The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
About Tony Kornheiser
I’ve read several articles about Tony Kornheiser’s suspension from his post at ESPN for making snarky comments about an outfit his colleague Hannah Storm was wearing on the air. I like this one the best, from the New York Daily News, since it actually shows a picture of the outfit. Here is the quote they cited:
“Hannah Storm in a horrifying, horrifying outfit today,” Kornheiser said. “She’s got on red go-go boots and a Catholic-school plaid skirt. … Way too short for somebody in her 40s or maybe early 50s by now. She’s got on her typically very, very tight shirt. She looks like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body.
I know she’s very good, and I’m not supposed to be critical of ESPN people, so I won’t. But Hannah Storm, Come on now! Stop! What are you doing? She’s what I would call a Holden Caulfield fantasy at this point.”
So. I checked out the picture and think that everything he said is true..except the “sausage casing” part. That was entirely wrong. I think Hannah Storm is out of her mind to wear such a thing on the air. I am allowed to say that, because I am a private citizen talking about a public figure. But here is the thing:
You don’t say that stuff about a co-worker. I don’t want to go all HR on you, but seriously. Kornheiser says snarky stuff about plenty of people, and perhaps plenty of co-workers. He is practically paid for the snark. And I absolutely believe that he would just as easily rip on a male colleague’s wardrobe. But those comments were entirely too personal to be tolerated in the workplace, let alone said on the air.
To Kornheiser’s credit, he made what appears to be a sincere apology and seems to be accepting of his suspension. But perhaps I am being optimistic.
The Poetry of John Milton, Lectures by John Rogers
The Poetry of John Milton is the second course I have gone through on Academic Earth. As I’ve said, I picked it because I have had Paradise Lost on my shelf for years and nearly half of the lectures were on that piece alone.
The instructor was Yale professor John Rogers, and I loved him. He called Milton “the greatest of all the English poets” more than once. He was like the New England Yankee version of a high school English teacher I had – Ted Belch for you District 225 kids. I couldn’t stand Mr. Belch at 14. He was so into the language and everything was dramatic and erotic and I thought he was insane. But listening to Rogers do the same thing made me want to go back to high school for a week to see if I could better appreciate Mr. Belch and Candide.
Well. Not Candide. Candide was lame.
The course begins with some earlier Milton works, including some political prose. If I hadn’t understood Milton through the lens of the Restoration, I would have missed a whole lot about Paradise Lost. This is why school is cool.
There is a lot of discussion of Milton’s politics, and education, and religion and family relations and how they relate to each of the published works. Rogers makes it all sound so personal.
I didn’t read each of the assignments the way the students were required to, and I am certainly not an English major, but I think I got a lot out of it. And I see that there is a course on the Old Testament, which seems to be where Rogers and Milton are driving me.
I love this web site.
What Would Brian Boitano Make?
People. On what planet am I living that I did not know that Brian Freakin’ Boitano has a cooking show on the Food Network?! It is actually called, “What Would Brian Boitano Make?”
This is a clip of him on the Today Show with Meredith Veira earlier this week. I actually saw him this morning with (Former Chicago Anchorman) Lester Holt, which was better because Lester had been sampling the local microbrews all morning.
Oh. And I really can’t believe I forgot to tell my brother about this. I gotta call him.
She Thinks She is So Smart
I went grocery shopping today. I am one of those horrible, lazy people that leave the refridgerator door open the entire time I am unloading groceries. You know what Kiwi does when the door is open?
The Official Photo Album – Hawaii 2010
I am home; had a horrid trip back. Haven’t decided if that is worth writing about yet.
These are the pictures, if anyone cares to see the whole thing. They really look better in full screen. Couldn’t much be bothered to edit, so feel free to move along:
You Know You are a Grown Up When
On the morning of the last day of your vacation, you run out of sunscreen. Then you go to the hotel gift shop and buy some more.
Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen, by Lili’uokalani
Book 7
I want you all to know that I wrote Her Majesty’s name without looking; and spelled it correctly.
I found this at a charming bookstore in Kona next to the place where I had a really great burger. Don’t remember the names, but they were right off the Queen’s Highway.
The title is a misnomer. This isn’t a history of the country so much as a personal memoir of the end of Hawaii’s monarchy – she was forced to abdicate in 1894. It is a fine memoir in that the lady tells a compelling story, but it isn’t a real history. In fact, Lili’uokalani says herself that she cannot even reference her personal documents to write this book because they were confiscated by the provisional government when she was arrested and forced to abdicate.
Because I haven’t read any hard history of Hawaii, and in my day, U.S. history barely made it out of the 19th century, I haven’t a clue as to the relative truth of the Queen’s point of view. But apparently she wrote this piece as an appeal to the Good People of the United States to drop the idea of annexing Hawaii.
What I found fascinating is that the Queen seemed to think this type of conquest behavior wasn’t what America was all about:
“Is the American Republic of States to degenerate, and become a colonizer and a land-grabber?”
Ummmm….I was all ready to say, “Know thy enemy, Lady.” When I thought that perhaps she did know it, and these lines were disingenuous fawning and flattery. If that was true, more power to her.
Except that she lost that war.
My Midwestern Gen-X perspective is that at least since Pearl Harbor, Hawaii has been positively embraced as the tropical paradise of the United States. But recall that it has only been a state for 60 years or so. There must be people here that have parents and grandparents that did not wish to become part of the Union. It made me think of a couple of girls from Puerto Rico that lived on my floor at AU. The last thing they wanted was Puerto Rican statehood.
Sometimes, I think we are a vain, presumptuous, conquering people.
Petroglyphs
I noticed my first day that practically on property there is a “petroglyph field”. The old “King’s Trail” ran through here and when people camped out for the night, they carved stuff into the rocks. They are dated back 500 years. So first I head over to the King’s Trail:
Then all of the carvings started to look the same – like crop circles carved in rock. And then:
Neat Trick
I have been out of town and out of my usual routine for several days. And now my skin is breaking out again. It occurred to me that I haven’t exfoliated in a week and I am always being scolded for my lazy exfoliating habits.
Yes. I know exactly how ridiculous that sounds. Stay with me.
I recalled that an aesthetician once told me that if I couldn’t find a product I really liked, I should just take some sugar and blend it with my usual cleanser. So I took two sugar packets from the cup by the hotel room coffee maker and tried it.
It worked just fine. Of course, it is too early to tell if it is really going to do the trick, but it felt all right. So there you go – emergency exfoliator.
Living Dead in Dallas, by Charlaine Harris
Book 6
This novel picks up with Sookie Stackhouse all lovey-dovey with Bill the vampire and staffed out by Eric the Sheriff to some vampires in Dallas for some telepathic sleuthing. It also opens with the murder of LaFayette, who I really liked!
Harris expands on her supernatural world by displaying the way that vampires travel and introducing some other supernatural creatures that are just mean. She also lets Sookie grow up a bit, namely in getting it through her head that vampires drink blood and sometimes the urge to drink blood is so compelling that…oh, never mind. There was a fight, Sookie pouted, they made up with a lot of sex.
The Next Dark Age 