Oh my! Have to correct, it wasn't in the Adriatic, it was in the Tyrhennian sea on the other side. Tuscany has coasts on both oceans, so it must have been the route to Spain, and Portugal, and the Canary Islands. Those leave from Genoa.
ABC had petulant US tourists complaining that the crew was clueless, they hadn't been shown what to do in an emergency, etc. Having ridden that line... they usually depart at night, and the boat drill is on your first day out. Because you board late afternoons, and they let people settle in. So they had departed, there was the 'gala' first night dinner, and they ran aground. I don't think that would have been foreseeable.
And lots of bitching about how they couldn't lower the life boats... errm.... if it's down like that, can anyone tell me HOW?
The pictures are misleading. There was land about 300 yards away. Too close to the coast.
I LURRVED the quote... 'It was like the Titanic... without the water.' Oh please, horrible as it is,reallah?
Just an update...the proportions of this photo don't do it justice. It is three football fields long, hey.
And just spoke with someone I know who had travelled on the Concordia... he concurs with me that the life boat drills would have been the next morning. And seeing the cabin he and his wife had is under water didn't make him exactly 'happy'.... but he's having a catheter shoved up in his heart tomorrow to get stents... maybe. So he was sort of being self-indulging and afraid, although he's a doctor. Who make the worst patients EVAH. I went through that too with Peter, so I could be reassuring. Except it is the shits. Peter doesn't remember being on our Costa Riviera... he just thought it was a terrible accident. So he is far away in his head.
Correction
I'm not gonna say it.....
Please read this 'wunnerful' CBS piece here. The last line just slayed me. It's not clear whether traders in the financial district in NYC will show up for work tomorrow, Monday.
Now I think THAT would be a blessing for the entire country. I find that... hmmm... mind boggling. And am astounded at what passes for 'journamlism' nowadays.
I could barely contain myself watching the Friday nite evening news shows, it was cringe making. Anything to hype things up and scare people half to death. That people were evacuated from low sea-level places was a precaution that made sense, but I thought I was watching a Roland Emmerich mega-production.
I refrained from seeing Saturday's blathering this morning, it was just too much of a bad thing. One thought though... WHY do the networks send people out into such inclement weather and in places that have been evacuated, and then the anchor, all comfy at his desk and dry says 'Well, it doesn't look too good. Go indoors and stay safe.' Reallah.....? They do it every single time... so where, please is the sense in sending one's colleagues out into that, do they think they are being 'brave'??? We all KNOW what it looks like. But I guess they draw straws and the shortest one is given to the person no one likes in the company. Or something like that...
I SWEAR that Werner's spirit was in my room last night, 'whispering' 'What are you watching that for? Don't you get it? It's just 'Show Business'. I'd have to say he was right.... this time.
We had empathy weather where I am. Or so I thought of it a bit later. One of our summer thunderstorms, which was a relief, because it had been over 36 degrees C for the last ten days or so, and my apt was baking like a crock pot. It was only twenty minutes, and there was a heavy downpour, and some hail, nothing unusual. Then it went quiet. And about twenty minutes later, the temperature had dropped dramatically, and the wind began howling. Really strong. Loose stuff was being banged about in the courtyard, it was sort of eerie. It lasted over an hour. No more rain, just really strong wind. Later I went out on the square, and there were a lot of tree branches on the side walk, so am glad I didn't go out to 'investigate'. So yeah, empathy weather. Today it's a bit cooler, but warming up again. Sort of unstable.
I don''t think anyone got hurt. Hope not.
But am still shaking my head over the reporting there.
And oh yes, about that spreading fear of a tsunami?
If the quake in Virginia had engendered one, which it couldn't being way inland... the waves would have gone OUTWARD, and not have them come inland, which anyone with an ounce of science education should actually KNOW.
Crazy Eyes Bachmann wants to eradicate the Dept of Edu(ma)cation? I don't think she has to worry... mission accomplished. The Dunderheads in the media have proven just how stupid they are. And she is a piece of work, for sure.
