snap culture: May 2006

  1. Reality TV makes the NYT "Vows" column William, 5/30/2006 1 comments
  2. Grey's Anatomy Anonymous, 5/28/2006 0 comments
  3. fun with numbers ben, 5/17/2006 0 comments
  4. If you're like me... William, 5/16/2006 0 comments
  5. Should you buy rental car insurance? William, 5/15/2006 0 comments
  6. an incomplete compendium ben, 5/10/2006 2 comments
  7. when will the media learn? ben, 5/03/2006 0 comments

5/30/2006 Add a comment

Remember Cara from "Real World: Chicago"? Well, she of the several hook-ups (including a mysterious (and so-called famous) singer... G-Love?) has gotten hitched. William

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  1. Blogger William: i was talking about this with someone recently, and they thought the rock star was the lead singer for Big Head Todd and the Monsters. 6/17/2006  

5/28/2006 Add a comment

I love Meredith.

Anonymous

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5/17/2006 Add a comment

This is a clever way to show the link between baseball records and baseball salaries. Use the bar at the top to play out the whole season and watch teams' records fluctuate. How much does salary matter? Not all that well, apparently. There are a bunch of teams in the bottom 10 of payroll who are doing well (Colorado, Arizona, Cincinatti), and teams with high payrolls (Cubs, Anaheim/L.A.) who are doing poorly. (Thanks for the link, Ian!) ben

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5/16/2006 Add a comment

and you absolutely LOVE television, then you'll want to be reading NYT's Virginia Heffernan's blog at the television upfronts, where the networks showcase their wares for advertisers, and by extension, critics.

NBC's two television shows about SNL-like television shows (Tina Fey's comedy "30 Rock" and the Aaron Sorkin drama "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip") should be worth checking out at least once next fall, though Heffernan cautions that the Sorkin production "looks like a bust." William

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5/15/2006 Add a comment

Tim Harford, the FT's Undercover Economist, says you should never take rental car insurance because over the course of a lifetime, the risk you take without the insurance is small potatoes.

Also, if you like his pieces in Slate, you should check out his book, The Undercover Economist, which Ben will surely be glad to know that I have been enjoying.

Finally, my apologies for not posting recently... I've had a busy three weeks. I'll try to do a good blitz of posting this week before I disappear for another week. William

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5/10/2006 Add a comment

of some of the most quoted lines in Simpsons history, courtesy of the Onion A.V. Club. Many of the classics are on there already.

But what would you add to the list? I often quote
"Don't you hate pants?"
"I'll kill myself if Portugal doesn't win!" (though I usually quote it the other way around)
"All work and no play make Homer something something."
"In theory, communism works."
"My eyes, the goggles do nothing!"
"Let that be a lesson to the rest of you...nuts."

and then the drunk-quote classics:
"you don't know me!"
"this guy over here, this is the guy."
"so I says, you can keep your stinking money, 'cause I don't want it!"

and many, many more in everyday conversation. The A.V. Club opened up a comments page with more gems. Of course, lists of Simpson's quotes are everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Here's some of their favorites at Right Wing News. ben

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  1. Anonymous Anonymous: "The goggles do nothing" is classic.
    At times I get a good non-sequitor laugh out of "Upon closer inspection, these are loafers".

    Quotes in common circulation in my circle of pals:
    When defending any number of my many lies: "It takes two to lie; one to lie and one to listen"
    "Me fail English" and "tastes like burning"
    "Worst [insert anything] Ever"
    "You tried and failed. The important lesson here is, never try."
    We say "edumucation" quite a bit, which I believe is a derivative of saxomaphone.
    "It's still good, it's still good"
    -v     5/11/2006  
  2. Anonymous Anonymous: frequently used from the same episode:

    Australia! America! Australia! America!

    and

    I see you've played knifey-spooney before.

    And there's the good old dependable "Maybe it's a tumor!/It's not a tumor". Oh wait, that's from Kindergarden cop.     5/12/2006  

5/03/2006 Add a comment

Steven Colbert is a god. If you haven't seen his unbelievable appearance at the correspondents' dinner, it's here.

I can't believe pundits are saying he bombed or fell flat. See the discussions on the Times and Post. Of course the audience there didn't like it, he was ripping them all new assholes! Only Scalia seemed to truly appreciate being made fun of, which is too bad because I still can't stand him.

The exact same thing goes at the Academy Awards, where I thought Chris Rock and Jon Stewart each did a great job tearing into the Hollywood elite. But of course people there didn't appreciate it, so watching it at home, it looks like he's bombing to the audience. Meanwhile i'm laughing hysterically.

If you tell the president he's an incompentent pile of crap and the president doesn't laugh, does that mean you're not funny? Of course not. Someone needs to explain this to the media. Don't expect the people being smacked to enjoy themselves. They're too self-absorbed to realize when jokes made about them are funny. Colbert's material wasn't for their amusement, it was for ours. ben

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