drinks.
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nancy said on November 16, 2010 at 2:57 pm
God, I remember those. It seemed my whole two weeks in Paris was spent fretting over what squalid, literal shithole I was going to have to use next. I bet Princess Diana never used one of those.
I thought you guys would go nuts over Kate Middleton today. And all you’re talking is toilets. Shows what I know.
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Bitter Scribe said on November 16, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Didn’t George Washington cross the Delaware so that we wouldn’t have to pay attention to those people?
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LAMary said on November 16, 2010 at 3:11 pm
It was Kate using the word toilet that got this going. She seems like a nice wealthy attractive girl who is interesting and game for a good time. She’s not nobility or old money but she’s privileged. And she isn’t Sarah Ferguson.
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MaryRC said on November 16, 2010 at 3:54 pm
ROgirl, that article made me want to find the nearest lamp-post so I could string up Nicholas Soames.
When the happy couple had their little break-up a couple of years ago, I suspect there were more than a few articles along these lines. I recall reading somewhere that some of the Prince’s friends, not to mention various gossip columnists, were only too willing to snigger about Kate, thinking they had seen the last of her.
Well, she has the ring and the mugs and tea-towels now. I hope she gets some payback for herself and her mom. She could leave Nicholas Soames off the invitation list for a start, otherwise he’ll be asking her mom for a hot towel and a bag of peanuts at the wedding reception.
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Dexter said on November 16, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Culture shock awaited me the first time I ventured away from camp and into a Vietnamese city. But, and I shit you not, some places just had a dirt-floor room where you went on the ground/floor and “mamasan clean it up”.
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paddyo' said on November 16, 2010 at 4:08 pm
God I love this blog. From toilets/loos/bogs to whining anesthesiologist assholes who bitch about having to COBRA between jobs. Synchronicity?
America, whadda country . . .
And Cooz, you are the first person I’ve heard use “jakes” since I dropped out of the Roman Catholic seminary after five teen years in the ’60s-’70s. One of the brothers, I think, used the term my first freshman week at St. Francis in Watsonville, CA, and it stuck to us like toilet paper to a bootheel. Jakes, jakes, jakes.
And everything was jake . . .
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coozledad said on November 16, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Paddyo’: Irish, was he? I got it via Joyce, I think.
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mamasan said on November 16, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Amelicans. This prastic sushi. Decolation. No eat.
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paddyo' said on November 16, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Yes and yes. We had about equal numbers Irish and Italians in the Salesian religious order.
And was your citation from “Ulysses”? We actually got to read it back then and somebody did mention running across it. Something about kicking open the jake door, which, if we had done it, would’ve got us expelled — or jake-cleaning duty for a month.
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coozledad said on November 16, 2010 at 4:44 pm
That’d be the one.
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Scout said on November 16, 2010 at 4:58 pm
For those who give a rat’s left foot:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/gallery/2010/11/prince-william-and-kate-middleton-get-engaged.php?img=1&ref=fpblg
I’ll say this: The girl has some great legs!
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Rana said on November 16, 2010 at 6:07 pm
For your viewing (and traveling) pleasure, a site that tells you all about the toilets of the world, how to use them, and how to ask where they are.
http://www.wt.utari.net/
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Joe Kobiela said on November 16, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Caught a interview with the prince and kate. I kinda hope he takes her to Disney world for the honeymoon. Don’t know why, just think it would tweek the british noses a bit. In other news. Thank god for the tsa. Those idiots are going to make charter pilots rich.
Pilot Joe
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LAMary said on November 16, 2010 at 6:49 pm
I have never understood why anyone would go to Disney World/Land for a honeymoon. It’s your honeymoon. Do grown up things.
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MarkH said on November 16, 2010 at 7:01 pm
LAMary, that reminds me a long ago Tonight Show when Woody Allen was guest hosting. He took written questions from the audience. The third or fourth one said, “What are some fun things to do in New York on your honeymoon?” He looked up slowly out to the audience with that classic Woody face and said, “Where is the eight-year-old who wrote this?”