Just sayin'...
These people are going to give me an ulcer... only I don't know which will come first... one in the brain, or one in my stomach lining, and probably the latter, as I throw up a lot.
Yes it looks awesome
from the International Space Station. This from Yahoo, and everyone in Germany is freaking out over it too. 
It's one hell of a storm.... but the real focus should be on the Carolinas and up to Maryland.
Yahoos will be Yahoos... and am channeling Jonathan Swift here... Disgusting reporting.
ohhh...my.... gawwd... INSIPID!
Checked the 'up to the minute' news on CBS news regarding hurricane Irene. If you want some new cavities in your brain otherwise caused by diabetes.... this called for an eye-wash, and the most unforgiveable panic-making I've seen since I don't know when.
And let me tell you, they NEVAH reported like this when Katrina was approaching NOLA. Only the national weather service did diligent duty.
After making the East Coast the laughing stock of the US for Californians after the earthquake a few days ago, the media decided to go all 'fear-making' for the Northeast. Which is ridiculous. Surely, there have been once-in-a-century hurricanes which reached the Northeast, and did some significant structural damage... da Ven remembers one, and the river swelled and went right up to the main street up a steep hill... and knocked out footbridges over the river between mills. It was a one time thing.
HE was just a kid, and went out to 'enjoy' the wild weather. I hope he behaves himself this weekend. He's an hour's drive inland, and lives on a high hill. And before he goes and pooh-poohs my delivering a Ukas telling him to stay indoors... well that is what he commanded me to do when a cat 1 hit us when I was a teen.. Take a lesson, Dad. You didn't let ME go meandering about, now didja.
Am more concerned for my cousins who live only a few miles inland from the coast. That won't be good, even if it is a Cat 1.
All the rest of the reporting was 'instilling fear' and they do it so well. With a fluff piece about NY 'fashionistas' buying rubber boots with high heels at two hundred dollars a pop.
I threw up in my mouf.
Typical journaille.
Crazy reporting
Olberman had a field day with the media's handling of the earthquake, and especially got a belly laugh that virtually every network blew themselves up to pompous proportions and solemnly assured everyone there was no danger of a tsunami.
Reallah.... Seeing that the epicenter was well inland, why would anyone think... oh well, I don't wanna go there.
And of course, the Rethugs bitched about Obama being on vacation and golfing when it hit. If he'd been in the White House, they probably would have claimed he took refuge in some sub-level high-security dungeon, or something... wouldn't put it past them, the suckas...
But my belly laugh of the evening came late evenings here. I called up my Soap, and there is this real villainess in it named Dorian... who is leaving the show, and her story-line is that she's going to become a Senator.
Right below the screen was the 'best comment of the day', highlighted. It read: 'Do you think Dorian did it?'
That had me roaring with laughter. I loved the light-hearted snarkiness behind that.
Na ja, 'chacun a son gout'. (sorry, don't have the French signs for that one on the keyboard.
Prime time Emmys? Really? Well maybe, but
I'm about to lay down a post that will sound so misogynistic, will have to apologise in advance, but it is how I perceive sound.
My site finally had yesterday's result show of 'So You Think You Can Dance' on. Have said below what I like about it, and it was eliminating two people, to get the remaining top ten. more on that in a minute.
The show is nominated for five prime-time Emmys in the dance category, which is fine, and Kat Deely was nominated as moderator.ess. Her voice is so irritating, I fast forward. Emmy? I don't THINK so... There are some women... I don't know what it is. They open their moufs, and I want to turn off the sound. There are also some men whose voices so irritate me, I want to throttle them, but usually drunk ones with rasping voices and damaged vocal cords, and they carry for a BLOCK.
