Notes and Meditations

This Blog Is Officially Closed

2005-04-25T10:09:00.000-05:00

You can find the new and improved blog here.

Impending Disaster

2005-04-04T14:10:00.000-05:00

In keeping with the Hollywood tradition of legacy ruining, John Hughes is planning to release a sequel to Pretty In Pink. It'll show us all how much the characters we adored as teenagers suck as adults.

I'm not expecting much as maybe you can tell.

Smell Like A Man

2005-04-02T12:16:00.000-05:00

Years ago, I read this book where P.J. O'Rourke wrote something like "There are only two kinds of men who wear cologne, those who wear Old Spice, and those who will."

It's happened to me. I ran out of my regular stuff last week. I had been planning to make the switch for months. I eagerly watched the level of my standard scent descend with in its swanky glass bottle.

"When it's gone", I told myself, "I'm going to jump ship." Perhaps it would have been more accurate, given the OS packaging, had I said "I'll be climbing aboard the sailing vessel of aromatic American masculinity."

I bought my first bottle last night. Who needs to mess with going to the mall and sniffing for hours samples of the newest colognes from those effete little cards when you can just grab your signature scent at the grocery store along with your bannanas and paper napkins.

It smells OK. I'm afraid I may have been a sucker for the marketing though. I'm drawn to its quaintness, its place in the pantheon of Americana. But, maybe those facts say as much about my personality as the scent I wear.

It's strange that though most people can identify an OS bottle, I don't think many would recognize the smell of it. It'll be a while, I bet, before someone stops me and says, "Isn't that Old Spice your wearing?" I expect instead to get lots of queries about what that exotic and intoxicating odor I'm exuding is. "Something new from Ralph Lauren? Maybe Calvin Klein?"

"Nope, I'll say proudly. That's Old Spice. If you want your own you can get it on the toothpaste aisle."

Click here for lots of info on the history of OS and its distinctive packaging.

Update: Look at the OS site and see their dissapointing attempt to repackage their product for the Maxim crowd. Doing so is a mistake. Instead they should be playing up the nostalgia aspect. The market segment that wants to identify with the safety and comfort of the past is always going to be larger than that part who wants to smell like a grubby race car driver.

Have I Got A Surprise for You

2005-03-29T16:04:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed activity here has slowed down in the last couple weeks. Don't despair. I have been busily working on a surprise for you to be unveiled somtime in the coming weeks that will make all your fretting evaporate.

Can you guess what it is?

Sex and the Cinema

2005-03-21T16:34:00.000-05:00

Anne Thompson has published an intriguing article today on the role of sexuality in contemporary cinema.

She writes:

"The old adage 'sex sells' no longer applies to the movies. 'Sex will not make something that is otherwise not entertaining sell,' producer Tom Pollock says. 'Movies work because they make you laugh, cry or (be) scared. Audiences won't go to a movie because of sex.'"

I think she's right. Conservatives who believe cinema has been on a steady slide into the moral sewer need to review their history. Look back at even mainstream movies in the 1970's and they are much more replete with nudity and sexuality than today's blockbusters.

Read the whole column here.

"No More Late Fees" Could Cost Blockbuster Plenty

2005-03-14T12:19:00.000-05:00

More than 30 states are now investigating Blockbuster video for deceptive advertising in its "No More Late Fees" campaign.

Blockbuster must know the waters ahead could be stormy. Why else would they be seeking to settle the case?

Stanley Jordan Revisited

2005-03-14T11:26:00.000-05:00

On a trip to California when I was sixteen, I bought this CD,well, technically, back then it was a cassette. I loved it. Its tones were dulcet and mysterious to me, filling me with yearnings I could not name.

I had seen Stanley Jordan on the Tonight Show around that time. Instead of playing the guitar as it is traditionally played, by plucking or strumming the strings, Jordan smacked the strings with his fingertips producing a sound more like a chiming bell than some rock god's axe.

A couple of years ago I bought the CD. I hadn't listened to that music in fifteen years, at least. Hearing it again was like bumping into someone you knew once and realizing how little they'd grown, fun for reminiscing but not someone you want around often. The music that once had thrilled me now left me cold. It sounded generic, like cheap vanilla ice cream, like, well, like Counting Crows.

Just for kicks, I popped it in the player again yesterday. All of a sudden, I was digging it again. Shuffling around the kitchen to Jordan's perky cover of "Eleanor Rigby." I listened to the whole thing three or four times.

Why does that happen? That shifting of tastes back and forth as we age. Is it possible we find things when we are young and saddle them with so much of our embryonic hopes, our emerging identities that we are unable to appreciate them for what they really are until we have some more solid sense of ourselves ?

I was pleased to see Stanley Jordan does have a Web presence, even if it is a little drab.

P.S.

From his concert schedule, it seems if you live near Reading, Pa. you can see him live tomorrow night.

Say Uncle

2005-03-12T12:17:00.000-05:00

I did not know until recently there was a real Uncle Sam. His name was Sam Wilson and he grew up in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In 1789, he and his brother Ebenezer walked to Troy, NY, which still bills itself as Uncle Sam's Hometown. If you go to Troy, you can visit the Uncle Sam Memorial statue or his grave.

Unfortunately, Sam Wilson didn't look quite like our image of Uncle Sam. He certainly didn't walk around in the shiny red, white and blue suit. Certainly would have made him stand out in a crowd if he had, eh?

According to an online biography the familiar image was created by

"Thomas Nast, a prominent 19th-century political cartoonist," who "produced many of the earliest cartoons of Uncle Sam. "

Lately, we don't get to see as much of Uncle Sam as I'd like. I suppose his image is offensive to the sophisticated hordes with its connotations of patriotism and American pride so many now detest.

Well, as for me I hope he doesn't stay away too long. I'd like to see that old geezer (he was born in 1766, after all) hobble his way around again.

Stranded

2005-03-09T14:21:00.000-05:00

We had a storm last night to make even veteran Yankees complain. We got about 7 inches of snow aggravated by winds of 40 to 50 miles an hour.

The worst of the storm hit between 3 and 11. Naturally, I was scheduled to work at “Chalkduster” renting DVD’s and trying to sell the movie pass. I was supposed to be there from 3 to 11, right through the heart of the blizzard.

The weather grew more and more ferocious. I’d never seen a winter storm like this. Even in the late afternoon sun, I could barely see the huge Wal-Mart on the other side of the street. Snow flew everywhere.

After a couple of hours, a manager called and told us to count our customers between 6 and 9 to see if we were doing little enough business to justify closing. We had only about 13.

At the Wendy’s next door the kids behind the counter said they could close if they did fewer than $50 in transactions in each of three consecutive hours.

If they did $51 dollars of business in one of those hours, they’d have to stay. So, for the sake of $151, Wendy’s was willing to put the safety, and possibly the lives, of these young employees on the line.

Around 9, another, higher ranking manager called and said we’d have to get a couple more opinions before we could close. The manager in the store with me told me to go.

The car fishtailed a little in the slippery slush. I made it through the first intersection and settled in for the 7 or 8-mile crawl in the terrible dark.

Nobody else was on the road. After a few minutes of driving, I realized it was foolish to press on. I could feel the tires slipping in the drifts the storm had dumped in the unplowed street. The wind pounded the top of the car. The windshield looked like a sheet had been thrown over it. A solid white wall blocked my vision of anything beyond the nose of the vehicle.

I decided to pull into a convenience store a few miles ahead and wait for the storm to settle. Finally, I saw the store’s lights through the crowded sky. I had been on the road half an hour and traveled about two miles.

I called the police. I assumed the department would have a four-wheel drive to come and pick me up. They told me to wait. There were a lot of other problems last night, they said and they’d get out to me when they could.

I settled back to watch the wind try to rip the store’s flag from it precarious perch. I watched for an hour before the police called.

“You’re on your own,” they told me. Our town’s tiny force has only three cruisers and two of them were stuck and stranded. The third was attending more serious emergencies.

I had been there an hour and a half before deciding to give the road another shot. The snow had begun to taper off, though it was still coming down pretty heavily.

I pulled forward intending to forge ahead. In the distance I saw lights heading toward me and decided to stay until after the vehicle passed.

It didn’t pass. It pulled into the lot instead. I had never been so happy to see a snow plow. I left the car and ran to it.

“Did you call the police a while ago?” the driver asked.

The cops had sent the plow for me.

I chucked my bag in the cab and lumbered up over the massive blade into the passenger seat.

The snow continued to fly the whole way home. I looked down from my seat to see it spraying off the blade in on continuous arching wave.

I’d left work at 9 and got to my home 8 miles away at midnight.

I’ve complained before about corporate retailers requiring employees to work in severe weather conditions. I’d support legislation requiring employers to give employees the option to leave when the state police begin telling people, as they routinely do during these storms, not to be on the road.

Had I lost anything but a couple hours through this ordeal, I would have consulted an attorney. To keep employees on the job in treacherous conditions is criminally negligent and the corporations that delay allowing them to leave before conditions become life threatening should be held accountable.

Drowning in Trivia

2005-03-08T13:02:00.000-05:00

In the age of consumption, our lives get frittered away debating which off all our choices if the "right" one.

Barbara Curtis explores this point in an excellent post today.

She writes:

The more options Americans have, the more our need for self-determination is sated by stupid choices like stamps and mustard and rings – the less fire we have for the choices our government continues to withhold (school vouchers) or begins to take away (religious expression).

This proliferation of options is even worse online. The millions of blogs, not to mention the bozillions of other pages, offer a chance to while away hours perusing the trivia of others' lives.

Not that I'm against blogs or blogging. Nor do I think there's no place for blogging about personal matters. But as a blog reader, I'm realizing how much the ever increasing panoply of choices requires an ever increasing commitment to discipline and make the most of the time we have.

Wal-Mart Plans to Ruin Maryland Town

2005-03-07T17:20:00.000-05:00

The town of Dunkirk, Maryland, recognizing the disastrous effects big box stores, passed an ordinance restricting the size of any new retail establishments built.

Wal-Mart came along and wanted to build a Supercenter, but butted up against the limitation. What did Wal-Mart do? Did they agree to build only up to the legal limit? Did they move on completely to somewhere more Wal-Mart friendly? No, they decided to build two stores whose diminsions fell beneath the size limit next door to one another.

Wal-Mart's relentless push to open new stores, even where they aren't wanted, knows no bounds. Their intention to build two stores where the people tried to prevent the building of even one shows a breathtaking lack of respect for the town and the way of life its citizens are seeking to preserve. The corporation's marketing strategy of associating itself with images of small town Americana seems even more cynical in light of this move as the company seeks to profit from using images of a culture they are helping to destroy.

Moody's Table

2005-03-05T19:18:00.000-05:00

Legislation to Prevent Free Internet Access

2005-03-04T09:49:00.000-05:00

Recent technological developments have increased the ability of computers to access the internet wirelessly, by recieveing signals through the air.

While this means free internet access for a lot of people when they drop by the library or Starbucks, it may not mean free access at home. At least, not any more.

The Houston Chronicle has a story today about a bill in the Texas legislature designed to protect incumbent internet service providers from having to compete with those who would give away Wi-Fi.

The bills, there are similar ones pending in other states, would prevent not only municipal governments from setting up local Wi-Fi utilities, but would prevent private citizens from forming non-profit corporations to make access freely or very cheaply available.

