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May 11, 2012

50 Shades of Grey Book a Bestseller and Banned in Florida

Fifty Shades of Grey author E L James (Photo credit: rachelkramerbussel.com)

You wouldn’t think anything would be too hot for Florida but evidently the bestselling erotic novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” is too hot for some Florida libraries. Some Georgia and Wisconsin libraries have also followed suit and banned the book in some of their public libraries. According to Florida Today the Brevard County Public Library system has removed copies of the book from its 17 libraries. They claim they bought some copies before they realized what the book was about. Hmm…I wonder if they thought to ask the public, who supports the public library through their taxes and fees, if the public wants the library services director removing books the public evidently wants to read, judging by the huge waiting lists of general public for the book at libraries all over the country.

Brevard County libraries had a waiting list of 200 people waiting for the book. The people waiting for “Fifty Shades of Grey” were sent notices telling them sorry, the book has been pulled from the shelves. I imagine some of those waiting even had gray hair, what with the population of Florida and all. Some may have even read Lolita, The Kama Sutra and even The Tropic of Cancer. All considered rather racy, and all can be loaned out from the Brevard County Public Library. Imagine that. Librarians in at least four Florida counties have declined to buy the book even though hundreds of people have asked for it because they claim they either don’t have the money to purchase them, or the reviews of the book have been poor or the book doesn’t suit their community standards. I love the community standards reasoning, as if the public library is in charge of setting the standards for what the community can read, rather than the community setting the standards for what they want to read. The book isn’t for everyone but I thought book censorship was dead. I’m much more interested in the backstory of how it became the “it” book for millions of readers.

The “Fifty Shades” books are actually a trilogy of three books. They are books about bondage, sex, love and they even have a plot. They have sold over three million books so far and are in the first three spots on Amazon’s best seller list and the top three spots on the New York Times best-selling books list. I think it is a snooty attitude by some libraries because the books were self-published originally as an e-book by the author. Some book snobs think if a book wasn’t traditionally published by one of the big six publishing houses then they must be lesser-than, regardless of content. But author E.L. James published her e-book herself and it became so popular through word-of-mouth that publishers came calling after the fact and so did Hollywood with a movie deal.

I could care less what the content is, anytime someone takes their writing into their own hands and doesn’t wait around for some publisher to accept it or reject it, and tell her to change it and pays her a small advance against royalties and then takes forever to even print the damn thing, I commend her. This is what publishing should be, where the writer/creator has the control and the masses push it to the top. Big time publishing houses have been asleep at the wheel for quite a while now. Thanks to e-readers, self publishing, indie publishers and the little writers that could–they are rising to the top of the publishing food chain. Thank God.

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Tagged as 50 shades of grey, banned books, banned book, e.l. James, erotic book, bestseller book list, 50 shades trilogy

April 27, 2012

Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Was My Dancing With The Stars

Dick Clark, host of American Bandstand (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was a pre-teen with a mission. I wanted to be a teenager so I could go to Philadelphia and be on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. My mom was pretty good about not bursting my bubble as we lived far away from Philly, I was years away from the age requirement of I think 13 or 14 to be on the dance show, and hundreds of kids lined up daily to be on the show and mostly the “regulars” from Philly the “dancing stars” I watched daily after school, were the only kids that actually danced on the show. But she would routinely say things like; “you’re a really good dancer and could do just as well as those kids.” Nothing like a mother to instill confidence and keep the dream alive.

When American Bandstand went national on ABC in 1957 with Dick Clark, it was on weekdays after school and the favorite part of my day. The couples on the show became stars by virtue of how well they danced, how cute they dressed, how cool they looked as a couple and how much we liked their hair styles. I got to know these dancers on a first name basis as Paula and Ritchie who won the Mashed Potato (dance) contest or Bunny who was the best at the Pony or Justine and Bob who everybody loved. I learned how to do the Stroll, the Hop, the Twist, the Locomotion and if I needed a partner my mom filled in. She taught me how to Jitterbug and once in a while when my dad came home from work and I would be showing him some of my new steps, he would grab my mom’s hand and “show me real dancing.”

Dick Clark gave so many singers a start on his show and it was always about the music. I watched Paul Anka, Fabian, James Brown, The Jackson 5, Connie Francis and even one hit wonders like Edd Byrnes, from the popular 77 Sunset Strip TV show. Hard to believe now but his popular song ”Cookie, Cookie Lend Me Your Comb” which he sang with Connie Stevens, also from the TV show, was a hit. What I liked most about the music on Bandstand was the variety. When no one paid attention to what diversity was all about, Clark was busy practicing it. He brought us singers, acts and bands from all walks of life and acted like it was normal–because it was. He was way ahead of his time in realizing all music was to be enjoyed by everyone and never pidgeon holed certain music or musicians to certain segments of the population. As many teens have said over the years on Bandstand when rating a new song, “it has a good beat and you can dance to it.” Those words were certainly my mantra as a kid. Thank you, Dick Clark.

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Tagged as dancing with the stars, Dance, American Bandstand, Dick Clark, Mashed Potato, the stroll, dance show, jitterbug

March 14, 2012

My Encyclopedia Britannica Set is Dusty but Not Forgotten

Britannica (Photo credit: SimCity0x50)

The Encyclopedia Britannica is ceasing publication of its print, dead-tree edition and will continue with just their digital online edition. I know in my head this is progress and probably makes economic sense for both consumers and Britannica but in my heart? I will miss the 32-volume printed edition that I haven’t laid eyes on in years, collecting dust in boxes in a closet because my set is as outdated as me. I even remember as a very young child learning how to spell encyclopedia from Walt Disney’s Jiminy Cricket via some goofy sing-songy bit on the after school Disney show. I couldn’t read yet, but I could sing/spell encyclopedia.

The Encyclopedia Britannica has been around since 1768, and was first published in Edinburgh, Scotland. A new set costs $1400, and it seems they have had plenty available in their warehouses these last few years. I don’t know if ceasing publication will drive the price up of used sets, think of the shipping costs of buying a set on Ebay? While Britannica has been in the digital world for many years, officials at Britannica said the print edition was just becoming impossible to maintain and keep up-to-date and of course there is the physical delivery of the huge, heavy sets. While they haven’t stated it, with the resources of Wikipedia and Google at your virtual fingertips you would be hard pressed to open an encyclopedia for information anymore, let alone pay a fee for their online encyclopedia.

When I was a kid my parents couldn’t afford to buy a set from the Britannica salesmen that rang our doorbell on a regular basis in my Chicago neighborhood and tried to get you to buy them on the monthly plan. My dad wasn’t a monthly plan type of guy, so we used the encyclopedias at the library. If a school assignment called for a paper on Paul Revere, a teacher could expect every kid in class to have the same information, taken from the same big impressive burgundy book, with only vague differences depending on writing style. If you waited until the last-minute to write your assignment, as I often did, you had to wait for hours at the library to get the specific alphabetized book you needed because other slackers were using it.

By the time my youngest brother got to school, my folks had a little more expendable income and my brother got his own Encyclopedia Set (the rat). He didn’t have to take the bus to the library as he had his own source materials right at his fingertips. The youngest kid is always spoiled of course and since he was the “brain” of the family he would sit around reading the encyclopedia as his light reading. Who does that? Certainly not my sister or I who only cracked an encyclopedia under intense pressure to perform a knowledge based task. Years later as an adult I bought a used set from a thrift store for next to nothing. I don’t even know why, I just wanted them, I loved books anyway and just liked the way they looked. Maybe I thought having them would make me look scholarly.

While I feel bad for employees of Encyclopedia Britannica, I can see that the whole world has gone digital–or will, it’s progress of course, but for us in the older generation it is bitter-sweet. A lot of my memories are tied to old stuff which is why I’m still hanging on to my old Encyclopedia Britannica set, my grandfather’s Kodak Brownie camera, my Sony 8-track, my old LP’s and my record player. If for no other reason than when I am long gone, younger generations of my family can say things like; “Wow, you mean they had to turn pages?” And then find out my old “stuff” is worth a ton of money.

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Tagged as Britannica, ceases printing, Edinburgh, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, Jiminy Cricket

February 5, 2012

Susan G. Komen VP Karen Handel Better Race For The Pink Door

Image via Wikipedia

UPDATE: I wrote this blog on Sunday, February 5, on Monday, February 6, Karen Handel “resigned” from Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I can’t confirm if the door hit her in the a– on the way out.

The Huffington Post is reporting they found an inside whistle-blower at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure breast cancer charity, that has proof that Karen Handel, Komen’s vice president for public policy drove the decision to defund planned parenthood. While the deep-throat informer couldn’t hand over the goods, the Huffington reporter was allowed to view enough evidence (emails etc.) and interview the source who said Handel was heard stating “If we just say it’s about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political.” Handel, Republican politician for years and a strong anti-abortion advocate, must have missed the memo about not mixing politics and ideology with women’s health. Or the one about cancer not caring what your political affiliation is, it kills people from all walks of life–even agenda driven Republicans. Komen for the cure shouldn’t be concerned with pro-choice or pro-life just pro-cure. And that it what the “public policy” should be at Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

Komen for the Cure officials have spent the last four days lying to the public about their charity. They used buzz words like “our mission” and “new directives” to tell us that they couldn’t possibly continue to fund a group (Planned Parenthood) that was “under investigation.” When the person calling for the investigation was a Republican Congressman. In the meantime they were still going to continue funding Penn State (their research hospital) which happens to be under big-time Federal investigation. Bank of America is also a huge sponsor/partner of Komen, and they are under various State, Federal and you-name-it investigations.

Planned parenthood has gotten millions of dollars donated in the last few days, including a huge amount by the New York Mayor. The rest was given by 10,000 private donors that know an attack on Planned Parenthood is simply an attack on poor women. The Komen funding earmarked for Planned Parenthood was never used for abortions it was used for breast exams and mammogram referrals. The huge backlash on Komen, from the well-known and the unknown, especially on Facebook and Twitter caused them to reverse their course yesterday but their message that they would continue to allow Planned Parenthood to apply for funding struck some as unusual and cryptic wording.

The next time you are inclined to Walk for the Cure, keep in mind that the Komen Republican/anti-Planned Parenthood/sorority/marketing club puts a heavy emphasis on “cause” marketing so you will purchase their pink spatulas, pink socks and pink KFC buckets of chicken (very healthy for cancer patients or anyone). They slap pink on everything from tractors and cars to hats and water bottles–for a price of course. They care far more about their “brand” and being the biggest cancer charity as evidenced by their law suits against small charities that tried to use the words “for the cure.” According to Charity Navigator 21% of their donations/income is spent on cancer research and prevention and the rest on salaries and “administration.”

The head of Komen makes $500,000 a year plus traveling expenses and she always flies first class. Handel’s salary is reportedly, $400,000. Because of this fiasco, Komen hired a “crisis management team” this week because the staff and board can’t quite get on the same page with their lies. I sure wouldn’t want my donation to go for paying for a crisis management team as opposed to real help to real women with cancer. But then, I never bought into all that pink crap, it’s a ruse to make people think they belong. They are an elitist, arrogant charity that needs to kick a few butts out the pink door–and even then they have a long way to go to regain public trust. You would think the Komen foundation particularly, being a women’s charity for breast cancer would understand the power of women but they misjudged, because they were focusing on their non-charitable agenda.

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Tagged as cancer, cancer charity, Charity Navigator, Cure, Health, Huffington Post, Karen Handel, Komen, Planned Parenthood, Susan G. Komen, Susan G. Komen for the Cure

January 24, 2012

The National Anthem: The Pro Singers Just Don’t Get It

Image via Wikipedia

Last Year at the 2011 Superbowl, with millions of people watching, Christina Aguilera decided to add her rendition of The National Anthem to the archives of flubs by trying to make the song “her own” with a few change-ups and an entirely missed line. Her viewers and listeners were less-than-thrilled with the Grammy winner’s performance but her “people” blamed it on nerves. This is a woman who is used to performing at sold-out venues of thousands, so nerves is unlikely. Not being well-prepared and/or messing around with a perfectly good melody and not-quite landing the notes shows more at work here than “nerves.” Tons of internet polls said Aguilera’s botched anthem was an unforgivable mess.

http://www.sportsgrid.com/nfl/christina-aguilera-sings-national-anthem-super-bowl/

More recently, rock singer Steven Tyler , frontman for Aerosmith, decided to take-on The National Anthem a few days ago at the Ravens-Patriots football game. He didn’t change many lyrics but somehow I don’t think America was quite ready for the “Screeching Star Spangled Banner.” You could hear the boos of the crowd over the screeching and he has received non-stop criticism since the event. But, I ask you? Why would they ask a rocker to sing the anthem anyway? It’s not exactly like the guy has a velvet voice to begin with.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/steven-tyler-sings-the-national-anthem-is-his-rendition-the-worst-in-recent-history-poll/2012/01/23/gIQAWRaWLQ_blog.html

There is of course, a long history of less-than-perfect National Anthem performances from American Idol winner Scott McCreery to Cyndi Lauper. But perhaps the worst of all anthem performances was back in 1990. Rosanne Barr (a comedian) who put on the worst non-funny performance by a non-singer and is oddly still alive to talk about it. It actually hurt her career because she was basically making fun of the National Anthem. She now lives on a farm in Hawaii, presumably far out of earshot of humans, thank God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=x1-jWl0O34U&NR=1

I can’t sing a note, but my hearing is so far, well within the average range. I might not understand the nuances of tone and range, but I do know the average American does not want singers altering the lyrics and melody of their National Anthem. They don’t want a “stylized” version of it, they don’t want a new beat and they generally like to have it sung with feeling and heart. Just like this version sung by a young high-schooler from a Chicago suburb, who is not a professional singer–but undoubtably will be, because she gets it. This is how the National Anthem should be sung:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrQeDcMVHec

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Tagged as Aerosmith, American Idol, Christina Aguilera, Cyndi Lauper, National Anthem, Star-Spangled Banner, Steven Tyler, United States

January 4, 2012

Eight votes? But Do Iowa Caucus Votes Really Count?

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For anyone of us who ever said or even just thought “My one vote doesn’t really make a big difference, it’s just one vote out of many and I don’t really like any of the candidates anyway,” think about eight votes. Yes, as crazy as it seems only eight votes came between a winner and loser last night at the Iowa Republican Caucus. I mean that is Kate + 8 minus Kate (always a good thing) Eight Maids A Milking, Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights movie and eerily enough this 2010 documentary; “8: The Mormon Proposition.” Yeah, I’m sure the eight is a sign from God or some high-up Latter-Day somebody.

So, when the more than 1700 Iowa caucus locations finally hand-tabulated their votes by 2 a.m. this morning, Mitt Romney received 30,015 votes and Rick Santorum got 30,007. Both ended up with 24.6% of the vote. Hardly enough for a good Iowa corn-boil. And considering Romney outspent Santorum 50 to 1, it was actually a good show for Santorum. The rest of the candidates were pretty-much busy trying to pretend how “Iowan” they really were and well, that didn’t work out too well for them, although Ron Paul did much better than expected, coming in third.

