From the ridiculous to the sublime:
OMG moment the first (the ridiculous): Mattel, for a few decades now, has made and marketed a series of dolls based on the popular (to pre-teen girls, anyway) "American Girl" series. Fair enough. But within the past week or so, Mattel made a HUGE mistake, because it has put itself in a no-win situation. It has released for sale one "Gwen," the latest American Girl . . . and she's homeless.
Mattel says the doll will teach "valuable lessons about life." Given the general response, I beg to differ. The doll costs $95, an irony apparently completely lost on Mattel. Advocates for the homeless and for battered women are offended by the concept of a company making profit off the worst miseries of others. And the girls to whom the doll is marketed have totally missed Mattel's putative point. On the American Girl website, the girls are posting complaints that Gwen doesn't have accessories or other outfits.
OMG!!!!!
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OMG moment the second (the sublime): I awoke this morning to the news that President Obama has been awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize, largely for the change in tone he has bought to world affairs, his focus on engagement, consensus, and getting rid of nuclear weapons. He's the 4th American president to be given the award (and the 3rd to receive it while still in office). The Nobel Committee has acknowledged that the award this year is based more on aspirations than on actual accomplishments, but it's their award, and they can give it to whomever they please.
It was a total shock, however, given the list of other worthy candidates, such as past winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been using the power of the bully pulpit for decades now to encourage a peaceful change in government in Burma (Myanmar) despite being kept under "house arrest" for virtually all that time.
My own OMG reaction was surprised delight. Even if reactionary forces here are driven to cheering when America gets an international rebuff, such as losing the bid for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, and even if this brings still more howls of outrage from the self-emaciated Right, it's a huge win for America and the world-wide understanding of what America offers and can be when at her best. It's not a personal triumph for Obama, though he can rightly take pride in it. The Right will try to cast it as another loss for Obama, however, probably claiming that it shows how he kowtows to others in the world. If it weren't so sad, I'd laugh out loud. The ONLY people in the whole world who do NOT get what America is really about are those on the far Right, who claim to be the only ones who DO get it.
OMG!!!!!
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OMG moment the third (sublimely ridiculous): I should have bought a PowerBall ticket last night. Every channel change I made while surfing cable TV sports events last night was at the absolutely perfect moment. I switched to the Dodgers game just as they started their improbable, bottom-of-the-ninth-with-two-out comeback victory over the Cardinals. I then bounced mostly between the Red Sox-Angels game and the Nebraska-Missouri football game. I was back to baseball just as Torii Hunter hit his three-run homer that gave the Angels the lead, and ultimately a 5-0 win; I saw a couple of really bad NU plays during the football game (like the safety and the defense yet again giving up a huge gain on a deep pass), but I came back to football just as NU took control of the game in the 4th quarter, on its way to a 27-12 win.
OMG!!!!!
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