My Day Is Brightened
…by learning that P.J. O’Rourke believes in God. He also has a malignant hemorrhoid, learning of which does not brighten my day. I hope he soon recovers the structural integrity of his nethers.
Gotta Start Voting (Updated for Week 2)
Every week. Because they say you don’t get to bitch unless you voted, and I’ve got a lot of bitching to do about the Week 1 craziness I just watched on TiVo’d Dancing with the Stars. I usually don’t bother voting until it’s narrowed down to three or so couples, but it’s ridiculous, and even a bit revolting, that Ted McGinley went home while the ditzy and bitsy Susan Lucci, the wild but fragile and old Cloris Leachman, and the can’t-move-AT-ALL Kim Kardashian stay on. It pains me to watch any of the three of them, but Leachman needs to go home pronto; it borders on embarrassing that the show put her on at all. Ted was solid and capable of improvement; these three ladies aren’t. Susan Lucci is a low-budget Priscilla Presley–all the sluggish, tiny moves and less of the sexpot. Kim’s just annoying in her lack of grace or even effort–shades of Clyde Drexler. And Cloris, lest I repeat myself, is just old. She is gamely performing over the lack of capability, but it hurts to watch. I don’t know what the voters are thinking about.
What, you thought I’d have something about Congress and the finance bailout? You must be new here, eh?
PS, I find myself thinking, a little, that it’s a bit of a shame Lance Bass is gay. Don’t get me wrong, Joey Fatone is still way more my type, but I’m starting to see what girls saw in their little band a few years ago. He’s cute and charismatic, and his aw-shucks “I was the worst dancer in ‘N Sync” bit has cleverly lowered expectations until it’s a pleasant surprise to find how well he can dance and how well he comports himself. Keep it up, Lance.
Okay, now this is just naughty: Tonight Lance dances paso to “I Kissed a Girl.” Hahahah. Add “good sport” to the mix.
Time for vote strategy: Put it all in for Rocco DiSpirito. He’s cute, he makes Karina smile for a change, and his dance was not as bad as the judges made out tonight. Most importantly, aside from the three women who must go (KIM KARDASHIAN leading that pack–she is that girl you tried to do a group project with in high school and to any criticism always responded that she was doing her best until you want to point out that if that’s so, that’s a sad commentary on what the rest of her life will be like), he will be on the chopping block because a) the judges marked him down and b) he’s not a rock star. I want him to come out ahead of one of the Trio of Suck so that hopefully one of them will drop off the bottom of the scale. Vote Rocco!
PS
When I return, blogging shall return. You have been warned.
I mean, after all, Dancing with the Stars will be back.
Bereaved Again
The Bean’s paternal grandmother has passed on, following her husband by about five months. I’ll be absent(er).
Since When Is Lack of Back-Scratching the Same as Lack of Loyalty?
I’m busy with too many things to blog properly, but this is a gimme. Allah quotes Politico:
Savvy readers [of her biography] might find cause for concern in Palin’s burning ambition, her ruthlessness or her complete lack of loyalty to political patrons. …
… Palin was encouraged to run for a City Council seat in Wasilla, Alaska, in 1992 by council member Nick Carney and was warmly welcomed into office by then-Mayor John Stein. Within months of taking office, she had voted against a pay hike for Stein and against a mandatory garbage collection ordinance that would have greatly enriched Carney. Four years later, Palin unseated Stein…
The scandals Palin helped prod along [while an appointee of Gov. Frank Murkowski’s administration] badly damaged the Murkowski administration. She ran against the governor in the 2006 GOP primary, easily finishing him off.
Palin had her reasons but the pattern is clear. She is invited in by well-established pols, doesn’t get her way and ends up running against the “good old boys” and defeating them handily.
Was it possible that she thought the mayor’s salary was high enough by objective standards and that Wasilla didn’t need the garbage collection ordinance? Was it an understood thing that “encouragement to run” and a “warm welcome” cost her vote on their pet issues? That is not loyalty; that is corruption. Looks to me like an unwillingness to pay back good manners with political influence might be one of the reasons McCain picked her. Will he have to watch his back around her? Looks to me like no, as long as he watches his step around voters. Which is fine by me. If she defects and challenges in 2012, it is the voters who will decide whether she had good reasons to do so.
I’m Still Alive
Just very busy.
No, seriously, where are you, because I’m about to drop you from my bookmarks.
A birthday for the Bean, a big family visit, there’s a lot going on. I’ll be back.
C’mon, I’m just emulating Xrlq by going for a one-to-one ratio of weeks to posts.
Actually, Xrlq’s been posting several times per day.
Well, see, then? He’s picking up my slack. And hey, I have made one crucial blog decision–I’m no longer going to code links that automatically open a new browser window. I figure you people are smart enough to right-click and pick “open in new window (or tab)” all by yourselves.
Well, thanks for that, the extra windows were driving me nuts.
You’re welcome.