In a move reminiscent of the recording industry's effort to squelch new technologies, the entrenched telecommunications industry wants to control the field rather than to compete in it. Apparently, these are the new rules of the game: if you can't compete according to the dictates of evolving technology, ask the government to enact legislation forcing consumers to continue buying your product or service.

Using these tactice have lead a lot of people to loathe the recording industry. You would think others would have learned a lesson from that debacle, but apparently not. Like the recording industry the telecommunications people will destroy whatever good will toward them costumers have and wiill ultimately lose anyway.

Industries affected by emerging tech have to learn the only way to stay afloat is by sticking to the fundamentals of business, supply a good product to meet the demand. Trying to manipulate the market by limiting consumers freedom might seem like a shortcut, but will only lead to diminished earnings and public distrust.

Best Buy Hard Sell

2005-03-03T17:44:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I wrote much about the manipulations of corporate marketing.

I spoke with an ex-Best Buy employee today who told me what it takes to work the check-out in one of their stores.

It takes 5 "no's". That's right. Each cashier is supposed to try to sell every customer five items, or ask the customer repeatedly to buy a single item until the customer has said "no" 5 times.

When the pressure got to be too much for this guy, he quit. A lot of customers got angry, he said.

Corporate chains like Best Buy are willing to risk making their customers furious. If even one out of ten actually buys an additional item or service then, I suspect, the added revenue more than covers the loss of the few customers ticked off enough by the obnoxious sales pitch to never come back.

Looney Tunes Fest

2005-03-02T11:11:00.000-05:00

I started watching one of the four disc Looney Tunes classics sets last night. They cartoons themselves are a lot more clever than I understood them to be as a kid and they look great on DVD. I haven't watched any of the extras yet, but I'm very eager. The discs are packed with documentaries and commentaries I'm super excited about.

By the way, if you've never visited the Looney Tunes Web site, click the link above. The Wed site is great, complete with online only cartoons and and gobs of downloads and info.

More Thoughts on Better Air Travel

2005-03-01T16:43:00.001-05:00

Continuing with yesterday's theme of improving the flight experience, here are a couple more changes I'd like to see:

1) Put Fewer People on the Plane.

I've been on flights where so many people have squeezed on board I expected the crew to spray us all down with WD-40 so we could get off again. The tiny space provided to the economy class passenger suggests the airline believes only people under 5 feet tall should fly.

One reason people who are disgruntled with airline travel hate it so much is the sheer discomfort of being unable to move throughout the flight. The bile rises at paying so much for such a cramped space. Open up some room and the airlines would see more and happier customers.

2) Stop Allowing Vendors to Gouge Customers the Airlines Have left Stranded.

While stuck in the Greensboro airport this week, I paid $8 for a McDonald's quality chicken sandwich and fries. A 20 ounce Coke set me back two bucks. Other prices I noticed were also outrageous, 99 cents for a bag of M&M's, or a packet of Pop-Tarts.

I thought I could avoid getting fleeced by finding a McDonald's at the Philadelphia airport and ordering from their famous dollar menu. I found the McD's. Guess what? No dollar menu.

Airports love filling their food courts with extortionate, fake restaurants. In Greensboro there was something called "Burger Depot," that evidently took its name from the fact its burgers cost as much as a train ticket across Europe. Instead of filling the food courts in airports with sham restaurants run by an invisible corporation, bring in familiar establishments to compete with each other. The reason McD's doesn't have a dollar menu at the airport is because there's no Wendy's, no Burger King right next door.

I don't know what it would take to create a more competive arrangement, but I do know lower concession prices would go a long way toward reducing the rage of consumers locked into a several hour wait by airline incompetence.

How to Improve Air Travel #1

2005-02-28T17:35:00.000-05:00

If you haven't heard the earlier audio post you don't know about my day yesterday. It was awful.

I spent 14 hours trying to get from Greensboro, North Carolina back to New Hampshire. Continental cancelled my first flight. They finally re-routed me onto an US Airways flight seven hours later. When I arrived in Philadelphia to change planes, I found my second flight was delayed causing me to have another five hour wait. My total flight time was one hour and forty minutes.

The experience provided me time to consider how the aviation industry could improve its service. Here are the first couple:

1)Guarantee flight times.

I'm not sure how this can be done because I don't know enough about how airports work. Nevertheless, I am certain the culture that figured out how to get a ten ton machine in the air in the first place can, if it puts its mind to it, figure out how to get them on and off the ground at specified times.

There will be times when, because of weather or mechanical failure, timing will be off. People will have to wait. When these inevitable circumstances arise, airlines would do well to treat offer their customers more than an insincere apology and a coupon for $5 off the inflated meal prices all the airport vendors charge.

2)Make airports smaller.

Or at least make them seem so. Along with creating smooth schedules airlines should bring all their flights in at one place. No more 2 mile sprints to the crowded, damp bus that chugs along and dumps you at the appropriate terminal.

Airports composed of several smaller buildings, rather than one huge one, would take a lot of the disorientation out of the customer's experience.

In the Philly airport, electric carts whizzed in the halls. Their drivers held little bells they rang to let people traveling to their gates on foot know to move it. Any airport where pedestrians barely avoid being run-down by motorized vehicles carrying those who can not or will not walk is just too big.

Day Off

2005-02-28T15:00:00.000-05:00

Whirlwind

2005-02-25T16:33:00.000-05:00

I've been running since my plane touched down yesterday. The MFA program is holding its interviews in conjunction with a film festival held on campus this weekend.

Last night, I saw a outstanding film. Most movies these days leave me cold. My reaction to most is ho-hum. Last night, though, I saw Searching for Angela Shelton.

The filmaker, Angela Shelton, sets out on a journey to meet every other Angela Shelton in America. Along the way she discovers about 60% of them have been raped, beaten, or molested as children. Uncovering these facts raises for the filmaker issues stemming from her own childhood sexual abuse.

What ensues is two hours of rough, raw, painful-to-watch footage that avoids the parallel pitfalls of self-pity and nihilistic rage. Instead, the Angela Sheltons Angela Shelton meets talk about how they have overcome their circumstances to regain their dignity.

I was surprised at the positive way the role of religion was portrayed. Faith is clearly a means to healing for most of the women interviewed.

Underlying all the emotion in the film is the problem of evil. "Why did this happen?," they want to know. The film offers no easy answers, instead demonstrates how suffering can sometimes turn the human mind to consider the Divine.

Time for Me to Fly

2005-02-24T06:07:00.000-05:00

Exhausted

2005-02-23T16:56:00.000-05:00

For some reason, I've been wiped out all day long. I'm sitting at the computer hardly able to keep my eyes from sliding shut. Tomorrow I'll be traveling. Blogging could be light but I hope to at least phone in an audio post. Look for it then.

Right now, I'm going home to play video games and watch TV.

Make a Call, Save a Life

2005-02-23T15:51:00.000-05:00

Terri Schiavo's feeding tube could be removed today at 5.

You may think Terri is braindead, or dependent on life support. She's not. She breathes on her own, she's not dependent on any machinery for her survival except the tube through which she receives nourishment.

She's alive, but unconscious. There is still a chance, even if slight, that she could wake up.

If her tube is pulled it will be a very different situation from taking someone off life support. It will be starving someone who needs help to death. It really is that simple.

Please call Florida Gov. Jeb Bush@(850) 488-7146 and/or the Florida Legislature@(850) 488-6026. Make it clear to whomever you speak that you are asking both the legislative and executive branches of government to step in and save Terri's life if the judicial branch makes itself an accessory to murder.

UPDATE: Terri just received a stay to allow her to continue being fed until Friday.

Big Week

2005-02-23T08:58:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to be featured in the new blog showcase. Today, I have the equal good fortune of making it into the carnival of vanities. Welcome all.

Movie Picks

2005-02-22T21:33:00.000-05:00

Michael Schiavo Rushes to Murder Wife

2005-02-22T10:50:00.000-05:00

Looks like Michael Schiavo has decided to exploit a small window of opportunity to starve his wife. Terri Schiavo, who is dependent on a feeding tube to live, will likely have that tube removed this afternoon.

A court order preventing the removal of the tube expires this afternoon and a court hearing on extending the order isn't scheduled until tommorrow. Looks like Michael will be yanking his wife's life supporting medical attention as soon as he can this afternoon, hoping she will die as soon as possible.

You may think Terri Schiavo is a vegetable with no hope of recovery. This is one of the myths about her. Check out this site's list of other misperceptions to get the facts.

Also, make sure to watch the videos of her responses to external stimuli that show she has some awareness of what's going on around her.

Audioblog Test

2005-02-22T10:47:00.000-05:00

Can't Get New Releases at Blockbuster

2005-02-22T10:37:00.000-05:00

My sources tell me one unintended consequence of the new "end of late fees" policy at Blockbuster is increased difficulty getting your hands on a new release.

apparently, this is becoming a widespread problem and one serious enough this Louisiana paper did a story about it.

Getting the Picture

2005-02-22T10:24:00.000-05:00

I've always had great experiences with Netflix. I not only appreciate the excellent service I've received, but feel a loyalty to the company. With Blockbuster and now Wal-Mart getting into the on-line DVD rental business. I want to support Netflix because, whether or not I'm right, I see them as the little guy wrestling the behemoths.

The New York Times today has a long profile on the company and it's struggles to stay afloat.

One thing Netflix executives are worried about is video-on-demand, the cable service that allows people to click a button on their remote and, for a small fee, watch a movie instantly. In spite of its convenience, I'm not sure how video on demand will catch on. Most people like to own a physical object. DVD rentals may falter, but I think people will always be interested in purchasing movies in a tangible medium they can store in their home libraries.

Sounds Good to Me

2005-02-22T10:11:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid, probably six or seven, my brother and I woke up one Christmas morning to find a record player and a stack of records under our tree.

I never got over it. From that day to this, I have been an audio junkie. Lately, I've found I have litte interest in music, certainly not popular music anyway. I dig Dixieland still.

I remember two records we had as kids our parents snipped from the back of cardboard boxes. Such promotions were not uncommon in the '70's and early '80's appearantly.

I find this wonderful site that archives many unusual records for your listening pleasure including some of the old cardboard kind.

Getting a Little Love

2005-02-22T10:04:00.000-05:00

Lucas Brachish has kindly included me in this week's new blog showcase.

Surf on over and check out some of the other new blogs as well.

Good to Go

2005-02-21T14:56:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all who commented on recent posts. I'll answer them when I get a moment.

A few days ago, I got a call from my district manager. I had called her about the conflict between my needing to be out of the state for the weekend and my being scheduled to work.

She told me she needed me to communicate better. Seems the problem was only that when I said I needed to make an impromptu trip to a state a thousand miles away, I hadn't said it was important.

In the future, I'm supposed to indicate the reason I need to have time off so the corporation can decide if it's really important.

So it seems that when I was told it was impossible for me to have that time off, what I was supposed to have understood was "impossible"really means "possible."

Oh well, I'm cleared for take-off.

The Myth of Perfect Motherhood

2005-02-20T12:12:00.000-05:00

Barbara Curtis has taken to task Judith Warner,the author of the lead article in last week's Newsweek.

American mothers are, Warner writes, overstressed, overwhelmed and underappreciated. They are sinking in a sea of obligation, endlessly running their tots to whatever activity, appointment or opportunity experts say will contribute to the kid's well-being. The pressure of raising kids committed to the treadmill of relentless self improvement gets to be too much. They feel trapped.

