Some TV going on this week. First, one of my all time fave fake reality shows, “The Bachelor” premiered and so far it’s typical. Jason, a single Dad rejected last season by Deanna (who has since rejected the guy she threw Jason over for) is this season’s Bachelor. The ladies are vapid and empty as ever.
We’ve also got some fashion awards for this past week’s “Peoples’ Choice Awards”; some fashion awards you might not ever have heard of. Plus my doubts about how much of a “peoples’” choice this show really is. Also, a new, and very unusual reality show. “True Beauty” premieres with a premise of finding REAL beauty. Why this show can only last one season
Finally, some wise Thoughts for the week just passed, including an update on my Pharmacist rant with a perfect example of why I think these medical school rejects are a waste of time.
How about Roland Burris? They left that poor man standing out in the rain, God love Harry Reid’s evil heart.
What’s going on with Miss America, Obama’s ridiculous choice to head the CIA, and Toffler’s “The Third Wave” alive and well in the swamps of Delaware.
Pic of the Day
The Saga of Roland Burris or Way to Go Blagojevic!
I can’t remember when I’ve ever enjoyed political discourse more than the recent saga of Illnois’ Roland Burris, a drama brought to us by Rod Blagojevic, the now impeached Governor of Illinois.
One thing about liberals, they always stick together. Conservatives? Not so much.
Conservatives love to consider themselves “mavericks” or moderates but liberals will stick with their guy no matter if he thought so little of this country’s oval office as to receive sexual oral ministrations within or if he regularly attended a church led by a hateful preacher who exhorted the congregation to “God DAMN America”.
Thus I have enjoyed the political drama that liberal maverick Rod Blagojevic has allowed to play before my amused eyes.
Poor Roland Burris.
Now I don’t know much about Roland Burris save he’s a Chicago politico who, prior to Blago’s rocking appointment of him to replace Obama as Illinois senator, was pretty much a loser at most every other office he ran for. We got a fellow here in Delaware, Mike Protack, same thing. Always runs, suspicious who supports him, never wins.
Well hell yeah I’d be a bit piqued if Delaware’s Nanny Minner were to suddenly appoint Mike Protack to replace Joe Biden, who too is leaving the Senate, better known as America’s House of Lords.
But what’s the deal with Blago? Some corrupt attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald who jailed Scooter Libby for nothing, comes out and with no class publicly excoriates the object of his investigation. This is something prosecutors shouldn’t oughta do but even more, Governor Blago’s been indicted for exactly ZERO as of this writing!
So Blago, in an action unknown to liberals, goes off on his own and nominates this Burris fellow. By me, Roland Burris is a harmless old man who showed up to claim his rightful senate seat, the ONLY African American in America’s House of Lords, and the Dem libs do everything they can to block the guy!
How damn mean is this?
Governor Blagojevic…you’ve got a friend here in Delaware. For you’ve exposed the libs for the hypocrites they are. It’s NEVER about race when it’s them but let a Conservative simply choose not to vote for Barack Obama and we’re guilty of extreme racism.
Ever notice that?
Perusing the Periodicals
I like to sit down and browse through the magazines from time to time. Many of us do, I’d argue, else why are there so many of them in waiting rooms across the fruited plains?
But I’ve noticed something of late and right now I’d like to issue a formal complaint.
EVERYTHING IN THEM IS ONE BIG DAMN COMMERCIAL!
Now there’s nothing wrong with advertising. Sure advertising is a crass capitalistic activity as the liberals would see it but hey, it’s the advertisers who pay to put out the periodical after all.
It’s like they think we’re stupid so they must sneak in advertising on us.
For example, we might come across an article about getting organized, a popular subject in the women’s magazines as women always strive to be organized, what with having to do everything to run a domicile.
The article will have pics of this nifty tool by Joe Blow’s stationary store or this amazing shelf system by Acme shelving.
I mean how honest can the supposedly impartial article be if it’s tarnished by advertisements?
You don’t think Jane Doe’s Monthly Glossy Women’s Magazine doesn’t call up all vendors of organizing tools and offer a glib “Hey Joe, we’re running an article on getting organized. Got anything you want us to include? We’ll stick it in at half the rate of an honest advertisement. The women love this stuff and they’ll think we’re endorsing your gadget.”?
