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CSotD: And another thing … in fact, several

I pondered using Joe Dator’s cartoon because I’ve seen similar gags before, but then realized (A) there aren’t many absolutely brand-new gags, but a good cartoonist can make them fresh and (B) there are things that can’t be said too often.

(A) is covered in Russian literary criticism, where they have an expression “making new,” which is when the author describes something familiar but in a way that lets you see it with unexpected significance. When it happens, it’s worth noting.

But (B) is even more persuasive because of the apparent need to hammer home this observation, and not just because we’ve recently had a disastrous example of people listening to a male voice and ignoring a female voice based not on the quality of what they were saying but on societal prejudice.

At my 10th college reunion, two women jumped down the throats of the males in our department, accusing us of never letting them complete a thought in seminar. It seemed shocking and I still don’t think we treated them differently than we treated each other.

But with time, contemplation and reading a little Deborah Tannen and Carol Gilligan, I realized there really are two approaches to discussion, one of them based on competitive debate and one of them based on seeking common ground, and the first one does tend to overwhelm the second.

If you don’t think that men tend to take one approach while women take the other, fine, but if the shoe fits, shut up and listen for a change.

And if Dator’s cartoon made you cringe a little, the shoe probably fits.

And another thing: As long as I’m in a critical mood, I’ll criticize myself for suggesting that I didn’t want to run any more cartoons about Trump’s idiotic cabinet choices, because Fiona Katauskas manages to breathe life into that well-worn topic.

Not only did she avoid proposing satirical nominations, but she harkens back to the idea that Trump was a non-entity outside of NYC until NBC marketed “The Apprentice” on the notion that Trump was a business genius, a complete fabrication for which the head of the effort has since apologized.

Here we are again, only now he’s off-script and it’s no longer just an entertaining fiction.

A less monumental criticism in today’s Tank McNamara (AMS), and I’ll point out that Bill Hinds is a Texan and so has standing to discuss heat in food. There was a time when traveling Westerners carried small bottles of Tabasco to liven up their scrambled eggs because Eastern restaurants didn’t offer it.

But at some point, heat became a Thing, and not just a Thing but a Competitive Thing, with, as seen here, a sort of arms race to see who can move beyond flavor into meaningless pain, and the question of “Why?” leads mostly to discussions of machismo.

It’s one thing to step into a different culture and be ambushed by some surprisingly aggressive peri-peri or miang kham, but purposely seeking out pain is different: You could put superhot spices on a piece of cardboard and sell it to the folks who just want to see what they can stand. (The folks who make Doritos seem intent on proving this.)

And another thing: Monty (AMS) sounds a familiar gripe that I suspect comes from people who have not done this sort of work.

For one thing, you can’t really expect anyone to dig with a shovel for eight hours straight unless they’re wearing leg shackles and you’re carrying a shotgun. You dig for awhile, someone takes over while you rest, you step back in and they step out.

You’re going to need a break, whether someone steps in to relieve you or the job just comes to a halt.

Similarly, one of those people “standing around” may be a pipefitter, for instance, waiting for the pipe to be uncovered. If it’s a city job and you pay taxes, would you prefer that everything (except the clock) stop while they call HQ and let the pipefitter know it’s time to come down to the job?

You can’t complain about how long the street is torn up and traffic is slowed down and also complain about how they schedule people to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

No complaints from me about today’s Betty (AMS). I tried Amazon Prime’s video feed now that they’ve added commercials and I’m sticking with Turner Classics, which comes with my basic streaming service.

When I was in local TV, most locally-run movies came with suggested commercial breaks, but we still had to have someone decide exactly when to break and what commercials to insert.

What I saw on Amazon was none of that. They’d break in the middle of a scene and not even for a paid commercial but for a promotion of something they’d like you to watch. When we ran promos, it was because we hadn’t been able to sell the break but still needed the movie to end at the top of the hour. Streaming TV can start and end any time.

But I’m spared much of this sturm und drang by the fact that I can’t afford to be nickeled and dimed to death by all those premium services, even without paying them extra to actually be premium.