Imagine you lived in Iowa and you were on your way to vote in the caucus and you got sidetracked by going to a movie, talking on your iPhone, texting, eating dinner out, having a few beers or visiting friends. If just eight people did that, it could have totally changed the outcome of the caucus vote. But, it probably will not matter or ultimately change the outcome of who eventually becomes the Republican nominee. In 2008, Mike Huckabee won the Iowa Caucus but John McCain became the nominee, George H.W. Bush became President with only 18% of the Iowa vote and Clinton won in 1992 with 2.8% of the Iowa vote.

But, in the political scheme of things although $40 million was collectively spent in Iowa by the potential candidates, the whole scenario still smacks of running for the city council. With CNN and MSNBC trying their hardest to make it out to be a big deal with their flashy caucus graphics, panels of pundits sitting around with not much to say, and television hours spent waiting for the vote counters to finish, It’s still Iowa. A state that has older demographics, mostly white with under 5% of the people voting. It’s not a true representation of all voters at all and yet they have this power of the caucus. Yes, they have very nice people in Iowa but there are more independent voters than either registered Republicans or Democrats. So, why the heck would they be considered a cross-section of America for Republican or Democratic caucuses? Beats me, their midwestern charm, work ethic and integrity is far above any of the politicians they vote for.

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Tagged as 8 votes, caucus, Eight Crazy Nights, eight votes, Iowa, Iowa caucuses, Mike Huckabee, mitt romney, Republican, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, vote

December 26, 2011

Top 10 People Or Things I Don’t Want To Hear About In 2012

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1. Anything Kardashian. I don’t want to hear about their “reality” shows, or their having or not-having babies, their clothing lines, purse lines or lines on their faces. Their boyfriends, husbands, ex-husbands, marriages, divorces, diets, weight gains, sex tapes or general whining about anything. I need a total break from ALL things kardashian–for the rest of my life would be good.

2. Big banks. The only thing I ever want to hear a too-big-to-fail bank utter is; “I’m sorry I screwed up the entire economy, and we will drop our bonuses and a portion of our profits into the laps of the American people as restitution.” Aside from those words I want to hear nothing from these greedy charlatans in 2012.

3. Congress. These people are an embarrassment. Unless they make BIG strides in voting for measures that will actually help the American people, the economy and the jobs front then they need to crawl back under their rocks. I don’t mean a small token vote that will give us a little help for a few months, I mean an actual plan for Americans that puts us first, not them. If they won’t do it, I don’t want to hear any more of their crap whining in 2012–or crying, either.

4. Pseudo journalists. I don’t really need to read the same news story 100 times with no new info. The prevailing wind in journalism lately is taking an already over-done story and changing the words around and making it “your own.” I guess they call it “spinning.” I call it plagiarism and lazy. I’m sick of this pretend journalism and would love for it to go away in 2012 (ha, ha, fat chance).

5. Twitter freaks. Some idiots on Twitter have turned a once fun, helpful , and sometimes insightful form of communication into a Twitter-robot-boring-marketing extravaganza of lifeless comments. These people need to disappear into the oblivion of cyber-space. What twits.

6. Pundits. So, everyone with a mouth is a pundit. All it really amounts to, is a person with a point of view. Pundits are not in a secret Mensa club, or even a semi-smart club. It is not a lofty title saved for people who actually have insight, experience and knowledge of a topic anymore. Let’s face it if everybody on Fox Network can be a pundit, the term is meaningless. Pundits go away in 2012.

7. People who write books, and call themselves authors–who aren’t. Just because you eat doesn’t mean you can write a cookbook. If you’re 25 your memoir is short-lived and if you’re Snookie from the Jersey Shore, or an aging star looking to make a few bucks, yes, you can write a book or use a ghostwriter–but that doesn’t mean it’s good. It would be great for the landfills and trees of the world to have less of this garbage clogging up the system in 2012. I won’t even get into the people who write 10 page e-books that they self publish, charge $1.99 and tell people they are published authors.

8. Women that have babies and get rid of the baby weight in three days. I’m way beyond this age but the Hollywood set seems to be telling women of childbearing ages that you can have a baby and almost like a shot of botox–instantly get rid of the baby weight. And they act like this is normal. When these narcissistic women are the ones that are not normal. Once again they focus on style and looks over substance and smart, emotional and physical health. My wish for 2012; shallow people go away.

9. Politicians that say they get it, they understand, they’re just like us, they too used to be poor, they want the same things we do, they want to turn the country around and blah, blah, blah. Plain and simple; they are liars. They need to go far, far away in 2012.

10. The sad stories that are becoming the norm. This is America, not some third world country with no resources, no education and no freedom. It is preposterous that the U.S. Government lets Wall Street, big pharma, insurance companies, oil companies and any large business with money–dictate U.S. laws and policy. It is far more than a travesty of justice, it is a sign of a country in crisis, a country in despair and a country that has leaders that put themselves first above all else. I hope to God I don’t have to hear about any more sad stories in 2012, but I know in my heart–it is a dream.

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Tagged as American People, Federal government of the United States, Jersey Shore, Mensa International, top ten, top ten 2012, top ten 2012 list, top ten list, top ten people, top ten things, Twitter, United States, Wall Street, Wikipedia

June 18, 2010

In a stellar PR move BP puts CEO Tony Hayward on back burner

Wow, it’s hot on the back burner. But, not as hot as being in front of the Capitol Hill gang, the President of the United States and millions of Americans who would dearly love to spend five minutes alone with British Petroleum’s CEO Tony Hayward. Hayward you may remember, endeared himself to the general public by whining to reporters recently concerning the gulf oil spill by stating “I’d like my life back” when asked about the scale of the disaster and the time it has taken to do basically, nothing of any consequence.

In an interview Friday with Sky News , BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Hayward will be turning over control of the day-to-day operations of the gulf spill disaster to BP Managing Director Robert Dudley. Svanberg did say that Hayward’s comments to reporters after the Deepwater Horizon Disaster had hurt the company. Most Americans however, find their sympathy lies with the families of the 11 people killed in the disaster, the wildlife lost, more lost jobs and businesses and the eco system. BP and/or Hayward aren’t even on the list.

When Hayward spoke to Congress on Thursday his babblespeak even baffled Congress, that in itself a surprise. Congress too is known to speak in a political jargon unknown to outsiders but they could not seem to make heads or tails out of Hayward’s lack of answers on the oil spill. Evidently Hayward played the old game of ducking and evading questions, said he had no knowledge of the planning that went into the Deepwater Horizon rig and refused to comment on why he thought it exploded. I don’t know why Congress found this frustrating, as Americans we get this same “I don’t know” stuff all the time from our elected politicians, we are pretty much used to it. In this case it is just a big business, greedy corporate CEO, surely they can deal with it.

Svanberg said that Hayward was going to initially be the face of the company during the disaster but since the oil spill has grown more political they are changing their tack. Oh please, this is just another word for spin. Since we have all grown to realize Hayward cares more about himself and the company than people, they need to quickly change it up. This is straight from the public relations 101 book.

So while we have crude oil gushing into the Gulf Of Mexico, we have a crude company trying out their new “tack” on us. President Barack Obama has asked for a $20 billion fund to compensate victims and hopefully these people with get some money before their next “tack”, which will probably be bankruptcy or handing out free shares of BP stock.

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September 12, 2010

Hey, main stream mess media; I’m going to burn my press card

I figure a headline like the one above should have Fox, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS and maybe even Geraldo knocking on my door in minutes , for the scoop of a lifetime. I mean, it worked for that nutcase Florida pastor Terry Jones from the Dove Outreach Church. (What does that mean anyway? Are they all running around catching doves? Call PETA quick).
Anyway, when Jones decided he needed his 15 minutes of fame he grabbed a few Qurans (Muslim holy books) and said he was going to burn them on 9/11. And bingo, the guy was a made-for-TV evangelist. One day you are a nobody with next to nobody in your cult/church and the next day you are a force to be reckoned with thanks to our main stream mess media that is having a slow news day, or week or just sitting around with their laptops waiting for the next big non-scoop.

This would be comical if it wasn’t so sad. Can you imagine a real pro newsman like Walter Cronkite, in the face of this nutcase pastor, even giving him the time of day? I mean, this is less important that Paris Hilton thinking that the crack cocaine that fell out of her purse was chewing gum. This is even less important than anything Jon Gosselin ever did, said or wore. This is more embarrassing than Geraldo Rivera’s opening up that vault years ago on National TV and finding NOTHING. This is more embarrassing than Glenn Beck crying and Sarah Palin whining.

Our enlightened media literally turned a nothing pastor and his idiotic tiny tribe of kool-aid, loser followers into a national comment frenzy as anyone who is running for anything, that could even remotely be construed as political had to have their voice heard on this “issue”. It’s as if the “balloon boy madness” won’t go away. The press is so easily duped that it bleeds a non-story until the President of The United States has to get involved. And I’m pretty sure he should be focusing his attention on the economy, the war, jobs, greedy banks, slime-ball insurance companies and well-real issues.

So, I have decided that as a writer that regularly does freelance writing for AOL websites among others, I am up to spreading my wings, as it were. I’ve figured out that If I burn something they (the main stream mess media) will come and I will become famous just long enough to nab a book publisher or write an article for Oprah magazine. Since today, September 11, is “No News is Good News Day” I have decided to burn my old press card, which is sure to incite an international something-or-other. Or, at the very least get me on a talk show.

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Tagged as card, church, Dove, florida, Jones, kool-aid, main, mass, media, mess, Outreach, pastor, press, Quran. burn, stream, Terry, walter cronkite

September 20, 2010

Dancing With the Stars premier; Who’s hot and who’s not

I am a Dancing-With-The-Stars TV show addict. I don’t watch those Bachelor/Bachelorette shows, or the Jersey seedy Shore thing or The Housewives of what-ever-county-is-popular this week, but I like dancing. I consider watching “stars’ (for some contestants this term is stretching it) dance or in some cases kinda-dance, highly entertaining.

So I grabbed the popcorn bowl and sat down for some uninterrupted viewing tonight and of course observations;

Right of the bat comedian Margaret Cho, came bouncing down the stairs for the grand entrance at the beginning of the show with her partner and visibly tripped. Hmmm. Not even dancing yet just walking.

Audrina Patridge was the first star dancer and she was not half-bad. She seemed like she had the steps down pat, was on beat and her 19 score out of 30 was okay for the first time out. Her online Bodog sports book odds are 8-1.

Kurt Warner, the former Rams QB was very graceful and looks to have good potential. His sports book odds are 12-1. His judges score was 19.

Kyle Massey,the Disney Channel star was really good. He shot out on the floor like a cannon and his energy was great. The judges were impressed with his first dance. His score was 23. His sports book odds today were 25-1.

Rick Fox, a former NBA Laker champion looked like a giant with shorty Cheryl Burke, even with her 4 in. heels. But despite his size he didn’t appear clumsy and was reasonably graceful for his extreme height. He had great posture and elegance. The judges were equally impressed. His sports book odds today were 11-2. His judges score was 22.

Margaret Cho, an actress and comedian was really great at first but got a little caught up in her winged costume and also fell down at the end, It evidently was a deliberate fall due to her comedic nature, the judges thought the fall was goofy. Her sports book odds as of today were 20-1, her judges score was 15.

Brandy, a singer and performer showed grace and elegance and the judges thought so too. She looked comfortable on the dance floor and her score was 23. Her sports book odds are 3-1.

Bristol Palin, daughter of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, started out dancing in a buttoned-up suit and peeled it away to a short red fringe dress. She had the moves memorized but didn’t quite have the beat down pat. She seemed nervous and mom wasn’t there to cheer her on. Her sports book odds are 22-1, her judges score was 18.

Florence Henderson, singer and actress and Brady Bunch mom, is 76 years young and looked fantastic and did a great job for a dancer of any age. The judges said she was great entertainment. Her sports book odds were 25-1 and the judges score was 18.

Singer Michael Bolton, was a little on the clumsy side and was sort of rushing to keep up with the dance. Not at all what I would call graceful but then it’s only the first week. Out of his element and it showed. His sports book odds were 10-1. His judges score was 16.

Mike Sorentino ‘The Situation” from the reality show Jersey Shore, wasn’t as confident on the dance floor as he is in a Jersey Shore bar. Rather clumsy, under-rehearsed, not at all the Mr. Cool he projects on his show. His 80′s style dancing wasn’t impressive to the judges, but they noted he hadn’t been able to rehearse much because of his TV show. His sports book odds are 7-1, way off in my book. His judges score was 15.

Jennifer Grey, “Baby” from the popular movie Dirty Dancing danced to a song from the movie album of Dirty Dancing. She was graceful, elegant, never missed a step or a beat and the dance was very emotional. You could not escape seeing her in the movie with Patrick Swayze as she glided across the floor. Her sports book odds are 7-2. Although I know it’s early, I think she will win the whole shebang. Her judges score was 24, the highest score of the night.

David Hasselhoff, actor in Baywatch among other programs. Looking cool in leather and sunglasses didn’t really help with the moves. Not what I would call agile, or smooth he tried to put a slapstick routine into the mix for humor. But that still doesn’t cover for the lack of dancing skills. His sports book odds are 10-1. I would say he is much more of a longshot than that. His score was 15.

All in all it was a good but not necessarily sit-on-the-edge-of-you-seat showstopper premier. Who will go home first? There are plenty lacking in dance skills on week one, that could go but it will end up a popularity contest as in, who’s hot and who’s not. If it was truly up to the dancing I think the Hoff or the “Situation” should be among the frist to go.

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Tagged as Brady Bunch, bristol palin, Dance, dancing with the stars, David Hasselhoff, Dirty Dancing, DWTS, jennifer grey, Jersey Shore, Kurt Warner, Margaret Cho, Patrick Swayze, premier, situation

September 25, 2010

Are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert our “real” news media?

What does it say for journalism today when the best and most accurate news is delivered by comedians such as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert? It says a lot, actually. It says that somebody over at Comedy Central does their homework and research. It says that even though their news “bits” are funnier than hell, their opinion based news is actually founded on FACT. Imagine that. Opinion based on fact and not “made-up stuff”.

It’s no wonder that a Time magazine poll last year named Stewart the most trusted man in news. He has literally replaced the deceased Walter Cronkite. And no, that is not a joke but most of our main stream media is. Both Stewart and Colbert (or their staffs) actually go digging for news. They call out our politicians on their absurdity and lies. In the old days they called this “investigative journalism”. Today it is called Comedy Central.