Buyer Beware…as the old saying goes.
What’s Going On With Miss America?
If ever a contest needed re-vamping, for sure it would be the Miss America contest.
Once upon a time this was THE singular beauty contest; some may say it was America’s first reality contest show.
It was held in Atlantic City and of late this contest has been wobbling, possibly to extinction.
The women’s liberation movement dealt all beauty contests a swift blow as it was considered politically incorrect to cast females as sexual objects. And while Miss America pageant organizers might argue that there’s a question and answer part of the contest and hey, there’s also a talent competition, give me a break.
I’ll give a million dollars to anyone who can prove to me that the first thing folks say about Miss Kentucky is how wonderfully she plays the piano.
Now the Learning Channel is featuring this long series leading up to the Miss America pageant and it’s interesting.
It IS a way for viewers who care to get to know the contenders a bit better than before. For until this turn of events all anyone knew about Miss America is how she looked in a swim suit and how she looked in a swim suit.
This new series on TLC has the Miss America contenders participating in various contests, some involving actual brains. And, in fact, winners of certain contests are guaranteed a place in the actual top fifteen of the real Miss America contest.
Gretchen Carlson, a Fox news anchor, lovely woman and quite intelligent, was a former winner of the Miss America pageant, living proof that winning a beauty contest does not mean you are dumb.
Not that I’d ever know this.
Gretchen is also a “consultant” on this reality series and she adds a dose of realism to it all.
I guess what I’m wondering here is…could the Miss America pageant be morphing into a more modern reality series, an “American Idol” type of contest with Americans participating in the choosing mixed with a dose of “Big Brother” type of intimacy that reveals more about a contender than, say, how she looks in a swim suit?
I really sit and ponder this sort of nonsense, that’s the pity of it all.
Obama’s Ridiculous Choice of CIA Chief-the REAL Reason for the Choice.
Leon Panetta?
Here’s a guy who never heard of Monica Lewinsky, never knew anything untoward was going on in this country’s precious oval office, who, like Hogan’s Heros’ Sgt. Schultz…”knew nothing”.
And he’s going to head America’s spook agency, the CIA?
Obama made his fellow Dems angry with this ridiculous choice but hey, the President-Select has been choosing plenty of Clinton-era thugs and thieves so it’s no surprise.
But I know the real reason Obama picked this guy and hey, if no one else will say it, I will.
Panetta is vehemently opposed to “torture”.
Torture which, ostensibly, would include the practice of “waterboarding”, a very effective technique that gets plenty of information out of sons-of-camels terrorists while being of no threat to life except for, well, absolute terror, imagine that.
The Arabs hate waterboarding. It’s very effective and when a would-be terrorist is caught and waterboarded, almost always they end up spilling the beans on whatever Islamofacists mischief is then upon.
Well hey, plenty of Muslim money filled Obama’s campaign coffers, even as the Conservatives’ own candidate, John McCain the Pathetic, was out tilting at windmills to stop illegal campaign cash.
Obama owes these people. We can’t have these terrorists suffering “torture” which does not hurt them at all but hey, it IS effective.
Panetta published an essay recently in which he expressed complete opposition to the practice of waterboarding. Obama’s gotta pay back his Islamofacist buddies.
Americans, almost all of us out here in la-la land where we carry this country on our backs, would have no problem whatsoever with waterboarding and the libs know it.
So they gotta hide it.
Which Obama’s doing with this appointment of Leon Panetta. Can’t have the terrorists spilling the beans after a bit of prompting by an action that will cause them no harm except maybe scare them a little.
Heh.
It’s not about torture. It’s about paying off an American politico to stop an effective technique which gets the terrorists to tattle on their fellow sons of camels.
Obama owes them big time.
The “Electronic Cottage”-Alive and Well in America Today
I was a sweet, young, liberal thing during my college years. As were most of us I’d argue, owing to our youth during this period in our lives and the liberal professors who taught us.
Alvin Toffler was one of my favorite authors of that era. He wrote two famous books, one called “Future Shock” and my very fave and subject of my great intrigue at that time, “The Third Wave”.
