Oooh, a doubleshot of NW dissing! Coming straight to your pc from the internets like a laser beam!
I can't do radio talking. Oh, do yourself a favor and go to Slate.com and click on the Surfer Girl page, follow her link to the one to the FCC and scroll down to read the part she suggests, which are case studies in what is considered obscene. It is hilarious. Unless you are easily offended by rap lyrics. Honestly, I can't understand three-quarters of the lyrics in songs anyway, I had no idea. Well, a little. I was listening to "The Next Episode," a classic by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg from "The Chronic," and laughed pretty hard when he comes to the part about gettin' his drink on, and his smoke on, and takin' somethin' home for him to poke on.
I mean, really, stripped of its incomprehensibility, a lot of rap becomes 99 percent less threatening to honkies.
Aye. The cover of this NW is the mother as Shiva. She's white, of course, and doesn't look particularly like most American moms (i.e. she's groomed and hot). This is part of the "perfect mom" thing, I guess. Which just goes to show it's a total myth. Anna Quindlen will apparently be declaring that moms shouldn't be martyrs. But then what would moms have to guilt trip their kiddos with? Moms that are martyrs — no, make that every one who is a martyr — eats that stuff up. They love martyrhood. If they didn't they'd take some control and go, "I'm sick of being a martyr around here. I'm not going to do x" and then leave it at that.
Interesting. According to editor Mark Whitaker, Society editor Lisa Miller, a recent mom, found herself "privately appalled" (well, up until now!) about the competitiveness of other mothers. She came across the manuscript for the book from which the excerpt runs on her desk (among "tons and tons of mail") and "dipped into it and fell in love." Turns out author Judith Warner is a stringer for NW. Sure you did, Ms. Miller. Sure you did.
Now, right here I have to break and say, haven't I read kind of the same story every 10 years from NW? Mothering — the secret thing no one talks about but is so bloody difficult women are almost killing themselves over it. Well, sheesh, I'd go into why it's self-indulgent pap but this chick at this page has done a really great job herself and she's a mom so she has moral authority to boot. It seems like every once in a while the media rediscovers this story. And, simultaneously, manages to let the men in the picture off the hook for all manner of responsibilities. Which is just too white, too upper-class, too riche to contemplate who they're talking to.
Also I don't think the occasional sentence referring to men in such an article means that they do not get off scot-free. Although I have friends who would argue the opposite. Look, the problem is that the women are protrayed as the engines of everything in their families and the men basically are a passive unit they need to manage. Which is possibly true for my mom and dad in some ways and some of my extended family. The articles pretty much accept, however, that this is the default parenting position.
Also that children must be catered to. I remember block parties where the kids had to fend for themselves while the adults got buzzed. That is the kind of future parent I wouldn't mind being. Not negligent, but not hovering, not worried and fearful of the neighborhood I live in. I never see block parties anymore; when I see anything that vaguely resembles them, it's all about catering to the kids. Whose fault is this?
Anyway, this is the popular sociology angle that hasn't been attacked in the mainstream press. How did we get to be so fearful? What does our social fixation on child competition say about us as a culture.
Also, a friend of mine has been reading some books and is convinced this child-oriented culture will turn out a cohort of wusses and lazy butts. They are burned out by the time they exit Princeton, I think is the key, and their parents are too old to drive them to piano lessons and ballet so they give up on all those structured hobbies and turn to pot and low-level careers where they don't feel all that pressure. He cracks me up.
I'd better stop versifying if I want this done before "Lost" comes on.
Okay: the sentences are:
"But, as one official notes, even Reagan eventually did business with the leader of the 'Evil Empire.'" Mmm. Precious.
"He has to help him build a lasting legacy — and retire to Texas before the heat sets in." It's getting hot in here! Sike. NW isn't going to put the heat on the administration!
Oooh, like the picture of the scowling black kid on an article about LAPD shooting a 13-y-o unarmed kid. That's subtle. Also, if I were the protestors, I'd be concerned that all the signs have been written by the SAME PERSON. Was there, like, a sign-nazi person who wouldn't let others use the crayon on the butcher block? I mean, all the Ks look alike on the three posters I can read, and the hs in child. There's a story there for the local daily.
end sentence? "To keep panic — and anger — from spreading, Bratton's gone on TV and met twice with black leaders to show that his department — and its chief — are on the case."
"He has a good thing going playing the ultimate outsider, and that means keeping his show, and eating his steaks, back in Fargo, far, far away."
Four pages for Charles and Camilla. Oof. Her bangs. They are hurting me. Princes William and Harry must be so grateful they have Di's sexy genes. I have never seen a family of intense press interest that needed the sexy genes more.
"One thing is for sure: no singer or actor can help HP now." Sniff. "HP investors hope this picture develops just as he promises."
"Please, spare us the truth." Thanks, Mr. Samuelson. I bet you just did.
I'm not liking the women they chose for "Mommy Madness" pictorials. One is a morning news anchor for a local market. One is a Dartmouth grad part-time physicians assistant. The last one is a teacher (yay!) with four kids and no time to do her PhD dissertation. She did her coursework, though. The D grad has a husband that wants "the traditional dinner on the table." Didn't your ivy education give you a prep for a high-minded retort?
"'She ain't playin'.' Neither is he. Or he always is. 50 (Cent) will never be easy to know. But he would never reveal himself so nakedly in his music, as both the gangsta and the grandson, if he didn't want you to try." If he's so naked, and you've even talked to him for his profile, why don't you come down on one side of the fence or the other?
That's it for today. I can't stand it anymore. And heaven have mercy, I certainly don't want to miss a moment of "Lost" to deal with another popular crap sociology story-oriented NW: Babies and Autism, the scary disease they will scare you with. Just when the parents think they can control for every variable, autism strikes. Oh, I suppose it can be kind of sexy, but again, it's all fearmongering pretending to be highmindedness.
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