But the worst is Mary Murphy on the judges panel, a former ballroom champeen with a face lift that has left her with a fixed smile that is scary, and is just a Tennessee 'bundle of enthusiasm'. And she squeals, and 'ya-hoos' till you'd think she was calling the pigs home, but it's all a facade. Her act is 'good-ole-country' girl and the epitome of the infantilisation of women in 'Murka, if you ask me... BECAUSE... if something really impresses her, she is well capable of modulating her voice, and giving very constructive criticism and being almost likeable.
Kat Deely is so superfluous, she grates on my nerves. And is often inappropriate.
In my student days, I would listen to AFN on the radio. Later, when I got to Graz, I didn't have a radio strong enough to pull it in, so I missed about ten years. Too many mountains between here and there. And one day, about ten years later, I did get a radio that could pick it up in the night-time. And I was floored. The TONE had changed. I explained it do Peter, and said, 'What do they think they are DOING? Everything sounds like Uncle Dudley's Story Hour. They're just dumbing them down....'
If you watch US series, what happens when mid-twenty somethings tell friends they get engaged? Scream like a fourteen year old and fanning fingers in front of their faces. Who the fuck DOES that? (Well, what should I know, maybe they do...) It's infantile behaviour. And people emulate it because 'that's what you Do...'
It isn't pretty, or worth emulating, if you ask me, and I never find anything funny about it.
As to Kat---well she's a six foot tall blonde Brit who is nasal and lets off suggestive adolescent stuff in her intros, wears heels so she can tower over everyone on the stage, and basically has nothing else to offer to the show other than looking like an over-thin Valkyrie popsicle with an annoying voice. Emmy? I think NOT.
As to the show... The elimination decisions have been fair so far. I've said I like the concept. Now that there are only ten people left, they are going to make them change partners to see how versatile they are, and make them do two routines per show, one with former winners. As I've said, I love dance, and they really put the contestants through a very strong repertoire of styles, challenge them. And mostly, it's a joy to watch. And the choreography is fantastic.
But I could really do without Kat and Mary when she is 'performing' and not being herself.
Nice that Keith is back... on the Murdoch scandal
a personal experience viewpoint.. not earthshattering, but insightful.
Thiis sums it up.... and the media is disgusting...
most of them..... This is worth watching.
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Media idiocy and urban animals and flashbacks
Have been sleeping around the clock, and when I DO get up, look for anything distracting from what I dream about, which usually isn't good.
Today's distraction was ninety minutes of watching Britain's Got Talent, the fourth week of the most amazing nonsense 'EVAH'. For the most part. They did have a twelve year old autistic child who danced, and was fairly amazing. I was thinking 'Billy Elliot'. And later there was a hedgehog which triggered a memory, and no, not Alice in Wonderland, and croquet. I had an immediate flashback.
Long ago, I had a garden, it was tiny. But more than enough for one person to tend to. A long bed for flowers that ran along the length of the side of the house, a narrow strip out back, which was filled with all sorts of things, and the fence was full of roses, absolutely beautiful roses, and a clump of lavender not far from our bedroom window which would just fill the air in the room at night, and make you dream beautiful things. The roses were all scented as well, and in the year before I left, you could hardly see the fence for the roses. I'd alternated shrubs with climbers, and they were all my 'babies'. There was a patch I'd cleared out and laid down a patio, all on my own, and if guests were visiting, we would sit out, have a late night snack, and as the neighbors said, laugh a lot. One of them said that was what they missed most when things went south. Our cheerfulness and laughter.
And I'd forgotten all about the hedgehog, till they flashed one on the programme today. My cousins were visiting, and we were out on the patio very late, when my local hedgehog came scurrying from the gate making a bee-line for my forsythia hedge, which it seemed to like.
My cousin L thought it was a very large rat, I don't think she'd ever seen a hegehog before. They have quills, and a very long snout, and a sort of hairless rat's tail. She completely freaked out, and I tried to reassure her that it wasn't a rat. But it ended a perfectly lovely evening, must have been around this time of year, because it got dark late. Hedgehogs are an endangered species here, and if you have one in your garden, it's sort of good luck. I'd pile up leaves in the autumn, on the off chance one would want to hibernate for the winter in it, just a corner of it. I never checked, but would like to think one of them would have marked it off as a 'safe house' for the winter.