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Rana said on November 16, 2010 at 7:10 pm
LAMary – especially since Disney_____ doesn’t serve alcohol.
(I have to admit, however, that I’ve never understood the “lie on the beach” honeymoon, either. I don’t do sitting still very well, and neither does my husband.)
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LAMary said on November 16, 2010 at 7:15 pm
That’s it exactly, Mark. Why would you want to stand in line to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride? Have a nice dinner and cocktails. Get massages. Watch the sunset. When you have kids and you are obligated to go to Disney you’ll wish you could have a nice dinner, cocktails, massages, quiet sunset contemplations. And bedroom activities without fear of interruptions or being overheard.
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nancy said on November 16, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Maybe Deb will swing by and tell us about her high-school friend who is, along with her husband, D2D — devoted to Disney. The two of them go constantly, relocated to Orlando to be closer, etc. I also think the husband is a flaming queen. Deb tells the story better.
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ellen said on November 16, 2010 at 7:38 pm
If it’s any consolation, Nicholas Soames’ accepted, used-in-public, etc, nickname is “Fatty.” Maybe he acquired it at boarding school.
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Holly said on November 16, 2010 at 7:55 pm
How do you think it would go over if they asked the Queen if they could go to the can? Or hit the head.
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Mark P. said on November 16, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Pilot Joe, absolutely. Anyone who would subject himself or herself to the humiliation that airline travel has become (unless they absolutely have to for, say, business reasons) is way more intent on getting somewhere fast than I am.
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Joe Kobiela said on November 16, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Rana, believe me Disney serves alcohol,The wife and I have been to Disney probly close to 50 times,we went both with and without kids and have had a blast every time we go. L.A. Mary I don’t want to do grown up things, how boring, I want to do fun crazy things, hug tigger high five Mickey, sit in the sun and people watch. If you don’t like Disney thats fine by me, it makes it less crowded
Pilot Joe
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MaryRC said on November 16, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Thanks to ellen, I looked up Nicholas “Fatty” Soames and bless me. If I want to string him up on a lamppost, I’ll need a forklift.
Now that I remember, he was on Team Charles, going so far as to spread stories that Diana was crazy. Which is ironic given how snooty he is, since according to Team Diana, the Spencer family was much grander than those German upstarts the Windsors.
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Deborah said on November 16, 2010 at 9:50 pm
OT (again, this is a habit). I just got back from a business trip to Des Moines, IA, and who did I see walking across the hotel Lobby? Newt Gingrich! That means the Repubs are out there getting ready for the Iowa Caususes for 2012. I hope the Dems are there too.
And Jeff B I was in Iowa for this Norman Borlaug exhibit I’ve been working on for the last couple of years and you are right on about food security, it is a huge problem again in the world because of the economy. Sad but true.
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Catherine said on November 16, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Wasn’t it Kate’s mother who used the word toilet, not Kate? And the one I really didn’t get was the use of the word “pardon.” The explanation is, if you didn’t hear what someone said you should ask him to repeat himself. But srsly? That’s a sign that you’re hopelessly un-aristocratic?
Disney World does serve alcohol, in copious quantities, actually. Rana, obviously you have never drunk around the world at Epcot. Not that it’s necessarily a bucket-list item, but it doesn’t suck compared to other things to do in central Florida. My honeymoon was hiking in Crete, but to each his/her own.
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Catherine said on November 16, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Here we go: How to drink around the world at Epcot. Not for the weak of stomach.
http://www.easywdw.com/adults/drink-around-the-world-at-epcot-world-showcase-disney-world/
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brian stouder said on November 16, 2010 at 10:14 pm
I agree with Pilot Joe: I’ve been to Disney twice, and until I had gone, I couldn’t see what the attraction was for the folks who go and go and go.
