Will Everyone Refuse to Evacuate Next Time?

There were fears that Hurricane Irene was going to do a lot of damage to New Jersey and Long Island, New York, would be as bad as Katrina, perhaps.

So thousands of people were ordered to leave their homes. (And public transportation was shut down, which seemed odd to me. How are people supposed to leave their homes if they can't get a bus or train out of town?)

In any event, the hurricane kept lessening, so that it turned into a tropical storm rather than a hurricane, and supposedly there was no need for most people to have left their homes.

And the weathermen and guvmint is being laughed at for this "non-event."

And I'm thinking. Shouldn't you be thanking either God or your lucky stars (being an atheist, I'd just thank karma) that you've got a home to go back to? Consider it good practice for the next time you have to evacuate - which might be a real emergency, so then you'll be better prepared!

Weathermen

It has been the trend for many years - who knows, maybe foreever - that whenever high winds or torrential rain is happening, the weatherman/woman and his crew go out into this deluge and the weatherman is filmed shouting at the camera while meantime trying to hold his balance against the winds.

How stupid is this? First - the guy/gal is saying "everyone stay indoors" while htey are out in the elements.

If people are too stupid to believe someone in a nice cozy weatherroom saying - "The winds are trememndously strong and its very dangerous, stay inside," they will be equally as stupid and unconvinced to see a weather man actually out in the weather saying it.

Then there was the case yesterday - yet another Youtube video - of a weathercaster who was standing by a beach - I think this was in New York rather than Virginia Beach, the waves are pounding him and all of a sudden he's covered in "toxic foam" - as raw sewage starts to wash over him.

If he gets sick, one wonders if he'll sue his TV station for making him do it, and if the practice will now cease.

Teenage men in Virginia Beach

There's a video up on Youtube (still up now but may go soon for copyright infringement) of a weatherman in Virgnia Beach, VA talking about how dangerous it is out on the streets and how everyone should stay home for the next day or so.

And while he talks, cars are driving by, and teenage boys - I'd say 18 to 20, actually, so perhaps "young men" is a better term - running past him in their swimsuts. One of whom, dressed in red trunks, pulls them down and then pirouhettes so that we not only see his buttocks but also his penis hanging out.

At least those guys had the courtesy to go behind the weatherman. Within the next few minutes, one guy came by in front of the weatherman, doing some silly little dance that he obviously thought was cool, and then a couple of others just walked past with grins on their faces.

Irene has apparently weakened considerably so that there's every chance that these people did not return to flooded out homes or get knocked over and killed by tree limbs or falling light poles on their way home - which is a pity.

Meantime...some people have died, albeit a mere handful, but property damage is extensive.

K-Mart Back to School ad

I'm watching TNT, and just saw the ad, although I've seen it several times over the past couple of weeks at least.

Its an advertisement for backpacks and clothes with which to go back to school.

Education isn't highlighted at all, it's all about the social aspect of school, including one shot where a teenager is walking down a hallway with his arms around the waists of two teenage girls, one on each side of him.

What's up with that?

My Idiot Brother (movie)

Well, I find the trailer pretty offensive. Actor Paul Rudd plays the Idiot Brother, apparently, a bearded guy in this thirties who has apparently never grown up. (One of the scenes shown is him holding a fruit juice box between his legs and pressing it so he looks like he's urinating - and he's doing this in front of a couple of grown ups and a kid.

Rudd plays Ned, a stoner who has frizzled his neurons to the point that he has lost any ability to detect or dish out B.S. The poster child for what it means to be ingenuous, Ned is a trusting, playful, adorable stray puppy who isn't quite housebroken. So you-know-what hits the fan when his three sisters serially take him in after his release from jail. He's nothing but tsuris. It's no wonder that his most enduring relationship is with his dog, Willie Nelson.

Thanks to Rudd's everyman persona and the genial obliviousness he brings to Ned, you can't help but feel empathy. As with a suspense film where the audience knows what's going to happen but the characters are still in the dark, you want to yell out to warn Ned before he screws up again. His perfect comic timing and the made-to-order script make sure you get the most laughs from his predicament. Luckily, there's more to him than just bad luck. He's also an endearing white angel on the shoulders of his sisters, helping them fight their devils as he becomes an unwitting catalyst for change.

The old cliche...this seems to be an update of "Being There" with Peter Sellers, where the innocent teaches the knowledgeable all about life and love.

Only in this case, the "Idiot Brother" is an idiot not because he was born that way and can't help it, but because he's a "stoner" - someone who has done drugs for so long that their brain is frazzled.