Thanks to the social news website of http://www.reddit.com Stewart and Colbert will be holding dueling rallies at the Washington D.C. Mall Oct. 30. Stewart’s is called “Rally to Restore Sanity” and Colbert’s dubs his “March to Keep Fear Alive.” While they are obviously both parodies of Glenn Beck’s recent “Restoring Honor Rally” in the same location and on the date of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech, (which many thought was awful timing) they joke that maybe 400 million people could show up.

Joseph Laughlin, who frequents the Reddit site started the ball rolling recently by putting up a message that said Colbert should hold a satirical rally in response to Becks’s rally. He started the campaign rolling and it took off. He and a handful of other Reddit commentors started sending messages across the country in e-mails, Facebook, Twitter and any other means they could find. They even raised $240,000 for one of Colbert’s favorite charities to entice him. It worked.

It will be more than “funny” to see how Fox, ABC,NBC,CBS,CNN,MSNBC et al, handle this rally. Will they “cover” it like they did Beck’s rally, acting like it was “real” news. Will they distort the number of people who show up in order to downplay the power of people and humor. Will they even understand that although it is satire, the crowd that does show up is among other things, thumbing their noses at the main stream media and its robotic and shallow reporting of what really is going on in America today?

Will there be a politician alive who will understand that this is an outlet for frustrated and unhappy voters to vent, mingle and maybe with a whole lot of humor, decide to vote them out of office? I guess we’ll all have to tune-in and see..

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Tagged as comedy central, Glenn Beck, Jon stewart, Martin Luther King, Stephen colbert, United States, walter cronkite, Washington DC

October 12, 2010

Elisabeth Hasselbeck on GMA; How low can the ratings go?

Good Morning America just became Goodbye America for me. The ABC morning news program that has been my faithful companion along with my cup of coffee every morning for more years than I care to count has added a “TV personality” to its morning show that is a definite deal-breaker for my continued viewing of the show; Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Yes, it is the same whiney, polarizing, ultra-conservative, cry-baby and argumentative woman from ABC’s The View.

Who makes these “executive” decisions? Oh right, the ABC executives of course. Who have evidently decided in their infinite wisdom that a woman who was on a reality program (Survivor Australian Outback) and then moved on to a style program (The Look For Less) and then landed on an entertainment/talk/argue venue was perfect for a news program. Credibility? Who cares?

I am trying not to cloud my judgement by the fact that Diane Sawyer is my idol and that her move to World News left a huge gap in the GMA show. I like her replacement in George Stephanopoulos, he brings a serious sense of credibility to the team of Robin Roberts, JuJu Chang and Sam Champion but where does someone like Hasselbeck fit into this scenario? She is supposedly going to do “hot button” topics on lifestyle and child-rearing issues.

So, as viewers we are supposed to find someone who made horribly insensitive comments on National TV about sports reporter Erin Andrews costume on Dancing With The Stars, as a credible, reliable resource for child rearing issues? Or consider Hasselbeck’s objectivity on lifestyle issues when her high-profile conservative opinions fill the ABC airwaves over at the view? Her drama on the view is relentless and her high-pitched screeching voice annoying. Did anyone at GMA do a poll on how many viewers think she is goofy as a bug and can’t stand watching her? In a word; many.

So, while ABC still lags behind NBC’s Today Show by at least a million viewers a day, Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer are tops in their time slot and sure don’t have to worry about losing ratings to ABC unless they choose to bring in Snookie as a lifestyle reporter. Without Diane Sawyer around the bigger stars are not as easy to get on GMA and with the addition of Hasselbeck the ratings have nowhere to go but down. I like the rest of the GMA crew but you can’t tell me they weren’t shocked by the decision to hire Hasselbeck. I’m only one person but after many years I am signing off as a viewer, it’s been nice but the joke isn’t going to be on me. I like current news with my coffee and Hasselbeck is decidedly old news, not fit for me to view.

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Tagged as ABC, American Broadcasting Company, celebrity, Diane Sawyer, elisabeth hasselbeck, GMA Network, Good Morning America, Meredith Vieira

October 15, 2010

ABC’s “The View” where Whoopi and Joy better agree with your view

The morning ABC gabfest known as “The View“, where differing views are supposed to be welcome, according to Barbara Walters on an early promo for the show, probably could use a new promo. It should read something like; “If Whoopi Goldberg or Joy Behar don’t like your view, then they will take their toys…er I mean views and walk off the stage and embarrass themselves and the show, because they are not bright enough or quick witted enough to stand their ground against opposing forces.” Or bullies like Bill O’Reilly.

The guy is a big bag of wind and they let him command the show this week like it was his own. I mean, four women against one guy (I don’t count Elisabeth Hasselbeck) and he still came out a winner even if you totally disagreed with what he said. Just in case you haven’t seen or heard what happened this week on The View, even though it has been on every news, radio and comedy program in the last 24 hours, probably worldwide, in a nutshell: O’Reilly came on the show and mentioned that 70% of people don’t want the a mosque in the area of the 9/11 tragedy. He said Muslims attacked us and most people don’t want a mosque there as a memory. Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg went nuts and said he should have said “terrorist Muslims” and not just said Muslims because it was not right to defame all Muslims. He said he wasn’t defaming all Muslims and that everyone knows that it was terrorist Muslims that attacked us. In other words it was semantics.

I watched the show as it happened and Barbara Walters looked, flustered and upset. She apologized to viewers and stated that her colleagues should not have walked out. Evidently O’Reilly apologized (according to Behar) and they came back on the set but Behar would not sit next to him as she had been previously and moved her seat. They supposedly left because they said they were upset by his words.

But, the part I don’t get besides the totally unprofessional antics of walking off their own show is; Why would these two liberals (Goldberg and Behar) not stick around and push their liberal agenda in his face? Aren’t liberals supposed to be tolerant? Aren’t liberals supposed to stand up and fight for what is right? Instead they walked out making themselves look so foolish, I could hardly believe my eyes. They didn’t even try to kick him on their way out or say anything meaningful or smart or even clever (and these two are comedians). They let O’Reilly get the upper hand on their own show. Walters knew it immediately and had to be ready to kill these two.

In the heat of the arguing before Goldberg and Behar left, O’Reilly was very condescending to Behar and at one point even told her to “listen and you might learn ” instead of coming back with a caustic comment or quip that she is known for, she childishly stuck her fingers behind his head in a ridiculous display not suitable for ANY talk show host on National TV. This was teenage stuff. I was embarrased for her.

I’ve never been a Bill O’Reilly fan and I do occasionally watch the view. I’m still not an O’Reilly fan and my View watching days are over. If I wanted to watch screaming and yelling I could turn on Springer, at least they are real white trash. Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar are phony liberals and classless acts at that.

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Tagged as American Broadcasting Company, Barbara Walters, bill-oreilly, differeing, Joy Behar, Muslim, September 11 2001, The, View, viewpoints, views, Whoopi Goldberg

October 21, 2010

NPR Juan Williams dillema; Fox pundit or NPR journalist?

I’m watching Fox News right now as Bill O’Reilly is threatening National Public Radio (NPR), his words; “NPR will rue the day”. This is all in response to the firing of Juan Williams, a NPR political analyst who has been with NPR for 10 years. Williams spends a lot of time on Fox News, as a matter of fact, he got fired for something he said on Fox News Monday night on O’Reilly‘s show. It appears his joblessness will be short-lived, he was fired on Wednesday and Friday he will be pitch-hitting for O’Reilly on his show on Friday while O’Reilly is “on assignment”.

On Fox News this week Williams stated “I mean, look Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kinds of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But, when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

This is the statement that evidently got the firing ball rolling but it seems to have been a long time coming. According to O’Reilly on his Thursday night show, Williams was told in 2009 by NPR that it did not want him to be identified with Fox News and did not want him stating that he was an NPR analyst when on Fox news. I understand the views of NPR on that issue, but I don’t understand why they did not go to Williams much sooner and tell him; Look, It’s us or Fox, take your pick. Be an opinion giver or a journalist.

I always thought it was weird to see Williams on Fox News which is more or less the opposite of everything NPR stands for but I thought maybe he was a free agent and didn’t have an NPR contract. I was wrong, he had one. I was in the news business at a time when a more definitive line was drawn in the sand regarding opinion and news. Today in the news, it’s hard to tell. A true journalist is not an analyst, or a commentator, or a pundit or whatever other names the media can come up with to cloud the issue. A journalist (sometimes called a reporter) is supposed to report the news in the most unbiased way possible and let the chips fall where they may. It is then supposed to be up to the public to form their own opinion after receiving all the facts.

While I don’t think any NPR journalist should be masquerading as a Fox pundit, it is hard in today’s world to even utter the word Muslim without all hell breaking loose. I don’t think Williams meant to be insensitive but he was. TV cameras thrown into our faces tend to make us think that our feelings and opinions must be important. But if you are a journalist, they are not.

NPR is going to feel the shock waves of this more than they can ever imagine. While I don’t agree that Williams could have continued to play both sides against the middle, his NPR bosses fired the guy over the phone without even a face to face encounter. He will now get to blast NPR all over cable news and has already garnered the sympathy of many. “All Things Considered,” NPR better round-up their troops for some stellar PR moves and the first priority should be to tell NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller , to find someone to help her tone down her terse and foolish on-air statements. Or better yet, let her keep blabbing and lose more public and privately funded money.

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Tagged as Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox News Channel, Juan Williams, Muslim, National Public Radio, O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly Media

October 23, 2010

O’Reilly to Juan Williams; “I’ve got your back”

I really hate to beat a dead, already signed by Fox News horse but…I keep thinking about the Thursday night Bill O’Reilly and Juan Williams love fest where O’Reilly told Williams; “I’ve got your back” and then Williams told O’Reilly; “You know what, you are a standup guy”. When Williams uttered those words on O’Reilly’s show, I knew he had been bought by Fox News, hook, line and sinker. Of course as we all know now, by the next day (Friday) Williams had a $2 million contract with Fox. It was like the mutual admiration society of these two spawned a new reason for living. Plain and simple; NPR bashing.

I like Juan Williams and you can tell by sifting through my blog archives that I am not in the O’Reilly or Fox News fan club. I have already noted in my Thursday blog that I felt NPR’s firing of Williams was done in an unprofessional, and thoroughly distasteful manner, so no need to re-tread that. Not many of us would get the opportunity to bash our ex-employers in a public setting but hardly anyone gets the national platform to do so, lucky him. I found myself amazed that Williams was so totally hyped up on O’Reilly’s show Thursday (with a ton of prodding from O’Reilly) that he appeared to gleefully relish knocking an employer of 10 years (an employer that helped make him pretty famous by adding to his credibility).

While I understand that he was upset with his firing, as anyone would be, I didn’t really notice the calm, classy, voice of reason that I had come to expect from him over the years. When O’Reilly’s Friday show hit the airwaves and Williams was pitch-hitting for an absent O’Reilly, much of the show was about the Williams and NPR continuing saga as everybody and his brother was dragged out to be “shocked” and “horrified” by what Williams had been subjected to. It seemed quite weird to me that Juan Williams was doing a show about Juan Williams. Pushing his case, bashing NPR, explaining away and dissecting his Muslim statement as if we had all not heard it 100 times in the last 48 hours.

It was as if in the blink of an eye, the flash of a lost job and the promise of $2. million , Williams fell quickly into Fox mode. Journalism be damned, I’m a Fox pundit now for real, no more treading lightly as an “analyst’. So, welcome to the “Fair and Balanced News” Juan Williams, and oh yeah, watch your back.

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Tagged as Fox Broadcasting Company, FOX news, Fox News Channel, Juan Williams, Muslim, National Public Radio, O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly Media

December 9, 2010

Barbara Walters 2010 fascinating people include Jersey Shore crew and General Petraeus?

Image via Wikipedia

It’s Thursday night and I’m watching the Barbara Walters top 10 most fascinating people of 2010. She just spent an hour with Oprah, because Oprah’s life more or less commands an hour just to discuss what she is going to do next in her life. I do find Oprah fascinating, not just because of what she has accomplished but primarily what she has done for others.

Next, she has Justin Bieber on as her second most ”fascinating” person interview. He seems nice, but not necessarily fascinating to me. I’m not up on 16-year-old singers but I know he is very popular with the younger set and I guess mothers of the younger set. Walters asks him the hard-hitting question about what he was doing in the back seat of a car with a girl. He said he was kissing her. I guess in Walters’ world this is fascinating.

Next up on her list is the cast of the Jersey Shore, I forget all of their names but it doesn’t matter because they are all pretty much interchangeable. They are discussing in great depth (for them) their slang language skills-I’m starting to nod off.

Next on her list is Sandra Bullock. She is certainly a class act and has gone through hell this year and it is fascinating to me that she never removed her ex-husband from the face of the earth. Now she is interviewing singer Jennifer Lopez, who said in ten years she sees her life and career as being bigger. Fascinating indeed-but to who?

Lebron James, the basketball player who left Cleveland to go to Miami amidst a firestorm of upset Cleveland fans is evidently considered fascinating by Barbara Walters and/or her producer. He plays basketball, so do a lot of people (okay, I admit I don’t keep up on all the basketball stuff) .

Kate Middleton is next on Barbara’s list as Prince William’s soon-to-be bride. She isn’t interviewing her in person of course, but is showing clips of her that we have already seen on TV a million times. Since kate hasn’t really ever talked in public yet, it’s hard to say just how fascinating she is.

Now Barbara is moving on to Sarah Palin who is talking about what she reads. ”C.S. Lewis for divine inspiration and local Alaskan newspapers because that is where her heart is.” She says that thanks to Katie Couric people don’t think she reads but she does. I’m sure if she read Lewis it was “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” and I would be willing to bet she couldn’t do a book report on it without Cliff Notes. And even then…doubtful.

Betty White is on the fascination list and I must agree. He career has been long, interesting and entertaining. I find her delightful and funny.

General David Petraeus, proposed the war surge which has seemed to work and is according to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, among others , a great leader. He, according to Walters is the most fascinating person of 2010. Finally, someone actually fascinating that is trying to do something for the country instead of himself. Why then is this top General even thrown into the mix or mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Palin or the cast of Jersey Shore? What would really be fascinating is finding out the criteria for who gets on the list. Yeah, I already know. Ratings.

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Tagged as Barack Obama, Barbara Walters, Jennifer Lopez, Jersey Shore, Justin Bieber, Kate Middleton, Katie Couric, sarah palin

December 18, 2010

The Kardashian We Dare You To Have A Merry Christmas Card

I’m still waiting for my Kardashian family Christmas card. After all, I do occasionally watch their show and I would think that alone should put me on their list. I saw their card all over the internet yesterday and it certainly is a unique card. But judging from their attire and the look on all their faces , it shows anything but “merry.” Take a look here and see for yourself: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20450926,00.html

When I first saw the Kardashian Christmas card I thought it was a promo for their reality show. On second glance it reminded me of the decadent, glamorous, and fictionalized TV shows like Dynasty, Dallas and Falcon Crest of the 1980′s. People on those shows also dressed to the nines for breakfast and stood on winding staircases not smiling. The card looks a little heavy on the Photo Shop and light on the merry mood. A little too Stepford family for me.