The premise of this book was the notion that one day all of America would be filled with “electronic cottages”. These electronic cottages would be, as Toffler then argued, our own homes, but we would have constant contact with the outside world, the technology that will be available will even allow many of us to work from home!
I read this book in the mid-1970’s, remember.
I’d like to announce right here on this widely read Blog, that Toffler’s The Third Wave is really here. His concept so intrigued me as I always felt that such as commutes were a big waste of time and energy. I dreamed of a day when I could work from home.
We have cell phones that keep us in touch with everyone, everywhere, anywhere. We have DVR’s which allow us to watch what we want, at our convenience. Obviously there’s the Internet. Nothing happens on the planet that we don’t have instant access to news, updates and details, almost immediately.
So many folks now work from home, at least on a part time basis, that it’s not even considered unusual and a home office is almost mandatory for most of us.
Since husband and I have both gone through recent health care crises, I have become aware of just how in touch a small household in the swamps of Delaware can be.
Further, even health care is now convenient and simpler due to technological gains.
Husband has to get infusions of antibiotic twice a day. A pharmacy delivers the liquid antibiotic to us once a week. I was trained to clean his PICC lines, miracles in themselves as they hang out of his arm for infusion of the antibiotic and withdrawal of blood without a new stick every time, as well as infuse the antibiotic.
A home nurse comes once a week and changes his PICC line bandages, putting on a fresh, clean dressing. She then withdraws blood from this PICC line, using a home surgical kit sent by the same pharmacy which sends the antibiotic. She puts the blood drawn for doctoral monitoring into a Fedex envelope. She phones them up, puts the blood sample out on the porch and boom, Fedex picks it up and delivers it to the appropriate lab.
Our MRI’s and Cat Scans are delivered to various medicos via the Internet or EMAIL. After my heart bypass and with my first after-surgery visit to the heart surgeon, I had a chest x-ray. By the time I got across the street to the cardiac surgeon’s office, they already had a pic of my chest x-ray via email!
Husband and I only leave our electronic cottage maybe twice a week, once to go out for dinner as we all need a change of scenery. I go out to buy weekly supplies, go to church, and attend choir practice. Once in a while we leave to go to the actual doctors.
Yet we know always what’s going on in the world, we communicate with family via Twitter, cell phone and email. We watch TV when we want and on our own time, we watch first run movies via purchase of premium cable channels.
None of this is free, mind you, but for the convenience of it all, it’s damn cheap.
More on Those Medical School Dropouts-Pharmacists--
In my last issue of my weekly, wise
thoughts…HERE, I commented, tongue-in-cheek, on Pharmacists and what do they really do.
I chanced to be talking to my daughter about this matter and she laughed and told me that if she ever became anything in the medical profession, she would be a Pharmacist.
“They don’t work long or weird hours for the most part, they work in a warm, dry store, they don’t have to deal too often with sick people and best of all, they don’t have to be all that smart. I think of Pharmacists as what one becomes when one couldn’t make it through medical school.”
Well hey, I didn’t say it, my daughter did. Take your wrath out on her. I’ll send you her email addy upon request.
Heh.
I’ve always kind of thought that Pharmacists move pills from big bottles into little bottles, maybe type a label or two.
This past week I had an experience with a local Pharmacist which tends to prove my amusing disdain for the profession, but I won’t name names or drug store locales.
It was a refill for an anti-seizure medication, which my husband desperately needed. In fact, he needed it so bad that his Infectious Disease doctor wrote the prescription just so we wouldn’t run out as we tried to find another Neurologist who wouldn’t let husband almost die for lack of monitoring of seizures even though husband had one right in the man’s office, I’m not making this up.
The ID doc put a request for pills of 1500MG on the prescription.
Now I’ve had a lot of experience with these anti-seizure pills as, besides his antibiotics, this is a most important medication.
These pills come in 500,and 1000 mg sizes, this I knew.