Warner writes:

Most of us in this generation grew up believing that we had fantastic, unlimited, freedom of choice. Yet as mothers many women face "choices" on the order of: You can continue to pursue your professional dreams at the cost of abandoning your children to long hours of inadequate child care. Or: You can stay at home with your baby and live in a state of virtual, crazy-making isolation because you can't afford a nanny, because there is no such thing as part-time day care, and because your husband doesn't come home until 8:30 at night.

Curtis criticizes the author and the women she writes about for being self-indulgent whiners reluctant to sacrifice career and personal opportunities for the sake of their children.

No doubt, there is more than enough self-pity to go around, but Curtis doesn't seem to have dealt with other important aspects of the story.

What is making these women miserable are the conditions in which we live. The meaninglessness of contemporary culture powers much of the drive to be overachieving Ubermoms.

In a materialistic society that prizes individual autonomy above all else, mothers without a strong foundation in an alternative set of values will naturally feel excluded. Motherhood demands selflessness and so by its nature is at odds with the priorities of modern, secular life.

Sensing this tension, many middle class mothers seek to resolve or suppress it in activity. Their kids has to have every advantage, must be a concert pianist by 7, deep sea diving at 12. Having discovered a new species of starfish would look really good on the Dartmouth application, right?

When our lives are dominated by our culture's shifting notions of what a good person or mother is, we are plagued by our inability to live up. What the women in Warner's essay are really struggling with is trying to be a good mother in a culture that no longer agrees on what "good" is.

They may be whiny, but in a culture that has lost its way, there is certainly a lot to whine about.

Saturday Morning Question

2005-02-19T12:16:00.000-05:00

Someone once asked me a question I had never really thought of before. It was so good, I've returned to it a few times over the years to update my answers.

When the Mrs. and I go shopping, price is typically the deciding factor. We don't yet, and may never, inhabit the exotic financial lands where packaging or taste serve as a criterion. The question this friend asked me so long ago was, "What are some name brand products you refuse to live without?"

There aren't many. In fact there are only three products to which I feel any loyalty for their consistently superior performance. They are:

1) Apple

I married in. The Mrs. was a Mac user from way back, so when I switched from single to married life I also switched platforms. I've been very pleased. Windows machines now seem like old girlfriends, awkward to be around and less attractive all the time.

2. Coca-Cola

What can I say? Simply the greatest product ever put on the market. I try to savor just one a day, but it's hard because Coke is, after all, the very elixer of life.

3.Pop-Tarts

I was raised on these guys. Though I've strayed over the years and tried to get by with those generic "toaster pastries" you see loitering forlornly on the periphery of the cereal section, I've always returned. Nothing surpasses the sweet blend of crunchy crust and sweet, gooey center like the real thing. Frankly, all the imitators suck.

So, I pose the same question to you. Have you found any products whose competitors or knock-offs are nowhere near the quality of the original? What brand names can you not live without?

And We Have A Winner-The First State to File Against Blockbuster.

2005-02-18T15:30:00.000-05:00

Taking our prize home today is... New Jersey.

The AP is reporting:

In a lawsuit filed Friday, the state charged that Blockbuster failed to disclose key terms in the policy, including that overdue rentals are automatically converted to a sale on the eighth day after the due date.

So, it took about six weeks for this thing to begin to backfire. We'll see how it goes from here. It all depends on whether other states follow suit.

Here's the part of the story that kills me:

In a statement, the Dallas-based chain said it has "taken a number of very thorough steps to let customers know how our new program works. Blockbuster has trained store employees on how to effectively communicate the program to customers, both on the sales floor and at checkout."

See that? The corporation has positioned themselves to be able to claim the problem is the people on the floor being unable to explain the program. Let the little guy take the fall.

I'm not saying I'm a Blockbuster employee, but I do know when a new hire comes on he must sign a confidentiality agreement swearing he won't give away any corporate secrets. He has to do this even if he is merely a low level clerk.

I happen to have information about this employee training that discredits the company's public statements, but cannot disclose it at this time without consulting an attorney. Can a corporation ask you to sign away your constitutionally protected right to free speech as a condition of employment?

TV Notes

2005-02-18T10:35:00.000-05:00

I never tire of Monk. The show has become quite a hit for the USA network and deservedly so. The Mrs. found it first and introduced me, but I think my devotion to the quirky Adrian Monk, the rattled detective, has surpassed hers.

Monk is a middle-aged obsessive-compulsive on suspension from the San Francisco police department because his phobias and other psychological foibles began to interfere with his work after the death of his beloved wife, Trudy.

Still, because of Monk’s Holmesian powers of observation and deduction, the captain routinely calls him in as a consultant to solve the case baffling the rest of the squad. He always delivers, even if he has to interrupt an interrogation to straighten a pillow or pick lint from a suspect’s lapel.

It’s as heartwarming and funny as a show about ruthless murderers can be. What I like most about it, though, is Monk’s continuing quest to right wrongs and to pursue justice even as he suffers with his own crippling maladies. The show’s as gentle as “24” is dark.

I’ve often imagined an episode of “24” where Jack Bauer is stumped, just can’t find those rascally terrorists and calls Monk for help. Certainly would save “24” from its relentless humorlessness.

In other TV news, it seems I am missing a new season of Survivor. What can I say, free DVDs can ruin distract even the hardcore. Thankfully, Jen has a nice recap of the action so far.

Dignity $2 a Pound

2005-02-17T19:44:00.000-05:00

The Mrs. has been working retail too. She slices meats and cheeses behind the Deli counter in a supermarket. She looks cute in the cap they make her wear.

Her experience has been different from mine in that the management where she works has been pretty good. For her, the trouble is the customers.

Wednesday is cheap chicken day. The Deli staff cooks about a thousand rotisserie chickens and sells them for $5 each. They make some barbecue, some honey, some Italian seasoned. One night, during a snowstorm, of course, a portly woman came rushing to the counter.

“Where’s my chicken!” she yelled, ‘I drove all the way out here in the snow and I can’t believe you don’t have the flavor of chicken I wanted!” The tears began to flow as she screamed, “I demand you make more chicken. I demand it right now.”

More recently, a customer freaked out after she ordered her half a pound of cold cuts, and her cell phone rang. The woman started up a full-blown conversation. Instead of making the next customer wait until the woman wrapped up her chat, the Mrs. went on to wait on the only other person in line.

When she had concluded her phone conversation, the woman went ballistic. Demanded to see a manager, claimed the Mrs. had maliciously slighted her. This woman wasn’t done ordering. She needed cheese and my wife should have known!!

Social conservatives are quick to point to television or rock and roll as forces coarsening our culture, they would do well to consider how the dictum “the customer is always right” contributes to cultural rot.

When the manager came over to deal with the cell phone crazy, he said, “I’m sure she didn’t mean it. We apologize. It won’t happen again.”

His milquetoast response infuriated me. What he should have said was, “Listen, lady get out of this store and never come back. If we ever see you here again, we’ll call the law.”

Of course, he didn’t because it is the habit of commercial establishments to protect even the most vile and obnoxious from the natural consequences of their actions in return for the money those customers spend. The belief in consequence free behavior has seeped into all of American life in part because of the attitudes mass-market corporate capitalism encourages.

By refusing to hold people to normal levels of social accountability, corporate retailers teach customers the dollar makes any behavior acceptable and employees that no amount of money is so small their dignity won’t be trampled to grab it.

Debbie Gibson Poses for Playboy

2005-02-16T15:10:00.000-05:00

A while ago I had the chance to see former teen pop icon Debbie, or as she prefers Deborah, Gibson appear in a touring production of “Chicago.” Now, it seems the whole world has a chance to see her appear in …well, nothing.

I just heard that Deborah displays more than her talent in the current issue of Playboy. The issue hit stores Feb. 11, so I guess I’m a little slow on the nudes…I mean, news.

Though I was too cool to admit it, mired as I was in the Smith’s melodic despondency and the coffeehouse communism of Billy Bragg, I harbored quite a fondness for Ms. Gibson at the height of her popularity.

Despite dissapearing from the pop-charts by the dawn of the ‘90’s, Ms. Gibson never stopped working. Her recordings have languished in obscurity, but she has made quite a name for herself in musical theater where she has worked for most of the last two decades.

In recent years, she’s made public pronouncements decrying the overt sexuality of current teen pop acts of the Britney and Christina variety. She told interviewers she’d never pose nude.

With that kind of success and those kinds of convictions, why would she strip for Playboy? A number of reasons.

Ms. Gibson is 34. While in most sectors of American culture to be a mere 30-something is to remain more or less a spring chicken, for a woman in the entertainment industry who feels her moment has passed, it is perilously close to the border of a land from which few dreams return.

Time and again, we’ve seen female entertainers turn up in the pages of Playboy trying to jump-start their flagging careers. It rarely works.

Gibson’s co-queen of ‘80’s pop, Tiffany, tried it years ago and since then her career achievements, unlike perhaps her most notorious photos, have been modest at best.

Child stars who, as they age, fail to maintain public interest sometimes claim their lack of opportunities stem from being eternally seen as a clean-cut kid. Posing for Playboy is supposed to show the world they’ve grown up and free the celebrity from the burden of her wholesome past. Instead, the decision to pose reeks of desperation, a confirmation of has-beenism, a declaration of irrelevance.

Let’s get this straight: it’s not about being naked. If I’d heard Ms. Gibson had posed for photos to appear in some artsy photography magazine, photos designed to illustrate the glory of the human figure; I’d be much less concerned. If she’d done a topless scene in a sensitive and thoughtful independent feature where she turned in an emotionally nuanced performance as well as her beautiful image, it would have been less of a big deal.

But, that’s precisely the point. While those venues would have given Gibson the opportunity to be just as naked as Playboy, they would not have given her, shall we say, maximum exposure.

Ms. Gibson scheduled the release of a new single titled “Naked” to coincide with the publication of her pictorial. Have you heard that? No, but you heard about Playboy, right?

And so it begins, a move designed to rev her career into high gear overshadows her actual work from the outset. Audiences see through all the talk about being “grown up” and “comfortable with my body,” and behold the cynical marketing campaign beneath it. I suppose posing for Playboy can be about covering things up as well as showing them off.

Yet, beyond the marketing, lingers another reason child stars like Ms. Gibson pose for Playboy in spite of its undeniable track record as a career killer. For people who experience worldwide fame at an early age, the rest of life can be a let down, a never-ending quest to recapture the spotlight that once warmed and affirmed every mundane moment.

The absolute rule of entropy, the certainty of decay becomes undeniable as we age. The grave haunts our days. Trying to preserve perpetually the privileges of a 17-year old star is a heavy burden to bear. You get to a point where you do what you have to, I guess. When the future seems barren compared to the past, what can you do but try to leave a trace as you fade away, to call they world to testify again that yes, you were beautiful once and young.

A Bit of Good News

2005-02-15T12:44:00.000-05:00

I got an email today from someone at another school I applied to saying their admissions committee had met and I should expect to see the official acceptance packet arrive soon.

One down, four or five to go.

Big Brother Wants Your Money

2005-02-15T12:26:00.000-05:00

About a year ago, a friend who has a long, long commute to work bought a hybrid, you know, one of those cars that runs on half electric/half gasoline power. He loved it.

