I keep reading the media reporting on someone else complaining that they aren't benefiting from the Affordable Care Act, generally because they already have insurance. My immediate reaction is if some people are upset that the health care law doesn't give THEM (and indeed everyone) a better deal than they have now, maybe they'd like to support Single Payer the next time around...
That's the thing. Single Payer would impact pretty much everyone. (If not everyone.) But the Republican Party fought that. They kept chipping away and chipping away at the law until only people in need would benefit the most. Fortunately that got through, and such people will benefit. Many others benefit, too, of course, just not as much. But the law, as whittled down by conservatives, is not intended to benefit all those who are now complaining that it doesn't benefit "them." Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised is most of those complaining are the ones who were most vocal against Single Payer. Because I suspect that people who supported the ACA understood what it was doing.
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You may have seen the ad for Pepsi MAX in which racecar driver Jeff Gordon disguises himself, goes for a test drive and scares the bejeepers out of the used car sales salesman. It's only part of the experience, and you're pointed to the full 3-1/2 minute video online. That video has gone viral and been viewed 16 million times. It's an entertaining ad, though a few things struck me as odd. For starters, it seemed like a very dangerous thing to do, something most athletes are loathe to do for the sake of a TV ad. It also seemed like strange environment, particularly when the salesman starts crying out, "You can't go through that!!" I did a little search, and it turns out...well, how about that, it is fake. As this article in the Washington Post here points out, they've gotten a lot of emails from car salesmen explaining the "problems" with the ad. One giveaway -- the car windshield is marked "2009 Camaro," and there was no 2009 Camaro. Also, as another salesman pointed out, what car dealership is set up at a warehouse with a test-drive track? And yes, as the article notes, the insurance on Gordon would have been excessive. One reader here even broke down the video in some detail, worthy of a trainee for CIA analyst. It's all fake. It's not even Jeff Gordon doing the driving, but a professional stunt driver. (That makes sense, since after all, what we see is isn't racetrack driving at all, but stunt work.) The video was produced by the advertising division of the Funny or Die website group. But regardless of being fake, as far as ads go it sure did what it set out to. 16 million Internet views attests to that. For those interested in such things, here's the full video -- As I've mentioned, the Email Interview began life years back on the Writers Guild of America website. I came up with a set of generic questions about writing with I would send out and let the recipients do all the work. On occasion though, I'd include a question or two more specifically directed to the writer doing the interview. In this case, I was a bit friendly with Phil Robinson and had heard him tell some of his stories often. So, I threw in a bunch of them extra here. E-Mail Interview with Phil Alden Robinson Edited by Robert J. Elisberg After beginning his career making industrial and educational films, Phil Alden Robinson decided to try his hand at network television and sold material to the show "Trapper John, M.D." Unfortunately, a series of strikes created several roadbumps, and his hoped-for career was forced to take a detour. As a result of one of these diversions, however, a screenplay he had written received notice from the movie studios. Eventually, Robinson made a most auspicious screenwriting debut into feature films in 1984. That year, he had two major movies released -- the award-winning "All of Me," and "Rhinestone," a script he dearly loves in its original draft and of which he was an outspoken critic of the process which caused its resultant changes. Three years later, he wrote the 1940s period comedy, "In the Mood," which also marked his directing debut. It was his next movie, however, which brought Phil Robinson to major attention, "Field of Dreams." The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Robinson himself received a Best Screenplay Adaptation nomination. The movie, which he directed, won the coveted Christopher Award and Robinson was named "Screenwriter of the Year" by the National Association of Theatre Owners. Most recently, he co-wrote and directed the comedy-thriller "Sneakers." Robinson has also returned to his very early newscaster roots (on WGY radio and WRGB-TV) with a series of documentary reports on Bosnia and Somalia for the ABC news program, "Nightline." In 1990, he was named "Screenwriter of the Year" by the National Association of Theatre Owners. [Subsequent to this interview, Phil Robinson wrote and directed the TV film, “Freedom Song.” He directed the feature “The Sum of All Fears” and recently completed directing “The Angriest Man in Brooklyn.”] >> Were there any movies, TV shows or books that first got you interested in writing?