The Kardashian Christmas card may have been trying a little too hard for pretentious glamour. So hard in fact, that the kids don’t even look like kids. The two youngest girls are 14 and I think 12. These two look 25. Poor little Mason, the little one, while really cute, looks like a miniature adult. The steel grey clothing and appearance of the family conjure up a “We dare you to have a Merry Christmas look.”

Just give me the old standing by a green Christmas tree family portrait, with the dog, santa hats, maybe a fireplace, red and green bows, ornaments, tinsel, weird Christmas sweaters, maybe kids in red and green velvet, one person in the photo kind of out -of- sync with the rest. You know-a real family Christmas photo, like the kind taken when “reality” meant something totally different than it does today.

Kardashian Christmas Card 2010 Revealed (blippitt.com)
Kardashian Christmas card: ‘Dynasty,’ or ‘The Addams Family’? [poll] (latimesblogs.latimes.com)

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Tagged as Christmas, Christmas card, Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Holidays, Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian

December 29, 2010

Fox Game Show Should Show Them The ($800,000.) Money

Day 203/365 - Post-It Note Impression No. 5

Image by Kevin H. via Flickr

I think it would be a really nice New Year’s resolution for the producers at the new Fox game show, “Million Dollar Money Drop” to actually pay people when they answer a question correctly on their show. Especially when their “research people” get it wrong. It’s kind of like, just because someone at Fox says it, doesn’t make it so. Or even accurate.

Gabe Okoye and his girlfriend Brittany Mayti were the very first contestants on this Fox premiere show a few days ago that is a clone of a British show. The concept is you start out with one million dollars and wager parts or all of your million on questions asked by the show moderator.

The stump-the-Fox-researchers-question was “Which product was sold in stores first: Post-it-Notes, Macintosh computer or the Sony Walkman?” With much back and forth, the couple wagered $800,000. on Post-its but game host Kevin Pollack said they were wrong it was the Walkman.

For days the internet was hot with conflicting information as everyone and their brother could Google the question and pretty much come up with the correct answer, which was the Post-it. Producers didn’t back down from their stance for a few days but finally they conceded they were given “incomplete” information from 3M. I love how some lawyer probably told them not to say they were wrong or incorrect or inaccurate but “incomplete.”

In the end, the couple lost everything they started with and left the show with nothing but a right answer. On the other hand, the premiere “Million Dollar Money Drop” show started off with a lot of PR (all bad) and had to find the answer to the $800,000. question from viewers instead of it’s crack research team which included 3M the company that invented Post-its.

The couple have said they are not upset with Fox and they don’t know if they will take the producers of “Million Dollar Money Drop” up on their offer to return and play again because it was very stressful losing “all that money.” I of course, think the producers should give the couple the $800,000. and call it a day. Why? Well, when Brittany Mayti wanted to answer the question with the Sony Walkman answer, which is the answer the producers said was correct, her boyfriend talked her out of it. If they had gone with her answer ( the answer the show said was correct) and the producers later found the answer “incomplete”, how quick do you think Fox would be on taking the money back? Lawyers, start your engines…

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Tagged as Fox Broadcasting Company, Game show, google, Kevin Pollak, Macintosh, Post-it note, Question, Walkman

January 5, 2011

Difference between news analyst, commentator and pundit? None

Image by quirkybird via Flickr

I decided just yesterday for no reason in particular, to throw my hat into the pundit ring. I’ve heard through other reliable pundits (pretty funny huh, using reliable and pundit in same sentence) that all you need is an opinion and a forum. I figure I have both. My forum might be small by Fox or CNN standards but never-the-less a blog is a blog and you just never know who drops by.

I was in the newspaper business for many years, and the only words we ever used to describe who we were and what we did were typically reporter, correspondent, columnist and of course editor. The editorial was the newspaper version of opinion along with columns, which were the express opinion of the writer who wrote them. As reporters or correspondents (which were our part-time reporters) we wrote news backed up with plenty of facts and sources or it didn’t fly. Pretty cut and dried. But, people even then, expressed confusion about what exactly an editorial was, no matter that I once wrote an editorial explaining to readers exactly what an editorial was. So evidently, opinion and fact and how they are packaged has always been confusing for some. Myself included.

Today of course, we have been enlightened with so much opinion in our news, especially TV news, that the lines seem especially blurred between pundit, commentator and news analyst. I have been researching these three terms for quite a while and have come to the conclusion that pundits, commentators and news analysts are completely interchangeable. For a while, I thought a news analyst was not supposed to have a personal opinion. That he/she was supposed to gather the facts, have some extra deep knowledge to add to those facts that us dummies don’t know and present same to us in an unbiased manner.

But, my new pundit opinion thinking cap got in the way. If you are analyzing a situation how do you do that without bringing your own bias into the mix? How is an analyst going to analyze without coming to some conclusion? And you can’t come to a conclusion and be unbiased. If you just throw out the facts and don’t analyze then you aren’t an analyst anymore just a reporter or a correspondent or someone who just reads the news on TV with no comments whats-so-ever (an unheard of phenomenon). Even interpreting the news, which is something news analysts do often, is still interpreting the news by the standards of the analysts themselves or who ever they work for. So they still have a point of view. A point of view cannot be void of opinion.

This is certainly not think-tank stuff but since a commentator is an opinion person, and a pundit is most definitely an opinion person (think Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck) and since I have personally dropped the status of news analyst to mere opinion person I think a new word to describe all three interchangeable words is in order. Maybe something like anal-puntator or…I’m sure you come can up with plenty of your own.

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Tagged as bill-oreilly, CNN, commentator, FOX, Fox Broadcasting Company, Glenn Beck, news analyst, pundits, Rush Limbaugh, Television

January 21, 2011

Let’s Whitewash Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and Wipe Out History

Cover of "The Adventures of Huckleberry F...

Cover via Amazon

I love books. I have too many (if that’s possible) and I particularly like the classics, like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. My very old copies of these books among others, sit behind glass in an old barrister bookcase in a place of honor. The reason I like the classics is because they give us a glimpse into what was.

So, it was with great sadness and shock that I read recently in the New York Times and Publishers Weekly that an editor, Alan Gribben, a Mark Twain scholar at Auburn University took it upon himself to change the written word of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). He struck all mention of the word “nigger” and “injun Joe” in the books and replaced them with the words slave and indian. Why any “scholar” would think that these words are interchangeable is beyond my comprehension. Sometime in February the new politically correct, whitewashed version of these books will be published by NewSouth Books for student/classroom use.

Gribben said he felt a need for this change because many teachers felt “uncomfortable” teaching this book to students because of the words “nigger” and “injun”. Well, we should all feel uncomfortable with these words but the teachers are missing the boat on making it a teachable moment in explaining to kids just what it was like over 100 years ago. It was not a pretty time in our history of how blacks were treated, whitewashing the words does not wipeout what was done. This is not like the re-make of an old movie, this is distorting history to make things look better than they really were. This is falsifying Mark Twain’s words so the teachers of today can feel more comfortable. Here is a passage from the forward page of my old Huckleberry Finn book written by the author:

“In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods. South-Western dialect; the ordinary Pike County dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guesswork; but pains-takingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding. The Author.”

Since both books are in the public domain and long past their copyright, Gribben can make changes and the publisher, NewSouth, can print tons of copies and make big bucks distributing to schools where the books have been banned or simply not taught because of fear of reality. In the mean time, kids everywhere will still want to gets their hands on the original because it has been “banned” or changed, just like I did as a kid with Lolita and Lady Chatterley’s Lover. And of course, maybe they won’t understand it as well as if a teacher had taken the time to explain the history, culture and vernacular of 1884 and how far we have come.

But, I’m sure for NewSouth Books this is just the tip of the iceberg. I can see them with dollar signs in their eyes now, going after Uncle Tom’s Cabin and turning it into a condo.

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Tagged as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Auburn University, history, List of Tom Sawyer characters, Little Black Sambo, Mark Twain, New York Times, NewSouth Books, Publishers Weekly, United States, Whitewash

July 17, 2011

Borders Books; The Final chapter

Image via Wikipedi

(This is an update from a Feb. blog when Borders entered Chapter 11)

It’s ironic that Borders Books, the book chain that played a huge part in putting thousands of smaller independent bookstores out of business with their superstore business model initiated in the 1980′s, is now going out of business. It is closing the last 399 locations of Borders Books and turning the inventory over to liquidators. While I lament the closing of any brick and mortar bookstore, you could see this one coming even if you weren’t an “expert” but just a lowly consumer.

Borders always seemed to lag a few steps behind-the-times. They didn’t catch on to the increasing rise in internet book buying or electronic book purchases until it was too late. They were still selling CD’s for $22 when people were downloading music for 99 cents on the Web.

In 2001 Borders contracted its e-commerce business out to a little company called Amazon.com. For Borders this was like a death sentence according to many economists. Amazon didn’t have the slightest interest in promoting Borders, it just wanted to be the king of online books. And of course, it took a while but it is. Borders got lost in the shuffle at Amazon and then places like Sam’s Club, Costco, WalMart and every Tom, Dick and Harry with shelf space started selling heavily discounted books.

Borders also wasted valuable years in progress and profit I feel, by hiring four CEO’s in five years that had no book sales experience what-so-ever. I found this astounding. I mean, I consider myself a true book-person. I read them, decorate with them, give them as gifts, collect them, store them etc. but I can’t imagine owning a bookstore large or small and not putting a smart business person with extensive book knowledge at the helm. This is what happens when someone with an MBA thinks they can sell widgets and books. People like this think product is product. But, they are so wrong. Book people are different. I might spend an hour in a bookstore picking out a book but I would spend one minute in a store picking out a widget (whatever that is).

Publishers will be the first to tell us that Americans are buying fewer books. Well, of course we are buying fewer books. The average new hardcover has a retail price of $28-$32. Mass market paperbacks are now hovering at $15 and up if you don’t get some kind of discount. People like “Snooki” from that stupid Jersey-whatever show are penning tomes, all the while thinking the word tome is a new kind of liquor. So, high prices and low quality content certainly has to play a role in declining book sales and not just because of the fact that people are spending more time on the internet and less time reading.

Going into a bookstore like Borders is like taking part in a “book experience.” It’s the bookstore smell, the coffee, the people, the staff and of course walls and walls of books. I know E-Readers and Kindles are hot items and Barnes and Noble claims their e-books now out-sell “real” books but the act of holding a book in your hand and visually looking at the jacket and the cover and reading the blurbs etc. is all part of the bibliophile experience. If a great book is considered a real “page-turner” some people feel you need actual pages not an electronic device. Hopefully when the big box bookstores are gone we will see the return of the smaller independent bookstores. One can only hope.

Not surprisingly, library usage is up nationwide. Of course, it is a sign of the economic times but I think it is a good thing. It gives us the opportunity to show younger readers that the internet is not literature, YouTube is not research and Twitter is not real writing.

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February 28, 2011

The 83rd Academy Awards with the ‘hip’ unfunny people

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The 83rd Academy Awards Program was supposed to appeal to a younger demographics. The hosting duo of Anne Hathaway and James Franco even joked about the ‘hip’ quotient ( Note to producers; if you have to tell us something is going to be hip-it’s not) The word joked was actually quite a stretch. I don’t know if the humor was lacking because of the writing, the delivery, the timing or the fact that these two hosts just didn’t get it. The Academy awards is not supposed to be a vaudeville act or open mike night at the comedy club.

The Academy Awards is supposed to be a big deal. So, I think big deal people should be at the helm. A host or hostess than can command the attention and respect of this crowd is what was needed and sorely lacking. These are, for the most part, A list movie stars and they need to be entertained by an A list star. In between the boredom and inappropriateness of some of the acceptance speeches and the awkward on stage moments (like Kirk Douglas), there needs to be a giant in the industry to sort of even-the-keel and smooth over the rough patches, preferably with humor.

I would call it stage presence and more. The host or hostess has to have been through it all in Hollywood. Paid his or her dues to be able to relate to this audience with authority. Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Jack Lemon, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Ellen DeGeneres. They all had “it”. It wasn’t just the humor, which was great when they all hosted but their peers, as well as much of the viewing public looked up to them because of their accomplishments. Were they hip? I really don’t think most people would utter hip and Oscars in the same breath.

I’m not saying Anne Hathaway isn’t a beautiful girl and she seemed pleasant and all smiles and appeared to try really hard. But it seemed forced and overly scripted and not her fault that producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer picked her and Franco to “Give the Oscars a facelift.” Franco didn’t seem to be trying too hard and it was obvious he was totally out of his element. They both might be in the movies but are far from Hollywood Stars and even farther from being comedians. I guess this year, I felt the whole show lacked class. And no matter how much money you pour into a televised awards show, you can’t buy class. You can evidently, buy “hip” but just like a facelift, it doesn’t always work.

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March 9, 2011

Should NPR Pander to the Right or Cut Loose With the Left?

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National Public Radio is caught between the proverbial rock and a hard radio place. They can be as liberal as they profess not to be and give up their use/need of partial public funding or they can keep taking those tax dollars and pretend to be neutral.

NPR hasn’t had a banner PR year. First came the Juan Williams firing fiasco and then yesterday NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller (resigned and was forced out) after a conservative activist (James O’Keefe) ”sting” operation taped a non-news NPR executive bashing the Tea Party and calling its members racist and blah, blah, blah. Bashing the Tea Party in my book is not a bad thing but if you are a purported non-biased, neutral, down-the-middle-of-the-road publicly funded radio station it is nothing short of catastrophic. At least that is what the Congressional Republicans are saying as some of them discuss pulling the plug on NPR’s funding.

Depending on who you believe, NPR gets anywhere from 2% to 16% public funding from various sources: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal, state and local sources. NPR CEO’s have stated for years that hundreds of local stations would “go dark” without the public funds. I’m no expert on their funding but I do know that with public funding it means you have to please all of the people all of the time. An impossible task. You also have to please the politically correct police and every Republican on the planet. But, many Repubs don’t like NPR so that part is a lost cause.

The best thing NPR can do is quit pandering to the Republicans just for the money. Quit trying to feign interest in being totally unbiased when human beings are involved that have obvious opinions and biases. They should also drop the we are better than everyone else attitude because clearly with all these recent problems-they are not necessarily better just different. I like different and so do tons of NPR listeners and backers but they need to get off their high horse and call a spade a spade. Yes, they are more unbiased than most news entities out there but yes, they lean-to-the-left.