Urban animals are best left undisturbed.
In every sense.
The back lot behind our house was a real mess for a while. Stacked lumber, which brought on a plague of slugs, and I could have killed the neighbor who leased it. My raids on the slugs were legendary, and it wasn't a rare day that I brought in hundreds of their corpses and flushed them down the toilet. Already stabbed to death. Hideous things.
However, they would drain the brook in the park once a year just to clean out the crap people threw away, like bicycles, baby carriages, and what-not. And it would be the time when the weasels were mating. Yeah, they loved those wood-piles, all right. And raised such a ruckus it was amazing, amusing, astounding. They do it during the day, seemingly, because they were outide my kitchen window, cavorting acrobatically. And made one hell of a lot of noise.
Cats do it at night and are vicious and loud. Weasels were sort of funny.
The last weasel I saw was coming home at night, and was under a car on a main street, probably chewing on its' brake-line, and being intrusive by walking by on my way home from work, it scuttered over to the other side of the street so fast, I wasn't sure I'd seen it.
Bats used to fly around in the evening, but they weren't of much concern. As far as I was concerned, they were useful, eating up the bugs which could give you Lyme's disease, so they were fine by me, although they didn't used to be... So in a city of 250,00o people, the fauna is ok. I guess.
Where I grew up, there were only sewer rats, and once the Ven fearlessly killed a water mocassin as we were on our way to go fishing. They really weren't native to NH. He beheaded it nicely, and very fast, and wouldn't let my brother or me touch it's head. That area outside town was sort of cursed. They had a lot of rattlesnakes, which are also not common to the region. And I had some awful run-ins with sewer rats as well---as soon as anyone excavated for a new building, they came out. 'Wicious' ugly things. Never saw one here, but am sure they are building on taking over the world once we decide to kill ourselves off for the duration....
And yeah, there was 'the incident' at the Strand theater. I believe it was also during the showing of 'The St. 'Valentine's Day Massacre'. The Strand was a very old theater. And we had a lot of 'fun' during that run. Like the ushers marching down the center aisle carrying guitar cases right before the climactic scene, with 'gangsta' hats, opening them up at the climactic scene, pulling out toilet plungers, and aiming them at the screen yelling 'äh-äh-äh-'äh-äh-äh-äh!!!' (They got an ovation from the audience... because otherwise, they were sort of bored.)
I don't remember the time frame, but sometime later, there was an evening showing, and there was a thunderstorm outside. And a piece of the ceiling fell down, mercifully not killing someone in the audience, and a bat buzzed the audience, because it's home had been destroyed and it was upset.
We managed to steer it into the lobby, and killed the poor thing with brooms. (Sorry Karma, we didn't know how useful they are...)
And the audience was screaming.
Those were the days, all right... The Strand was creepy, and I never liked working there. Especially having to get anything from the cellar. It was of brick vaults, seemingly endless, and if you had the nads to even go there, you heard scurrying sounds and squeaks and peeps.... sewer rats. And I would grab a replacement chair... can still smell the mildew, and it was squalid,
One evening, a man from the audience came out to the lobby and said, 'Please tell my wife that those are two CATS fighting out in front of the front row.' So I went to see what was up, but they were sewer rats. And I said, 'oh, those are our calico CATS, and I think you should move back a few rows, they are 'in heat'. (Oy...)
(It just popped outta me mouf...)
It was rumoured that the Strand was haunted by a woman ghost. Never saw one hint of her, but there you go...
The Strand was sort of a place which Steven King could make a million dollar novel out of. When I went to my hometown for a visit, it had burned down, and only the portal outside on the street was left, for historical reasons, I presume. I hope all the rats died horribly in it.