But once you go, then you know. I read a biography of Walt Disney (by the same guy – whose name escapes me – who wrote a popular biography of Henry Ford a few years ago, which I enjoyed), and one of his mantras was “plus up”; as in – meet expectations, plus. You see that in action, everywhere. They really do treat you like a vacationing guest, and not a chump in need of a money-shucking.
I remember bumping into the Evil Queen (fom Snow White) in MGM land, and bantering with her a little. I told her she was my favorite character, other than Minnie – and without missing a beat, the actress said to me (with dripping disdain) “You place me second to a ….rodent?!” Best laugh of the trip!
Aside from all that, the affair is over between Dancing With the Stars and me. I confess that I always rooted for Bristol Palin, but I always thought Brandy was the absolute queen of the crop of stars. So, when they eliminated Brandy tonight, and she cried, that took me out, now and forever.
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Rana said on November 16, 2010 at 10:37 pm
They must have changed the policy on alcohol (last went in the early 1990s), or else it’s Disneyland alone that’s dry. (We had dinner with friends in the “fancy” restaurant near the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and there was no alcohol at all on the menu, nor anywhere else in the park.)
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prospero said on November 16, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Nancy,
You expressed a eeh attitude about walking dead. Watch the Frogs episode. Zombies become just the catastrophe that brings out the extremes of human behavior under unGodly pressure and horrendous circumstances. It’s very good.
On the subject of TV, you commented a while ago on the Detroit 187 show, and the opportunity for putting Detroit actors to work. This show has turned out to be just as good as Southland. The Michael Imperioli character isn’t as good as Damian Lewis in Life, but he’s very good.
The problem I see with TV is that when you actually produce something excellent, you are dead in the water. Takes intelligence. Way short supply. Rubicon, that was close to brilliant. Lost, if you didn’t get the Shark Jump halfway through Season Three, you can get a job as an extra plodding around Atlanta.
Why is it, <Brisco County and Due South bit the dust in 1994? Bruce Campbell and Paul Gross are brilliant Canadian auteur dopplegangers.
Disney and alcohol? I went into Epcot with my parents and my five year old that was looking for GD Dumbo in 1985. Late June. Litterally as some of you might say, hot as hell. Rented the 36 lb. stroller and discarded it in no time. Lunch at the Biergarten. Then, disaster. Typhoon. But we were outside the Spanish Pavillion. Nice quiet out-of-the-way bar and Frozen Margueritas and ice-cold Dos Equis.
Thank goodness for alcohol at Epcot. We sat it out in comfort, bonhomie, and familial proximity. Hit Space Mountain later, a few times. Emily was way tall for her age and we fooled the handlers. She’s a sucker for roller-coasters and those maniacal gravity drop things to this day, though at this point she’s going to give birth to my only grandchild in about two months, so I hope she’s passing on that sort of shit.
Lot’s of great TV shows cut short by ignorance are available on Hulu. Son’s of Anarchy is Hamlet, and it’s complicated. Rubicon was the best LeCarre (and that guy is the one, single spy novelist worth reading. He was one, a spy, that is. Precise, elegant, brutal, and gorgeous on the subject of impossible love amidst man’s duplicitous actions against humanity.
Jack Bauer? It repeated upon itself. My point of view, ours from our household? Jack took responsibility for every illegal and immoral thing he ever did. When neocons celebrate the show, they avoid taking responsibility. Same way they had better things to do when their draft numbers came up back in ’69 and ’70.
Ther will never be more shame and embarrassment accrued, individually and nationally, than the abject ignominy of Americans buying into Swift Boat bullshit. And of course, the reinvention of W’s coke-fueled run for the Alabama border. Maybe, Kerry’s a preppie prig, but he saved his crew’s life and behaved heroically way up a river Nixon wouldn’t admit he’d sent them to. Going back to Nixon busllshit and defaming the guy in the interest of stealing Sandusky and Cuyahoga County? These are Republicans, and they are despicable assholes.
There is actually no way of getting around the fact that the Diebold CEO and Ken Blackwell said ahead of time they’d do anything necessary. Bastards robbed Volusia Co. in 2000. They cheated again in 2004. It’s fairly obvious things would be better now if these consummate aholes had not gotten away with all of their subterfuge.
