Make it Stop!

I can't get the Activia jingle out of my head.

My Middle Finger Had to Issue a Retraction

Busy road on a rainy day. 5:15 in the p.m. Rush hour. Traffic.

The idiot in the fancy red car flying the American flag almost runs me off the road. Stressful day at work and now this? Fuck. I coulda been kilt!

He pulls away. I notice the driver is talking on a cell phone. Of course. Whenever anybody is driving like an idiot it usually turns out he (or she) is on his cell phone.

What am I to do? How can I let off some steam? Road rage, clearly, is the answer. So I flip him off. Subtly.

I approach closer. My one-finger wave, mostly hidden, is more for me than for him, but then I notice it. On his back window. The sticker -- an Obama 08 sticker.

My middle finger quickly issues a retraction.

He's probably having a bad day, too, I think, and I bet that's an important call.

Keep hope alive.

25 Years Ago in Baseball

1. Players wore tighter uniforms.

2. The moustache was not just a matter of grooming: It was a personal statement.

3. The infamous George Brett Pine Tar incident -- 25 years ago TODAY.

Two Unrelated Facts to Stew On

1. Jerry from Big Brother 10, currently airing on CBS, is 75 years old -- the token old guy on the show amidst all the "youngens."





2. If John McCain wins the presidency, he will be as old as Jer-Bear by the time he is about halfway through his presidency.

I don't know what any of this means or adds up to, but it makes me ... kind of nervous.

Keep hope alive.

Do the Math

Stephen Colbert + Canadian Rockers = ENTERTAINMENT.

This was the rock trio Rush's first appearance on U.S. TV in 30 years.

You Got That Right

I *heart* Jaclyn Smith.

The Gospel According to Corey Worthington: Love Yourself!

How could anybody possibly disagree?



Party on, Garth!

Spicoli!

But Does It Have an Opposable Thumb?

Why I like 'Flipping Out'

A friend of mine won't watch the show Flipping Out (new episode airs tonight on Bravo) because he says it makes him nervous watching Jeff Lewis' obsessive-compulsive disorder.

This is why I like the show. Don't we all know someone just a little bit like Jeff Lewis?

The reality genre itself is more "fake" than "real" -- chock full of producer-created drama and shallow dramatics involving narcissistic fame-seekers playing to the camera in the hopes of becoming "a star."

My sense is that although these qualities are present to some extent on Flipping Out, viewers nevertheless see an accurate portrait of the main subject.

Why? Because I suspect that the needless drama and conflict Lewis fosters on the show would be happening regardless of whether the camera was rolling. Lewis really is as he appears on his reality TV show. The camera is capturing his quirks, his personality, his disorders.

I find this interesting. It's like real "reality-like" reality TV. For a change. Think about that when some intentionally-bad phony gets air time on America's Got Talent or American Idol or some "houseguest" quite purposefully goes into Hyper-Bitch mode on Big Brother just to stoke up their own air time.

Guess What's New on DVD?

Square Pegs, Square Pegs, Square ... Pegs.

More here.

Opening credits below:



From the first episode:

Two Things That Disturb Me

As of the the past year or so, I am now:

* Older than Homer Simpson. He's eternally 39.

* I'm really not that much younger than Hugh Beaumont was when he started on Leave it to Beaver.

Was I ever young?

UPDATE: I was carded buying alcohol this weekend at Trader Joe's by a clerk who couldn't have been more than 22. He was wearing glasses.

Mannix: The 70s Private Detective With a Cool First Name

Mannix detailed the exploits of Joe Mannix, a private investigator, and ran from 1967-1975. The first season (which never had been released in syndication) is now out on DVD.

Some Mannix facts from Wikipedia:

• Mannix was shot at or wounded more than a dozen times during the series, usually by an old war buddy from the Korean War.


• His faithful assistant Peggy was played by Gail Fisher. She was one of the first African-American females with a regular role on a TV drama.


• The show was the baby of Bruce Geller, the man also behind Mission Impossible.


• Mannix liked to drive convertibles. He also liked to crash convertibles.


• Midway through the opening credits viewers see "a screen layout bearing an exact resemblance to the flag of Armenia." Why? It's a mystery, a mystery that perhaps only the great Joe Mannix could solve.

You Tell Me

More than 200 years after his death, we still listen to the music of Mozart.

Two hundred years from now, which present-day artists do YOU think the inhabitants of the planet (if there are any) will be listening to?

Madonna? Eminem? Jason Mraz?

Show tunes from the 90s?

Britney Spears?

And will anybody still understand English?

Will anybody still understand Britney?

I'm Just Saying

He failed to vote for the censure of the disgraceful Joe McCarthy in the 1950s.

He cozied up to Southern racist Senators in the late 1950s and seemingly embraced their backward views.

And at a time when many Americans looked to him for leadership on a major issue, he barely mentioned civil rights in his inaugural address.

His name is John Kennedy. He got elected president. Barely.

Politicians have to make compromises to win the offices they seek. You can't do good if you don't get elected. And to govern once elected, you need to build coalitions with people you don't always agree with.

Remember this the next time you hear a liberal pundit blast Barack Obama for "letting them down" with stances that are centrist.

He is way ahead in the polls now, but Michael Dukakis had a 17-point lead at a similar point in 1988. This election could be closer than many people think. Don't forget it.

And keep hope alive.

Hasta Luego

This blog has been in sleep mode. But I'll be back soon with some "things I've been meaning to blog about."

Rest in Peace

Tim Russert, 1950-2008

Amid all the shouting heads on cable TV and the networks, he was tough and smart and yet always a gentleman. He could pull clarity from grand complexity, but you never got a sense he was trying to impress. He was smart and quick and I guess you could say he had every right to be pompous, like some other people on cable TV whose names I'll not mention, but his brilliance was more matter-of-fact and accessible, and his likeable personality seemed to spring from a simple and deep sincerity. So quick with a story. So quick with insight. He made a difference. He practiced his craft the way it should be practiced. Tim Russert is gone. He will be missed.

What We Lost, 40 Years Ago Today

Today is the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Jeff Greenfield at CBS Sunday Morning, who worked with Kennedy, did a remarkable reflection on his life last week.

He has been gone almost as long as he was alive, and from a distance of four decades, Robert Kennedy is often seen as a player in a pageant: heir to a murdered President from America's most famous political family … a tumultuous presidential campaign in a tumultuous political year that ended on the floor of a hotel kitchen in Los Angeles.

And below is one of the most extraordinary extemporaneous speeches in American history, all the more remarkable if you know all the context behind it. It was a risky moment, a passionate moment, a perfectly expressed American moment.

Keep hope alive.