Everything I need to know I learned from Vanity Fair

So many reasons to love the ivory tower. This is one of them, from today's NYT. My response is that Paris Hilton recently turned 25, making her eligible for election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Anyone up for making her a left-wing shell candidate? I mean, if W can be president...

To the Editor:

Re "Celebrity Appeal Keeps Magazine Circulation Mostly Higher" (Business Day, Feb. 21):

Perhaps the fact that celebrity weeklies continue to climb while the newsweeklies stay flat is reflective of a society that, surrounded by upsetting news, prefers to keep its head in the sand.

One means of reducing the dissonance created by the perception that we have no power or influence on the world around us is to compartmentalize the problem and retreat from it into trivia, or in this case celebrity magazines.

Not surprisingly, many of us embrace a shallow worldview where things are understandable, predictable and controllable. Most of us can name the characters of our favorite television shows, but we flounder when asked for the names of cabinet officers, Supreme Court justices or leaders of other nations.

We display an increasing ability to take the trivial very seriously, in no small part because the trivial is understandable and nonthreatening.

Douglas Raybeck
Clinton, N.Y., Feb. 21, 2006
The writer is a cultural anthropologist and professor, Hamilton College.

Sometimes, you just need to rant

Dear guy on the plane who continued to take a call on his cel phone after a warning from the flight attendant and as the plane was taking off: Cool! Can you tell me where I can get the special permit that exempts you from FAA regulations? Thanks!

Dear cabbies who honked at me as I walked to work this morning with a roller suitcase: Where the hell are you people when I actually am hailing a cab? Maybe I should tote a roller suitcase around the hill to ensure that cabbies stop for me.

Dear waiter at the chain steakhouse next to my hotel in Warwick, Rhode Island: Thank you so much for your polite, prompt service, cute accent, and willingness to give me extra bread. You are the only person in my day who does not merit a snarky response.

Here's the thing about pandas

1. Keep them away from bright light.
2. Don't get any water on them.
3. Never, ever feed them after midnight.*

First shot across the bow

South Dakota's state legislature just passed an abortion ban bill that, when challenged, may help overturn Roe v. Wade. (WP)

Senate Democrats: you're the ones who folded over the Alito nomination. It's OK, and we understand. But don't come crying to us when the Supreme Court overturns Roe and your state-level colleagues have to start fighting this crap on a daily basis.

Geek rock gets geekier

For the fourth time, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo decides to drop out of a rock 'n' roll band and join college. (NYT)

Hiatus

Blogging infrequently for the next week or so...

Scooter squeals

I recently asked a couple of people who were around during Watergate whether that scandal seemed to unfold as gradually and confusingly as any of the mini-scandals that are currently rocking* the Bush administration, or whether it was clear from the get-go that that house of cards was coming down.

The general agreement was that it unfolded fairly gradually, and ultimately built to a crescendo that led to Nixon's resignation.

Thus, it is with satisfaction and hope that I take note of the latest Plamegate development: Libby was authorized "by superiors" to leak secret information to reporters. (WP) See, the thing is, when you're the vice president's chief of staff, it's not like there's a really long list of "your superiors."

*wellll...maybe "rocking" is a little extreme of a word. How about "gently tilting?"

Fashion writing is so weird

Frank Zappa once described rock journalism as "people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read." But fashion journalism is way, way worse. Based on my untutored (but still embarrassingly obsessive) reading of our nation's style pages, it seems to me that fashion reporters are encouraged to adopt a very strong, individual voice in their writing. Which would be great, if their voices weren't saying things like this:

"One good place to check out the number of playful tools for sartorial self-expression in a postfeminist era is the trillion little blogs on MySpace.com." (NYT)

You know those kids that were so good at bullshitting away an hour and a half in your sociology seminar back in college? Fashion writers. Fashion writers, all.

That wascally wabbit burned down the Danish embassy!

Thank goodness the guys at Wonkette got the screen capture on this one.









CNN has since changed the headline to be less ambiguously amusing.

Speaking of Wonkette, did I mention that I think I spotted one of the New Wonkettes* out on U Street the other night? Welcome to Washington, young funny blogger. You are the only person in the District who still wears low top Chuck Taylors, and I applaud you for it.

*I believe it was Alex Pareene, the guy on the right in this photo

Avoid cliches like the plague.

I still don't know whether I'm fully bought into the framing vogue.

And I definitely don't know whether we should be encouraging politicians and activists to beat all our metaphors to death in the service of progress and social justice. (See The Metaphor Project)

Someone's gotta stick up for the English language in the middle of all this...

"It's a start."

"Imagine if we could develop a passenger car that averaged more than 100 miles per gallon... Surprise — we have all that technology today! We even have a handful of demonstration vehicles to prove it. All we lack is bold political and corporate leadership to put this technology in play immediately." (Kristof in the NYT today)

Could it be?!?!? Is Nick Kristof making a valid, pro-environment point? And he actually got it completely right? After the "green nukes" thing, the North American cheetah reintroduction thing, and the totally naive "Death of Environmentalism" thing, I hardly thought it was possible. So is he saying here that we need to require automakers to use existing technology to increase auto fuel economy? Bang on!

Oh, wait...he's talking about plug-in hybrids.

Again, again, again--people. Where do you think the electricity to power the plug-ins comes from? It doesn't count as clean or renewable if you have to burn oil, coal, or gas to get it.

Washington Post daily politics trivia question

House Republicans elected John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) as their new majority leader on Thursday. What job did he work at night to help pay for college?

Janitor Correct Answer
Police officer
Trash collector
Bouncer Your Answer

Awww, but it would have been so cool if he had been a bouncer. He could totally pull that off.

Blogs I like (and don't) Vol. II

El Guapo. Original content. Great style. Love the Spanglish thing. Viva El Guapo!

Achenblog. Why do I not really like Joel Achenbach's blog at the Post? Because I always feel as though he's trying to be edgy and laugh-out-loud funny, but manages neither.

[Previously: Blogs I like (12/12/05)]