But most importantly, NPR stands for PUBLIC and without PUBLIC like myself and millions of others who give money during their “pledge” drives there would be no shows. We give because of the on-air talent, people in the field and behind the scenes workers helping to produce shows. Many could care less about their CEO’s unless they are doing something stupid, which seems a common thing lately. Maybe it is time for NPR to pander to the masses that actually listen to them and quit pretending to be something they are not. They are a great liberal news entity with excellent reporters and writers. And, that’s not a bad thing.

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March 15, 2011

The Bachelor: Finding Real Love on “Reality TV” in 11 Weeks

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If “reality” TV is supposed to be real, then why did I get the distinct impression that the final episode of The Bachelor was a bad made for TV fictionalized movie? I admit I’m not a big fan of the show but I have seen enough episodes (including last nights final ) to cast aspersions on the whole finding-true-love-in-a-few-weeks-on-TV thing. I mean, come on–get REAL.

Evidently 13.5 million of us were glued to our sets last night waiting with bated breath to see if the two-time bachelor participant and (his first time around he picked nobody) bar owner from Texas , Brad Womack would pick Chantal or Emily. With many of us knowing that it didn’t really matter who he picked because most likely he and his pick-of-the-litter are not going to be riding off into the sunset anyway. Smart people usually don’t get on the bandwagon of finding true love in eleven weeks with a production crew in tow. No matter how many exotic locales no matter how many hot tubs.

Such is life in this reality pick-me, pick-me saga as a bunch of women vie for one guy (who didn’t seem like any prize to me) and then wallow in grief and/or self-pity as they are cast aside for a newer or shinier or more glib model. Kind of like picking out a new car only with less thought. I am amazed that the producers of the show still find attractive, professional and seemingly smart women to sign up for this gig. Most of the women I have viewed on the show seem to show all visible signs of finding themselves a mate in the traditional way but they of course, wouldn’t have a shot at reality TV stardom if they just met someone at the grocery store, health club or bowling alley.

Womack said on the agonizingly long three-hour show that he knew early on that Emily was “the one.” Well, if that was the case what was the point of stringing Chantal and a few others along? It was for TV ratings of course. Seems cruel to me but men have been stringing women along for centuries and vice-versa without the aid of TV cameras. Now that Emily and Brad are in the real world sans cameras, she has said that she is not ready to marry him and she and her daughter are not ready to move to Texas (where his business is). I guess even though the show promotes shallowness, at least some of the participants are smart enough to realize that the 11 weeks of filming and airing might not quite be enough time to build a solid foundation leading to real love in the real world. Me, I’m a total skeptic. I give them a few months tops and he will be the ex-two-time Bachelor player that will still be playing.

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March 23, 2011

Elizabeth Taylor: A Kid Remembers Her Movies

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It was the easy-going world of the late 1950′s. I was a kid, TV was free, our household got two Chicago newspapers a day (my parents didn’t want to miss a thing) and movies were about 75 cents for adults (much less in smaller towns). I wasn’t even close to an adult yet but I wanted to go see the Elizabeth Taylor movie Cat On A Hot Tin Roof because I guess I thought it had something to do with cats. My folks filled me in on the movie in cryptic fashion like adults tended to do in the 50′s stating it was an adult film with Elizabeth Taylor, end of discussion. I thought it would be cool to see an adult film, my parents thought differently.

You see in the “old” days, parents actually decided what movies their kids could see, instead of the movie police. In many instances back then, parents were a lot tougher on movie viewing for their kids than any R, G, PG system that would eventually be adopted. I was allowed of course, to see National Velvet on TV. Elizabeth Taylor was so beautiful in that movie and I begged my parents for a horse. Promising to groom it daily, exercise it in our miniscule city backyard and board it in our garage. No dice.

The only reason all these memories came flooding back to me today was of course, the news that Elizabeth Taylor has died today. From the perspective of a young female child, I thought she was talented, glamorous and lucky to be in movies with horses and dogs (Lassie). It wasn’t until I was much older that I witnessed the rather complicated life she had lived. Here was a child star who grew up in front of the public who adored her for her professional life and at the same time condemned her for her private life.

Taylor said in an interview a few years back that the gossip bothered her a great deal and she would often go and cry by herself. But she admitted she made mistakes in her life and was not happy with some of the things she had done. Not making excuses she said simply “I am me.” Taylor took up the AIDS cause long before it became fashionable. Even when her own health was failing she still raised millions for AIDS and other gay and lesbian causes.

It’s not only sad that Elizabeth Taylor the film legend has died but she really is the last icon of that era. The Hollywood movie star era is over and all the glitz and glamour that goes with it. One only has to look to the recent Academy Awards last month to see that unfunny and weirdness are in and sophistication, class and glamour are gone.

I did finally get to see Cat On A Hot Tin Roof when I was much older and my parents were right, it wasn’t about cats at all. Rest In Peace to a movie star–in the truest meaning of the word.

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April 3, 2011

Donald Trump To Join Fox & Friends News Chatter

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As if Donald Trump doesn’t have his plate full enough what with Celebrity Apprentice, business mogul-ing (Is that even a word?) and maybe, possibly, it depends…running for president next time around, he is now set to be part of the Fox & Friends “news” show. It seems Fox & Friends will make room on their couch for Trump every Monday morning, cleverly dubbing it “Mondays with Trump.”

I saw some of the stellar promos for Trump’s segment with such lines as: “The Donald now makes his voice loud and clear on Fox.” Boy, they must have gotten some huge powerhouse agency to think that one up. While Fox has never been one to shy away from controversial on-air people, I can’t quite get a handle on what Trump can bring to the news table. Unless it is just basically Trump wanting face time in case he decides to run for president and Fox wanting more ratings for their coffee klatch with Steve Doocy, Gretchan Carlson and Brian Kilmeade.

I don’t watch the trio on Monday mornings or any other morning but the idea of listening to Trump with my coffee first thing in the morning is not my idea of a good wake-up call. Most presidential candidates are distancing themselves from their pundit or “news analyst” roles on TV stations so as not to show any conflict of interest. Newt Gingrich stepped down from his Fox Perch when he supposedly became a presidential candidate. This whole thing leads me to believe that Trump isn’t going to try to run for president at all but is just more of his usual blowhard, look-at-me PR stuff.

Trump however is not any kind of analyst or commentator or pundit but a mere contributor without a contract that will just be on Fox on Mondays, indefinitely or probably until the regular news crew gets sick of him or the viewers can’t take looking at his hair in the morning or his Celebrity Apprentice show gets higher ratings. Or until some Fox focus group tells him he doesn’t have a chance in hell of running a country if he couldn’t run a casino, and running on a platform that President Obama wasn’t born in the USA just isn’t going to cut it.

At least he doesn’t have to worry about being fair and balanced or politically correct or even accurate about anything he says, after all , it’s just FOX.

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April 18, 2011

Donald Trump and Sarah Palin: Dumb and Dumber

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Evidently we now have two quasi-maybe-possible U.S. Presidential candidates that are like-minded when it comes to what they think most Americans find really important. Even with our present crappy economic problems and polarizing political climate looming Sarah Palin recently chose to jump on Donald Trump‘s bandwagon of “Show us the birth certificate” President Obama, which they both seem to feel is unfinished priority business. I guess because running on this type of platform is better than no platform at all. And you get to go on those newsy chat shows like Fox and Friends and expound on whatever you want as long as it is shallow, repetitive and without merit. This duo truly is the Dumb and Dumber of our current political scene.

Trump, with his feet planted firmly in egomaniac mode has hired a private investigative team to look under rocks and Hawaiian flora and fauna to find Obama’s birth certificate because he doesn’t believe the one that was presented by the state of Hawaii is real or legal or I guess, up to Trumps standards of reality which of course are based on reality television.

Now Palin, who once actually said she believed Obama’s birth certificate was real and felt the birther movement was annoying and a distraction has now flipped her switch over to the dumb side stating that maybe Trump has a point or something…Of course she also had her own reality show so possibly the reality is that ego trumps all and it doesn’t really matter what facts are presented. Maybe when you are a rogue and a maverick you are supposed to spend your time waffling back and forth between fact and fiction and jumping on the nearest outspoken/crazy bandwagon?

Right now, potential presidential candidates for 2012 are a dime a dozen with no clear front-runner at all for the Republicans. So it could very well be that the most outrageous and off-the-wall candidate could win. While we as Americans concern ourselves with the debt ceiling, jobs, healthcare, taxes and real life matters, we have potential candidates like dumb and dumber that just want to take us all for a ride. Nothing unusual for American politics to be sure but it would be nice to get rid of the clutter and quit making our politics a joke.

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April 25, 2011

William And Kate’s Royal Wedding: Enough Already!

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Okay, so I’m definitely on Royal Wedding overload. I’ve heard enough about British fascinators (little headband hats), what Kate and Williams guests might or might not eat, where they might or might not go on a honeymoon and which bookmakers are giving odds on which of the three already designed dresses Kate might or might not wear.

I’m all in favor of fun and happy news over what our networks typically spew forth on a daily basis and any news that will give a backseat to Charlie Sheen or Donald Trump is right up my alley but…I think all the networks could be confusing many of us Americans with people who give a damn. Not that we don’t wish William and Kate the best, and not that we don’t think lovingly of his mother on this big day but we really don’t need the 24/7 coverage where Barbara Walters tells us how she has interviewed Princess Diana in the past, Robin Roberts reports on how BIG Westminster Abbey is and Diane Sawyer interviews a third cousin once-removed of Williams to give us some real insight.

Leave it to us Americans to turn this Royal Wedding into a media circus. Many American news outlets will be reporting from London all week-long. NBC has said their coverage will be comprehensive and aggressive? What the heck does that even mean? It’s a wedding not a war. ABC will have 20 straight hours of wedding coverage on the 29th starting at 4 a.m. ABC also mentions that Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer will “anchor” the wedding. Who knew a Royal Wedding needed an American anchor or two? Or actually many more as two billion viewers are expected to watch the wedding on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, E, Bravo, MSNBC and Telemundo among many more.

And just in case you can’t take the day off from work and/or it hasn’t been declared a national holiday in your neck of the woods, the wedding will be streamed live online to IPADS, iPhone applications, Facebook, Yahoo! and Hulu. Even some of our U.S. weather channels this week have been reporting on the weather in Britain. I haven’t checked it out myself but I’m pretty sure we can count on it raining on this parade. It’s not a big deal for the Brits, they are used to it. It will give them all a chance to use those William and Kate souvenir umbrellas to keep all their hats dry.

I won’t be up at 4 a.m. to watch the Royal Wedding on U.S. channels nor will I be watching our American news media for 20 hours-or any hours for that matter but I might take a peek at the BBC, something tells me they will know how to cover a British wedding in short order.

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May 6, 2011

Osama Bin Laden:Beating a Dead Horse in a Civilized Society

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It’s no use beating a dead horse. Osama Bin Laden is dead as a doornail and showing all the gory details (the pictures) will not make him more dead. I happen to agree with President Obama’s stance on not showing the American people Bin Laden’s blown-up skull. What for? So the pictures can be used for a made-for-TV-movie? Or blown up as wallpaper for some sick-o’s computer?

Or better yet, so we can incite more international problems and jeopardize our national security even more just to appease a small segment of the population that only believes what they see? Showing Bin Laden’s dead photos could possibly ignite even more trouble for the U.S. from other countries and only prove that we are as uncivilized as he and his lot were. It would look like a banner or feather in our cap or like we were gloating. I agree with Obama when he said he was not showing the photos because “That’s not who we are?”

The Navy Seals did a magnificent job. They put their lives on the line for us and got rid of the #1 terrorist in the world. His body was disposed of in a civilized manner which is far more than he did when he killed thousands of Americans at the World Trade Center and disposed of their lives.

I originally thought that his blown-off face should be plastered all over the world to show other terrorists just what could become of them if they continued down his path. But then I realized that I was not brought up in a classless society that did not respect death or giving someone a proper burial even though I don’t feel Bin Laden really deserved one. This does not mean I am respecting the person. To me he is Satan himself.

I’m sure that this issue will become a new political platform for some far right nutcase wanna-be-presidential candidate grabbing at straws to run on. I guess it would be a lot easier than running on real issues facing us Americans and since the Obama birth certificate issue has been finally put to rest, bringing up a “but is he really dead” issue is sure to be somebody’s trump card. I happen to believe President Obama and while trying not to gloat I can’t help but quietly say “ding dong the wicked witch is dead.”

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May 10, 2011

So does the ‘cheese stand alone’ at Chicago’s 7-Eleven stores?

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A man who allegedly stole nacho cheese from a University Village 7-Eleven found himself in jail Sunday, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

Michael Richards, 50, bought a bag of potato chips from the store in the 1300 block of South Halsted, then illegally doused the chips in nacho cheese, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Dan Piwowarczyk said.

When the store clerk told him the nacho cheese was only for customers who paid for it to use on corn chips in a traditional plastic tray, Richards pulled the clerk’s arm behind her back, twisted it and threatened the clerk, according to a police report. Police arrested Richards a block away Saturday, the report shows.

When Judge James Brown asked, “So what was stolen was the cheese?,” Piwowarczyk kept an admirably straight face as he replied, “The defendant was informed that it was not yo’ cheese.”

Richards, of the 9400 block of South Burnside, was ordered held on bail of $10,000.

“That’s a very low bond, for a robbery,” the judge told him.

I wish I could say this “news” report is a joke but it is not. Callers on a Chicago radio station Monday were calling-in in droves stating that the 7-Eleven in question actually had a sign by the cheese stating ” free cheese.” Some in-the-know 7-Eleven frequent visitors say this particular store does keep close watch on their cheese and breathes down your neck as you are pumping that cheese on your corn chips. I suppose this alleged cheese stealing guy may have been a little aggressive in his quest for the squirt-able, processed non-cheese product but imagine the food fight that could have erupted if he had not twisted the clerks arm but just squirted her with the yellow slop. And what would that have been? Battery with cheese?

So I’m suggesting to 7-Eleven that since their cheese stands alone allowing virtually anyone to walk up and pump a squirt or two they really need to enlist the aid of a “cheese watcher” so the clerks can spend more time on their customer service skills. Also, they need to make people aware that their particular store policy is “The customer is definitely not always right” and finally they need to make a big sign and put it by that ridiculous faux-cheese that states “That’s Na-cho Cheese” and maybe some of us dummies will get the picture.

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May 16, 2011

Trump Not Running For President: So When Does The Circus Leave Town?

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Surprise, surprise. The daily care and feeding of Donald Trump’s supercalifragilistic ego does not necessarily require him to seek the highest office in the land. In a press release issued today, Trump (or whoever wrote it) stated: “After considerable deliberation and reflection (probably reflection in a mirror) I have decided not to pursue the office of the Presidency…” Part of his blah, blah, blah also states that he has a strong conviction that if he were to run he would win the primary and ultimately, the general election (yeah, and I’m convinced that this post will go viral and have half-a-million hits by tomorrow). He adds that business is his greatest passion and he is not ready to leave the private sector. I also assume he wants to spend more time on his delusions of grandeur.

