Twitter Quip

    Public displays of knee-jerk reactions

    On Black Friday, there were three shopping-related deaths (giving new meaning to the term “shop ’til you drop”). I don’t understand the frenzy that motivates someone to kill for $3 off a Tickle-Me-Elmo doll, but then again there’s a lot I don’t understand about this world. Black Friday typically has some good deals but rarely anything good enough to get me out of bed before 5 am–and certainly nothing worth killing for. Like cattle being chase by a hound, dozens of Wal-Mart customers trampled a man as the store open. And at a Toys-R-Us, two men–both armed–shot each other.

    While what happened at that Toys-R-Us is a tragedy (that’s what some would say; I think it’s a good thing when you rid the world full of two bozos who take guns to go toy shopping), I think the overreaction by Toys-R-Us and local police is a bit of a joke. On Saturday, deputies patrolled the Palm Desert store, ensuring there wouldn’t be repeat. Really? Is that necessary? What happened on Black Friday was the perfect storm: a mad rush of shoppers, two armed idiots, and a crowd of people who had to watch the Lions game on TV. No one . . . . .

     

    The myth behind the media (or Annie Wilkes says ‘Get a life!’)

    As someone who works in the entertainment business, I find it amusing how many fans care more about our media than us–the folks who produce it. When we canceled a program a few months back we were bombard by emails and phone calls from angry viewers who were horrified their show was no longer on the air. You should see some of the letters we received–folks were talking like they lost their only reason to live. The ironic part is no one who works at our station ever bothered even watching the show.

    Employees of the station act like we’re performing some service to the community and publicly emphasizes our quality and importance. But everyone–from the cameramen on the floor to the directors in the booth to the talent we have on screen–we all know it’s kind of a joke. To all of us, it’s just a paycheck; to some viewers, it’s a daily ritual.

    I know this expands far beyond my little podunk television station. I listen to podcasts and radio shows were the host clearly doesn’t know as much about their show as I do. I can think of one podcast in particular. It’s only about 20 minutes . . . . .

     

    This iRANT has more culture and intelligence than the 11 o’clock news

    The lead story on tonight’s news was Nicole Kidman’s car accident. Nevermind it wasn’t much of an accident (caught on tape!). Forget that no one was hurt and the actress walked away fine, seconds after impact. Ignore that it really wasn’t spectacular; no cars rolled over and the damage was minimal. The real story here is that this is a story–a lead story for at least two major television networks (I caught the beginning of FOX’s and the CW’s news: when I saw what they were “covering” I opted to turn off the TV). And I only watched the two networks–it might’ve been the lead story for everyone else, too.

    The media is a frequent target of my criticism: it’s stuff like this that makes it easy. Honestly, who gives a damn? Television could be such a powerful, educational, and informative media–and we’re talking about an insignificant actress’s on-set car accident. It’s awful.

    I got some hairs cut today. Here’s something to chew one. Why is something like a person’s hair, referred to in a singular sense when there’s more than one? The plural of hair is hairs, not hair (i.e., ‘I found three hairs in the sink’). Yet whenever . . . . .