So... if I would choose between where I grew up and where I am now... weasels and hedgehogs and good bats seem to be a tame sort of choice when it comes to urban animals.
And I so miss my garden. My neighbors ruined it once I was gone. They did everything to sabotage it, everything, and now it's just a ruin. It was a tiny plot of land, but more than enough for me. I'd come home after a stressful day, and spend an hour or so just tending to it. Everything I learned about tending it I got from observing.
Our living room windows overlooked the garden of a pastor of an evangelical church across the street. And he had a spectacular garden, one to die for. And it was HUGE. And I would watch what he was doing, and know what to do in my tiny place. Then he retired, and a woman pastor took over.
She razed it, even tried to have the city ordinance changed to turn it into a parking lot, which was denied in the end. And she had the GALL to invite the retired pastor for some function, and I saw him coming up the street and the look on his face when he saw what decades of loving work had become.. a lawn. That was one of the cruellest things I've ever seen.
Weasels, and bats, and hedgehogs? I think it is PEOPLE one should be careful of.
I haven't been up that street in years, I wouldn't be able to take the hurt. They cut down trees, mutilated the golden cedar I planted so it will never be tall, in that they cut off the crown, decimated the sumac, which was glorious in bloom and five stories high, destroyed the apricot tree, which gave wizend looking fruit but they made the best compote I have ever made. It's just gone forever.
So the hedgehog has no home. And I get stuck looking at things that are so idiotic, it's depressing. And the urban animals usually tend to be of the human variety.
This is so ridiculous, I don't wanna go here....
But Glen Beck needs to be castrated, and have his tongue paralysed so that he never can impart what fucked up stuff goes on in his BRAIN.
Another weird thought....
my soap boards had a recent version of 'The Price is Right' up to look at.
The crowds were always crazy, but I hadn't seen it in decades. It was downright creepy.
The pushing, shoving, outright bi-polar craziness was unsettling to me.
So today, when the police slowly let this ginormous crowd into the square before Buckingham Palace, everything was so calm and orderly.
And to hear someone like Barbara Walters marvel over it, really pissed me off. Brits know about 'queuing up'. And some British reporter REALLY rubbed it in for her, saying, 'We're Britons, we KNOW how to line up.' Barbara was crushed.
She was going ON about her encounters with 'important' people from years and decades ago.... but Diane Sawyer had her claws out and cut her off relentlessly. Walters hung in there and got her points in. It was a blood-thirsty little battle going on at ABC.
Barbara may be washed up as far as future big things go. But she was a dignified and well prepared interviewer. Now she's still sort of over medicated, and it wasn't her best gig.
Diane Sawyer is SO washed up, she's pathetic. She went from fake crying over tragic news to being a classic harpy who has no manners. Both deserve to be fired.
Ooooo... Happy birfday DAD !
Yay, hope it is fun, and since the US news, ABC in this case covered the wedding while you were hardly waking up... forget watching, you don't need it, never saw such drivel, and you need family and love, and the bestest of wishes, so you enjoy your day. I'd make a chocolate cake if you were there.... so think of it, and pretend it's true.
And to anyone wanting to send congrats, it's his ninety-sixth, not ninety seventh, which he acidly (smile) pointed out. I must have figured in a leap year there somewhere along the line. Sorry, Ven...
I never friggin' HEARD of over 200 tornadoes zooming through the Southeast in one night, and all ABC and Today could do was MENTION it now and then while gushing over an antiquated system which (ahem!) we overthrew over 200 years ago, but now they are 'cool' or something?
But that is what that channel was feeding you, not the horrific facts of what those storms wrought or bearing witness to the people who died.
Royals age fascinates me. Princess Anne looks phenomenally dire these days.
It might be depressing, but you might find a channel which has real news on the tee-vee, and maybe you might want to donate a few dollars to the Salvation Army in Alabama. We have relatives there, after all, although we never talk about them much... I don't even know where they are, so don't know whether to worry or not.