PAR>> "The Benchley Roundup", a collection of humorous columns by Robert Benchley. I got it when I was about 12, and it thrilled me to see how funny and inventive one could be with just words. >> When you write, how do you generally work? PAR>> I'm sort of a slob about this, in that I tend to fool myself into thinking I'll concentrate better if I get all the odds and ends of life done first. But when the ideas are flowing freely (read: when the deadline is looming) I will get up early and write until my head drops from lack of sleep. And I must confess I rather like it when that happens. Makes me feel like a real writer. >> Do you have any specific kind of music playing or prefer silence? Are you a good procrastinator? PAR>> I do play music when I write, usually jazz (no lyrics). But lately I've discovered that Mahler is fantastic to write to. And yes, I am a world-class procrastinator. >> What sort of characters interest you? What sort of stories? PAR>> I have the same criterion for characters as for stories: I want to be surprised. >> What was it specifically that made you want to adapt W.P. Kinsella's "Shoeless Joe" into "Field of Dreams." PAR>> I loved how the book kept turning unexpected corners without blowing its emotional credibility. It walked a terrifically thin tightrope without falling to its death. And the moment when the young Archie Graham transformed into the aged Doctor struck me when I first read it as a stunningly visual moment. Unfortunately, I didn't come remotely close to capturing that on film, but the story moment is so strong that the lack of an exciting visual means of showing it didn't hurt us too much. >> Would you care to repeat one more time the story about how the movie's title came about? PAR>> The studio asked everyone who worked there to come up with something other than "Shoeless Joe" (a title I still love). Someone even suggested "Dad's Second Chance." I thought "Great, let's give away the surprise ending in the title." Finally, when they decided on FOD, I called Bill Kinsella to tell him the studio wasn't going to let me call the film "Shoeless Joe." Before I could get to what the new title would be, he said "That's okay. I never wanted to call the book 'Shoeless Joe," that was the publisher's idea. My title was 'Dream Field'." That's when I stopped fighting. >> How do you work through parts of a script where you hit a roadblock in the story? Do you have any specific tricks to help, or just tough it out? PAR>> Whenever I hit a roadblock, it's always because my thinking has gotten vague and unspecific. So I sit back and start asking myself really basic questions, such as "Who are these people and what do they really want?" "What's stopping them?" "What's the best way for them to overcome this problem?" The more basic the question, the better. And then I don't think of how I would write this (i.e., what's the scene look like, what sort of repartee could result, how do I weave other things into it) ... I just think of how I would explain it simply and clearly to someone. As soon as I feel I have logical and concise answers to the questions I've posed, then I start to think again of the screenwriting issues. >> What is your best or most memorable experience as a writer? PAR>> Hands down, writing the courtroom scene in "All of Me." The early drafts of the scene were pretty straightforward, and the director, Carl Reiner, told me it was too easy -- make it harder. I thought about that and decided the reason it was too easy is that we're seeing things we've already seen, i.e., Steve trying to behave professionally, and Lily blurting things out of his mouth that embarrass him. So I made a list of all the different variations we've used, and when I wrote down the one in which Lily was asleep so Steve had total control of his body, I sat up straight (a lightbulb actually did light up over my head, just like in the cartoons -- I have no idea how that happened) and realized we didn't have a scene in which Steve falls asleep so Lily's character has total control of the body. This meant she would have to imitate a man, which meant Steve as an actor would have to imitate a woman imitating a man. I was deliriously happy, pacing the room, spouting dialogue out loud in stupid voices, scribbling lines so fast I couldn't read them later. The whole experience lasted maybe ten minutes, and I'd do anything to have another one like it. >> You've spoken glowingly in the past about the experience of working on "All of Me"? Do you recall what came through so strong from that? PAR>> Absolutely. The respect and friendship and decency with which I was treated by the director and the stars. They looked at the writer as a partner in their process, and made me feel (despite my complete inexperience) that I belonged at the table with them. I will always adore them all for that. >> Conversely, any comments you'd care to make about the process getting "Rhinestone" made? PAR>> See last answer. Reverse it. >> Was there any particular writer who acted as a sort of mentor to you? If so, what things did you learn? PAR>> I've not met him, but William Styron once said "Writing is like walking from Spain to Vladivostok on your knees." I like that. >> Why do you write? PAR>> I swear to God it's because I can't sing. I just read a quote today from Miles Kington. I had no idea who Miles Kington was, but he quote was so wonderful that I looked him up. It turns out that he was a British journalist/commentator who was also a musician. Mainly, he seems to have written a humorous, insightful column for the The Times and then not long after Rupert Murdoch took over that publication, moved it to the six-month old The Independent, where he stayed for 20 years. In all he wrote around 10,000 columns and several books.