So, is the Trump political circus set to leave town? Will it be possible for some of the main stream media, most notably Fox, to quit tying up the airwaves with Trump’s fake platforms and obsessive me, me, me pretend issues? It appears that Trump played his cards right under the big top media circus. He was on major news shows, major non-news shows and just about any forum with a microphone or camera. Many of us knew he would never run but he fooled a lot of the media into believing he was the “hot ticket.” I’m sure he was holding off to make sure his “reality” show would be picked up but more importantly this maybe-I’m-running-maybe-I’m-not stuff was great PR for his show and the infamous Trump “brand.” Aren’t we all just dying for some Trump water or a Trump tie?

Trump’s polling numbers were way down the last few weeks but with Trump’s green tinted (for money) glasses he saw that he had “millions’ of followers that were willing to drink his Kool-Aid. I’m sure the three-time bankrupt business man would have loved the financial scrutiny he would have been under had he decided to be a viable candidate but as many have said he was never going to run anyway so it was never a concern. I was hoping the Trump circus would leave town but his press release states that he is going to continue to voice his opinions loudly (I’m sure with his usual classy vocabulary) and provide valuable services to the country. If anyone believes this last statement then you are obviously one of the “millions” of his sad followers.

So, with Trump officially going back to TV boardroom land and business-as-usual, it looks like the Republicans will have to send in the rest of their clowns to join the circus. I guess with politics anymore–the circus never really does leave town.

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May 18, 2011

Newt Gingrich: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner At Tiffany’s To The Tune Of $500,000?

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Now I get it. A “real” fiscal conservative like Newt Gingrich considers himself suitable to run the country’s budget, finances and economy yet the sky is the limit on his personal Tiffany& Co. jewelry store debt. I figure you would have to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at Tiffany’s to accumulate the time it would take to spend $500,000 in a couple of years. I know Tiffany’s is pricey and it would depend entirely on purchases but Gingrich and his third wife Callista sure don’t practice fiscal conservatism in their “real” life. Don’t they know they can pick up perfectly good fake Tiffany jewelry on any New York City corner or Mexican resort town?

The ex-Congressman and Speaker of the House who has thrown his hat into the Republican Presidential nominee ring on various changing platforms like family values (he has been married three times and divorced a wife who had cancer) and of course fiscal conservatism. The Tiffany story broke yesterday by Politico’s Jake Sherman. It immediately made the rounds of all the usual places but Gingrich and his camp have been busy “no commenting” on his revolving charge at Tiffany’s with an extraordinarily high debt ceiling. Interest rate? Unknown.

Shockingly, Greta Van Susteren somehow mustered up the nerve (Gingrich was until recently a Fox contributor) to ask him on her show last night about the Tiffany & Co. bill. She of course, backed down immediately when he said “I’m not commenting on stuff like that.” Fox has long had this love-affair with Gingrich and his political analyst skills (quite the joke to me).

So, I’m wondering if Gingrich the professed candidate does not want to comment on “stuff like that,” what exactly is he willing to comment on that just might be of interest to potential voters? Are we really supposed to believe that he is in touch with the masses? Or that he can be fiscally conservative with our money in Washington? Does he think for one minute that just because the wimps at Fox News back down from asking him questions that the rest of the media will too? This guy is so far out of touch with real people that I can’t even believe Republicans will end up standing for whatever it is he says he stands for. The reality is Gingrich stands for the elitist, business-as-usual, good-old-boy image that even the Republicans are trying to shake.

I’m going to go out on a very short limb here and say that Newt Gingrich is toast. He’ll never win the Republican nomination and he will keep rubbing everyone (including his own party) the wrong way until the only show he will be wanted on is Fox. That’s how you know you are toast.

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May 29, 2011

Sarah Palin’s Magical Mystery Rogue Bus Tour Starts Rolling Today

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You don’t need tickets but donations are requested, sought after and as welcome as a homemade caribou stew. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin began a bus tour today that will tour the eastern U.S. and other points unknown (the bus stops are evidently top secret until she is ready to spill the beans). She calls it the “One Nation Tour” and her “people” say that the bus will tour historical sites that were key to the formation, survival and growth of the U.S. I don’t quite know what all that exactly means but rest assured it is all very Palin patriotic. I call it the Magical Mystery Rogue Bus Tour because well, after all she is a self-proclaimed rogue and it seems a mystery to me that if she isn’t going to run for the Republican nomination then the bus tour must hold some other to-be-explained magic.

The bus is red, white and blue and has a bigger than life U.S. Constitution painted on it along with some of the lines of the Pledge of Allegiance. The back of the bus has the painted words “Join the Fundamental Restoration of America.” The bus is large and is quite the attention grabber but the bus route outside of “going up the east coast” is mired in mystery. Her website shows a map of a few stops with todays hot spot stop, Washington D.C. After checking out her website where it noted Palin is embarking on a tour, I could only think what kind of tour? Comedy tour? Speaking Tour? The fundamental restoration of America thing never crossed my mind. Silly me. I figured she was testing the waters to be a Republican nominee for President and join the other dozen or so candidates. There are so many candidates and potential candidates now, it’s kind of like club Repub.

So today Palin showed up in Washington D.C. to take part in the “Rolling Thunder” motorcycle ride. It began at the Pentagon and ended at the Vietnam Memorial. Clad in a leather jacket, she was on the back of a motorcycle driven by her daughter Willow. Her husband Todd and daughter Bristol were on separate bikes. Not all the bikers were pleased with the reporters and publicity Palin and her family were receiving. I guess they felt the Palin’s were stealing their “thunder.” Participants are typically Vietnam Vets and their families.

I don’t know what Palin has up her sleeve or even in her bus but she has purchased a $1.7 million dollar house in Scottsdale Arizona. It could be a respite from the cold Alaskan winters or to keep an eye on Bristol who also has an Arizona home. It could also be an easier spot geographically to throw her hat into the club Repub ring. Either way–there goes the neighborhood.

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June 5, 2011

The New Food Pyramid For Dummies-A Plate

If you don’t understand how to eat healthy with a visual aid that many of us use every day–a plate, then you probably only eat out of Styrofoam, cardboard or plastic anyway and it’s a lost cause. In Our First Lady Michelle Obama’s quest for a healthier Nation and with emphasis on rampant childhood obesity, she. and USDA officials recently unveiled a new colored graphic that replaces the old food pyramid graphic that many people ignored anyway.

The new USDA pyramid is called MyPlate and depicts a 9 inch plate (no, not a pie plate) that breaks a nutritious diet into four sections: fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins. There is also a small circle graphic for dairy. There is no mistaking this graphic; vegetables are green, fruits are red, grains are orange and protein is blue. All in neat little triangles right on the plate. I don’t see a brownie or ice cream or cheese cake section on the plate so I am going to assume that kind of stuff is basically out.

Part of the new dietary guidelines also include switching to fat-free or low-fat milk and drinking water over sugary drinks. The beverage industry must have little or no clout with the FDA and Obama or else their lobbyists are asleep at the wheel. While we all know water is best for us, some of the sugary beverage companies still hound us daily with isn’t this a cute bottle advertising? And it’s “cool” to drink sugar laden beverages messages. I look for this type of advertising to pick up as they try and fight the water-is-better campaign. Their other possibility for marketing could be additional “water” beverages to further glut the spring water, artesian water, mountain water, summer water, green water, earth water etc. market. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

The Choose MyPlate campaign I think is a good idea and has the added benefit of helping the economy. Our average dinner plate in the U.S. is 10 1/2 to 12 inches, depending on the manufacturer. The average salad plate about 7 1/2 inches. That means that the 9 inch plate that the MyPlate campaign is based on is pretty-much non-existent in my cupboards, and many others. They are quick to point out that plate size matters and portion size matters if we want to follow these guidelines properly. So, I figure it’s just a matter of time when we will all be clamoring for 9 inch plates and there won’t be any and then they will have to be made. Then a mad dash will ensue to buy stock from Fiesta, Lenox, Pfaltzgraff and Noritake and those of us bright eyes that thought of this phenomenon way ahead of the pack will be rich. I can’t wait!

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Tagged as Food guide pyramid, Michelle Obama, Milk, MyPlate, New food pyramid plate, New USDA food guidlines, Noritake, Pfaltzgraff, United States, United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, USDA FoodPlate

June 28, 2011

Abercrombie & Fitch “Look” Policy Rears Its Ugly head Again

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Abercrombie & Fitch is being sued again for discrimination in the workplace. No surprise here, I am pretty sure that settling/losing discrimination lawsuits is almost like a second business for Abercrombie, or possibly for their fleet of lawyers on retainer. A 2004 class action suit forced them to pay big bucks to every African-American, Asian, Latino and woman who applied but was not hired at their stores. Why? Because they had this Neanderthal hiring practice of only recruiting and hiring white frat boys and white sorority girls because they had a certain “look.” It took a court to tell them what most of the world knows–gee, that “looks” like discrimination. What are you guys trying to do start a new retail race of surfer dudes and duds? A court order said they must recruit from all of us imperfect people too. But, I hear the imperfect but smart people don’t want to work in a dark cologne-fogged-surfer infested atmosphere of discrimination.

In 2009 a girl with a prosthetic arm sued them and won because they hired her, but decided to hide her in the back storeroom and then changed their mind on allowing her to wear a sweater. The people who run these stores must be from some planet of the Stepford-people. It’s actually kind-of creepy, hiring only white, perfect, beachy, flip-flopped wearing Stepford employees.

Another 2009 lawsuit they lost in Minnesota was to a teen who was trying to help her autistic sister in a dressing room but they kicked her out. The mother even called to complain and explain but Abercrombie’s sensitivity training must have been a little lax. They actually said they didn’t really think she had autism-the girl got $115,000.

This latest lawsuit has to be a slam-dunk for 20-year-old college student, Hani Khan, hired by Hollister Co. (Abercrombie owns it) in San Mateo in 2009. In her interview the hiring manager asked her if she could wear a headscarf (she wore a hijab) in the company colors. She said yes, and she honored that commitment. She too was put in the stockroom but she did occasionally have to go out in “public” to the sales floor in the course of her duties. A district manager came into the store one day and caught sight of Khan. She was asked to remove the hijab she was wearing, even though she was wearing one when she was hired, she refused. Khan needed the job to help with her college costs–I don’t think she will have to worry, I’m sure Abercrombie will be paying her tuition and a whole lot more.

Woman sues Abercrombie & Fitch over hijab firing (cbsnews.com)

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Tagged as Abercrombie & Fitch, dress code, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Hijab, Hollister Co, lawsuit, look policy, Minnesota, Muslim, San Mateo, San Mateo California, sues

July 5, 2011

Nancy Grace a Disgrace

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We all found out today that our justice system is alive and well and not living in a woman called Nancy Grace. While Casey Anthony was found not guilty of first degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and child abuse she was found guilty of the lesser charges of lying to police, and basically sending them on a bunch of wild goose chases. Grace anointed herself judge, jury and “expert” early on in the Casey Anthony case and talked about it non-stop on her HLN nightly program for CNN. The program, called Swift Justice, was taken literally by Grace who ranted and raved nightly about the guilt of Casey Anthony killing her two-year old daughter, dubbing Anthony “tot mom.’

Grace is an attorney and former prosecutor which evidently gives her the right to prosecute in a public forum, on TV, in print and anywhere else her mouth takes her, even when a trial is ongoing. A lot of people were shocked and dismayed that Anthony was found not guilty but the fact remains that 12 jurors obviously had a reasonable doubt. Grace, on the other hand has never had a reasonable thought or it might have dawned on her that “her way” wasn’t the only way to go. I actually thought the not guilty verdict might render Grace speechless-no such luck.

Grace single-handedly ruined my favorite morning news program, Good Morning America, by her almost daily appearances in the last month as a so-called “expert” in the case. As I drank my coffee and listened to her talk over Robin Roberts’ questions, bulldoze her answers through another commentator’s statements, screech “tot mom” over and over and criticize anyone on the program who disagreed with her “guilty” point of view, I had enough. I no longer watch GMA, as I think they went off the deep end in considering Grace an “expert” in this case, (note to GMA) A loud opinion does not make someone an “expert.” Grace, and her unprofessional and caustic demeanor has really given the law profession (not always thought of in high esteem) a black eye, hearkening back to the days of ambulance chasers.

Grace said she was concerned that Anthony would get book and movie deals etc. yet Grace has had her face in front of the cameras over this case for a couple of years and has milked it for all its worth. The whole case is sad, a child is dead and Nancy Grace is a disgrace.

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Tagged as Casey Anthony, Caylee Anthony homicide, CNN, Good Morning America, HLN, Nancy Grace, Robin Roberts, Swift Justice

July 14, 2011

No Kids Allowed in Restaurant–Eat In Peace

In some restaurants it’s no shoes, no shirt, no service. In this day and age you can add kids. Got Kids? No service. McDain’s Restaurant in Monroeville, PA has come under scrutiny lately because owner, Mike Vuick, has decided to ban kids under six years old from his restaurant. Some people are criticizing him for this action and yet others are applauding his guts for his no kids allowed rule.

Some people are calling McDain’s new rule discriminatory, over-the-top, crazy, absurd and anti-kid. Others are calling the rule enlightening, fantastic, precedent setting and shouting “it’s about time,” from the roof-tops. Which ever side of the fence you are on you have to give the guy credit for such a bold move that is sure to be polarizing to a certain segment of the population and his town.

Vuick however, doesn’t seem to care and he is not backing down from his stance as he has more than enough customers that agree with him. It’s kind of like that movie Network where the guy says; “I’m mad as hell and I ‘m not going to take it anymore.” According to the owner, many of his customers were tiring of eating at his restaurant in the midst of screaming, crying and food throwing kids. Some diners were even less enthralled with the parents that were either ignoring their own children’s behavior, condoning it or screaming at their kids in a public restaurant. He said that while kids are understandably the center of the universe of a parent it is not necessarily so for the rest of the dining public.

This has to absolutely be a sign of the times. I mean, many of us grew up knowing exactly how to act in a restaurant as kids and we passed that etiquette on to our own children. Most adults over 35 can well remember the wrath of mom and dad if you mis-behaved in a restaurant or any public forum. It was almost like you had private manners at home where you gave your brother a shove and yelled at your sister to get out of your bedroom and public manners where you didn’t utter much other than please, thank you and the meal was great. For many of us it was a treat to go out to dinner as children, and not the norm. For my own kids it was also a special event to have dinner out, so everyone had their manners “on.’

I too have witnessed the escalation of bad manners or no manners in children over the last 10 years or so and since I’m no behavior specialist I don’t have the answers. What I do know for sure is; it is never too young to teach children manners and make it a priority because parents that don’t will become more stigmatized than their kids–and places like Chuck E. Cheese will be getting a lot more crowded.

