“Straight viewers… want to learn about people who are different from them. We can’t just have all white, middle class characters on television,” says Scott Seomin of GLAAD. Funny, then, that the article talks up NBC’s “Will & Grace” and “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” where all the characters are… white and middle class.
Chinese spy-who cares?
“Now we have an actual Chinese spy–charged, though not convicted–who by all indications was funneling money into U.S. campaigns… vital secrets were given to China, which Republicans were saying two years ago posed the greatest threat to the United States. And yet we’ve not had one hearing. Not one commission. There’s been very little coverage in the press, nor is anyone yakking about it on talk radio.” Josh Marshall
Contract patronage compared
“The Bush brothers would not be the first political family to turn government contracts into a source of political [patronage] power… Today, [Richard M.] Daley dominates Chicago politics almost as thoroughly as did his father.” Nicholas Confessore
My yuppie name
Now, for some further bemoaning the rising popularity of my name: not only is it called a “Ralph Lauren, faux horsey-set name” in the NYT Magazine — but half the twelve names two authors predict will be popular in 2010 share its soft “n” ending sound. Apparently, name trends are either thematic or homophonic. Argh!
What is the Biotic Bicycle Brigade?
We are people who like picnics and bicycling. Every summer, we go to hear the Chicago Symphony play at Ravinia, and bring along a picnic assembled beforehand or purchased from purveyors in lovely Lincoln Square. This year, we’re going on 19 July.
Disappearing farm teams
Soul Train began in Chicago, but only with the help of locally owned, independent media outlets (WVON-AM and WCIU-TV) and the support of local companies (Johnson Products and Tribune Corporation). Both, of course, are disappearing to globalization.
WMDgate — how bad?
Were Bush’s blatant lies about WMDs Worse than Watergate? No doubt they were worse than Monicagate, and not at all surprising given Bush’s intoxication with imperial power. Yet no one is doing anything about it.
Replace your wardrobe annually
“Mr. Cohen said because the American male is growing fatter every year, the men’s clothing market may end up like the children’s market.” NYT
Rights and responsibilities
“This is not to endorse granting yourself all the rights you’d have in your personal Eden. In such a perfect world, I’d be free to push S.U.V.’s into the Hudson to create a car-free New York, but many people would object to my idea of utopia (as would many fish).” The Ethicist, 25 May. Curiously, this week’s Magazine placed a photo of an Audi quality-control team (sniffing the car interiors, a good idea since most upholstery off-gas is toxic) under The Ethicist — and across from an Audi ad. Hm.
Let’s give up on road trips
“The citizen began to notice that wherever he drove, by the time he arrived at his destination there’d be some of the same artery-cloggers there, too. And when we returned, it was at the likely peril of meeting up with ourselves yet again, in just the same way — as toxin-spewing motorturds crawling through the desert, burning a despot’s ransom in fossil fuels for the privilege of reading each other’s bumper literature.” Instead, “I’ve found that one of the most productive ways to spend life is sitting on a small bridge in the rain, dangling one’s legs over a stream, facing a waterfall.” Dave Shulman
Triggers
“Governments cannot behave in a trigger-happy manner. Governments have to think and then decide.” Hamid Karzai
Conservative cabal endangers America
“Too few people inside and outside America comprehend the ambition of the American conservative project and its ideological hostility — both internally to any conception of an American social contract undergirding social mobility and opportunity and externally to any constraint on the exercise of preemptive autonomous American power. Moreover, the conservative coalition is deeply rooted and very powerful. It is a dangerous challenge both to the well-being of most ordinary American citizens at home and to the fragile processes that legitimize globalization abroad.” Will Hutton
west north 