Husband was on 3000 mg a day, given in 1500mg amounts twice a day. The fine Neurologist who so failed my husband only had him on 1000mg a day. It took triple this amount to quell husband’s seizures. When husband was in the rehab center, he was given three 500mg pills twice a day. I had a prescription of 1000 mg pills prescribed by that sad excuse of a Neurologist and I was cutting the 1000 pills in half to give him the required 1500 twice a day (one whole pill and one cut in half) as prescribed by a Neurologist who knew what he was doing.
Hey, it’s arithmetic. Husband’s ID doctor, he only knew husband needed 1500mg twice a day so he wrote the prescription for 60 pills @ 1500mg each.
I knew this medication did not come in 1500mg sizes. I was so sure of this I asked to speak to the Pharmacist when I dropped off the prescription.
“I’m sure the Infectious Disease doctor didn’t know this medicine doesn’t come in 1500mg sizes,” I told the Pharmacist, a nice fellow but not too smart. “At the rehab center they gave him three 500mg twice a day. Maybe you can give me 180 pills at 500mg each. I’m positive this medicine comes in this size.”
The nice Pharmacist shook his head but told me he would have to call the ID doc. I didn’t know why as, again, IT’S ARITHMETIC for God’s sake! Still, I had no problem with him calling the doctor as I had shopping to do in this big store beginning with a “W” and I figured by the time I was done the ID doc would okay the 500MG 180-pill scenario to replace his 1500 mg 60 pill prescription and husband would have his anti-seizure medication. Which he desperately needed that day, did I mention?
Although hey, isn’t this, like, the sort of trivial thing a Pharmacist SHOULD do? Like, since the pills don’t come in 1500mg size, maybe a Pharmacist should get out the calculator, divide 1500 by 500, which size this medicine DOES come in, then take that result and multiply it by 60-the original amount of 1500mg pills on the prescription. Then, with all the knowledge obtained by all the failed medical school knowledge, give the patient the 180 500MG pills, maybe with a label instructing the patient to take THREE of these pills twice a day?
At the least, besides taking pills out of big bottles and putting them into little bottles, isn’t this like, the EXACT job of a Pharmacist?
Does he really have to call the doctor to verify what a Pharmacist should have, ahem, figured out on his own?
For the doctor wasn’t immediately available and I did, yes I had to stamp my feet and plead for husband who desperately needed this medicine. All because a Pharmacist didn’t want to use arithmetic and a little common sense.
I got my way. I shamed this medical school dropout into giving me 180 500mg pills with a label instructing me to administer three of these pills twice a day.
It seems so simple.
But it doesn’t stop there!
When I picked up the medicine that I had to throw a hissy fit to get, the very nice Pharmacist tells me, I’m not making this up, that he couldn’t fill the entire prescription, that the insurance company would only pay for one month’s worth of medicine.
Duh.
Well I knew that.
“How many pills did you give me?”
“180 pills, at 500MG each,” Pharmacist said.
“Well why isn’t this 30 days worth? The original prescription requested 60 pills at 1500. This was for TWO a day which makes the original prescription for thirty days, right?”
Nice Pharmacist agrees with my logic.
“So, for 500MG, wouldn’t it be thirty days worth at 180 pills?”
The nice Pharmacists blushed and agreed. He said he didn’t know what he was thinking.
Heh.
So guess what? This prescription has ONE REFILL on it because, well I don’t know what the hell that Pharmacist was thinking.
Arithmetic…don’t even have to go to medical school to learn it.
Peoples’ Choice Awards-Is This Show Rigged?
Come on. “Dancing With the Stars” is America’s most favored reality show? Over American Freaking Idol?
Understand here that I watch both of these reality shows and enjoy my escape from reality into a world of vapidness as much as any other American. But “American Idol” attracts MILLIONS of viewers. Including males in this country who too few watch any kind of dance show, much less the very feminine “Dancing With the Stars”.
Either the polls for Peoples’ Choice are rigged or only women vote.
Also, Ellen Degeneres as favorite talk show host? Now I’m SURE that only women are voting in this contest. Women would vote Ellen, who I also quite enjoy and would vote for over, say, Dave Letterman. But if this Peoples’ Choice could somehow include the MALES’ vote of our planet I suspect the results would be very different.