Since then, the cars have grown in popularity and the powers that be are getting nervous. Specifically, state governments are getting anxious because hybrid drivers aren't buying as much gasoline. Less gas bought means fewer gas tax dollars for the state to squander.

If you and I saw a drastic reduction in our income, we would naturally cut our spending. But that's far too simple and reasonable a solution for governement bureaucrats.

They have a better idea: start taxing drivers by the mile.

How would they know how much you'd driven. Easy, just require every driver to install a global positioning system in any car they drive.

CBS reports:

"Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and it's as simple as that," says engineer David Kim.

Kim and his team at Oregon State University equipped a test car with a global positioning device to keep track of its mileage. Eventually, every car would need one.

Used to be they only wanted your money, now they want to keep tabs on you as well. Nothing like killing to birds with one stone, eh?

Slight Correction

2005-02-15T12:12:00.000-05:00

After reviewing my schedule I noticed an error in what I reported last night.

I'm not scheduled to work every day during the time I need to be away. There is one day in the middle of the weekend I have off. Of course, that's useless to me without all the surrounding days off as well.

I spent an hour today calling every one of our stores in New Hampshire asking if anyone there could take any of my shifts. Now, I'm waiting for my phone to ring.

Travel Plans Update

2005-02-14T18:17:00.000-05:00

I know the blog has been a leaning heavily in the "critical-of-corporate-retail" direction lately, but, hey, that's my life.

The schedule for the week I am supposed to go visit my potential grad school was up today. The day after I got their invitation, I told my manager which weekend I would be unavailable. When I looked a the schedule today, not only did I find myself scheduled to work that weekend, but found I'm scheduled to work EVERY DAY.

"I couldn't give it to you off," my manager said, "I don't have enough CSR's (customer service representatives).

So, because the company I work for has decided to keep our store running on a skeleton crew, I'm not supposed to go on a trip that could determine the course of our lives the next three years?

Admittedly, this is a mere personal difficulty. It sheds light, however, on an aspect of corporate retail life I've noticed but haven't commented on.

The corporation hires people at low wages, offers few benefits, and limits the hours employees can work. Yet, they expect employees to have no other commitments, to be available whenever the corporation calls. I was once summoned to an emergency meeting at 11 p.m. on a Sunday night. I could understand that kind of drop-everything and rush to work mentality if I were a surgeon, but for a video clerk?

For a lot of people, this isn't much of a problem. They live alone and fritter away whatever time they don't spend at work on their cherished amusements. If you do have commitments or other aspirations, they will inevitably clash with the corporate will.

I'm wondering if working in corporate retail is this bad everywhere, or if I've just stumbled into a particularly bad store or a particularly bad company. Any stories about what working for other corporate retail outlets is like, good or bad?

Blockbuster Late Fee Policy Under Fire

2005-02-12T10:54:00.000-05:00

Reuters has an article today reporting Blockbuster is taking some flack for the change in their late fee policy.

I'm limited in what I can say, of course, but I recommend reading the article.

One caution, however. The Reuters reporter got her facts wrong when she writes:

Though consumers now have an extended grace period to return films and games without extra fees at Blockbuster stores, they ultimately are charged the full retail price of the title (minus the initial rental fee) if they keep it for more than a month.

Actually, customer accounts are charged the sale price of the movie after 7 days,a fact she could easily have verified by checking Blockbuster's "No More Late Fees" FAQ page (#5). If the movies comes back within 30 days. the charge is ultimately credited back to the account.

Renting a movie at Blockbuster has become an arduous and complicated task. At the register, every costumer is told about the movie pass, the rewards program and the end of late fees. What used to be a simple procedure, now takes half an hour and, apparently, consultation with your state's attorney general.

NOTE: My linking to this article, or any discussion of Blockbuster or its policies does not necessarily indicate I am employed by the company.

Waiting at Wal-Mart

2005-02-11T10:22:00.000-05:00

After work last night, before driving home in yet another snowstorm, I needed to make a quick dash to Wal-Mart.

It was about 6 on a very snowy Thursday night, so the store was not crowded, to say the least. I grabbed what I was after and headed for the cashier.

This was a small Wal-Mart with none of the Super Wal-Mart add-ons that make it clear Wal-Mart eventually plans to sell everything legal for commerce. There was no grocery store, no eye doctor, no McDonald's, no outpatient surgery clinic.

By small, I mean, the store only had 14 check-out lanes. How many were open, you wonder? 2.

That's right 2 out of 14. There was a line at both registers. Totaling up purchases in my lane was a slim, long-faced brunette who looked to be about 19. The only other option was a woman who appeared to be about 70,spending her golden years ringing up Pampers and shaving cream for grumpy strangers.

Now, I'm a pretty patient person, but when I see to lines of people eager to get out of the store and onto the treacherous and life-threatening highway begin to form, I get a little perturbed.

I waited a full 5 minutes. What's the big deal about 5 measly minutes? I'll tell you.

My age, my education level, my professional background, make my time on the open market worth somewhere between 15 and 20 dollars and hour. So, those 5 minutes I spent trying to complete a business transaction were worth in the neighborhood of $1.50.

This lost time and money constitutes a forced contribution to the company. The reason I had to wait, is that Wal-Mart did not want to pay another cashier. Instead of absorbing the cost of the additional ringer, they passed that on to me, the costumer, in the form of lost time and the value it represents.

Almost nothing accidental happens inside a national retail chain store. Oh, sure, a clerk might inadvertently leave a stray can of peaches where only pears should be, but the overall design of the place, from where they put the CD's to how they display the hammers, is part of an environment as carefully crafted as Disneyland. Every inch of what you see has been researched and focus grouped; all to induce you to buy.

The same is true with staffing. Somewhere in the shady upper reaches of the Wal-Mart hierarchy is a guy whose job it was to figure out how long the average person will wait in line at Wal-Mart before he get so angry he leaves without purchasing. Not how long before he gets angry, Wal-Mart is not there to make sure you have a pleasant experience,remember, but how long before he becomes so peeved he splits without handing over the cash.

Deciding how many registers to open depends upon this number. The goal is to only pay enough cashiers to keep people from walking out without buying what they came for. Otherwise, the customer can wait.

Behavior like this sends the subtle but true message that belies all the corporate customer service rhetoric. "We're not here to wait on you," the company is saying "you are here to wait on us."

Comment News

2005-02-11T10:20:00.000-05:00

I see blogger has changed the way the comment feature works.

Until now, a blogger account was required to leave a comment. No longer, so feel free to yak away.

Watching "24"

2005-02-09T09:43:00.000-05:00

One of the perks of working in the video rental biz is, as you might suspect, free samples.

As an employee of my particular corporation, I get 5 free rentals a week.

We've been watching pretty faithfully. Before Christmas, we got hooked on the FOX series, "24." We sat through every episode on DVD. The show has gotten tons of critical acclaim the last three years, though this year it's taking some heat for being so politically incorrect as to portray the terrorists trying to destroy the world as--gasp!--Middle Eastern Islamic extremists.

The first season had some great moments, but the show has gone incrementally downhill. As far as I am concerned, it jumped the shark in the third season when the hero murdered his boss. That was it for me.

The idea of doing a television show in real time is interesting, but quickly exhausted. Like far too many series, "24" was allowed to keep pushing beyond what should have been the end of the line. No, the show seems to be committed to leaving a legacy of embarrassment.

Seeing nearly every episode, not over the course of four years, but in just three or four months,makes the repetition of plot devices obvious. In nearly every season, there's a mole, someone working for the terrorists, inside CTU, the counter terrorism unit where our hero, Jack Bauer, works or maybe doesn't work, I can't really keep that straight. For an organization devoted to our national security, the security at CTU seems pretty lax. Apparently anybody with a smile and malevolent intent will be hired there to process ceaseless reams of sensitive data.

Every season has the same premise. A terrorist group is about to attack. CTU has one day to find the bad guys and stop them. Then, we watch tough guy Bauer blast, slam and muscle his way through their defenses for the rest of the day. It's a great premise for a season, but for four. I don't think so.

When this season ends, the producers really need to call it a day.

Opportunity Knocking

2005-02-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

A recent invitation has revealed another aspect of my current employer's nefarious ways.

In the midst of everything else we've been doing the last few months, I've been busy applying to MFA programs. An MFA is a Master Of Fine Arts degree. It's a terminal degree, like a Ph.D. for people in the arts. I've been applying to earn one in Film and Video production.

I've sent out three application packets so far and have two or three more to go. A couple of days ago I answered the phone to find the head of the Cinema department at my first choice school on the other end. He told me the admissions committee had met and looked through the applications.

I made the first cut. The next step is an in-person interview/soiree/ weekend film festival. He was calling me to ask me to come down for this shindig in about three weeks.

When I went to work, my manager said she couldn't guarantee I could get the time off. See, we're switching from the good-old-fashioned way of making the schedule, when the manager did it on a piece of paper with a pencil, to a new computerized system that will relieve her of this onerous task.

"No one's supposed to request time off for three weeks," she said, "but if I'm still doing the schedule then, I'll see what I can do."

These corporations count on subservience from their employees. They expect to say, "no one can make any requests for time off for three weeks" and to have everyone be OK with that. Without such compliance, they'd have to do something drastic like offer cash incentives to people who worked whatever schedule the computer spit out for them. Of course, offering real incentives cuts across the grain of the whole corporate ethos, so it's not going to happen.

Either way, I'm going. There's no question about that. The only question is whether I'll have a job to come back to.

Thoughts On "At Will" Employment # 1

2005-01-27T18:31:00.000-05:00

Some recent developments at work have gotten me thinking about the notion of "at will" employment.

Ostensibly, "at will" means both the employee or the employer are free to end their association at any time for any reason. In other words, the company can fire the worker whenever they want, or the worker can quit whenever he desires.

It may be true that both parties are equally able to dissolve their working relationship, but the consequences of doing so are inevitably greater for the employee, especially the low-level, no benefits worker.

The corporation can fire an employee with no notice, no warning and no reason. Though the employee can quit with equal lack of explanation, to argue that "at will" employment puts worker and corporation on equal footing denies the great discrepancy between a worker's resources and the resources of even a small corporation.

For example, most corporate employers have numerous employees and, very likely, even more perspective employees waiting in the wings. They can afford to give the troublemakers a shove. Most workers, however, have only one job they can't afford to lose.

Stop the madness!

2005-01-24T19:10:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned earlier, both of us have had dangerous drives homes through slippery hills and curves because winter weather is good for business. When I lived in Indiana the mad, pre-storm rush for supplies made more sense. Serious snow fell only every few years and it could sometimes take a couple of days to dig out.

I don’t understand why the same panic goes on here. It’s New England, after all. You’d think people would expect snow. During the worst storms, the roads are treacherous, but by the next morning they are passable, and always clear by the afternoon.

Still, the morning before the most recent storm, the line at the video store where I work wound from the check out counter all the way back through the action section. There were probably never fewer than 10 people in line. A normal day for our store is about 800 customers. That day we had more than 1700. People act like it’s 1856, there’s no such thing as a plow truck, and they just aren’t going to make it without that copy of “Princess Diaries Two.”

Snow Job

2005-01-24T19:01:00.000-05:00

Maybe you've heard about the storms we�ve been having. Mounds and mounds of snow have fallen up and down the East Coast. Philly, New York, Boston all got hit hard. We did too but oddly, not as badly as places south of us.