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July 23, 2011

Punditry is the New Black

Punditry is the new black (photo;Lightfoot)

We are becoming a nation of pundits. Pundits have turned much of our news into a “style ” like the eternal little black dress and the idea that black is chic to wear everywhere and anytime. The problem is pundits should not be everywhere and anytime– it’s annoying.

The term pundit originated in the 17th century from the Hindu word Pandita, meaning “learned.” A more recent American dictionary meaning of pundit is; usually an elderly person noted for wisdom, knowledge and good judgement–an authority. Does this sound to you like anyone we see or hear, day in and day out on any of our 24/7 media outlets on TV, radio, print or web? I can think of only a few pundits that fit this description because true pundits aren’t in-your-face constantly, they are too busy honing their expert skills. People like Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Ann Coulter, Elliot Spitzer and Bill O’Reilly are considered pundits of politics, pop culture or law. So, obviously the meaning has evolved.

Do I value the judgement of pundits? Mostly, no. I do however, value my own judgement, so if you want to just hand me the unfiltered news I think I might be able to make heads or tails of it myself. On the other hand, I would be open to a well-researched, knowledgeable opinion from someone totally in-the-loop, an expert in the field, as it were. Any takers?

The pundit label has a much more casual meaning today in a sort of casual-Friday type way. It seems you can sort-of have knowledge and kind-of have wisdom and flip-flop that good judgement around like well–flip-flops. Even some of the pundits that I sometimes agree with like Ed Schultz or Rachel Maddow of MSNBC , get on their TV and radio soap boxes and talk til’ I drop. I like opinion, I even have one but I don’t necessarily need it dissected and spoon fed to me, with a dose of bias lacking in any facts, which some pundits are prone to do.

Some radio pundits show their knowledge to listeners by cutting off their callers with differing views and TV pundits have been known to cry and yell on the air, in order to get across their infinite wisdom. These people are doing nothing to elevate the stature of pundit. There really should be levels. We have A list and B list movie stars, why not common ratings for pundits?

A “real” pundit should have the knowledge and credentials to back up an informed opinion. It wouldn’t even hurt for some topics, to expect pundits to have serious academic or scholarly experience in a subject. A kind of, know-before-you-go type of thing rather than a shoot-from-the-hip style. I’ve actually heard people say that many years ago in media land, experts or pundits used to at least attempt to be unbiased and didn’t affiliate themselves with a specific movement or even align themselves with media outlets–imagine that!

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Tagged as Ann Coulter, Bill Maher, black, Ed Schultz, little black dress, MSNBC, Nancy Grace, pundits, Rachel Maddow, Television

August 8, 2011

Congress Gets a DD–Rating From us Standard Poor

Congress gets DD-Rating

According to our U.S. Constitution, only Congress can spend money and only Congress can set policy. Even the veto power of the President of the United States, is at the mercy of Congress–as they can override his veto power. They can override a presidential veto for political gain (or games), or because they just don’t like him, or because they are self-centered-greedy-drunk-with-power elected officials who want it “their way,” or no way at all.

I only point this out to show that no matter what our President tried-or as some think, didn’t try to do in the month-long debt crisis fiasco–it wouldn’t have mattered. The Republicans had control of the ball and they dropped it right on us. Not just we the people but we the standard poor people. The people who have no jobs, or two jobs, or low wage jobs. The people who don’t get the tax breaks of the rich and can’t afford off-shore accounts. The people upside down on their homes and sinking fast or in default. The people who Congress can’t possibly relate to and therefore refuses to help with anything more than rhetoric.

The fact that Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the U.S. credit rating a notch is not nearly as important as why? S&P said the downgrade reflected their opinion of our political situation and said the Republicans are not likely to let the Bush tax cuts (for the rich) expire in 2012– so no new money coming in. It is a totally separate issue that S&P is grading on some kind-of fortune teller-astrological-voodoo curve, whereby they predict the future political situation rather than assessing the financial situation as it stands.

Yes, the Republicans got their “deal” and us standard poor people got to watch elected officials play one-upmanship, not play well with others, and sell us down the river so they can report back to the lobbyists, big banks, big pharma, and other big entities that make big political donations. In the meantime the real American crisis of jobs, wages and growth is once again taking a back seat so that the rich can get richer and the middle and lower class can become obsolete.

We can only hope that anyone in Congress that helped create this mess is heavily invested in the big companies that they are supporting with their votes, the “too big to fail” companies that were tanking today in the stock market. This Congress deserves a DD–rating, from all the standard poor people in America.

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Tagged as Americans, Barack Obama, Congress, Credit rating, poor people, President of the United States, rating, Republicans, Standard & Poors, United States, United States Congress, United States Constitution

August 19, 2011

Abercrombie in another ‘Situation’ over elitist image control

Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino and Karina Smi...

Image by trhnlhi via Flickr

Abercrombie & Fitch is losing its grip on image control as every Tom, Dick, Harry and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, parade around in their over-priced duds on TV, in Italy and other places not sanctioned by Abercrombie & Fitch. Abercrombie is “concerned” enough about its image that it has offered a “substantial sum” of money to “The Situation” and the rest of the Jersey Shore cast to cease wearing their clothes. While it is an obvious publicity ploy, Abercrombie is no stranger to bad publicity and lawsuits stemming from its insistence that employees project a certain image and look. I call it the Stepford look, they call it preppy-sexy-beachy-wholesome-college-frat-sorority look.

While I don’t watch the reality show Jersey Shore, millions do and I have seen an episode or two as the cast tans, goes to the gym, does laundry and of course parties and fights. Not necessarily a wholesome image any product or retail outlet would want to project but Abercrombie had already jumped on the Jersey Shore bandwagon when they came out with their “Fituation” and “GTL” (gym, tan, laundry) tee shirts a while back. Who are they kidding? According to an Abercrombie press release; “We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino’s association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image.” This is pretty funny since their image is one of elitist discrimination.

Abercrombie has long been the bastion of the preppy-sexy look, often approaching their own customers they think have the “look” and asking them if they would like a job while applications pile up from other Abercrombie job seekers that are not considered part of the super-elite-gene-pool-brand that the company covets (they got sued and lost also for telling applicants they weren’t hiring and were caught hiring only people with the “look.”) I suppose using the pick-of-the-litter method of hiring is okay if we are talking skill set, knowledge, experience, retail personality etc. but choosing someone because they look like a surfer dude or dud and wear flip-flops for a living seems like the bottom of the shallow barrel.

But, Abercrombie will be taking all this free publicity to the bank. People are talking about this PR stunt and advertising geniuses are scratching their heads and wishing they would have thought of the idea first. Plus, otherwise sane people, instead of boycotting a company that has an ugly policy of hiring only the “attractive” will go buy an A&F something -or-other because they don’t fit their image either, because nobody is going to tell them what they can’t wear–ka-ching!

(I would sure say this picture I used of the “Situation” looks pretty similar to the Abercrombie ads of half naked bodies on their website and in their catalogs so what do they mean he is bad for their image?) P.S. I’m open to not wearing anyone’s clothing–I really have no image so I could readily offend anyone equally. for the right price–of course.

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Tagged as "the situation", Abercrombie & Fitch, Clothing, image, Italy, JerseyShore, Michael Sorrentino, Mike, Publicity stunt, reality TV, Retail, situation, Television

September 11, 2011

September 11, 2001 carved in the memory of the living and in bronze for future generations

It is pretty rare that just a date on a calendar says it all. But just about every American living at the time, old enough to understand , knows exactly what 9/11 means. On September 11, 2001, four jet liners were hijacked by suicide bombers who crashed two of them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and the last was diverted, thanks to Americans on the plane, to a field in Pennsylvania, where it crashed killing our heroes on board.

Most of us also remember exactly where we were when we first either saw or heard of the horrific events via television or possibly radio. For some of us old enough to remember the JFK assassination, that too was a horrible event in our history that most people define by where they were, what age they were etc. when they first heard about it. Although young, I remember distinctly I was in chorus and our teacher, a Dominican nun, came in to class in tears. She offered no explanation but then the head nun got on the school p.a. system with that towering voice and told the whole school. We got the next day off and at my house the TV was on all day (rarely allowed) and that is when I saw Jack Ruby on live TV kill Lee Harvey Oswald. Today I barely remember what I had for breakfast but I remember that as if it was yesterday and I was just a kid.

On the morning of 9/11 my husband and I had just gotten back from an RV trip to meet up with my son and his wife and the grand-kids in Omaha at a state park. It was about a nine-hour drive for us and I slept a little later than usual. My husband the early riser yelled up the stairs for me to turn on the TV. That was an odd statement for him and his voice sounded urgent so I quickly turned it on. Like everyone, including those reporting on the event, I was in shock. I then saw the second plane enter the field of vision on the screen and like everyone else–it became painfully obvious that this was no accident. It truly was terror in the skies.

I have once again been watching TV all day today, starting with the 10 year memorial ceremony in New York at ground zero. It was a well thought out ceremony and the memorial itself is a beautiful sight with the water fall pools and over 2900 names etched in bronze but it was a hard watch. Seeing the children born after their fathers perished was the hardest. Watching loved ones take pictures of the etched names, kiss the names and cry on the names was just such an emotional experience I couldn’t put the tissue box away. I can’t even imagine what these survivors had to go through over the last 10 years but in my eyes they are all heroes.

I am Irish and when the bagpipers started to play at the ground zero ceremony I couldn’t help but think of deceased family members of my own who always had bagpipes played at their wakes. And just like the countless Irish wakes I’ve attended, barely a dry eye was evident at the 9/11 memorial, as everyone witnessed the two weeping waterfalls in the exact footprint where the twin towers once stood.

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September 17, 2011

Keeping nude or lewd pictures on cell phones or computers–stupid?

Image by compujeramey via Flickr

If someone hacked into my computer or cell phone the entertainment value would be nil. Sure there is that fully clothed photo of me on my sexy pink scooter (woo-hoo) and then all the how-I-spent-my-vacation photos depicting various family members, dogs and scenic highways and byways. It’s the run-of-the-mill stuff that would surely disappoint hackers looking to make a few bucks on blackmail or a quick sale to a rag magazine. But of course, I don’t live the life of Scarlett Johanssen, Jessica Alba, Miley Cyrus, Mila Kunis, Vanessa Hudgens or Chris Brown. I’m not in their age group and aesthetically, I appeal to a much older crowd.

Now, all these stars mentioned and about 50 more, have recently or in this past year, had their cell phones and/or computers hacked into and had nude or some type of compromising (to them) pictures stolen. The photos either ended up on the internet or in the hands of people who evidently had plans that didn’t involve keeping them for their own secret stash. These stars are absolutely “shocked,” have expressed they are “victims” and of course the FBI is now involved in the mystery-of-the-hacked-photos-caper. Evidently a “ring” of hackers are involved in this type of cyber crime according to the FBI. Putting this type of stuff on your cell phone or computer isn’t quite as stupid as filming a private video of your escapades as some stars have done over the years–but it is a runner-up to stupid.

Nothing involving the internet is iron-clad private. Nothing involving wireless is private. If as a celebrity, you don’t understand that your nude picture is worth way more than a thousand words then you should probably stick to taking photos of your pets or shoes. Stars are hounded everywhere they go, why would they not be smart enough to think they might be hounded in cyber space? I don’t get it. Where are their business managers and security people to mention; “oh, by the way, if you are ever inclined to take compromising pictures of yourself, even in private–don’t, it could come back to haunt you.” But, then again maybe the “stars” only surround themselves with like-minded people.

According to the L A Times, the FBI has been investigating allegations of the phone hacking of multiple celebrities since 2010. A victim, according to the dictionary is one who is harmed or made to suffer from an act, circumstances, agency or condition (such as war) and also a person who has been tricked, swindled or duped. I keep thinking of all the real victims in the country that the FBI could be probing for instead of wasting our tax dollars on celebrities that evidently don’t have a clue . I feel duped.

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Tagged as cell phone hackers, compromising phone photos, FBI, Jessica Alba, lewd photos, Mila Kunis, Miley Cyrus, nude photos, private cell phone photos, Scarlett Johansson, stupid photos, Vanessa Hudgens

September 25, 2011

Bloggers Shall Inherit the Earth–My 100th Blog Post

Image via Wikipedia

This is my 100th blog post. And while it isn’t the same type of milestone as say, my first bra or my first marriage it is still something I did 100 times and so could more than qualify for habit status. World of Psychology says that a habit can be formed in as little as 18 days on up to 254 days. The average they claim is about 66 days. While I am now in the habit of blogging, I feel like it is more of a necessity so that bloggers can inherit the earth.

We all know the meek are not going to inherit the earth no matter if God or anyone else says so. Lately the geeks have gotten in on the act and are pushing for the geeks to inherit the earth, just because they think they are so smart–and geeky. That’s not going to happen either because the geeks might be high-tech bastions of computer/internet/whatever knowledge but many lack that ability to relate to the masses.

So that leaves us bloggers. The obvious reason that bloggers should inherit the earth is that we write about everything on earth. We dispense information like big-pharma dispenses pills–only better and faster and for free. We make people think, laugh and cry– often in the same post. We report on the news and more importantly on reactions to the news. We instruct people in every conceivable subject matter from baking, sewing, crafts, art, health and cooking to photography, writing, marketing, social media and affairs of the heart and soul. We bloggers are walking encyclopedias (quite an old word I know) of knowledge in our respective niches and whether that is useful or useless knowledge is not for us to say–our readers will let us know.

I started blogging because I could pick my poison and write away. I was in the news business for years and of course, we had stringent guidelines to adhere to and other than my newspaper columns, my articles were void of opinion just as news stories should be (what a concept, huh). Blogging is very similar to writing a newspaper column with the potential to reach many more eyes. The WordPress platform is perfect for me because I’m no geek and the technical side is easier than other platforms but I do plan on self-hosting in the future (I suppose I’ll need a geek to help me). Since my blog focuses on current news rants and raves (rarely raves) comments aren’t always agreeable but that’s okay. Since I’m very opinionated I would expect my readers to be also. Controversy is just one step closer to inheriting the earth–and I need to be ready.

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October 16, 2011

Is 9-9-9 wrong, wrong, wrong ?

Caricatures: GOP Presidential Debate Participa...

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

Ask any political PR person and they will tell you it’s great to have a catchy, roll-off-the-tongue, memorable catch phrase associated with a candidate. Unless that catch phrase is doomed to conjure up bad memories like trickle down economics or read my lips; no more taxes among many others. Herman Cain, of Godfather’s Pizza fame (he is the ex-CEO) and the Republican flavor of the month vying for their nomination to be the candidate for President, has such a catch phrase; 9-9-9. While their field is plenty crowded with Gingrich, Romney, Perry, Bachman, Paul and others too numerous or insignificant to mention, none of them have the edge on the catchy 9-9-9 phrase that has defined Cain’s campaign. But, is it wrong to throw the rich, middle class and poor into the same tax barrel? Or, is it just plain stupid?