How about “27 Dresses” as favorite movie? Name me a man who would vote for this as favorite movie and I’ll show you a guy married to a fellow named Bruce.
Reese Witherspoon would likely not win male votes for fave female movie star. Sure she’s a pretty thing but too girl-next-store type. Guys go more for the Katherine Heigl type, more on her hair later.
Which is not to say that some of the winners this year are believable. For sure Brad Pitt would be favorite male star. Kid Rock is believable as a winner as is Hugh Laurie as fave male TV star. I am always surprised when Hugh is not in his HOUSE persona and the sound of his English accent. He sounds totally American as Dr. House.
Some fashion notes early this winter of the new year 2009: what the hell is the deal with the bare shoulder(s)? Not that a lovely female shoulder isn’t fetching, but in mid of winter and sometimes with both of them exposed?
Below some fashion montages from this year’s Peoples’ Choice. Most awards, as given by The Wise I, are self-explanatory. I’ll expand on my nomination of Jordin Sparks’ dress as the worst this year. It’s not that it wasn’t a pretty frock. But once again we’ve got the bare shoulder craze and Jordin would be better served to keep her shoulders covered.
As for worst hairstyle, it’s an award I made up out of whole cloth the minute I saw Katherine Heigl. What was she thinking when she left the house with her hair like that?
She’s a pretty woman but she needs to lose her dead lover in “Grey’s Anatomy”. That’s a dumb story line if ever there was one.
But I digress.
Below, my fashion awards for the 2009 Peoples’ Choice award.
”True Beauty”-a Rather Weird Reality Series With a Rather Weird Premise
ABC home page for this show.
I thought ABC had lost its mind when I watched a commercial hyping this series. Yet it’s an intriguing notion. An intriguing notion that will only last for one series way I figure.
The idea is that you gather a bunch of beautiful people together, kind of a “Big Brother” for the pretty. Using videos, both hidden and known, their true personality, as opposed to the outside beauty so easily seen, can be ascertained.
Well we all know pretty people are vain and arrogant, right?
That’s a stereotype too, it would seem. For some of these quite pretty contenders to win this contest for a bunch of bucks and a picture on the front of People magazine, are lovely in spirit as well as in flesh.
This show is hosted by a beauty pageant winner herself. What this means I don’t know. There are two other judges, including one meterosexual fellow and lover of beauty as well as Cheryl Tiegs, a fashion model, still pretty but getting a bit long in the tooth.
It’s promised in the promo hype and at various times during the actual show that different “tests” will be given to determine the ten beauties honesty and kindness.
In the premiere show, all of the medical information on the other contenders was left out on a coffee table. A hidden camera filmed the various contenders. A few couldn’t resist a peek into that which they knew was personal and private.
There was also a fellow hired to be a “beauty specialist”. Each one of the contenders was interviewed, measured and assessed by him, than each was given an overall grade. The lowest grade was around 92 as I recall with ageing memory. Which is still a pretty good grade mind you but remember the competition is with, allegedly, the most beautiful people in America.
Finally the two contenders who received the lowest score were summoned to a special meeting at a different destination. Another fellow was hired to be in the act of carrying a bunch of coffee cups into the same building that the two lowest beauty-scored contenders were also about to enter. The pretty blond was quite gracious and held the door open for the fellow.
The contender who was sent home was rude. She reached around him, jimmied open the door, then let herself in while slamming the door on the hapless fellow holding the many filled, and ostensibly hot, coffee cups.
This whole scene appeared very staged to me.
I might tune in a time or two to this series throughout its run. But I seriously wonder how the series can run again.
For sure all of America will know that if we are recruited due to our astounding beauty to be in this contest, well we now know the path will be filled with trickery and we would be on our best behavior. No?
We might believe that the current crop of contenders might be clueless as to what goes on behind their backs, myself and yon readers will already know the secret of the game.
We shall see.
The Bachelor-Deanna’s Reject Tries Again
ABC’s Home Site for this series
His name is Jason, he’s very cute, and he has a cute little boy.
Single parents, of either sex, are all the rage. For we must sympathize and mourn he or she left alone to care for a child even though, in entirely too many cases, single parenthood was a choice and not a product of fate.