In the midst of the storm, we got a good look at some corporations' indifference to the welfare of its lowest level employees.

For reasons I won't go into here, both the Mrs. and I have been working retail the last couple of months.

I'm working in the entertainment industry renting DVD's. The Mrs. works behind a supermarket deli counter slicing bologna for iced-over strangers in rush to get home before the snow falls.

The only indication of concern for employee safety to come from either of these companies was the few minutes early my wife got to leave her post in the middle of last week's blizzard. Of course, she only got the OK to take off hours after the New Hampshire State Police began asking people to stay off the roads.

I understand businesses want to stay open and collect revenue as long as possible, but when law enforcement agencies are asking people not to drive, shouldn't employees be free to comply?

Carson Signs Off

2005-01-24T14:29:00.000-05:00

I just got the news of Johnny Carson’s final curtain call. Carson died early Sunday morning. I really loved that man.

Many weekend nights when I was in high school, I would come home early to catch the monologue. At the time, Letterman was the rage; the hip irony of his show dazzled so many of my contemporaries. Not me, I preferred Johnny. While my friends sought to imitate Letterman’s sarcasm, I reveled in the gentle humor, the personable chit-chat of the man from Nebraska. He was a friend to come home to, a reassuring voice in the night.

No doubt, Letterman’s show has at times been great, but it’s never had the sophistication and the class the Tonight show projected through the warm glow of the tube five nights a week.

I was surprised to see Johnny go. Just this fall I finished reading what is probably the best-known biography of him, King of the Night by Laurence Leamer. The author ends the book portraying Johnny as a sad, isolated, empty figure, beloved by his audience, estranged from all who knew him well. This may well be so, but to me, as a member of that vast and undifferentiated audience he shone like no one else, up on that screen, deep in the middle of the night.

McJob is a Window on the World

2004-12-15T19:22:00.000-05:00

We needed some cash. In the rush of what had been a rather bohemenian existence we had to keep a little capital flowing our way. So, I got a McJob, you know, easy to land, easy to perform, easy to discard.

I've recently started working at a nationally known video retail and rental chain. I won't mention any names, but you'd recogonize it if I did. Let's just say there's probably one in your town and the name rhymes with RockDuster. Yes, I have the shirt. I look right smart in it too.

A few months ago, we set out to see some of the world. Well, I'm seeing a lot of it from behind the counter.

Most of our customers are fine. Still, two things I've noticed so far stagger my imagination.

If your children are below the age of six, why do you bring them to the video store? Just so they can run around whacking others customers with a copy of Bob the Builder's Christmas Spectacular?

I see this scenario over and over. A mother comes in with her kid and for 20 minutes tries unsuccessfully to corral him. Over and over she yells, "Ryan! Ryan! Come here. Put that down. Don't smack that man. Come here. Ryan! No running. No, we're not going to rent "Vampire Drug Dealers.' Put that down."

Eventually, she gets the kid calmed down enough to look at his options.

"Don't you want to see Rudolph?," she coos at her little demon son.

"No! Want this one," the kid bawls waving some box he hasn't even looked at.

Then, the craziness starts as she tries to convince the kid to accept Rudolph.

"But you just saw that one," she says. "Why don't you want to see Rudolph."

I feel like saying, "Look lady, you're standing in a video store, lights flashing, televisions blaring, begging a kid to explain his prejudice against a fictional red nosed animal. For crying out loud, have a little dignity!"

If I had acted this way when I was a child my mother would have handled the situation somewhat differently.

"You don't want to watch Rudolph?," she might have asked

If I had said no, she would have responded not with gentle, if futile, persuasion but with an argument I found irresistable--

"Fine! then you can go to bed as soon as we get home and you can stay there!"

Suddenly, I wouldn't have been able to think of anything in the world I'd rather do than watch Rudolph.

The other thing that amazes me is how many of our customers wander in in reeking of pot. It's like suddenly everyone in New Hampshire has gone Rasta. Sometimes even the DVD cases come back stinking with the stuff. Yesterday I cleared out the return box and got such a big whiff I'll have the munchies for six months.

I've got a little explaining to do

2004-12-15T19:17:00.000-05:00

Once, we were happy, the Mrs. and I. We had jobs we liked, a cozy apartment with a landlord who was always around, his bearded smile gleaming from beneath the brim of his low-slung Indiana Jones hat. Just like Jones our landlord was an archeologist too.

Then, we threw it all way. We had offers. They seemed good, chances too sweet to pass up. So, we packed up instead. We left our jobs and our place and threw ourselves on the wheel of history flush with the excitement of chances taken.

We traveled a while running here and there, meeting folks, having all kinds of fun. Then, the fun ended.

We spent the fall involved with an operation in New England we thought we might one day go to work for. We spent a lot of time with these people and found our long-term future wasn't going to be with them. Our vision of the immediate future was dashed.

We didn't panic. We came home, back to New Hampshire where I'm applying to graduate schools all over the country. Since we were already in New England, coming here was cheap. If I get into any of these programs, we'll be hitting the road again anyway. We figured one big move was enough and so settled here for the interim months.

We're still getting settled. Soon, we'll be in a permanent place and the regular blogging will resume. I appreciate those of you who drop by regularly to see if I've updated and I hate letting you down most of the time.

We're still happy and wouldn't have missed the last few months even if they have required some quick adaptation. We're doing fine, don't worry and keep an eye out for us. We'll be around soon.

Endless Frustration

2004-11-22T13:51:00.000-05:00

The Mrs. and I are back on the road. We've completed our third move in four months. This nomad thing has got to stop. It will soon enough.

Of course, the place we're living doesn't have internet access. I haven't forgotten you and I'll keep pluggin' away as I can, but until I have consistent access it will continue to be catch as catch can, I'm afraid

Dress to Impress

2004-11-11T19:34:00.000-05:00

Hey Guys,

Are you looking to woo that special someone. Why not take her out some place special and pick her up something nice to wear.

Something like this. It's a dress worn by Vicki Lawrence in an Episode of Mama's Family. It's on the auction block another week, but so far the high bid is $26 bucks.

Surely your sweetie's worth more than that.

A Straw in the Turkey?

2004-11-11T10:37:00.000-05:00

I must say one of the entrepreneurial dreams I harbor is to open my own independent soda company. I can just imagine gleaming conveyor belts gliding along with crystal bottles just waiting to be filled with every imaginable concoction.

I dream about taking on the big boys, Coke and Pepsi, cutting into their market share with our superior product and brilliant marketing.

Sure, it might be tough, but not impossible. The soda world is probably a lot more volatile place than you think.

Last year some guys made quite a stir by putting their special Turkey and Gravy soda on the market. A few bottles went for more than $100 on eBay. Now, their back with side dishes including green beans and casserole, and mashed potato sodas.

See what I'm saying. Anything can happen.

Alex and Emma-Unwatchable and Insufferable

2004-11-10T17:21:00.000-05:00

In my adolescence, I sat through "Death Spa". I've seen a number of Troma films including this one. I've even seen some truly frightening films no human being should have to see.

Rare are the times when I can slog through to the end of some odious piece of celluloid rubbage.

This week, I found one that made the "unwatchable list," short as it may be.

I plucked last year's "Alex and Emma" from the new release shelf at Blockbuster. Luke Wilson and Kate Hudson star. He's supposed to be a novelist who can't type; she is his stenographer.

I knew making it through was going to be tough when in the first five minutes some very rough looking Cuban men hang Wilson upsode down off his balcony twice. I knew this movie was going to have a lot to apologize for. The whole thing is only 89 minutes or so, not enough time to make up for such a cliched opening. I bailed at about minute 58.

I reccomend you avoid this one.

A Site to See

2004-11-09T09:21:00.000-05:00

I've been on a kick lately using the internet to look back at what the culture was like when I was a kid.

I found this Web page to help me do it. It's full of links to galleries of food packaging, toys and television shows from the '70's.

One thing I've noticed is that when I was a kid you could go to the store and get toys with a generic "army" theme, or a generic "space" theme. I remember I once got a package of little plastic men in space suits and their shuttle-like ship in a single package. Now that I think about it, you could also get a package of generic cowboys as well.

Things have changed. It seems like every time I peruse a toy aisle these days all I see is Shrek's big ugly mug or some equally atrocious marketing tie-in. The desire to tie as many toy products to movies and television shows is making slow war against children's imaginations, evicting the creative aspect of play and reducing children to mere entertainment consumers.

Too bad.

One More Reason to Love the Internet

2004-10-31T09:33:00.000-05:00

Part of appeal of the internet for me is the access it allows to other's memories.

I've frequently been reminded of some game, cartoon, book, or character I loved as a child but forgot amid the pressures of growing up.

It's happened twice in just the last couple of days.

First, I remembered my brother and I owned the Magic Shot Shooting Gallery. I loved this thing. It was a plastic box containing a completely enclosed row of targets you could see through its clear plastic front, A blue plastic gun with a magnetic tip let you pull one of the many ball bearings used as ammo from its resting place in a little groove near the front. When you squeezed the trigger the metal ball would fly toward the target. See what I'm talking about here.

Also, I'd forgotten all about Wacky Packages. These were stickers with parodies of popular product logos on them. For example, "Crust" toothpaste instead of "Crest" and "Badzooka Bubble Gum" rather than "Bazooka." I had completely forgotten these until I found this Web page. A little further research revealed the recent resurging interest in the twisted stickers among Gen Xer's looking for mementos of their childhoods has led Topps, the company that made them, to reissue a new set in May of this year.

Find out where to get yours at their official Web site.

A Brief and Unfortunate Note

2004-10-13T16:46:00.000-05:00

My grandmother, Wilma Abbott, died yesterday. Her health had been failing for a long time. Perhaps, because of that, no one really expected it when it came.

Earlier this summer I was able to sit down with a video camera and interview her about her life story. It's a document I'm sure coming generations of my family will treasure.

Both she and my grandfather had returned to church in the last decade or so, even having been baptized when they both were well past their mid-70's.

It's a comfort to know that to "be absent the body is to be present with the Lord" and that she joyfully awaits the coming ressurection.

Pierce Pettis Interview

2004-10-08T13:41:00.000-05:00

An interview I did with singer/songwriter Pierce Pettis appears in this week's WORLD magazine.

You can see it here .

Reading Edith Schaeffer

2004-10-07T16:55:00.000-05:00

I've been reading Edith Schaeffer's massive autobiography, "The Tapestry."

Neither of the Schaeffers ever seemed to have had the benefit of a ruthless editor. Her husband, Francis Schaeffer, produced works that are often needlessly repetetive and long-winded. Her books have a chatty style, but tend toward needless digressions and tangents.

Nonetheless, the story of how she and Dr. Schaeffer came to know one another, to marry, and ultimately to begin a mission in war ravaged Europe that would become L'abri is enjoyable and inspiring.

Mrs. Schaeffer stresses the mystery of the tension between providence and the reality of human choice. She insists human choices can alter history.

One scene in the book makes this point personal for me.

Just before Francis Schaeffer left the house on his way to college, his father stopped him at the door.

"I don't want you to do this. I don't want a son who is a minister," he said.

Francis asked his father for a few minutes to think it over. He went down to the cellar and cried. He prayed God would show him what to do.

He went back to the door, through it, to college and into the history of Christianity.

