CSotD: Short takes
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One of the constant annoyances in newsrooms are the phone calls from people demanding coverage for National Asparagus Month and other similar events.
Our city editor at one paper had a list of all these ridiculous non-holidays and it was pretty funny reading, but not so funny when you were trying to placate an angry citizen who couldn't believe you weren't doing a Page One story on National Onion Rings Day (which it is right now).
We could sympathize with the veterans who were hurt that we saved the major D-Day coverage for years in which it was a multiple of at least five if not 10, and we would run a photo at least, if not a brief story, the next day showing them all raising the flag and saluting.
But the National My Favorite Cause Day people were simply an annoyance because they refused to understand that every day was not just National Something Day but probably a dozen National Somethings Days.
Well, thank god for the Internet, because now National Random Day gets all the coverage anyone could want and yesterday was National Selfie Day and, in fact, World Selfie Day.
Which makes me wonder if bitcoin dealers closed shop that way banks shut down for holidays in the 3D world?
Anyway, I saw a few cartoons on the topic, but only the Oatmeal's entry made me even smile and it made me actually laff. Go read it all, because he not only covers selfies but a whole lot of other truly awful things that make social media so annoying.
Fact is, I just had a conversation with someone last week about a mutual friend who seems, from what we can tell on Facebook, to have a Solo cup permanently attached to one hand and no other pursuits except partying.
Britain is reportedly contemplating a law that would require social media to scrub from the Internet all the stupid shit you post about yourself before you're 18, though I'm not sure it's even technologically possible, much less that such a law would pass muster in a country with a First Amendment.
This CNET article explains that the proposed rule "allows you to remove embarrassing or misleading information about you from the Internet," which might not help much since it's not all that misleading and we've plumbed the limits of embarrassing without apparently finding any.
And it's too late for those foolish would-be Harvard students anyway.
The Oatmeal simply points out how incredibly annoying clueless posters are, but the Harvard case, and the proposed British law, touch on how incredibly foolish and self-defeating they are.
It all kind of reminds me of this classic Rhymes with Orange from 2001, the difference being that people back then understood that their refrigerators were not objects of fascination for the entire world. Or at least they saved it for holiday newsletters.
Also, she's indulging in self-deprecating mockery.
Also, you could take the stupid stuff down after you finished growing up.
Also, people used to grow up.
It was long ago. Perhaps you had to be there.
Meanwhile, back at the ER
As seen in today's Betty, and in case you hadn't noticed anyway, fidget spinners have become a big deal.
In fact, they're a big enough deal that Doctors Without Sufficient Publication (Médecins Sans Publication Suffisante) are warning about how very dangerous they are.
(I made up that group before I went and found a link to the caution which I'd seen elsewhere before. Turns out there is a group, no fooling, called "World Against Toys Causing Harm" and check out the acronym that forms. It's hard to be sillier than reality.)
Dire warnings are how you can tell a fad has really struck, and I say that as someone who remembers when we were all in grave danger of surfer's knots, including those of us who simply listened to Jan & Dean.
Anyway, the grave danger of fidget spinners is apparently based on one kid whose spinner fell apart, whereupon she swallowed one of the parts and had to go to the emergency room and have it removed.
And I would hesitate to suggest we ban every object that has been removed from people's bodies in emergency rooms.
Just the really popular ones that can get you a little coverage by editors who are trying to avoid covering things that really matter, like National Asparagus Month.
Which you missed because of the MSM conspiracy to suppress it.
Here with a response to our last item:
CSotD welcomes responsible opposing viewpoints.
Not such a gift to cartoonists
Non Sequitur tries to make a joke about rich people being indifferent to the hazards we face, but Trump has already got that covered.
I keep hearing that he's a gift to cartoonists, but, in fact, it's really hard to satirize the guy.
Point of personal privilege
I got an extra chuckle from today's Off the Mark because, when I went down to that children's Comic Con where I saw, among others, Mark Parisi, it was hot enough that I didn't take the dog along, since he'd have had to wait in the car.
I was gone about six hours and, when I got back, he wandered in from the bedroom with a "Wassup?" expression and went to stand by his food bowl, it being that time of day.
I'm a big fan of rescues and adoptions, but one advantage of getting a purebred dog is that you have some chance of predicting its behavior.
However, I don't think there's a predictor for separation anxiety. I had one ridgeback who freaked out and destroyed the place if left alone, but immediately calmed down when I got him a crate to cave up in.
My current ridgie couldn't care less if I leave him, but freaks out if put in a crate.
All you can really predict with certainty is that running this commercial today would not help United's PR issues:
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