This is certainly not the case, at least as I ascertain, with Bachelor Jason but my editorial attempts to explain the appeal of the poor single parent with a soft suggestion that single parents are often that as a choice as opposed to life’s tribulations.
I’m not sure, in fact, just why Jason is raising his son alone. The child surely has a mother and even in this more enlightened world, it’s still odd for a mother to leave her child, even if with his or her own biological father.
There are references to Jason’s marital status, which is divorce. So Jason was once married to Ty’s mother, is married to her no longer, and has custody of their son.
Women are suckers for this sort of story, much more so than a male would be. A female’s mothering instinct is way stronger than a male’s fathering instinct. Thus more females would likely seek to help Jason “mother” Ty than a male would seek to serve as surrogate father for a single mother.
I understand that plenty of males across the fruited plains assume the role of stepfather to children not sired by them but hey, you haven’t seen any bachelorettes, or even contenders for The Bachelor now that I think about it, that were single mothers, before this season.
Sure enough on the premiere show of The Bachelor, every one of the female contenders for Jason’s heart were positively sappy about Jason and cute little Ty.
In the first show, twenty five of them showed up. Their careers ranged from teacher to advertising executive, to sales representative, to two flight attendants, a Lacrosse coach, something called a “charity accountant”, a wedding coordinator and a menswear buyer.
They came from Kansas, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Brazil and Canada. Their ages ranged from 23 through 32,34 and Renee, coming in at 36 years of age.
We even have one Deanna lookalike. Her name is Melissa and she got a rose on premiere night.
DeAnna Pappas, for those who might not know, is the bachelorette who herself was rejected by Brad Womack, a creep of a fellow who led a bevy of beauties on then decided none of them were good enough for him.
DeAnna then became a bachelorette and she chose, unbelievably, a silly snowboarder as the love of her life. Jason was one of the final two but DeAnna, who has since broken up with her snow boarder, rejected Jason.
I made some notes about this year’s contenders. Look for buzz words of this show like “connection” (means sexual attraction) and “journey” (means signing up for this rather silly show).
The bachelor must always speak in very correct language. Sex can be alluded to but only faintly and only as applies to others. For surely this fine fellow does not want to engage in matters of the flesh with this bevy of pretty females all throwing themselves at him. Horrors to such a thought!
Quite a few of this season’s contenders have kids themselves. Megan has a 14 month old son. Megan is quite notorious as she was voted off by the group in a new element to this series. The contenders vote for someone they’d like to see sent home. Only the surprise was that Megan was given a rose and allowed to stay even if they thought they were voting to send her home. Erica and Jackie were second and third in that contest, respectively. Jason saw fit to keep Erica around but Jackie was sent packing.
Jason spoke with host about DeAnna and he only said good things about her. Well he has to do this. It wouldn’t do for the Bachelor so adored by a bevy of pretty contenders to go calling the one who rejected him so meanly the prior season as the bitch she is.
Which is not to say I thought DeAnna was a bad person. She was, if I had to characterize, about as boring a person as one can be with a very, very nice body.
Stacie has two kids but Jason sent her home. One contender’s name is “Treasure” if my hearing is right. Only one of the contenders asked about Ty, interesting. Shannon called herself a “stalker”…weird. Dominique, who got sent home, was the silliest of them all. Jillian gave some sort of crazy hot dog test supposed to tell all about a man based on how he dresses his hot dog. Sharon actually quit her job to enter this contest. Sharon says she feels a “connection” between her and Jason.
Yeah, well they all say that.
The top fifteen were (with notes on some):
Nikki-got the first impression rose
Megan-voted off by rest of contenders
Lauren
Kari
Naomi
Natalie
Molly
Sharon-quit job to enter this contest
Raquel
Stephanie-lost husband in plane crash, 34 years old, watch her to go to the finals…she’s got a sob story that perfectly compliments this show, has a daughter
Melissa-looks like Deanna
Jillian-gave hot dog test, says Jason, with mustard on his dog, is a family man
Shannon-calls herself a stalker
Lisa
Erica-came in number 2 to be booted off by rest of contenders
Below a blend of what I considered telling scenes from the premiere of The Bachelor, 2009