Straight Talk (Not by a Political Candidate)
Yes, I know I owe you sweet, devoted people a boatload of Sarah Palin content. I just haven’t been able to bring it yet. I’m floored by the last week in politics and its implications. When I’m floored I can’t write about it. So … wait. I’ll either have something or I won’t, and if you need Sarah Palin and somehow aren’t getting enough, just click through my blogroll, starting with Ace–I am so in love with him this week for ripping off the heads of people circulating lies about the Palins.
Meanwhile, I return to my regular beat, the oh-so-important, terribly critical Dancing with the Stars. Seriously. Wild stuff. I used to rail and rage against sports announcers and the stupid “interviews” they do with stars and coaches after the game. What do you MEAN, “How important was this win and how do you feel about that?” What a stupid question. Are you just a moron? till a boyfriend more versed in the sports world helpfully pointed out that the “interviews” are always boilerplate form, but they have to go through them anyway in case somebody says something out of line. Kind of like they always have to videotape the president taking off in Marine One in case he falls out, or a rotor blade flies off and decapitates the Rose Garden.
Sports interviewers wish they could interview my Maks. He talks about his partners as friends for life, and I guess he must really believe that, if he thinks he can say stuff about them in an interview while comparing them all unfavorably (however razor-thin the margin between them may be) to his new partner, volleyball queen Misty May-Treanor.
TVGuide.com: Misty is better than Mel B?
Chmerkovskiy: I was shocked, and I don’t throw that word around lightly. People are going to be very surprised by how well she’s going to dance. Laila (Ali, season four) had an incredible work ethic. But I could be too much for her. She’d say: You’ve gotta back off. And then Mel (season five) was just this incredible personality. But she had zero attention span. So here, in Misty, I have a combination of the best qualities of both. She’s like a perfect person to love. She has this aura of sweetness, and she’ll practice for as long as it takes. Let Cheryl [Burke] and Julianne [Hough] collect the trophies. I’ll collect friends for life.
Wow. I said he’d have to go far to find somebody better than Mel B. Apparently he thinks he went far enough. Now I’m stoked. Bring back the rest of my fall TV! Because I watched the Bones premiere last night and, gah. You know those writers I thought they must have hired last season when the shows were clicking right along with good plots and snappy dialogue? Yeah, they all must have quit again.
What Up, McCain Web People?
Do you know how difficult it is to find the Downloads page on John McCain’s campaign web site? (Yeah, even though I apparently found it once before, to get the button in my sidebar.) So difficult that after roughly ten minutes of searching, I had to advance-Google “downloads” at site johnmccain.com. That takes you to the page, all right, for which there apparently is no direct link from the menus on the home page at all. (Update: I found the link, through the Action–>Action Center–>Site Tools path. One rollover and two clicks off the home page and utterly unintuitive.)
Once I found it, I was surprised to see there are no buttons for McCain/Palin, nor any stickers or signs for the duo in McCain’s online store. What gives, web and publicity people? You make a major announcement that will definitely get bloggers fired up, and then don’t have stuff available for us to show how fired up we are? Roll out the Mr. & Mrs. Maverick buttons and stickers. Put a link to the Downloads page on the main site. The web moves fast. Keep up!
Update x2: Made my own, cropped from the campaign site’s banner, inspired by Carlos Echevarria.
Update x3: Slu the Photoshop King made more, with pics.
Sarah. Palin.
Sarah Palin!
McCain faked this so well that he left Allah woozy. Up through last night they were running down the list of men, some crusty (Lieberman) and others not-so-much (Pawlenty), so uncertain that they even dragged Thompson back out.
Politically speaking: Flat-out awesome choice. Young, married mother of five, governor of Alaska, living symbol of ending pork-barrel spending, as it was she who killed the Bridge to Nowhere.
Come on over, disgruntled Hillary voters. Elect a pair of Republicans after eight years of the Most Hated Republicans on Earth. Be mavericks.
What Fresh Celebrity Hell Is This?
For sex addiction.
Apparently, they are not making this up. Usual boilerplate about “please respect the privacy of my wife and children as we deal with this” applies.
In one of those ironic twists that sometimes happens when you get a question in Trivial Pursuit on a topic you just happened to be discussing two hours ago, just today I actually read the blurb in Us where he talked about Tea passing out from getting steamy in a sauna.
Well, That’s a Mercy, Anyhow
Huckabee says he was never vetted for Veep. Which makes McCain … at the very least, not less smart than I thought he was.
I’m Glad I Didn’t Know It Was Even an Option
NBC picks up the back half of the upcoming second season of Chuck. I had no idea that was even a question. Best. Show. On. TV.
Blood-boiling industry jargon of the day:
NBC is giving an early vote of confidence to “Chuck,” picking up the back nine episodes of the sophomore skein.
Skein? Where did this even come from? Were they calling seasons “threads” and then needed a fresh word, so they went to “skein?” I hate this. It doesn’t make any sense. A “thread” might be borderline, since you can talk about plot threads, etc. A skein of television shows is just pure, unadulterated nonsense.
And yes, nonsense industry jargon really does make my blood boil. Yes, I know you raise your eyebrows in consternation because inappropriate word use makes my blood boil. That’s why I’m an editor and you’re not.
