Page of the day intro for American Idol: With just seven days before the premiere, the idolatry is in full swing. Some of you might be looking forward to hearing some great new singing voices, but there’s a special place in our hearts for the worst performers. Not the ones who can’t sing but want to be on TV anyway– they’re just greedy for attention. We’re talking about the kids who think they can sing and only discover the awful truth when Simon says it. Their televised humiliation makes our mediocrity feel like success, reassures us that striving for greatness is a sucker’s game, and delivers the guilty rush of watching someone else get hurt while we’re safe at home.
Author: Aaron Weber
I’ve finally decided on a New Year’s Resolution
Vomitola has inspired me: my resolution is “no being a shit.”
Of course, I have already broken it once, but that’s only one out of 8 days so far this year: that’s a resolution 87.5% kept, which is a passing grade.
Too Many Blogs!
My posts elsewhere:
- On the difference between high-minded ideals of “citizen-generated media” ideals and the reality of citizen-generated dick jokes
- The first of thirty-one prizes granted in the ongoing StyleFeeder contest.
Illustration: a ring from Fred Flare that has not yet been given away.
FoodBloggers
Nominees for the top food blogs include my favorite, Bea’s Kitchen (La Tartine Gourmande) in the category of both “Best Food Blog” and “Best Photography.”
Yes, that’s Bea who’s married to Phil who started StyleFeeder where I work. But also, it’s a good blog.
Autism/Vaccination link was a scam
The story fits too easily into the trope of unscrupulous trial lawyers, but it looks like the researcher who made the autism/vaccination claims was paid big bucks by lawyers who hoped to cash out on lawsuits.
Now, the whole conspiracy theory about vaccines causing autism is surrounded by melodramatic wailing and junk science, but on the other hand it’s awfully hard to give complete faith to the paternalism of the medical establishment.
That won’t be the last we hear of this story, or of others like it.
Dangerous Junkies at the Helm
It’s a good thing that we swiftly and effectively punish all drug addicts in this country. By succumbing to temptation and addiction they have proved themselves immoral and unfit for…
Yet another reminder that the rules applied to the great and powerful differ from those applied to the rest of us. I suspect that there are many, many sets of rules, bent differently and applied differently in every situation, and that this is sometimes a good thing, but usually not.
Beauty and the Geek
We just started a Beauty and the Geek page on TTS and I’m wishing I was running it now. It’s brilliant. A girl was just asked if she was more red-state or blue-state and said “I’m from California, so I’m from the Golden State!”
Here’s a clip of one of the geeks:
I need to find more ways to use this insult
Video Joy
In the ongoing category of “horrific video,” I couldn’t bear to watch Saddam getting hanged. I did manage to watch most of this depressing video of two drunk teenagers throwing up in a park while one friend tries to hold them up. Happy new year, everybody. Take care of yourselves.
And those two weeks at area code camp
Today there was a long, long line at the train station as people lined up to buy new subway passes. They had not figured out that January was a new month and that they needed a new pass. Nor had they read any of the notices or editorials over the past six months predicting, announcing, and arguing about the fare increase. Nor had they checked the new fare structure, so they were surprised that there is no subway-only or bus-only pass any more. There was a lot of confused morning line-standing going on.
Feeling smug and superior is a great way to start a week.
Secretly Ironic 