And another thing: I like Red and Rover (AMS), but Brian Bassett nodded on this one, because there weren’t any 24 hour marathons on TV in the vague nostalgic long ago in which the strip is set.

The sitcom ran from 1969 to 1974, then went into syndication. Cable penetration in ’74 was about 58% nationally, but its programming was distant broadcast stations. ESPN went on the air in 1979 and CNN the next year. In fact, I remember one of our engineers at the station in 1976 who left for Atlanta, because this guy Ted Turner had some interesting ideas.

But his interesting ideas didn’t include canceling regular programming on WTBS for a single-program marathon.

My proof? By the time marathons began, Red would have been riding a Mongoose.

And another thing: Judging from this Loose Parts (AMS), Gulliver just offended all the Giant People of Brobdingnag as well as the Horse People and the Cloud People by not thanking them, too.

Dagnabbit.



Comments 12

  1. George Paczolt

    You get turner on basic cable? Lucky bastard. My local cable company (Comcast/Xfinity) moved TCM to a second tier optional sports package full of various soccer, rugby, cricket channel at a significant price increase. As a result, I haven’t watched the channel in about three years now.

    I didn’t gripe quite as much when MotoGP (the Formula 1 equivalent for motorcycles) was on that channel, as I didn’t quite mind paying extra for a sport with a rather narrow interest in the US, but Turner? Aw, c’mon!

    1. Alexandra

      We had cable for decades just for TCM. Finally TCM is available via YouTube TV which allowed us to cut the cable which we never watched – we now have Comcast/Xfinity for high-speed (kinda) internet and our cell phone service (xFinity mobile, which finally has acceptable coverage) – which saved $150/month. We haven’t yet gone for the YouTube option for TCM, but likely will in December for Christmas movies. What is nice is that we can turn it on and off when we want to and YouTube includes DVR which one really needs for TCM as it is 24/7 broadcast. By the way, on Comcast, you can turn that stupid sport package on and off which we did for a year or two once we found out about it. Hope this helps.

  2. Neil Jackson

    My dad used to say about workman, “if you take away their shovels they would have to lean on each other.”

    1. Mike Peterson  (admin)

      I only did that kind of work for one summer, but it convinced me.

  3. Fred

    But how many people read past Gulliver’s voyage to Lilliput? I have, but I was an English major.

      1. Fred

        A good point, and you remember what Mark Twain had to say on the subject.

        There’s a letter in Alison Green’s Ask a Manager, which I’m reading rather than doing things I really need to do, from someone who was turned down for a job and got a letter from one of the interviewers. Among other reasons was “Your response to the favorite book question sounded pretentious and insincere. Les Miserables simply isn’t a book people read for fun.”

  4. Steven R

    I didn’t use hot sauce when I lived in the southeast (“Texas Pete” was the area favorite); but when I moved to the southwest I discovered that one can have hot sauces that have flavors too, which has increased the heat level of my food.

  5. Mark Jackson

    Performative spice story:

    I’m fond of spicy food – regularly order the top spice level in Indian restaurants and the Thai restaurants where I am known. (I don’t chance this in a strange Thai restaurant for fear that the kitchen will think this white dude is challenging them.) I’m also happy with moderate spice, or even mild if the dish is traditionally prepared that way.

    A Dave’s Hot Chicken opened locally a couple of weeks ago and I decided to try it out. I ordered the second-hottest level and found it unpleasantly spicy and one-dimensional. I noticed that there was a heavy bro culture contingent in the place (which was packed) although there were also a few families.

    Their hottest level is called Reaper and they require signing a waiver if you order it. The day I was there the Reaper level was marked “sold out.”

  6. Katherine Collins

    I haven’t watched anything on television since 1965. And my life has no commercial breaks in it.

  7. George Corbett

    For me “WTBS” will always be the “Technology Broadcasting System” – I’m still a bit grumpy about Ted Turner buying the call letters from the MIT student radio station nearly 50 years ago.

  8. Eric

    As to “Monty,” I wonder if they’ll ever bring back Robotman?

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