Had he not made the choice he did that day, there would have been no L'abri. Had there been no L'abri, my old theology professor David Wells might not be teaching at Gordon-Conwell. Had he not been teaching there, I may never have made my way there to sit in his classroom. Had I never gone to Gordon-Conwell, I would never have met my wife. Had I never met my wife, my life would be completely other (and worse) than it is today.

Though he couldn't have known it then, when Francis Schaeffer stepped out that door he carried many of us, though unborn and even unimagined, with him.

Still Here

2004-10-07T16:51:00.000-05:00

My 'net access is still really sketchy. I see a few of you have continue to drop by every day and I appreciate it. I really do.

I'm hoping my access problems get worked out in the next week or so. Network problems, you know.

When everything is squared away I'll be back with regular posts. Meanwhile, I'll do what I can.

On The Road Again

2004-09-09T13:21:00.000-05:00

We've moved on. After several weeks in Indiana, we're back in New England. However, once again, I find myself with limited internet access. I'll try to keep the blog going even if it's only on a periodic basis until I get settled in a place where I can get to the 'net easily.

It Had to Happen: Sex Bores Kids

2004-09-04T15:08:00.000-05:00

A British comapany has done a study that found young people are beginning to be turned off by sexually explicit advertising.

A company representative said, "Sexual imagery is becoming so mainstream ... such a regular part of their life that it doesn't break through any more. It's not shocking them and it's not clearly marking it [a brand] as youth-oriented or anti-conventional."

In the sexual utopia Boomer revolutionaries imagined, sex was supposed to offer a limitless panoply of delights. Now, a generation rushed into sexual experience by Boomers eager to reshape traditional sexual morality is turning away, no longer tittilated by promises that fail to deliver.

What's the next big thing then in a post-sex world? Toys, apparently.

The same article said, "The report found that play is having an increasingly strong impact on young people. People in their 20s and 30s are collecting toys, while fashion trends were becoming increasingly playful, incorporating cartoon imagery"

There is a longing for innocence in these genrations. Whether marketers can get free of the ideology of sexual revolution long enough to capitalize on it remains to be seen.

Further Thoughts on the New iMac

2004-09-02T18:36:00.000-05:00

The last iMac redesign turned a bulky egg-ish shape into an object with real personality. The last iMac, with its round base, single swivel arm, movable screen, seemed like a cute, little lovable alien.

The new iMac looks like, well, a screen. That's it. It looks like a computer screen. The last iMac design was a step away from the boxy computer look. The new one is a step back toward the box. The box is smaller, but it still seems like a step backward, which is the wrong direction.

Batman's Back, Britney's Bubblegum, Black Eyed Peas' Song Sucks.

2004-09-02T16:48:00.001-05:00

A while ago I blogged about re-seeing the Batman movies. As I recall, I said they were terrible, really silly and hokey.

Well, I just saw the trailer for the new one. I don't want to get my hopes up, but it definitely looks superior to the others.

If you've ever wished you could snatch a piece of masticated waste right out of Britney's mouth, you can now come close to fulfilling your fantasy, or at least imagining you are. In what will probably turn out to be a hoax, her used chewing gum is listed on ebay.

The AP reports, "Prices go as high as $14,000, but most are for significantly less. Though there is no way to verify the authenticity of the various wads, many postings include photos of a small piece of chewed gum, a copy of a ticket stub from the place of finding and a personal story of procurement."

Finally, I loved the last redesign of the iMac. I'm not so sure about the new one. I am sure, however, the promotional video Apple made to push it is set to the most annoying song in history.

The Real World Rolls On

2004-09-01T20:17:00.000-05:00

For most of the last fifteen years, (just a little less than half my life now) I've been a devoted fan of MTV's The Real World. I remember huddling down to watch the second season in a friends spare basement apartment during college.

The show has had its ups and downs over the years, but keeps going. On the eve of its fifteenth season, USAToday has an extensive look at the show over the years. If you have any interest in the show, the article worth a read.

Bono Does It Right on O'Reilly

2004-09-01T19:28:00.000-05:00

If pop and politics are going to mix, Bono does it well. Tonight on the O'Reilly show he spoke eloquently and very intelligently about the African AIDS crisis.

He said he no longer roots for anyone in American elections. He had good words for both the President and John Kerry. He came off balanced but passionate.

I was really impressed with his ability to articulate the connection between the African AIDS crisis and the War on Terror. His sophistication on this issue is embarassing to celebs like Natalie Maines whose Bush-bashing is just reflexive pandering to the elites she hopes to impress and betrays her obvious ignorance of the issues.

UPDATE: See a partial transcript of the interview here.

UPDATE II : Here's a link to DATA, Bono's AIDS fighting organization.

Bruce Springsteen, Alice Cooper Philosphize

2004-09-01T19:01:00.000-05:00

Springsteen has penned more than one of rock's greatest anthems. His tales of the downtrodden working man have garnered him a constant flood of well deserved praise.

Unfortunately, his lyrical genius does not typically translate into workable political philosophy. His constant stumping for the Democrats as if they were still the party of the working class is embarassing.

Given the booing the Kerry girls got at the MTV Video Music Awards, I guess I'm not the only one who doesn't want his pop and politics mixed.

Alice Cooper certainly doesn't. The aging, former shock rocker recently told the Canadian Press, ""To me, that's treason. I call it treason against rock 'n' roll because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics."

He's right, and like most people who say bold, sensible things, he's getting
flack.

Where Is Star Trek Going?

2004-08-31T08:24:00.000-05:00

Just as the original series drops on DVD, some fans and even producers of the Trek franchise are calling for a halt.

The last two Trek movies didn't do as well as previous ones and "Enterprise," the current Trek television manifestation, has been struggling for ratings.

The Times(registration required) quotes Denise Crosby complaining about the relentless pace of new Trek stories since "Next Generation" came on the air in the early 90's.

"As soon as one series ends, the next one begins right away. How can you sustain that? The bar has been raised so high with sci-fi films. I'm not talking just about special effects but interesting, elaborate tales. You need to step back and refocus on what's pertinent to this moment in time."

Sounds like good advice.

I've seen every Star Trek movie, most of the original series and some of "Next Generation." I've never had much interest in any of the other stories. Apparently, I'm not alone.

The original series, driven as it was by fascinating characters with real inner conflicts, was able to comment on the human situation without coming off as didactic or pompous. This is where all the other Trek permutations have failed.

While fan fatigue may be one reason for lackluster interest, Trek creators need to look more deeply at creating complex characters whose struggles illuminate our own. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like this is the plan. The Times story says the plan to salvage "Enterprise" involves making it more political and, likely, more preachy.

Next season the series will feature "another arc of stories (that) will concern civil war on Vulcan, Mr. Spock's planet, which Mr. Coto (new co-executive producer) says will 'covertly examine the war in Iraq and the direction of the country.'" I'll be shocked if they can pull it off. With this kind of plan, the series, I suspect, is doomed.

College Students Mental Health Failing

2004-08-28T17:03:00.000-05:00

A new study finds the rates of mental illness soaring among college students. The study found, among other things, that:

-- One in three students report having experienced prolonged periods
of depression
-- One in four students report having suicidal thoughts or feelings
-- One in seven students report engaging in abnormally reckless behavior
-- One in seven students report difficulty functioning at school due to
mental illness

Does this really surprise anyone whose ever watched an MTV reality show? I doubt it. Those shows glamourize college students who specialize in "engaging in abnormally reckless behavior."

What the long story fails to mention, and what the study probably didn't even attempt to measure is the correlation between college students who report symptoms of faltering mental health and those who come from divorced families. I suspect the correlation is high, but finding that correlation and reporting it would have been politically thorny to say the least.

Blog Update

2004-08-24T18:01:00.000-05:00

I've struggled with my blogging. It's been tough for me to decide how important it is for me to keep it up, if I even wanted to keep it up.

I think I do. I also think I've resolved to be more serious about updating it. Watch this space for more in days to come.

Star Trek Observation

2004-08-24T17:17:00.000-05:00

I caught an episode of the original Star Trek the other day. Spock and the rest of the crew got sprayed with spores from some kind of space flower. The parasitc spores inhabited their hosts,convincing them the planet was paradise. The crew eventually mutinied in order to beam down for an eternity of floral bliss.

Kirk was left alone with a flower specimen. In the midst of his agonizing over what to do, he got showered with spores. Before joining the rest of his crew, he resists the power of the spores and discovers anger will negate their effects.

I remember this episode from childhood. I loved it because Spock and Kirk get into a fight at the end. Kirk beams the Vulcan up and insults him (Your mother was an encyclopedia!! Your father was a computer!!) until Spock becomes enraged and is freed from the effects of the spores.

Over the last year or so, I've become more of a Trek fan. This episode illustrates perfectly what I like about it, especially Kirk. The best Trek episodes explore such basic human longings that they seem almost like fairy tales. Trek does this much better than the Star Wars saga which has gotten weaker as it has progressed.

In the spore story I described, we see the crew wrestle with a longing for Eden, for a world better than the one we inhabit. This theme comes up in many ways across the Trek episodes and movies.

What makes Kirk admirable is his integrity in refusing to give into false paradises. He seems to sense that holding out for the real thing, even at the price of some short term suffering, is important.

We're all Captain Kirk somteimes. How many times a day does some illusory Eden beckon? We all long for a better world and our longing leaves us vulnerable to seduction. At our finest, however, we resist, knowing the world we long for lies somewhere yet up ahead and, like the crew of the Enterprise, go boldly on.

Gretchen Wilson's Redneck Anthem

2004-08-23T11:55:00.000-05:00

Well, if you ain't never been the Barbie Doll type, if you can't swig sweet champagne, but would rather drink beer all night, you might be a redneck. So says Gretchen Wilson, whose song "Redneck Woman" is getting a lot of airplay as this summer's big country hit.

The song is more than just another Shania-esque pop tune with a little twang on the side. It's a real rebel yell. Wilson's celebration of working class culture and her embrace of the defiant attitude that often comes with it are endearing.

The gall to celebrate redneck culture in the face of all the sensitive Baby Boomer Bohemians makes me love the song. So much of Boomer talk about "the working poor" is a mask for how much many of them hate the working class. Anyone not reared on Brie and Chablis is a cretin in their book. Many of them seem utterly shocked anyone would not want to be one of them. Wilson has clearly detected this condescension. However, she seems to think she's doing just fine as she is, thank you very much.

Wilson truly doesn't seem to need their help and the popularity of the song suggests there's a large audience out there who doesn't need it either.

Pillow Balk: Rock Hudson, Doris Day and Changing Times

2004-08-04T12:48:00.000-05:00

I saw the 1959 classic "Pillow Talk" the other night. I didn't like it. Hudson's character is smarmy and manipulative while Day's is weak and gullible.

It's also creepy. The whole thing has a kind of swinging playboy vibe that bugged me. It's amazing what was thought to be acceptable 45 years ago that society would punish socially, if not criminally, now.

In one scene Day's character is assaulted and nearly date-raped by a college boy. She acts like this behavior is typical though annoying. She agrees to have a drink with him once she's fended him off. Today, she would have agreed to press charges.

The final scene of the film has Hudson's character kicking in the door to his beloved's apartment to scoop her bodily from repose and carry her to his home. Once he has deposited her there against her will, she has a remarkable change of heart and decides she loves him. They live happily ever after.