On Cain’s own website, he says his 9-9-9 plan will “fix” the economy. It would abolish our entire tax code including any loopholes or tax credits (like the earned income tax credit for low-income earners) . His plan calls for 9 percent corporate tax, 9 percent personal income tax and 9 percent national sales tax. Cain says it would be simple and fair. I must be missing something here, I don’t see the “fair” part. There would be no tax on capital gains or dividends so once again the rich get richer. Some of the rich that pay 28-35 percent taxes on their income would pay 9 percent and the 30 million Americans that presently pay no federal income tax because they don’t make enough to do so and are at or below the poverty level will pay 9 percent under Cain’s “simple” plan. All Americans will also have to pay 9 percent on consumer goods for gas, food and medicine etc. which of course, hurts lower-income people far more than the rich.

Since Cain’s plan is for everyone including businesses, all corporations that presently take advantage of every loophole known to mankind and typically end up paying on average 26 percent in taxes, will get a nice slash to 9 percent. Do you think they will take the tax cut and turn that windfall into jobs? Or will the greedy corporations just pocket the windfall and give their CEO’s bigger bonuses? I have my own answer on that one and it doesn’t involve helping others or aiding the general economy.

I am no economist. I don’t hail from a think tank and have a hard enough time balancing a check book but I do know that a catchy slogan does not an economy fix make. This plan is yet another idea from an ex-corporate CEO that still thinks like big business. Making the rich, richer and the poor, poorer is not my idea of “fair.” As it says on Herman Cain’s front page of his website in big block letters; “Let’s Get Real”. I can’t wait until he, or any other politician actually does–but I’m not holding my breath.

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Tagged as 9-9-9, Cain, cains 9-9-9 plan, flat tax, Herman Cain, Income tax, Republican, Sales tax, Tax

October 29, 2011

Congress Approval Rating and National Unemployment Rate at 9%

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A New York Times/CBS News poll broke the news this week that Congress’s approval rating is 9%. Coincidentally, 9% is also our national unemployment rate for September and most of October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment figure seems almost eerily connected to our do-nothing-for-jobs Congress and their bottom-feeder ratings as they spent this week in session, once again doing nothing for jobs or the economy. It’s like some weird “here is a nine for you too Congress since you won’t recognize and do anything about ours.” Of course, 9% is only the national average jobless rate, some states like Nevada, have a 23% unemployment rate.

They did however, pass a really important bill in the House that would issue commemorative coins for Baseball Hall of Fame. Also, just so you don’t get the idea that they can’t accomplish anything at all together in a big way, the commemorative coins issue was passed overwhelmingly. See, when the chips-er coins are down and the issue has nothing to do with Obama or jobs or the economy, Republicans can unite and really make a difference.

Remember that old saying about getting out of something what you put into it? I think our Congress is actually reaping the rewards of what they have, in fact, done for the American people, our jobs and the economic situation. I think 9% is actually pretty high but of course who knows how many friends, relatives, lobbyists, insurance companies, banks, other corporations etc. were included in the poll (oh wait, corporations aren’t people I hope they didn’t get polled).

Even though the House is a Republican strong hold right now, many polls are showing that the majority of American people, regardless of party affiliation have made it crystal clear they support President Obama’s Job Act, temporary band-aid or not, because it is at least a plan for doing something for jobs and the economy and they feel he is trying. But, the Republicans are blocking it in Congress and have yet to come up with their own plan other than a big NO because they can’t possibly vote on an Obama plan, even if it will help the American people. Their plan seems to be politics first, people last. I wonder how low their rating can go?

Since the Republicans now seem to represent everything the American People hate about the economy, it is only a matter of minutes before they will represent everything the American People hate. When you become a politician for all the wrong reasons and you vote as a block not to help your own constituents and the American People, you will not only end up humiliated by a 9% approval rating but sooner rather than later–no job.

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Tagged as Barack Obama, CBS News, Congress, congress approval rating 9%, congress people, economy, house republicans, job act, jobs, New York Times, Republican, United States Congress

November 9, 2011

Hey Herman Cain: You Got Problems? ‘Blame Yourself’

Pizza man's here! . . . Herman Cain - Cartoon

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

Herman Cain was recently quoted in a Wall Street Journal interview criticizing Occupy Wall Street protesters stating, “don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and are not rich, blame yourself.”

It boggles my mind that this fountain of knowledge pizza-man was in essence, telling the people who have been hurt by the financial crisis through no fault of their own, that they were in fact, to blame. The classic blame the victim stance from a not-so-classy ex-pizza CEO running for the Republican nomination for President.

When the Cain circus first came to town many people thought he was a breath of fresh political air. Here was a guy who had no political background or knowledge, did not necessarily have command of the English language, knew nothing about those foreign places like China etc. and had a simplistic 9-9-9 economic fix that would cost the most needy more money. That fresh air has quickly grown stale.

In the last few weeks no less than four women have stepped forward and accused Cain of sexual harassment that allegedly happened years ago, when he was head of the National Restaurant Association. Three of the women did so anonymously and one came forward complete with a press conference and attorney/spokesperson by her side.

Cain and his camp were very slow to respond to these allegations, refusing to talk to reporters about the issue for days. He kept telling reporters he wanted to “stay on message” and “don’t bother asking.” When he evidently regrouped and got all his Republican ducks in a row, he had a press conference himself yesterday and stated none of the events ever happened. He is of course, calling four women with similar stories liars. Two of the women had been paid off years ago by the NRA and signed agreements to not speak on the issue as they had been employees. This action alone would lead reasonable people to think their could be some truth to the accusations.

It is not uncommon for powerful men, bosses and those in control of others to use that power in unethical and demeaning ways. I do not know if Herman Cain did what he was accused of but four women stating they have had similar encounters with him certainly shows a pattern of behavior that would be unbecoming a President of the United States. And if the allegations are true, he would also be guilty of lying to the American People, which might not be such a stretch from what we are used to with our present politicians.

If Herman Cain has done anything even remotely close to what his accusers are saying, then he needs to get off his platform and go back under the rock he crawled out from. As his approval ratings dip and his Republican nominee chances get slimmer by the day, I wonder who Herman Cain will choose to blame for his probable political fall? “Blame Yourself.”

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Tagged as ABC news, Cain, Herman Cain, National Restaurant Association, Republicans, Sexual harassment, Wall Street

November 27, 2011

The Ghost of Black Fridays Past

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$2 waffle maker Black Friday shopping fight I watched this Black Friday shopping video in utter shock (click on link at beginning of this sentence to see it). Then the sadness set-in as I realized how horrid, inhuman, barbaric and utterly disgusting the whole situation was. People acting like animals over $2 waffle makers points to an abysmal picture of Americans as-a-whole. This video is all over the internet for all the world to see. Here are the ugly Americans at their worst; greedy, ill-mannered consumers that will stop at nothing to purchase crap. A $2 made in China piece of garbage waffle iron that probably has the expected life span of a week.

In other “fun” Black Friday events yesterday, A woman who allegedly fired pepper spray at other customers during a sale of Xbox video consoles has surrendered to authorities according to Los Angeles police. The woman allegedly caused minor injuries to 20 shoppers at a Los Angeles-area Wal-Mart.

The attack took place about 10:20 p.m. Thursday shortly after doors opened for the sale. The store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox video game players, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping. The woman began spraying people in order to get an advantage. Did she really get an advantage? No one seems to know if she ended up with an Xbox after all and it is unlikely she could use it in jail when she most likely will be charged with 20 counts of assault.

In a quite serious Black Friday event, a robber shot a shopper who refused to give up his purchases outside a San Leandro, Calif., Wal-Mart store, leaving the victim hospitalized in critical but stable condition. What ever happened to the rule, if a robber approaches you, give him whatever he wants or you could end up dead? Is dying worth anything that Wal-Mart could possibly have?

Back in the simple 1970′s and 80′s when people were nice and polite and seemingly not crazy shoppers, I stood in a black Friday line a few times waiting for department stores to open at a normal time (9 am) for a couple of requested items on my children’s Santa list. One year I stood patiently in line for an unattractive doll with its own unique name and birth certificate. It was called a Cabbage Patch Kid and it was the only thing my daughter had on her wish list. The dolls were in short supply and moms everywhere were on the hunt but I never saw a fight, or a push or an unkind word in my search. I ended up driving an hour away from my home to a friend’s Ace Hardware where he had three of the dolls and saved one for me. He said no one really thought of Ace as a place to purchase dolls and they had been on the shelf for a few days. I think he thought I was a little crazy for going on and on and thanking him profusely.

Another Black Friday moment had me standing in line at Sears for $2 plastic Star Wars figures (of course they are worth a lot now) to complete a Star Wars set complete with a carrying case. My son never asked for a lot for Christmas and it was my mission to find Darth Vader and some of the harder to find figures. Once again it was mostly moms shopping and we were all standing around a huge bin of Star Wars charactersshouting out the names of the characters we found to other moms in need of certain characters to complete a set. We were all helping each other and I walked away with a complete set, as did others. We were laughing, joking and actually having fun. No pushing, shoving, grabbing, pepper spraying or shooting. Not an ugly American consumer in the bunch–evidently a much kinder and gentler crowd and time. Ah, sometimes the good old days–are good.

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Tagged as Ace Hardware, blackfriday, Cabbage Patch Kid, Los Angeles, star wars figures, Waffle iron, Wal-Mart, Walmart, Xbox

December 4, 2011

My Top 10 Best Childhood Christmas Gifts

Photo; by Click

I decided I needed to write down these top 10 childhood Christmas gifts quick, before my long-term memory goes the way of my short-term memory that can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. I won’t get into the Christmas is not about the gifts stuff and how we should all be grateful for whatever we think we should be grateful for, this is strictly about the shallow part of Christmas. The materialistic, me, me, me, Santa’s list type, emotional yearning for–gifts. Also, as a child I never bought into the it-is-better-to-give-than-receive creed. As an older and wiser adult–I still don’t buy it. Herewith, my all time favorites:

1. RED COWBOY BOOTS

I was six, I lived in Chicago, far from any cowboys except the ones I saw at the yearly Chicago Livestock Show and Rodeo at the Chicago Ampitheater. Just to be sure I got those boots, I asked for nothing else. I figured, how could Santa say no to just one request? My poor mom told me years later that she had scouts out everywhere looking for those damn red boots. Word was, the first night I had them, I slept with my boots on.

2. YELLOW TRANSISTOR RADIO

Nobody under 40 probably even knows what this is. This was even before boom boxes. It was the 1960′s and WLS Radio station in Chicago was king and so was my favorite radio disc jockey, Dick Biondi. I really NEEDED this radio so I could listen to a radio station that was more in-tune with my top 10 favorites (played over and over every hour) and much less of my parents favorites like news and talk radio (thanks mom and dad, I eventually went into the news business). This radio was yellow with a leather carrying case and shoulder strap. It was a Westinghouse and the size of a medium size purse. I didn’t need a dog, this radio was my faithful companion.

3. STADIUM CHECKERS

I have no idea why this game was called checkers because it was a plastic stadium contraption with marble-like pieces. I loved this game and since you couldn’t really play it alone it forced me to play with my sister. She was three years younger and could play the game well enough to assure my winning most of the time. Playing my folks however, was a losing situation for me. The stadium seats moved to advance the marbles to various levels. Okay, it was a much simpler time but we weren’t all zonked out on video games.

4. HEIDI

This book made me cry every stupid time I read it but I just kept re-reading it anyway. Yes, I knew Heidi was going to eventually find her grandfather but each time I read it and they would come so close to finding each other and miss, I would be yelling at the pages. This was during my sad books (Black Beauty) with happy endings era.

5. PINK ANGORA SWEATER

Only rich kids in my neighborhood had Angora sweaters, and rich kids in my predominantly working class/middle class neighborhood were few and far between. I never really asked for this sweater because I figured it was out of reach for my folks so I figured I would just settle for the scratchy mohair. When I opened that box I was never so shocked, it was just like–Christmas.

6. RED LEATHER BUCKET PURSE

These purses were very popular in the 1960′s and I had never really had a nice leather purse. I can remember this purse like it was yesterday. It was a pebbled grain red leather, a long shoulder strap and two small flaps folded inward on top of each other and it looked similar to what else? A bucket. I used this purse for many years. I suspect it was not made in China.

7. BLACK WOOL CHESTERFIELD COAT

It was all in the details. Double-breasted, velvet collar, sophisticated and perfection. I was 13 and it was my first black, grown-up coat. I remember that this coat was $50. because even though it was a Christmas gift my mom left the tags on in case in didn’t fit. This was a lot of money for a coat in the 60′s, and a huge amount for my parents to spend on a single item. But, my parents always felt quality clothing was more important that quantity. That coat lasted me all four years of high school and beyond.

8. GAS STATION

I was never into real girly type toys and thank God my parents didn’t buy me dolls I wouldn’t have played with or gender based toys that girls would have traditionally liked. My father owned a Standard Oil gas station and this was a sturdy, metal gas station with a bay for fixing cars, gas pumps etc. And of course, a Ford and a Chevy. Loved this gift.

9. HAWAIIAN UKULELE

I don’t actually know if it was from Hawaii, but I told everyone it was. It was the real deal and not a toy and had a nice carrying case. I wasn’t very “instrumental,” I usually took dancing lessons and acrobatics. But, after watching “The Parent Trap” movie (the original one) with Haley Mills (playing twins) singing the song “Let’s Get Together yeah, yeah, yeah…” I had to have a ukulele and learn to play and sing that song. I did. My youngest brother still has that ukulele. Why does he have it? Geez, my mom must have given it to him, I need to talk to him about that…

10. FIGURE SKATES AND OUTFIT

Even though frozen vacant lots is where I did most of my ice skating my parents would occasionally take me to Michael Kirby’s professional ice skating rink in Chicago. Kirby was a Canadian National champion ice skater who started the first ice skating schools in Chicago (now long gone). I couldn’t afford lessons but I could afford the small fee to free skate whenever I could talk my dad into taking me there. I decided since it was a professional atmosphere I needed to look the part. My Christmas gift that year was the most beautiful pair of figure skates, flesh-colored skaters tights and a black corduroy short skaters skirt with red satin lining (red again). The next time I went to that rink I felt like a million bucks. And, I swear, I skated way better than in my typical street garb.

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Tagged as 1960's Christmas gifts, 1960's favorite Christmas gifts, Chicago, Childhood Christmas gifts, christmas gifts, dick biondi, heidi, michael kirby ice skating, Nostalgia Christmas gifts, stadium checkers, top 10 childhood Christmas gifts, Top favorite childhood gifts, transistor radio, WLS radio station

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