Here's a brief description I found of him in a lovely remembrance of the good fellow five years after he passed away in 2008. "What did Miles write about? Everything and nothing. Especially nothing. Writing about nothing – or almost nothing – was I think where his real genius lay. He wrote about words, about motorway service stations, about being out and about on his bicycle. He was a spoof agony uncle. He noticed things no one else noticed. He wrote wonderful “list” columns, like the one about how there are always two types of people." I subsequently tracked down some of his articles, and they were wonderful. So, I'm going to post some from time to time. But for now, it all started with one simple quote. Here it is, what caught my attention. "Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad." -- Miles Kington (1941-2008) I believe that fans who attend a sporting event should stay to the end. But I certainly understand valid reasons for leaving early, of which there are plenty. Mind you, I live in a city now where leaving early has long been turned in to an art form. Once I went to a Cubs-Dodgers game in Los Angeles, and so many hometown fans left Dodger Stadium early (even far more than usual because Chicago was so far ahead) that near the end I swear it seemed like you were at Wrigley Field. Cries of "Jo-dee, Jo-dee!!" for the Cubs catcher Jody Davis, a cheer that was a tradition in Chicago, filled the ballpark when he came to bat in the ninth inning. The week before Pope John Paul II was about to lead a Mass at Dodger Stadium in 1987, I wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Times -- which they printed -- that said, "There is no truth to the rumor that during the Pope's Mass, a third of the attendees will leave before the Final Benediction." All of which brings us to (as best I can tell) the press conference held on Wednesday by Nick Saban, head football coach of the University of Alabama, as well as comments on his radio show and an interview with the Al.com website. On his mind, he decided to talk about fans and, well...sort of shred them. I've talked about players playing for 60 minutes in the game and competing for 60 minutes in the game. And, in some kind of way, everybody that choses to go to the game should stay there and support the team for the game."Maybe if you're not interested in doing that, you should let someone else go who would really like to go because I have a lot of people who want to go" Now, when you read those words from poor Nick Saban, you probably suspect that he's been saddled with a paltry fan base, and is struggling to impress potential recruits who might consider playing at the school and have overlooked the team's three national championships in the past four years, but hold Alabama's weak fan support and empty stadium against them. Bryant-Kenney Stadium holds just under 102,000 people, filled to the brim each week with maniacal fans. It is hard to imagine any recruit (most especially any important recruit thinking of a pro career in football) -- even if they've been able to somehow ignore those three national championships in four years-- would ever look at the stadium, think to themselves "This is not a very enthusiastic crowd at all," and consider it a reason to not attend the University of Alabama. But beyond all that -- what a laughably whiny thing to say. But it's even more ridiculous than this. I'll get to that in a moment. On ESPN Friday night, they showed the clip of Nick Saban chastising the un-enthusiastic Alabama fans during a segment when commentators Lou Holtz and Mark May were on the set. Lou Holtz is a former long-time coach who tends to get very defensive when it comes to criticism of coaches. Mark May is a thoughtful, generally low-key, insightful former player. After the clip was aired and ESPN cut back to the studio, Holtz and May were sitting there clearly fighting from bursting into laughter, straining to keep their mouths clenched. They barely made it and were only saved when the host changed the subject. Nick Saban is a great coach, arguably one of the best and most successful ever. He's won four national championships. He's the only coach in college football history to win national championships at two different schools. His team this year is ranked #1 in country, and are 7-0. But Lou Holtz and Mark May had the right idea. Except for holding the laughter back. Here's that more ridiculous part of Nick Saban's whine. Why it is not unreasonable for Alabama fans to leave early.