Years ago, sexual harassment was a big topic of discussion. Now, it's taken for granted behavior similar to that displayed by the men in this movie is uacceptable.

The sexual harassment vangaurd may have gone over the line of common sense more commonly than we'd like, but such zealousness is understandable when we look back to what they were orignally up against.

Fallen Stars

2004-08-02T10:52:00.000-05:00

The Mrs. and I watched a few episodes of "The Lucy Show" on DVD last night. "The Lucy Show" was a television series Lucille Ball starred
in sometime in the sixties well after "I Love Lucy" was kaput.

In one episode, George Burns shows up and asks Lucy to be in his show. The two of them do a routine together reminiscent of the Burns & Allen schtick. After a few minutes of jokes the two of them break into song and do a little soft shoe to round out the act.

They don't make them like that any more. Those stars who came out of vaudeville and the early days of radio seemed to have so much more talent than the current crop of pretty faces Hollywood is churning out. I mean, can you think of one star in Hollywood who can sing, dance, act, and tell jokes. Well, I'll give you Wayne Brady, but beside him? Can you imagine Lindsay Lohan hoofing it in the glow of the gaslights? I don't think so.

Spotty Blogging

2004-08-02T10:49:00.000-05:00

I made it home only to find out my internet access is going to be severely restricted the next few days. I think the cable guy is going to come try to figure out why I can't get on the net sometime this week. Until then, posting will be sporadic at best.

Travel Notice

2004-07-30T12:23:00.000-05:00

Today, I leave Texas in the dust. In a little while I'll be soaring high above her, winging my way home to the heartland.

I won't be doing any mid-air posting and my blogging could remain light the next couple of days as I get settled in the new place. Just to let you know.

It's Good to Be Anorexic

2004-07-29T17:42:00.000-05:00

That's the opinion of women who run pro-anorexia Web sites.

This article describes these women this way:

"Meet the newest breed of anorexics. They think rail-thin Mary-Kate Olsen didn't need treatment for her eating disorder, that most people are 'fat blobs on legs' and that shunning food to the point of emaciation is a 'lifestyle choice' to be admired."

To be young and female in a post-sexual-revolution world is to run a serious risk of hating yourself. Of course, the causes of eating disorders can be complex, but there's no denying they take place in a cultural context where young woman are taught to see their bodies as mere commodities on the sexual market. When she is told subtly from childhood that promiscuity is normal and healthy, it's easy for a young woman who doesn't get propositioned endlessly to see herself as undesirable. When the sexual marketplace is open 24 hours, you always have to look your best.

Today's young women are living in a sexual environment they did not create. It was handed to them by a previous generation hellbent on overturning the traditional sexual order. Being born into the revolution, and therefore having no choice about whether to participate in it, can certainly leave anyone feeling out of control. The sense of defenselessness is only heightened in a culture where young men are trained to be relentlessly on the hunt for sexual conquest. Eating disorders are understandable because they offer a feeling of control over at least part of a woman's life in a culture sexual chaos.

Here's an article about the same phenomenon in Canada.

Thanks to CPYU for the link.

Teen Girls Buying Bigger Breasts

2004-07-28T21:24:00.000-05:00

The numbers of plastic surgeries are up around the country. Going under the knife has grown increasingly legitimate, no doubt in part, due to reality shows like "The Swan" and "Extreme Makeover."

Liposuction and breast work are the most popular procedures. The St. Paul Pioneer-Press reports operations to enlarge dissatisifying bosoms are now common among teenage girls(registration may be required).

If you're wondering how they pay for the work, the story has an answer. At least in some cases,: "Teenage girls sometimes even get improved cleavage as high school graduation gifts," it says.

I don't know exactly what to think of this. On one hand, we all use technology to improve and maintain our appearance to some degree. What is the difference, in principle, between using, say, teeth whitening strips and getting breast implants? Both are ways of changing our looks to be more satisfying to us and more attractive to others. Obviously, breast implants require more expense and trouble than teeth whitening or eyebrow waxing, but that is merely a matter of degree. I don't see a substantial difference in principle.

At the same time, two quotes from the story really bother me and reveal a deeper problem.

First, this one: "Teenagers 'look at their body like a fixer-upper in real estate,' said Nili Sachs, a Minneapolis psychotherapist who specializes in women's body image. 'You buy it cheap, fix it up and put it on the market.' "

One result of growing up in the aftermath of the sexual revolution is that people believe the body is a commodity, like a house, to be marketed and eventually sold for the highest return. When young women adopt this view, we are bound to see a whole slew of emotional and physical problems manifested in their lives. Many young women in our culture struggle with depression, feelings of inferiority, cutting, eating disorders and on and on. In large part, these troubles are the price society pays for the sexual license the revolution demanded.

It is a truism of post-revolution culture that our bodies belong to us as individuals alone. However, the body, like the whole person, only finds it purpose in the context of relationships. That many young women see their bodies almost entirely from an individualistic framework and not as the vehicles with which they locate themselves in webs of social relationships is clear from this startling fact: "One-third to two-thirds of women with implants have insufficient milk for breast-feeding, the agency says. And small amounts of silicone may pass from implant shells into breast milk, possibly affecting a nursing infant."

When young women trade away the ability to nurture safely a new life for cosmetic enhancements, they give up a greater fulfillment for a lesser one. That we have taught them to do so is a tragedy.

Meaningful Moment

2004-07-27T20:10:00.000-05:00

On the bus tonight, I saw an old lady. Her gray hair was pulled up in a bun. Gaps showed in her mouth where some of her teeth used to be. She had an air of being a little senile or otherwise out of it. Being "out of it" is par for the course the crowd who regularly rides the bus around here so, she didn't stand out.

A Hispanic woman was sitting next to her. A child, maybe about two, slept on the Hispanic woman's lap, his dark head resting against her chest.

The old woman leaned over and looked at him. She smiled.

"You're going to be a lawyer someday," I think she said.

Then, she smiled again, at the boy then his mother. "Or maybe," she went on, "a financial banker." She paused.

She concluded by saying, "Or maybe a pastor of a nice church." Then, she put her gnarled hand on the side of the Hispanic woman's face. "And grow up to take care of Momma."

Senile or not, she captured the frailty of our hopes and saw the potential in this child in a way many never will.

New Reality Network to Air

2004-07-27T19:57:00.001-05:00

Still chagrined about missing that episode of "America's Wildest Police Videos?" Worry no more. You may yet get your chance. Fox Networks Group has announced its plan to launch a 24-hour all reality channel in 2005. The network will air original programming as well as revisiting some of Fox's big reality hits like The Simple Life, Joe Millionaire and Celebrity Boxing.

Reality programs are now the Britney Spears of television in some circles.It's become cool to snear at them and pretend you never liked them in the first place. It's looks, however, as if Fox is betting there is still a substantial audience out there for whom too much reality is never enough.

Plastic Surgery: In the Pits

2004-07-27T19:57:00.000-05:00

Some cosmetic surgeons are taking a shot at using two well-known treatments for new purposes. First, collagen injections, long a way for Hollywood starlets to thicken their lips and get that perfect pout, are now being used for women's feet. The plumped-up soles help the ladies stay comfortable in heels longer, USA Today reports.

Recently, the FDA approved the use of Botox to reduce underarm sweating. Ostensibly, this treatment is meant for people with medical conditions entailing "excessive sweating," but it won't be long until being persperation free will be a new status symbol.

Another Thought about Dating, the Internet and Honesty

2004-07-27T14:15:00.000-05:00

During the discussion I describe below, I asked the mostly young, mostly single people in the room, why there was such a stigma against using Internet dating sites.

"Because it makes you seem desperate," was the overwhelming reply.

It amazes me anyone ever gets married.

Perhaps this is most prevelant in the Evangelical subculture, though I suspect some aspect of this phenomena cuts across society. Some single people want very badly to get married, yet most punish with rejection anyone who fails to conceal that fact convincingly.

People who conceal the desire to be married are seen as normal while someone who admits it, who wants to be a good spouse, and is doing everything possible, like using an Internet dating service, to meet someone they can love and serve in the context of marriage is seen as "desperate" and therefore undesirable.

Wouldn't this all be easier if we could own our desires and be a little more frank about them?

Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places?

2004-07-27T12:56:00.000-05:00

I got into a debate with a colleague today over the kind of people who look for mates through online services like eHarmony.com.

She had a friend who dated a few men whom she met through a Web based dating service which does not do the kind of extensive screening eHarmony does. Her friend didn't like any of these guys. They were, my colleague said, introverted and nervous. Based on her friend’s experience, the women I was debating drew a generalization about the faults of Internet matching services. "Frankly, I think they attract cowardly men," she said. Later, she withdrew that statement.

That's good, because her original proclamation was wrong for several reasons.

First, being nervous or introverted doesn't make a man a coward. I'm willing to go on record saying 100 per cent of people who use Internet dating services have some anxieties about the opposite sex. I'm even willing to grant that meeting women through the Internet might be easier than approaching women at a bar, a party, or at church for men who are especially anxious.

That's a long way from being a coward. A coward lets his fears dictate his choices. A man who is terrified of approaching women for dates, but does it still, is being brave, even if he meets those women through the Internet.

What was most offensive in my colleague's original categorization was the implication that men who fail to master the nuances of middle class social expectations sufficiently enough to be considered "normal" are unworthy of a woman's love and probably incapable of loving a wife. Nothing precludes a man who is nervous, shy, or awkward from also being supportive, compassionate and wise, all qualities that make for a good husband.

It's quite possible a man might be nervous around women because he values and respects them. The chauvinist and the womanizer are never anxious because they think so little of females.

Of course, a man can be nervous in these situations because he's had damaging experiences with women. Perhaps past rejection has left him wary. That this damage can't be seen by some young women for what it is, a temporary condition love can heal, is evidence of how little they have thought through the qualities that make a good mate.

What do you think? Who's right here? Guys, would you/have you used an Internet dating service? Does using one make you a coward? Ladies, would meeting a guy through on of these services color your feelings about him? How so?

Dorr reviews Tony Hendra

2004-07-27T12:06:00.000-05:00

Tony Hendra, probably best known for playing Ian Faith, the band's befuddled manager, in "This is Spinal Tap," recently released a memoir called "Father Joe: The Man who Saved My Soul." The book recalls his long relationship with a monk who influenced him deeply.

I heard Hendra interviewed several weeks ago on NPR. I thought then I'd probably like the book. I still haven't read it, but Greg Dorr has. He hated it.

Rocco DiSpirito's Restaurant Woes

2004-07-27T09:14:00.000-05:00

I think the Mrs. and I saw every epsiode of the mediocre reality series "The Restaurant." Purportedly about the struggles of opening a restaurant in New York, the show was mostly immature Manhattanites whining about work and trying to hook up with each other. As you might imagine, the program lacked the drama crucial to a really gripping story.

Turns out, the real drama is taking place in court right now. Apparently, it's unclear who really owns the restaurant. Rocco DiSpirito, the celebrity chef whose personality and star-power, was the foundation of the series claims he owns 50 per cent of the business. Others say he doesn't.

The restaurant's other financial backers want to put it on the market. But, Rocco's people claim he can make it profitable if he can just hang on to it.

The risk of losing his restaurant is bad enough, but even worse, Dispirito's former manager says one of the restaurant's investors, Jeffrey Chodorow, was mean to Rocco's mom.