So... enjoy family, avoid that toxic Anglican stuff on the tee-vee if you can avoid it, donate something if you feel like it, and get my so-called brother to take you out to a sleazy place and have someone really nice give you a lap dance. I probably would find someone curvaceious for you, being the shame of the family, but I think I would enjoy corrupting you.
Whatever, you have fun. And excuse the extremity, the Royals piss me off, but the media even more. And riiiiiht, the company spent millions to set up in London, so they 'had' to report so lavishly. As if anyone cared, hey....
Over the weekend.... I visited Tee-vee's netherworld
Which consists of Sunday and Monday chez RenB, I decided to delve into the nether world of tee-vee offered on my subscription channel, which seems to be expanding at the most amazing rate.
They are so ambitious! And I guess I got in on the ground floor of their enterprise. New series keep popping up, things I've read negative things about, and never really wanted to see. But it rained and I was bored, and although a few of them have been up there a while.... I wasn't really tempted to waste my time, and didn't click. As in CSI, the entire crap spinoffs, the Kardashians, whoever they might be, and all the Real Housewives... uh-uh. Not willing to go there.
However, the pseudo prude Mika Brzezinski of morning Joe was moaning and complaining about her twelve year old daughter who just HAD to see the final season's episode of Jersey Shore, and how terrible it is.
This piqued my curiosity, and I entered a world of such bizarre dimensions, I was spitless. What I watched was an hour's worth of a 'Big Brother' style show and it seems that all these people on it DO are to be half-way ok with one another during the day, and then go out and get shit-faced drunk in the evenings, and copulate or get in one another's faces so they can express their real distaste for one another, and yell Fuck You at one another a lot.
And the way Willie Geist always goes ON about 'Snookie' in his 'news you can't use' segments.... Well.... I didn't expect a sawed-off dwarf with weird hair and so much make-up, it looked like she put it on with a trowel... and with a potty mouth that reminded me of the troll lady in Merlin in Season Two. The only thing missing was the farts, and they made up for that with the cast cheering on the misshaped doggie who kept messing on their living room carpet.
The guys on the show have tortured themselves into misshapened nightmares of what Arnold Schwarzenegger visualised for himself in his idiocy for body-building, and have a vocabulary of maybe four thousand words. And are jerks.
So why did I watch one full episode? I wanted to know whereof I speak. But I have two questions. Why would Mika Brzezinski let her twelve year old daughter watch that piece of shit, and why would it be so popular? She, who prides herself on being a strict Mom?
Ohhhh, yeah, right. It's the 'elitist' thing. Let's face it, the kids are gonna hear it on the street, and it's 'in' with the other kids in her children's private upper-crust school, so she's gonna be good with peer pressure, so the kids will be 'in' or something like that? And the media is gonna drive disgusting behaviour, because it sells, and the demographics demand it, or something, I don't friggin' know. I swear, the next time she goes ON about being a responsible parent, I will send an e-mail.
I'm surprised at what passes for 'entertainment', nowadays, and the sort of neanderthal behaviour which is deemed 'cool'. All I see is exploited young people who are probably being egged on to act as outrageously as possible and selling it as 'cool. 'To the detriment of young people who are impressionable and think that is the way to be successful and popular.
And the people who produce that crap think all is perfectly ok. It's a good thing my Mom isn't around to see that. To think I got grounded for being caught reading 'GoneWith the Wind' .... 'because it told all about life'.
And yes, we knew ALL the vulgar words, wouldn't have dared use them in front of our families... and dosed them out where it was DESERVED, not as your regular way of expressing yourself. There are far more scathing ways to use other words to cut right to the bone, believe me.
After gasping for air, and going out for a Döner, which is the turkish version of a submarine 'samwich', I felt fortified, and ready to face a new adventure in US media horror: 'Dancing With The Stars'. Twelfth (!!!) season, first episode.
