Things I Find In My Basement

PART 13 OF A CONTINUING SERIES

Official New Kids on the Block figures. Circa 1990. "With articulating head, arms and waist!" Poseable. "Collect All Five."

Bon Appetit

Dave "I'm not your bitch, bitch" Martin from Top Chef just opened a new restaurant in New York.

More here.

Good Comic Timing Propels New News Leader

The New York Times reported today that Brian Williams at NBC Nightly News, in the latest ratings period, beat the previous network news leader, Charlie Gibson at ABC World News Tonight. He also retained a decisive lead over Katie Couric at CBS.

Why now?

Although it's not mentioned in the article, I think you can credit one thing: Williams' credible and funny and likeable turn as host of Saturday Night Live earlier this fall, on Nov. 4, near the beginning of the latest ratings sweep period.

Please Do Two Things

1. Watch this.



2. Read this.

Good Judgment and Gut Feelings

GUT FEELINGS, PART ONE

In 2003, I and a minority of Americans had a strong gut feeling against the war in Iraq, at a time when the vast majority of the country was cheering it on, and most TV journalists were going ga-ga over wearing American flag pins. You weren't considered a Patriot, or a good reporter, if you remained more objective, like the late Peter Jennings and ABC News reporters, who didn't wear pins, opting instead to report news.

Remember all those splashy and subtly pro-war "Operation Iraqi Freedom" cable news graphics (MSNBC and CNN joined the party just as eagerly as Fox News Channel) that pretty much presupposed that 1) the war was just, 2) the war was necessary and 3) the war was actually about freedom? At times Dan Rather and the supposedly liberal CBS News operation were among the worst offenders and, in my opinion, biggest cheerleaders.

Many of us in the anti-war camp were not fooled -- nor were we shocked and awed -- by snazzy graphics or Republican sophistry -- including Colin Powell's U.N. testimony regarding weapons of mass destruction.

GUT FEELINGS, PART II

In 2007, I have another strong gut feeling regarding the presidential election. Any of the Democratic candidates will be an improvement over Bush, and I think that just about any of the Republican candidates would be an improvement over Bush, too.

But there's one candidate that gives me a strong gut feeling. That this candidate is the right person, at the right time, with the right message.

I'm voting for Barack Obama, and I'm not changing my mind.

Obama also had a strong gut feeling against the War in Iraq way back when, and unlike other leading Democratic candidates he was a vocal opponent of it as an Illinois state senator. (Remember, at this time he was a man with higher ambitions, such as the job in the U.S. Senate, so taking such a stand was not motivated by political polling, just inner conviction.)

How can you describe such opposition, this public disapproval of a popular war from a politician with goals beyond being just a state senator?

It's called "terrible politics" if the year is 2003, but "good judgment" in any other year.

God Bless America. Vote Obama.



TODAY'S MUST READ: Frank Rich's Obama column in the New York Times.

Don't Stall On This Purchase

My computer has been down since my last post earlier this week on Trent Lott. This explains why I haven't written a post about the Christmas season's hottest new toy: The Sen. Larry Craig Action Figure.

More here.

More later.

Trent Lott on the Gays

Sen. Trent Lott reportedly once compared gays to alcoholics and kleptomaniacs.

"It is [a sin]....You should try to show them a way to deal with that problem, just like alcohol ... or sex addiction ... or kleptomaniacs."

-- U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, Associated Press, June 15, 1998. (Source.)

Takes one to know one?

Maybe Larry Flynt and his website Larryflynt.com might have more information to answer this question a little later this month?

Again, I don't know whether these rumors and accusations are true. But I do know that U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, based on his career in the Senate, has an anti-gay voting record that is at least as good as that of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig.

Proving an Old Adage?

Heavens to murgatroyd: The gay blogosphere today is ON FIRE pointing to rumors of a certain conservative Senator potentially having a gay rent boy on the payroll, and he wasn't exactly doing just light filing, if you know what I mean.

I won't mention the name of the Senator here, and I don't know if it's true or not, but let's just say that if it is true we wish the good Senator from Mississippi lots of great "gay rent-boy sex" in his just-announced retirement.

And if it is true, it just goes to prove: "You are what you hate."

More here and here and here.

One more thing: Although I'm certainly not convinced yet about the truth of all this, I'm not surprised either.