When you have 102,000 fans all leaving at the same time, wanting to beat the traffic is actually a very, very smart thing to do. And yet, very smart as that is, it's not the reason Saban's whine is ridiculous. In fact, what makes it so ridiculous is that the reason is something that should actually impress potential recruits. The University of Alabama crushes its opponents. I mean, seriously crushes them. Last week, Alabama beat Arkansas 52-0. After three quarters, it was 45-0. At that point, the team likely was just playing with some their third string, actually they probably had some of the band members in the game. Who wouldn't at least consider leaving at that point, early??! Especially with 102,000 fans around you, who you know will all be leaving soon, at the same time. And further, in the four home games that Alabama has played this year, they have won them by a combined score of 153-9. You read that right. 153-9. If Nick Saban doesn't want any of the 102,000 fans to leave early, he should consider starting his third string (or the tuba section) and make the games closer. Rather than being bothered that fans are leaving, potential recruits are probably in awe by what they're seeing around them...and most especially seeing on the field. A spectacular football team. (In fact, the biggest problem for Alabama in convincing recruits to come play for the college may well be telling a high school star that they might not start -- or even play much -- for two years because there are better players on this great, well-stocked team ahead of them.) But mainly, it's just stupid to rip maniacal, deeply supportive fans who are only there cheering for you. And the thing is, of course, even if they weren't so supportive, they paid for their tickets. It's their choice how long they stay, not yours. So, just turn around to the field and coach the football players, not the fans. As it happens, football is king at the University of Alabama, and when Nick Saban sighs,"Who wouldst rid me of this turbulent priest?", his accolytes take it upon themselves to to kill Sir Thomas More. On Friday, the school suspended the "block seating" privileges of 20 student groups. They can still attend, but no longer have their sections reserved for them. Any student can sit anywhere. "Unacceptable behavior" -- like being tardy or leaving early -- can result in privileges being suspended for the rest of the year. Of course one understands why Nick Saban wants the fans to stay to the bitter end. It's perfectly reasonable to want that, for all the reasons. But to stand in front of a microphone and camera and say it out loud is so pathetically laughable it makes you think of Asif Manvi's wonderful political rejoinder last week on The Daily Show to a North Carolina Republican official making a total fool of himself -- "You know we can hear this?" I got another very nice review today for A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge, this one from the book blogger website, WV Stitcher. (Okay, it's not the New York Times Book Review. But then, the book isn't F. Scott Fitzgerald.)
What I love though is a comment the reviewer makes, which quite a few others have surprisingly made: "While the story had the feel of the original tale Mr. Elisberg's humor added a freshness to the story. Mr. Elisberg's writing is so convincing that I am actually still wondering if this was a lost work of Mr. Dickens?" I certainly love that the writing worked so well to that extent. But to "actually" wonder if this is a lost work by Charles Dickens does make me shake my head. I know she could just be speaking in exaggeration, but it's that word "actually" that has me wary. (I'm serious about this. If this was a unique case, I'd be less skeptical, and think it was a quip. But in truth there have far been too many that suggest otherwise. One, for instance, wrote "I think if Elisberg took the time and became a 'co-author'" with Dickens -- c'mon, what in the world did she think I did??! -- and then added, "I thought it was neat how Dickens included characters from other books he'd written.") Forgetting that the humor in the book and use of other characters from Dickens novels is so not Dickens, if there was really, truly "actually" a lost novel by Charles Dickens, I have a funny feeling it would have made the news, in a really big way. And if you're "actually still wondering," then simply use a search engine. They really work pretty well. Mind you, I'm not quibbling. Especially since the review was so positive. It's great when reviewers say something like this. I just don't get it. But who am I to say? I'm just a guy who edits Charles Dickens... |
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
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