This I've heard of as well and seen some clips from people who watch this shit, and post ones of people who fail miserably. It's a BBC franchise, and they are so fake and perverse, it defies description. First time I saw a full episode. My Döner wasn't sitting well from the beginning to the end of this. Thirty-two tooth salutes are de rigeur... Eeeew. There was some vulgar, overweight, absolutely disgusting person called Wendy Williams on it. The whole thing was tired, a couple of pairs who were actually good, and I AM TOO OLD, I don't get it. Kirstie Allie was at least funny and proficient. And after several You Tube videos.... I want to punch Piers Morgan in the nose. And I don't know who that screamer third judge is, but he is NOT funny. Or amusing. Or of any value in watching him on tee-vee of any sort. If he really took over Larry King's spot, well, call out the Titanic Orchestra, because that man is going to sink.
So it rained and rained, and I ended up more or less in shock and billious. And found they put up 'Nurse Jackie', which I'd heard about. Edie Falco formerly of the Sopranos, hey. Two episodes from the new season. Too early to say anything about it.
And they put up some UK soaps. Coronation Street, which I've always heard of. I couldn't understand a single word. Seemingly they offer subtitles for the rest of the UK, so it wasn't me. And 'East Enders', which might turn out to be interesting, and 'Emmerdale', which immediately gained my interest. I still don't know what they are ABOUT, but I could at least understand them.
But then I found they are posting 'Shit My Dad Says'. PAYDIRT! I found it so funny. I'd heard about that too. Some guy in reality got sandbagged, moved in with his 74 year old father, and started a blog of the same name, which is very funny, have read some of it. The guy is so non-pc and hilarious.
It gained so much attention, it got turned into a tee-vee series, with William Shattner as the father. I told Peter to look out for it on the phone today, he says he'd seen the title somewhere so will try to watch it if he can find it, although he couldn't picture William Shattner being funny. And I said, 'believe me, he is'. There are so many gay jokes of the good kind in it, not denigrating, but genuinely funny.
My favorite so far was the fifth episode, season one. He going on about respecting one another's property, but borrows his son's jacket to a friend, which ends up on a dead man, and he has to get it back to prove he doesn't break his code of honor, crashes the wake, the corpse is wearing it, the family thinks he was the 'secret' Ed who was never to be revealed, and haul him up to give a eulogy. Ed thinks the guy had an affair, really blows it referring to his 'gay' relationship--which shocks the family, because they thought their father was an alcoholic, and that the real Ed was his sponsor, and .... well... I laughed myself sick. It ended well... but is very funny. Not all of them, but enough to keep you going.
SO, I guess if you want to be entertained, 'Shit My Dad Says' is lots of fun, just for a half hour of merriment, and well-made comedy. And the blog is worth looking at too. Reality-based.
By that time, I decided to go into hibernation, and the latter show was a remedy for a severe shock to the system.
But wouldn't you know.... I got up today, and of COURSE I had to watch my very favourite Soap, One Life To Live. That show is Soaps on steroids, SO WHAT DID MY TIRED EYES SEE this morning?
Wendy Williams as a gossip newscaster, and one of the non-descript, ugly, make-up applied-with-a-trowel Kardashian sisters who can read a line, but can't act her way out of a paper bag. I recognised Wendy from that blowsy number she did on Dancing With The Stars, but the other?
The comments board lit up with indignation, and they want both of them OFF the show, like yesterday. Some of them said the show had brought them on to boost ratings. And reach a new demographic. Well, that's lame. When General Hospital was in trouble, they brought in Liz Taylor. Now they at least have James Franco, who can ACT... Not some spoiled little Princess who got her own reality show to stick it to her own generation to show how excessively she can SHOP, and screw around. The sooner she gets out of there, the better. Wendy Williams was at least faintly amusing.
Faintly.
After all that.... I just felt dirty. And disgusted. That's 'Murkin culture? I'd rather go to New Yawk and see 'The Book of Mormon', which has gotten super reviews. From the makers of South Park. Really.
Beck Takedown!