Taking Your Credit Card to the Max

If you've ever shopped at T.J. Maxx or Marshalls, and I'm admitting neither, despite that new shirt I was wearing just the other night that just happened to be a brand name for less purchased at a certain store that I don't want to discuss right now, you'll want to read or watch this Leslie Stahl report on credit card fraud. It aired last night on 60 Minutes.

I wonder if Leslie has ever bought an outfit at TJ Maxx?

Monday Quick Question

Could somebody please upload the recent "The Opal Show" clips from The Simpsons to YouTube?

I wonder what Oprah thinks about the parody. Opal's boyfriend on the show is "Sraightman."

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My DSL has been out, off and on, for the last week. I'm hoping TCOJ is back to "normal," whatever that is since I'm rarely referred to as normal, early this week.

Mr. Whipple: No Longer Squeezing the Charmin

Ninety-one-year old Dick Wilson, best known as Mr. Whipple, died today. More here.

And below:



"Don't Squeeze the Charmin." ... "Irresistibly soft."

... I wonder how psychoanalysts would deconstruct these iconic ad phrases (and metaphors for sexual repression).

My Five Favorite Gay Fictional Characters

The below post is from March, reposted in light of the death of Mr. Whipple:



1. Snagglepuss.

2. Legolas and Gimli Son of Gloin from Lord of the Rings. They were secret lovers, right?



3. Mr. Whipple, who rumor has it secretly LOVED to squeeze the "Charmin."




4. Schroeder. (Like my guy-pal Wally, he has blonde hair and can really tickle the fingers.)

5. Morris the Cat. (Based on the below video evidence.)

(Just narrowly missing the list: Velma from Scooby Doo.)



PART OF A CONTINUING SERIES (Click FIVE FAVS in the Labels)

For the complete "Mr. Whipple" posts, click Mr. Whipple in the labels.

Thirsty for Ratings

Don't ever say that "I'm dying of thirst" until you've seen this clip from Man Vs. Wild, a show on the Discovery Channel.

The Best Baked Snack Cracker in the World

Recently sighted at my favorite local supermarket: the all-new BIG Cheez-It baked snack cracker.

Branded as the only true "Dip-it! Top-It! Cheez-It" baked snack cracker, this may just be the best baked snack cracker in all the world.

***

In unrelated news, I'd also like to announce a new sponsor for The Cup of Joe: BIG Cheez-IT, America's favorite baked snack cracker.

Just Thanking Just for Men

Twice in the last week, almost two decades after reaching the legal age, I've been carded while buying alcohol, at two different local grocery stores.

Thank you, Just for Men.

***

In unrelated news, I'd like to welcome a new sponsor to The Cup of Joe: Just for Men, America's favorite male hair-coloring agent.

Case Closed

Fred Thompson appeared on This Week With George Stephanopoulos this morning.

I liked him better on Law & Order.

Thonk-thunk.

Notes on D.H. and T.L.J.

When I see a certain actor act -- and I really don't want to give his full name, but let's just say his initials are D.H., his first name is Dustin, and his last name is Hoffman -- I more often than not don't see the character, and I usually don't buy it for a minute.

I see an actor playing a character. In fact, I get a nervous facial tick just thinking about the movie trailer for Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Hoffman's new movie. Somewhere in his career, Hoffman just totally lost me, and I always sense that he is all too totally aware of just what an awesome actor he is, and I suspect he might just be his own biggest fan. His cloying appearances at awards shows doesn't help.

It's an easy trap, especially for Oscar-winning actors who have been told for a long time just how good they are.

I suppose it's possible for me to have similar cynicism for Tommy Lee Jones, currently starring in No Country for Old Men, the new Coen brothers film that is every bit as good, and maybe better, than their Oscar winning Fargo. Jones has won an Oscar, and we've seen him play law enforcement officers in everything from The Fugitive to Men in Black. He has police and FBI and sheriff and law enforcement roles down to a science. Ho-hum and So what you might say, when you consider his new role as a sheriff in No Country.

You'd be wrong.

His performance as a small-town sheriff confronting a world that is changing in ways he can't understand or control may just be the best of his career, and I totally bought it from the first second he enters the screen.

No Country for Old Men may be the best movie of the year so far. The trailer is below.

Speaking of magnetic performances, the film also stars Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem. I wonder who decided that Bardem, in his role as the enigmatic and amoral Chigurh, should have a haircut that's a cross between Moe Howard and the Beetles? It's absolutely perfect, and this character is a sociopath that ranks with Hannibal Lecter, right up to the chilling final coin toss.

Oh, so good.