When the Bush administration fired all the fed prosecutors, do you know, their predecessors were asked if they’d vote for Republicans. Don’t think there’s something quintessentially wrong about that. Bunch of those outright shills are about to be in Congress. These people operate on hindbrain. Snakes and alligators share that physiological imperative.
Teabaggers are all up in arms about direct election by popular vote, aka the 17th amendment. Now Scalia says he thinks they’re right. How is this We the People? Clarence will vote for Long Dong and whine that it’s a high-tech lynching, but he won’t opine because Scalia won’t tell him its OK to say anything.
I know. I’m half-way entertaining, or a completely obnoxious, stupid SOB, and totally over the top. And I seem as if what I think about the way these things are adjudicated in courts, legal and public opinion is some sort of anti-Shrub looney liberal propaganda. Bullshit.
It’s like comparing FOX with MSNBC. There’s a decided attitude on MSNBC. Have they ever just made shit up. Does Fox make shit up and run with it 24/7? Yup, they do. I went to the Grady School at UGA. This is as good as you get. There are the two Columbias and there’s the Ralph McGill and Reg Murphy school of journalistic integrity. And there is Henry Grady.
Seems as if my three heroes, from my school risked a whole lot more than anybody in NY or Missourri. They’re lives. And, they were terrific writers. There is no Jschool with that sort of populist legacy. These guys were Atticus Finch in real life. They meant and they did not take shit lightly.
I’m not an alum booster (well, I am for sports, nor am I self-aggrandizing. But really, how do real journalists not call these gangreneous assholes not call bullshit on these out-and-out liars. They amount to the Ministry of Information.
Well, seriously, which of you thinks Swift Boat is true and W didn’t crawl all the way to Birmingham snorting up the white line? Y’knowqw the famous Dan Rather forgery? Nobody ever proved it was. The woman that typed the papers said the content was exactly what was reported. Interesting, but all of that crap about Selectrics, well that was patent bullshit.
When it get’s down to it, W coked out, and these assholes paid a bundle to that seersucker piece of shit that was never within 500 miles to lie about Kerry. And Cheney made a fortune on his Haliburton stock when they hijacked all of those palettes of beaucoup tax-free bucks. If you think Cheney did not aid and abet, you are an idiot. He appointed himself VP and fucked over the Florida electorate.
These anti-Constitutional and anti-American shitheads believe in transferring wealth upwards. Y’all are a bunch of smart people. Conservatives wasnt to make a point about redistribution of wealth. It was 30 to 1 in 1975. In 2008, it’s 300 t0 one. Fact. Who do y’all think is fucking over whom? Wealth is surely being redistributed.
Saddest thing is the foot-soldiers are idiots. You idiots. You think they’re bringing you along? This is the Trent Lott show you dumbasses. You teabaggers, you are not included.
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Kaye said on November 16, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Alcohol is not sold in the Magic Kingdom (Orlando) or anywhere at DisneyLand. It is available at the other DisneyWorld parks and Disneyland Paris. Drinking around the world at Epcot is a grand adventure.
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Catherine said on November 16, 2010 at 11:59 pm
What Kaye said, and also at Disney’s California Adventure, the “other” park in CA. Where our favorite ride is the wine ride.
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Jim Neill said on November 17, 2010 at 12:04 am
Disney does know how to create your perfect vacation (for a fee).
Agreed on DWTS. Bristol is obviously the voters’ favorite, but there is no way that Brandy should have been voted off the show.
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Mark P. said on November 17, 2010 at 8:37 am
prospero, television has to be the most insatiable eater of talent in the world. Someone can make a movie that knocks everyone’s socks off and then they can rest for a couple of years before they are expected to do it again. But to keep a TV series going, you have to do it multiple times in one year, and then the next year you have to do it all over again. It’s amazing that any good series survives more than a couple of years, and it’s no surprise that so many decline so rapidly.
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