Thursday, November 03, 2005

Things are never quiet around here....

Oh, so much is going on around here….and there’s even some entertainment, as well.

Would you care to join the rest of us here in November?

On the entertainment side, TV Guide has taken to advertising heavily at the end of the “Fox Comedy Block” which runs here from 5-7pm. The ad promotes the new, bigger, TV Guide, mentions the feature story (this week: Grey’s Anatomy). This is followed by a plug for the Fox network shows that evening.

On Monday, the TV Guide ad said, “Tonight on FOX: NLCS Game 6: Houston at St. Louis…”

Uh, guys, I hate to tell you this, but….the NLCS ended two weeks ago. Houston won. Sorry if I spoiled things for you. I know, I know, you taped it, right? Right.

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Stupidity Happens – even at the best schools in the country

So someone – a white guy – had a great idea.

“Let’s have a ‘thuggin’ party!” he said.
“Yeah!” his classmates – nineteen of them – shouted in agreement.

And so it was on – the Straight Thuggin’ Party. Unfortunately, it seems that the weak attempt to ‘lampoon hip-hop culture’ wasn’t found to be too funny by African-American students. Or a lot of other students for that matter.

One girl, who attended the party tried to defend it. “We weren’t making fun of anyone, or trying to insult anyone. We were trying to make fun of the whole ghetto culture. I don’t see why people are so upset.”

Oh, I don’t know, either. Maybe because a couple of guys went out onto the street and invited blacks in, asking them if they’d like to have their picture taken and be part of the ‘ghetto’. Maybe it’s because your idea for a party was stupid and, in a way, the naïve type of party that rich, entitled kids throw, trying to be part of a culture they haven’t ever come close to joining.

What’s even funnier – in an ironic way – is that this little event happened at one of the country’s elite universities, in a neighborhood long known for its diversity: The University of Chicago, in the Hyde Park neighborhood, long a melting pot for upper-middle class blacks, whites and asians. Sadly, it’s also a neighborhood besieged by a rash of muggings of both students and residents.

It seems in a time when students should be coming together to protect each other from a very real threat, some take acts which only serve to divide even more.

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There is no East Coast media bias....

There really isn't. Or so the media tells us. "We report on an unbiased basis," they say. They report on how Chicagoans feel slighted by ESPN and others, who report ad nauseum on the Yankees and teh Red Sox, but generally ignore the White Sox.

The first indication that Chicago was going to be ignored or minimized was after the Sox beat Boston in three straight. Chris Berman, instead of discussing how the White Sox had shut down the vaunted Red Sox sluggers, chose to wax poetic about the Bosox and lament that they wouldn't get to repeat as champs.

The latest? Oh, that's easy. Somehow, when the Bosox break their 86-year curse, they are featured both weeks on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And the White Sox, who broke an even longer 88-year curse? They're relegated to a small picture in the upper right corner. Seems that this weeks Monday Night Football matchup is much more important. Seems one Peyton Manning is playing against one Tom Brady who happens to play for a team called the Patriots - who happen to play in Boston.

No East Coast bias indeed.