Oh fun.... O'Donnell is ramping up his snark... different from Olbermann's but effective.
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FAUX crazy and science...
And people LISTEN to that ass-hat who pretends he grew up poor, but was well off, and denies science and is crazy and played hookey for all his science classes. How'd it get there inDEED. Ok, enough morning exercise.... am off to barf. Literally. Who LETS such stupidity onto the airwaves disguised as 'knowledge', huh? Sigh. I have had my overdose of 'Murka assininity for one morning. Eeeewwww.
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And oh yes... that station couldn't even present the American populace with a map of where Egypt actually IS, which didn't surprise me. I remember only too well what they did after the invasion of Iraq with maps, and vaguely referred to 'da Stans'.... Afghanistan, Usbekistan, and on and on... Hey, it was 'da Stans'... As in, 'Well, they're all alike and pinheads, y'know...' That was in 2001. I threw sponges at the tee-vee, because I didn't wanna break it, and was SO relieved when my cable removed Faux after six months. My tee-vee was SAVED, hey.... Well.... if you wanna be dumbed down, I can't imagine a better place to acheive thought obliviousness than Faux. And Bill O' drives me crazy with his cant. I still don't know why the woman he stalked never took him fully down. Money, I suppose, the man is disgusting.
Can't they stop the stupid?????
Faux NEWS.... not. Can we all thro up now? Chris Hayes is smart and fun... Rachel once slipped and called him Lambchop.
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The powa of the Internets....
I had mail, and signed a thingie to help get Olbermann reinstated. It worked. Over 260,000 angry mails were dumped on the desk of the CEO, which is Viacom buying up the network, seemingly, with angry comments, and I didn't skimp on the venom without being totally personally insulting.... and that vast number came in within less than three days of his suspension.
So he's back on Tuesday. What really ired me is the following. Olbermann got suspended because he made private contributions to Democratic candidates, which is against the company's policy unless they clear it with the studio bosses. But unlike the whores at Fox, he has NEVER actively promoted a candidate on his show. I've never seen him do that or actrively promote anyone. It was his private decision, and wasn't part of his programm on tee-vee. And everyone KNOWS what side of the fence he is on, and where his view-points come from, the slant. So he didn't play by the 'company' rules.
Maybe he doesn't like being muzzled. And he has been over the top lately. For anger. But in that he can't top Ed Schultz of the Ed show... And he's gotten a bit of muzzling as well, because he really tells truth to power.
And that sort of thing is necessary to counter-balance the horrendousness of the Faux people. But they don't push candidates for election on tee-vee. That's the different, as Peter would say.
Ok... can someone PLEASE tell me why....
I am getting hits from the weirdest places regarding Daylight Savings Time? It is WEIRD. Something I wrote a couple of years ago??? It was just tongue-in-cheek with a Rachel Maddow insert debunking what everyone believes it was FOR, for cripes sake.
I thought it was funny, I channeled back to a Slovenian woman who believed someone had stolen an hour from her, and trying to 'explain' it, it was just tongue in cheek. AndRachel telling us we were wrong in believing why it got to be something we live with for decades now. It was just in fun.
And tonight... I saw that someone from the Chicago Tribune clicked in on it.
Really... is THAT what is on the minds of great 'journalists'???
On the eve of a very important election?
I hope the person in question was having a corfee break, and wanting to just distract him or her self.
It's flattering. But I do not think it is relevant at the moment.
Good grief, hey!
Damn that Steven Colbert!
(grin). He testified before Congress 'in character', about a bill regarding migrant farm workers.
Heads on the Right's Establishment party exploded. I've noticed for a long time now that for a pundit, he does an awful lot of good things behind the scenes to help people, and clarify issues. His five minutes before the hearing began were golden, but in the end, very serious.
But during the real hearing, he got off one very good parting shot, being serious.
Olberman did a decent re-cap yesterday. I love the Faux reaction, that woman should be relegated to psycho talk on The Ed Show...
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