In real life such a man (or woman) would be dead in a ditch somewhere - in Hollywoodlalaland, he goes about changing everyone else's lives for the better.

As usual, a very bad role model for anyone.

I can not help but be reminded of an actor named Jan-Michael Vincent. Forty years or so ago, I saw him as a very young, handsome, very buff man in a Disney movie, Nanu, King of the Jungle or some similar title.

Thirty years later, I saw him on some "What Happened to Them" show. His face was haggard and drawn...he could barely speak, he could barely walk. Apparently all throughout his series Airwolf (which I never watched) he was an alcoholic. He drank so much that he fried his brain.

And the contrast.... from what he had been to what he now was (now being the 80s), it was enough, I would have thought, to make anyone who saw what happened to him, give up drinking, or drugging.

But of course, drug and drink abuse is worse now than its ever been.

Two Broke Girls - sitcom

Situation comedies have "tropes".

A trope, for example, is the dumb/innocent/kooky blond. In the Mary Tyler Moore show from years ago, it was Georgia Engels character. In Designing Women, it was Jean Smart's character. In The Golden Girls, it was Betty White's character.

Now we've got

Two Broke Girls.
Set in New York City, the series chronicles the lives of two waitresses in their twenties—Max (Kat Dennings), who comes from a poor working-class family, and Caroline (Beth Behrs), who was born rich but is now down on her luck—working together at a Brooklyn restaurant. The two become fast friends and build their dream of one day opening a cupcake shop (for which they need to raise $250,000), although they can barely afford anything with the pay they receive at work, and must continually find ways to make ends meet. Among those working with them at the restaurant are their boss, Han Lee; Oleg, a cook; and Earl, the cashier.

The rich girl is of course blonde and stupid, the working-class girl is smart and of course a wise-acre.

And what's the upshot of it? Another TV sit-com in which women are portrayed as either waitresses, or moms, or basically - women in dead-end jobs.

Of course women in drama series are cast in "roles of power" - Rizolli and Isles, The Closer, Law and Order SVU - but what TV shows get watched more often, sit coms with horny male adolescents and stupid women, or dramas?

In addition to the sitcoms, of course there are the commercials - and they have their stereotypes as well. In the commercials, the dads are invariably stupid, the moms smart, and the kids of course sarcastic and know-it-all and so much smarter than their parents.

Photoshopping out the truth

The real Mark Sanchez

Many magazines have photoshopped or airbrushed the people who appear on their covers - usually gossip magazines who show women.

So it was interesting to see a guy get the same treatment. Mark Sanchez, quarterback for the New York Jets, has six moles on his cheek. In the GQ cover, there are no moles.

Why?

Geico Commercial - "that's a complete dramatisation"

There's a Geico commercial that I've seen several times. It features the gekko talking about what types of coverage Geico offers, and then he says, "and you can get an English muffin with jam. Ohhh, tasty." The Gekko continues to walk for a few seconds, then says, "Of course, that's a complete dramatisation."

No, it isn't. What he meant to say was fabrication, but either the gekko isn't too smart, or the person writing the commercial isn't.

A dramatisation is what crime shows do - actors re-enact a particular crime with perpetrator or victim. Or a true story is told in fictional formatas for example the Titanic movies are a dramatisation of the actual Titanic tragedy. But that isnt' the same as the gekko telling everyone a complete lie, that if you go to a Geico office you're going to get an English muffin with jam.

Of course, it's meant to be funny - but the thing is ...why hasn't anyone noticed he's using the wrong word? Or do they not care because they think no one else will notice?

Two and A Half Men - the "Meat Explosion"

I despise Two and a Half Men, and it looks like there's much to despise in the season open. Charlie Sheen's character has been killed off - apparently shoved in front of a train by his new wife because she caught him cheating.

So.... murder is going to be made out to be funny. Will the new wife go to jail or will she get a medal - that will doubtless not be made clear.

And what's really, really sad... Charlie Sheen, who should be undergoing counseling for wasting his life, gets to star in another TV series, Anger Management, which obviously is capitlizing on his off-screen troubles, of which he should be ashamed, and should not be rewarded.

But, no, the guy has made a mess of his life, and he still has fans who will no doubt wnat to emulate him. Very, very sad..

Charlie Sheen's TV death brings laughter and tears

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - At Charlie Sheen's faux funeral on "Two and a Half Men," there will definitely be tears -- of laughter.

