The Weather and Everyone's Health

Monday, December 11, 2006

Department of the Letter-but-not-the-Spirit

Exhibit A: Today I saw a girl wearing skanky close-fitting jeans, skanky chic close-fitting boots, a leather jacket along the same lines and....a headscarf!

Exhibit B: So Radio 2 is having a year-end popmasters tournament. As near as I can figure, this means that the big winners of their daily trivia quiz are now competing against each other (like Jeopardy's Tournament of Champion, except for a 2-minute trivia quiz). So anyway, today they had this guy on and he had to name 10 Christmas movies in 30 seconds. The first movie he named was ....Die Hard! and the second was Die Hard 2! He said "they're set at Christmas, after all!"

I've had two cups of coffee today (one at breakfast, one at lunch), which is two more than my usual dosage of zero cups (this was actual coffee, not decaf). I'm a genius! If only I could get both my eyes to look at the same thing at the same time I could write the world's best Statement of Purpose!

Ok, I don't think this is related, but I have to share. Today there is an article in Salon denouncing Paris Hilton. I never really got what the big deal with her was (except that she seems to have fallen out of a Fellini film to demonstrate the imminent fall of Western civilization), but I think I must welcome this article. Just as moderate Muslims and Christians must distance themselves from and discourage the practices of religious extremists, so also must sensible liberals(?) distance themselves from the excesses of consumerism and all that other crap involving uqbiquitous images of underdressed vapid blonde women. (that was supposed to be funny, but now I'm not sure if I meant it as a joke or not)

In case I didn't mean it as a joke, here's a quote: Kay S. Hymowitz [sums up] quite neatly Hilton's role as a "synonym for American materialism, bad manners, greed ... parochialism, arrogance, promiscuity, antifeminism, exposed roots and navels, entitlement, cell-phone addiction, anorexia and bulimia, predilection for gas-guzzling private transportation, pornified womanhood, exhibitionism, [and] narcissism.... a composite of contemporary American sins."
Now surely, non-conservative people (and perhaps some conservative people) of all stripes can be united in their opposition to that list above!

- posted by k @ 10:19 AM