A Mule In Red Petticoats Is Still A Mule

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And dressing it up in them in the first place is a BAD idea. Just as bad as the idea that PBS is now floating, according to a New York Times newspaper article I read in Friday's Omaha World-Herald, which also reported that the idea was broached last week to PBS member stations.

It's bad enough that (1) the "sponsor blocks" at the beginning and end of each program are looking ever more like broadcast TV ads [and indeed, some of them actually ARE those ads--Ed.]; (2) those "sponsor blocks" are taking up ever more time out of each hour's programming; (3) we have to endure pledge drives that used to run once a year, then twice, and now seemingly every other month. What's worse is that the smooth narrative flow of PBS programs would be hopelessly compromised, thus making PBS indistinguishable from any other network's programming.

Maybe this is an April Fool's Day joke by a procrastinator, though I doubt that. Maybe this is an idea the PBS executives are floating to scare member stations and members into giving more money as a result of the renewed vigor of the Republican Party's push to defund PBS. A more plausible notion, but rather more Machiavellian than I'd hope PBS executives are. Maybe we really ARE at the "end of days" and this is one more sign that the apocalypse is nigh. No . . . that's too paranoid, even for me. Most likely, however, it's the GOP's recognition that what cannot be done directly can be done indirectly. If the GOP cannot neuter PBS by defunding it, it can neuter PBS by making its programming indistinguishable from everyone else's, and further inure us to having microscopically short attention spans, to boot.

Whatever else it may be, however, it is definitely one thing: it's a BAD idea. So much so that, in a beautifully ironic twist, it ought to be the subject of a Geico automobile insurance commercial.

If PBS is going to make me watch sponsors' ads in the middle of PBS programming, I will stop watching and stop contributing to PBS. I'll just wait till PBS sells the programs to cable networks like the Discovery Channel, and watch them there. I can put up with pledge drives. I can put up with commercials. I will NOT put up with both during the same program.

OMG Moments of the Week

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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!!!!!

It's The End Of The World As I Know It

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And I'm not sure I feel fine. I just read an article in "The Huffington Post," by Larry FLint . . . and, I am ashamed to admit, I agree with much of what he said. God help me--the man is a total sleazeball, who made a huge fortune off the exploitation and degradation of women, but when he's correct, he's correct. He said that the real war in America isn't between the left and the right--it's between the rich and the poor . . . and he's on the side of the poor, because the rich are systematically screwing them over while also reducing the middle class to poverty.

I cannot even begin to describe the depth of my own consternation at this turn of events. I am trying to comfort myself with the wisdom of the late, great Ann Landers: even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Granted, she was talking about an analog, 12-hour-cycle clock, but still . . .

Maybe I'll feel not so disgusted with myself about it once the shock wears off. In the meantime, I'm going to go wash. With lots of soap. "Unclean! Unclean!"

Le Roi Est Mort! Vive Le Roi!

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Count me among those stunned by the news of Michael Jackson's death yesterday. After all, he was younger than I am, and supposedly in substantially better health than I. He had recently passed a physical taken to confirm his ability to carry out his 50-performance "comeback" tour that had been scheduled to start in London next month.

What saddens me the most about Jackson is that he never learned how to accept himself. All those plastic surgeries . . . and he was actually better-looking in the "Before" photos than he was in the "After" ones. He spent virtually all his life under public scrutiny; he was incredibly talented; he was shrewd and smart about many, many things [he created the moniker "The King of Pop"--Ed.]--but at the same time, he was very lonely, and he repeatedly engaged in what can be most charitably described as ill-considered behavior which produced unintended and unpleasant (for him and us) consequences.

It's an archetypal story, that of the genius who attains true brilliance at an early age and who spends the rest of his life trying, unsuccessfully, to match, let alone exceed, past successes. It typically comes to such a sad end. The greatest sadness is that in this case, it didn't have to. I learned yesterday that Jackson idolized Sammy Davis, Jr., and regarded his as a mentor. It makes perfect sense, and it reveals (to me, at least) an entire new dimension to Jackson's dancing style. It's just too bad that Jackson didn't learn some of Davis's mental grit. But then again, most of us idolize those whose character traits seem somehow better than ours . . . and in important ways, Jackson was a gentle child who never had to face adult realities until it was too late for him to develop the grown-up perspective and mental toughness (á la Davis) to comprehend the consequences of some of his actions, let alone to deal with the fallout from them.

I mourn his passing. I celebrate his genius. I kick myself for hearing in my head Weird Al Yankovic's parodies of some of Jackson's best mature work instead of Jackson's originals. Most of all, however, I hear the angelic tones of the 10-year-old Jackson's lead on "I'll Be There." I hope he finds the inner peace and self-acceptance suggested by that vocal that eluded him during his time with us mere mortals.