The story says, "Lon Rosen, a Los Angeles Dodgers executive who was DiSpirito's personal manager when Rocco's opened, said that despite DiSpirito's dedication to the venture Chodorow treated him 'horribly' and 'inhumanely.' Rosen also accused Chodorow of being beastly to the chef's 79-year-old mother, making her weep by saying nasty things to her about her son while she worked 14 hours a day making meatballs and doing other chores at the restaurant."

How terrible!! There's just no excuse for being mean to Momma!!

Sex Workers Cater to Democrats

2004-07-26T17:21:00.000-05:00

By the end of this week's Democrat convention liberal's plans for unseating President Bush in November will be well laid, and many of the delegates will be too apparently.

Reuter's reports prostitutes from around the country are swarming Beantown to find some randy left-winger looking to blow a wad-of cash, I mean.

The story quotes Robyn Few, who runs the Sex Workers Outreach Project, an advocacy group, saying ""Every convention brings in more people, and women fly in from all over the country to work it. There will be girls from California and from the South in Boston this week. I hope a lot of women make a lot of money and make a lot of men really happy."

Also according to the story, strip club owners are pumping up their staffs for some extra action this week by adding more dancers to their establishment's rosters.

The Dems don't want the influence of working girls to sully their reputations though: "'This really is a G-rated event,' said DNC spokeswoman Mariellen Burns."

Of course, one wonders if maybe, in this case, that G is short for G-string.

New Pierce Pettis Record

2004-07-26T15:05:00.000-05:00

I just received an advance copy of the new Pierce Pettis record called "Great Big World." It's scheduled to be officially released August 3.

I really like his musc and having met him briefly a couple of times, I can say he seems like a real upstanding guy. His last record, "State of Grace", was amazing. By far the best he'd done up to that time. I was hoping the new album would build on the power of the last one.

I'm about halfway through my first listen. I have to say it doesn't seem to have the same spirit and energy as "State of Grace." I'm afraid I don't like it as well. We'll see, maybe it will grow on me.

Bad Writing Winner

2004-07-26T09:36:00.000-05:00

Phil at Brandywine Books has a post pointing out the winner of this year's Bulwer-Lytton contest for bad writing run by the English Department at San Jose State University .

The contest is named after19th century writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who opened his 1830 novel, "Paul Clifford", with this sentence: ""It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

The contest asks participants to submit a single terrible sentence and judges then pick the best of the worst.

This year's winner is a 42-year-old softeware developer named Dave Zobel.

This garbled prose nabbed him the grand prize.

""She resolved to end the love affair with Ramon tonight ... summarily, like Martha Stewart ripping the sand vein out of a shrimp's tail ... though the term 'love affair' now struck her as a ridiculous euphemism ... not unlike 'sand vein,' which is after all an intestine, not a vein ... and that tarry substance inside certainly isn't sand ... and that brought her back to Ramon."

If you want to enter, the deadline is in mid-April, so start cranking out those stinkers!

Book Report

2004-07-25T17:04:00.000-05:00

Book sales are down and from that fact market analysts conclude so is the amount of time people spend reading. That may not be true, though.

The story quotes someone specualting one reason is all the other activities competing for our time. One reason my book reading is less than I would like it to be is that I spend time reading blogs instead. I suspect this is true for others as well.

What the story doesn't mention is whether email and now blogs have increased the amount of time the average person spends writing, producing not just consuming written content.

The demise of the book has been predicted for years, now there seems to be some evidence for it. Oddly enough, the art of compostion seems to be undergoing a renaissance in some corners.

What do you think? Are books done for?

Summer Movie Roundup

2004-07-25T16:50:00.000-05:00

Variety's Peter Bart offers an informative look at the summer's boxoffice winners and losers today. The most intriguing sentence was this one;

"And, yes, the Internet geeks weren't genuflecting either over 'I, Robot' or 'Catwoman' (negative geek-buzz always makes the studios nervous), but the Will Smith movie at least opened big-time at $52.2 million."

By "Internet geek," I assume Bart means bloggers who write about movies. He finishes the article by mentioning "The Passion of the Christ" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" as the summer's two real success stories. Coincidentally, both these films had generated a susbstantial blogosphere buzz in the months before they opened. Does it surprise anyone "The Terminal" or "Sleepover" failed to inspre that kind of energy?

The role of bloggers in determining which movies make it big is going to grow and I expect Hollywood will sooner or later have to take note. It's no coincedence the both POTC and F9/11 were the big spring/summer hits. These movies deal with big questions; ones on which people hold definite opinions. Thus, they appeal to bloggers who love discussing meaty topics.

If Hollywood does come to realize the importance of appealing to the blogosphere, maybe we'll see more serious work and a little less "Starsky & Hutch."

A Short Hair Piece

2004-07-25T15:50:00.000-05:00

I've been trying something for the last month I've never done before: growing a beard. Well, it's a goatee actually.

I know we're a decade past grunge, but I still see goatees around so I thought I'd go for it.

At first, it was thin and the hair was bristly. When I rubbed my face, it would scratch my fingers. About half way into the process, I nearly gave up and took a razor to it. It was heavy and dark on the sides, but barely grown in on the top of my chin. I thought it made me look like I needed to wash my face more than anything.

That was a couple of weeks ago. I'm glad I left it. It's filled in much better now. Just today, I noticed it's smooth and soft to the touch. What happened?

Have those of you with beards experienced this abrubt transition? Ladies, I guess that question excludes you (at least I hope it does), but you surely know some furry faced fellas. I'm wondering, are you fans of the look or not?

Title Change

2004-07-24T23:31:00.000-05:00

I've changed the title of this blog. I like it better now. We'll see if it sticks.

Bourne Supremacy Review

2004-07-24T22:19:00.000-05:00

Saw the “Bourne Supremacy”“Bourne Supremacy” tonight and, you know, I love a great action movie as much as the next guy. Unfortunately, "great action movie" is not a category into which the newest installment in the Bourne series falls.

The first Bourne vehicle was a serviceable, if generic, thriller given some spice by its "who-is-he?" plot device. The second is full of fast paced action including one of the most elaborate car chase scenes I've ever scene. The editing in said car scene is so quick some shots lasting no more than half a second) it's impossible to tell what's going on.

Maybe the filmmakers wanted to keep things rolling so we wouldn't notice the absence of any cohesive story. The film has a happy ending. The bad guys all get carted away which is fine, but I always enjoy a movie so much more when I know who the antagonist is and have even the slightest inkling into his motivations for, say, trying to off the good guy.

The Bourne Supremacy is what audiences expect to find at the movies in the summer, loud, easy, and full of spectacle. Still, there's a difference between fluff that's good and junk fluff. I would have expected the movie's makers to have known the difference.

Comments Comment

2004-07-24T15:24:00.000-05:00

I just realized Blogger's comment feature had been set to exclude anyone but other Blogger users from commenting here. I've changed that.

It looks as if anyone may now post comments, but only other Blogger users will get links etc. If you're not a Blogger registered user, you can post "anonymously." If you do, leave your name and URL in the text of the comment and I'll try to visit your site.

Rodeo Kids

2004-07-24T15:04:00.000-05:00

Did you know some Texas rodeos include an event where young children, four, five or six years old, ride a bucking, twisting sheep? I saw it in the movie. The kids, with their little hands burrowed tightly into the rough wool, hang on for dear life. Texans call the event "Mutton Bustin'."

Have you ever heard of, or seen, such a thing?

Of Texas and the Shadowlands

2004-07-24T13:39:00.000-05:00

This morning, I saw Texas: The Big Picture. It was a forty-minute meditation on Texas culture, history, and style.

Full of soaring panoramas and stirring music, the film portrayed an idealistic vision of Texas. In the on-screen Texas, people were content. They suffered no real hardship. The movie gave me not so much Texas as it is, but as we all wish it were.

Like so much good art, it offers a theology lesson.

The Texas portrayed in the film, was not the Texas I've experienced. In the films Texas there was no heat, no dust, no traffic. The discrepancy between the filmic Texas and the experienced Texas is not a problem when we understand the role of art.

Art sometimes re-presents to us reality shaped by the soul. This movie's Texas was a product of longing as much as of geography.

Think of it this way. Everybody's uncomfortable in this world. The world, as we live in it, is full of sin and suffering in every shade between annoying and devastating. The whole creation, including Texas, groans beneath the burden.

We pine instead for another world whose reality fulfills our desires, where dignity trumps greed, and life and love have no end. That's the kind of Texas I saw this morning, an image of what such a place might look like. The final renewal of Texas and every other thing is the promise of Scripture, the dearest hope of the Christian.

Ultimately, that Texas, the one to come, is the real Texas because it is never-ending. All the gleaming Dallas skyscrapers, all the smoky Austin clubs, all the rolling hills and parched, dusty deserts are but shadows, cryptic hints of what lies ahead. The artist, at his best, is one who helps us peer past the shadows to catch even a glimpse of the real thing and in doing so affirms our hopes.

Age Differences

2004-07-23T22:45:00.000-05:00

At dinner tonight, someone brought up how much age differences between members of a couple bother her. She thinks it's "gross" if an older man is married to or dating a younger woman and vice versa. Disparities of more than twelve years really bother her. She's OK with anything less.

The Mrs. is six and a half years younger than I. Usually, I don't even notice it. About the only time I do is when she talks about toys or television from her adolescence and I realize I was in college when the things she recalls were popular.

The aversion to big age differences between a man and his wife is a modern phenomenon, I suspect. Think about Jane Austen. Emma is in her late teens or, at most, very early twenties when she marries Mr. Knightley who resides somewhere in the neighborhood of 40.

I don’t see this as a moral issue, but an issue of prudence. So long as both parties are adults, I see no moral problem, but whether getting involved with someone significantly older or younger is wise has to be decided on a case-by-case basis. That said, I'd be a little suspicious of a guy in his fifties who routinely dated dewy-eyed twenty-somethings. Marriage and family, I would guess, would not be what he's looking for. I could be wrong, though.

What do you think? How big an age difference is too big? Does it matter? At what point, if ever, does it get "gross"?

Britney Spears: Wedding Invite For Sell

2004-07-23T15:18:00.002-05:00

I've been a pretty faithful Britney blogger, chronicling what has become a painful and humiliating flame-out.

First, there was the quickie wedding fiasco. The groom in that debacle recently described his sexual escapades with the Britster on the evening of their wedding to an European newspaper. She must be so proud.

Then, there was a new flop album followed by a bloated summer tour, also a flop.

The only thing keeping Brit from falling of the cultural map completely is the massive publicity machine pushing her. No one on the street cares. Britney managed to alienate her audience by continuing to pour on more of the same overt sexuality long after her fans were satisfied.

She missed a crucial move out of the Madonna playbook. The Material Girl would have sensed people tiring of her trampy persona and started showing up modestly and glamorously attired. Christina Aguilera got the message. In some recent photos, ol' Xtina looks downright prim.

Now, on the heels of her recently announced engagement to Kevin Federline, a man whose second child (neither with Britney) was born this week, comes the latest rumor in the ongoing saga of Brit's self destruction. It appears she is looking at offers to televise her November nuptials as well as auctioning off the photo rights. I would advise her to think again about televising the wedding. Keeping the affair private would save her the humiliation of being a ratings bomb. I would tell her to wait two years, then sell the rights to televise the divorce. That, I bet, people would watch.