No one is talking or thinking much about the Oscars, which are apparently going to go on as scheduled tomorrow night. That’s understandable. (I did like Jon Stewart’s joke that the red carpet has been downsized to “a crimson bathmat.”) Everything will be toned down and somber, which is also understandable. But I personally wouldn’t mind a real spectacle to allow me to take a break from the bleak thoughts that have dominated my consciousness this week. There’s so much more to say about this conflict, about the fate of our country and the world. But right now, I’m just tired. My brain hurts and my heart hurts worse. Making fun of Joan Rivers has never seemed so worthwhile.
Category: words mean things (Page 80 of 223)
It’s humor day here at words mean things
“Use nuclear strikes to defeat your enemies…but only as a last resort!”
-blurb on box for “SuperPower,” a world-simulation real-time-strategy game
Unintentionally funny quote of the week
“I’m definitely anti-war, but at the same time, we’re trying to live our lives here,” fumed Mark Thedis as he spent 30 minutes in his idling Range Rover in an alleyway off Folsom Street. “If they’re trying to get people on their side, it’s not working.”
-Angry citizen inconvenienced by anti-war protests in San Francisco Thursday
No wait, this one is good too
“Now, at a time of war, these people out here protesting are behaving like traitors,” said Russian immigrant Alexander Gosen. He spent the morning at Franklin and Fell streets waving a sign reading “Viva Bush” on one side and “Go to hell, peaceniks” on the other. “They should all be arrested. They don’t know what it’s like to live under a tyrant.”
More humor
“An hour? In other words, a war that could destroy the global order and cast a region of the Earth into chaos was discussed for as much time as it takes LensCrafters to make your bifocals.”
-Jon Stewart, on the length of the Azores summit (photos)
Now this is a corporate billboard I can love
I’ve written in the past about how I’m genetically incapable of being late, and the trouble it causes me. Most of my friends continue to be chronically late, and I’ve only recently understood that this is really my problem. I can’t change their behavior, only my reaction to it.
Last night, I was meeting my dear friend Patti at my old stomping grounds, WEAC, to take her to dinner with some other friends of ours. We were to meet at 5:30, and as usual, I was there about five minutes early. She was in the parking lot, waiting for me.
“I hope you weren’t there very long,” I said.
“No,” she said. “I just knew that you’re usually a little bit early, so I wanted to be here to meet you.”
Is there any doubt why I love Patti?
Here we go
I feel sort of sick to my stomach. You?
This week, I splurged and bought an IBM optical mouse. It has a swoopy shape that fits well in my hand, and the scroll wheel has a bright blue LED behind it, giving it a sort of otherworldly glow, like a spaceship in a 50s sci-fi movie. It’s funny how the smallest things can bring such pleasure.
Just a thought
Why is it wrong for Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks to speak her mind about the president, and OK for Charlton Heston to go to Littleton, CO soon after the Columbine massacre and raise his musket over his head, intoning, “From my COLD DEAD HAND!”? Either celebrities have the same rights to speak out on issues they care about as every other citizen, or they don’t.
It’s easy to defend freedom of speech when you agree with the speech. It’s not so easy when people spout words that, as Grandpa Simpson used to say, “angry up the blood.”
No, Natalie Maines wouldn’t have the same freedom to speak out if she lived in Iraq. That’s sort of the point.