It's been a quiet week. The Lutheran and Catholic churches observe Ash Wednesday, the story of the Bugs Peterson Gang's 1936 train robbery, and memories of the awkwardness of Valentine's Day in grade school.
0 Comments
I mentioned the other day how current Supreme Court Stephen Breyer once appeared as a guest on the wonderful, NPR current events comedy show, Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!", playing the "Not My Job" quiz. I tracked down the date, which was May 24, 2007. And even more happily, I was able to track down the segment.
The "Not My Job" quiz is where the show's creator and host Peter Sagal (pronounced "SAY-gul") briefly and whimsically interviews the public figure guest who's called in and then asks three questions in some area having absolutely nothing to do with their area of expertise. It's always amusing to find out how far away from that expertise the topic is. If the guest answers two questions correctly, a pre-selected listener wins a prize. Most especially with the Supreme Court in the news so prominently, I figured that this would be as good a time as any to play it. Oyez, oyez. Here, on a quiz show, is the good Justice. Okay, this will mean next-to-nothing for most people, and they (and by "they" I mean you...) will likely and understandably skip it, but how can I not post it? Last June, the Chicago Blackhawks won their third Stanley Cup Championship in the past six years, and yesterday the National Hockey League champs made their visit to the White House to be honored by fellow Chicagoan and sports fan President Obama. This is the video of the ceremony. As I said, most people will have zero interest in watching this. However, at the 9:45 mark, there is a fun presentation that you might want to jump to. I think it's amusing enough to make the minimal effort. A slight background to put the moment is a bit of perspective. Whenever a champion sports team is invited to the White House, they always bring gives for the president -- a jersey with his name on it (like you see below), and some such things. And dignitaries bring gifts. And all through the president's stay in office, he gets gifts. And the Blackhawks are no different, they come bearing gifts. But -- among their gifts, there is one that might be the best a president has gotten, given to him by team president Rocky Wirtz. At the very least, this is probably the best gift that President Obama has gotten. By his reaction, you can tell that he was certainly surprised and pleased by it. No, it's not something that's critically wonderful, but I don't think there's any sports fan anywhere who wouldn't really appreciate it. And keep in mind as you watch that Barack Obama is from Chicago and a sports fan, and the father of two, and (unlike most presidential gifts) may actually have great use for it after he returns home following his term in office. A few year back, Cesar Millan stopped doing his The Dog Whisperer show and changed the format to one called, Cesar 911. It's very similar, often the biggest difference is that some neighbor calls him in to help, and they surprise the owner with the dog problem. There are a few other differences, but that's largely it. And I suspect sometimes there aren't many differences at all.
Occasionally, his shows have had a celebrity guest. Once they had comedian Paul Rodriguez. Another time, Kelsey Grammar. Today (Friday) is the start of the new season, and they're featuring yet another celebrity with a dog problem -- Jerry Seinfeld. (The promos show a couple of maniacal small dogs, and then cutting to Cesar Millan saying to the camera, "If that one is the 'good dog," I hate to see the other." Then they have Seinfeld sardonically commenting about how Cesar has fixed every single dog he's worked with, but this one...it's just not going to be possible.) The show airs at 6 PM and PM in Los Angeles, which I assume is 9 PM and midnight in the East. The channel that the show is on is Nat Geo Wild. This is from the National Geographic group, and in L.A. on Time-Warner cable in my area it's channel 130. On his radio program the other day, dear Glenn Beck chimed in to add his insane voice to the fine group of conspiracy theorists about who killed Justice Antonin Scalia. However, his theory was a bit different than most others. ("A bit" in this case will be defined as "an unbridgeable gulf of a distance so vast that known physics don't allow a connection.) Mr. Beck believes it was an act of God. No, not in the sense that the phrase is used, an inexplicable event out of Man's control. No, Glenn Beck actually means it was a specific action taken by the Lord Almighty. It was God intentionally smiting down Justice Scalia as a way to frighten conservatives so much into seeing the alternative if a true conservative isn't elected president. (It should be noted that Mr. Beck is a vociferously support of Ted Cruz, to the extent that he broke down supposedly "weeping" when he gave his endorsement. But then, Glenn Beck "weeps" the same way gardeners turn on sprinklers as part of the job...) Really. Glenn Beck says that God killed Antonin Scalia. Where is Lt. Columbo to bring out the handcuffs when you need him? Here the radio showman is, explaining in the words of God how he believes the Supreme Being would explain it all to voters-- "I just woke the American people up. I took them out of the game show moment and woke enough of them up to say, look at how close your liberty is to being lost. You now have lost your liberty. You replace one guy, and you now have 5-4 decisions in the other direction. Just with this one guy, you've lost your liberty -- so you'd better elect somebody that's going to put somebody on (the Supreme Court) because for the next 30 years, if you don't, the Constitution as you know it... the Constitution is hanging by a thread. That thread has just been cut, and the only way that we survive now is if we have a true constitutionalist." You want to know the really lunatic thing about this? Oh, okay, yes, of course, you know what the "really lunatic thing" about this is. That's a given. But I mean, if you strip away the certifiable craziness and religious ranting and are left with the "reasoning" behind the explanation on the assumption that anyone would try to believe this. The really lunatic thing about this that the explanation is based on the premise that God wants someone elected who would put a "true constitutionalist" in Justice Scalia's seat on the bench. Now, first, if a "true constitutionalist" was so deeply important to God that He would kill Antonin Scalia, then that means He, being a "true constitutionalist" Himself would want the current president to also follow the Constitution to the absolute letter of the original intent. And that means God wants President Obama to nominate a replacement now, which the Senate would vote on now -- not obstruct until after the election. And second, if God actually felt the divine urge to kill a sitting justice just so He could add a "true constitutionalist" there...why not kill one of the liberals?? Merely keeping the status quo seems like such an incredibly inefficient and inexplicably poor use of Godly powers. But finally -- and perhaps most of all -- if God's Plan was that He really, honestly, wanted a "true constitutionalist" in that seat on the Supreme Court...then why -- WHY in God's name didn't He just freaking leave Antonin Scalia in it??!!!! This is a well-done and amusing video from the Funny or Die website with Kristen Bell playing Mary Poppins who quits the Banks household because...well, let her tell you about the reason. It's not as hilarious a song as one would wish, but it's definitely fun and she does a lovely job. And the re-creation is meticulous, down to the Disney-style logo for the Funny or Die credits. Kristen Bell, in case you were unaware, is a trained musical-comedy stage actress. In fact, while she was starring on TV in her Veronica Mars series, I saw her on stage in an L.A.Opera production at the Ahmanson Theatre of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music -- and almost most-impressively, taking on a small, supporting role as the granddaughter, rather than a major starring role. (I wrote about it here.) She had played the role a few years earlier in a Washington, D.C. production, pre-Veronica Mars stardom, and when they put the production back together for Los Angeles, she agreed to do the show again, |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|
© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2024
|