While CBS and Warner Bros. Television have remained stubbornly tight-lipped about the upcoming season premiere of "Two and a Half Men" -- which taped last Friday, and airs on September 19 -- Sheen's former co-star Jon Cryer appeared on Los Angeles television station KTLA to discuss the series reboot.

The new season reportedly will open with a funeral for Sheen's character, playboy jingle-writer Charlie Harper, and according to Cryer, Harper's demise will be a laugh-riot.

"I'm not allowed to say much about it," Cryer said, before divulging, "I can tell you this, it's funny."

Reports last week indicated that Sheen's character would meet his demise by being nudged in front of a train in Paris by his new bride Rose, after getting caught cheating -- resulting in a "meat explosion."

Without revealing specifics, Cryer noted that the farewell won't be as gruesome as all that. He also said that at Friday's taping, his new co-star Ashton Kutcher "tore the roof off the joint."

Sheen is surprisingly enthusiastic about getting killed off from the hit series. The 45 year-old actor -- who's gearing up to star in a sitcom based on the Jack Nicholson movie "Anger Management" -- told TMZ on Wednesday that he's "honored" to be going out in such a locomotive fashion.

"I am honored that it took something as large and violent as an oncoming train to terminate my character," Sheen said. "Anything less would have been an insult!"

Toddlers and Tiaras (reality show)

Oh my god...

I just turned on the TLC channel and I see an obscenity called Todders and Tiaras.

Mothers dress up their toddlers - their toddlers, in other words 2 years old! - in grown-up dresses and show them off like one would do a dressed-up pet dog.

Just saw a clip of a toddler "five years later." Her face was covered with pancake makeup, eyeshadow, lipstick the whole 90 yards, and although we just saw her upper torso, not moving, I'd be willing to bet cash money that when she walked she slinked, grinding her hips from left to right in order to catch the eye of any 6 or 7 year old boy who might be watching and validate her existence by giving her a wolf-whistle or rushing up for a quick feel or kiss.

How incredibly obscene. And shame on the parents for treating their children like showdogs.

Baseball traditions

I'm watching the Boston Red Sox vs the New York Yankees. Prior to the start of the game, they showed the "benches clearing brawl" that took place yesterday between the Giants and the Phillies.

What happened was, the pitcher hit the batter. The batter threw down his bat, waited a few seconds, then headed for the pitcher. The catcher grabbed hold of him, and the umpire got in front of him.

And that would have been it. Situation defused.

But someone from each team just had to head toward their man, in order to "protect" him from being hit by the other perosn, and no one in that situation can remain on the bench without being hazed by his team mates for refusing to get involved in some stupid scuffle.

So everyone came out. And now that the benches are cleared, the batter apparently decided that with his team behind him, he'd better show that he actually had wanted to attack the pitcher.

MLB needs to make a new rule - just as NBA has done - that anyone who leaves the bench - or the field - during a fight, is banned five or six games. Let the umpires separate the players if they are getting involved in a fight. Everyone else should just stay out of it.

Haines commericials with Michael Jordon

I think this is a pretty old commercial, but I've seen it a couple of times today on ESPN.

Michael Jordan sitting in his place seat minding his own business, and some middle aged white guy comes up to him and shows him that he's wearing Hanes. And then he does some squats to show how well fitting they are.

And I'm like, Jee-suz. First of course is the fact that we've got a white guy making a fool of himself. And yes it would be just as offensive if a black guy were doing it, but you could never cast a black guy in such a commercial because there'd be such a fuss about racism. But having a white guy as a kowtowing idiot...perfectly all right.

Bottom line - there should be no commercials in which one of the two people involved is a kowtowing idiot.

In addition, you do have to wonder about real life. If someone did that in real life, to come up to a total stranger and show off their underwear - they'd get beaten to a pulp.

Just a stupid, stupid commercial all around.

Repo Games - reality series

There's so much devolution media surrounding us these days that the trick is to find something that doesn't de-evolve people.

Watching CSI: NY, an episode called Blink, another episode where the victims are women who are killed in extremely sadistic ways. (I wonder if that's part of the attraction of these types of shows - CSI: NY, Criminal Minds, Numbers, etc., the sadistic ways in which the victims, usually women, are killed), at 11.30 am, and there's a commercial for Repo Games.

And of course the "game" is populated by thugs, apparently people - one big black and one big white guy, going around repossessing people's cars as if it were a game. And in this particular commercial, their adversary is a big black woman who has a pretty high leg kick, and she of course is swearing at them and threatening them not to take her car.

And people watch this?

What do they learn? That if you don't pay your car bills, and someone comes to take back your car, you have the right to try to beat up on them.