Boston Legal: Obama for President

I was sitting in my hotel room a few nights ago watching Boston Legal when something really surprised me. Now, Boston Legal has always had a knack for working current events and politics into the show, but this particular episode caught my attention. This is the first time on Boston Legal, or any non-news show for that matter, that I know of, that came right out and named names when it comes to political affiliation. I don't necessarily find anything wrong with it, I'm just surprised.

Kurt is up in Heaven now

It is with a heavy heart that I write these words: Kurt is up in Heaven now. Although he's no longer with us, saying that sentence allows us to share a laugh with him one last time. In his last book, A Man Without a Country, he wrote the following:

"We had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, and I spoke and said at one point, 'Isaac is up in Heaven now.' It was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of Humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, 'Kurt is up in Heaven now.' That's my favorite joke."

I remember reading Vonnegut for the first time like it was yesterday. It was sophomore year of high school and we read Harrison Bergeron in English class. I instantly fell in love with his writing and I was desperate for more. Later that day, I went to A Novel Idea, a used bookstore in Sylvania, and asked if they had any Kurt Vonnegut novels for sale. I remember the guy who worked there telling me that it was a rare day that anyone actually sold them a Vonnegut novel, but I was in luck, because that day they had one book of his. It was a collection of short stories called Welcome to the Monkey House. I read it from cover to cover several times. It was fitting that the second story of the book was Harrison Bergeron. I've since collected nearly everything he's written and take every opportunity to share his work with others.

I received his last book, the aforementioned A Man Without a Country, from my brother Eric as a gift. I knew as I read it that it would most likely be the last book he wrote, so I intentionally read it slowly. It's a collection of short essays and I could easily have read it in one sitting, but I stretched it out over the course of a few weeks in order to savor his writing. In one essay, he writes of going out to buy an envelope. In this story, he mentions that he lives in Manhattan on 48th street, between 2nd and 3rd avenues. As I read that story, I was sitting in my apartment on 56th street, a mere 8 blocks uptown from him. Ever since then, I've been on the lookout for him. Every time I left my apartment, I secretly hoped to be able to walk by him on the street. I didn't want to stop him and talk to him, for I didn't want to waste his time. I was simply hoping to be able to give him a nod of appreciation as we passed on the street. Alas, I never got that chance and now I never will.

It's a very sad day today. We've lost one of the greatest writers of all time.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
November 11, 1922 - April 11, 2007

Overreaction Du Jour

Ok, seriously? This Don Imus "nappy headed hos" story is still dominating the news? Who cares? Why is this such a big deal? Should he have said that? Of course not. Should people be absolutely consumed by it? Of course not! I'm not defending Imus, but I think people need to take a deep breath and just calm down.

I feel like this whole story could be called Janet Jackson's breast at the Superbowl 2.0. This is just another case of our country losing its collective mind over something that, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't freaking matter! If you pay attention, you can hear far worse things said on TV shows, popular music, and movies. I completely agree that what Imus said was wrong, but why does it have to be national news? At least the Superbowl incident happened in front of millions of viewers and was forced into the spotlight. How many people actually listen to/watch Imus? I don't know a single person who does. (How many people had even heard of him before this incident? If it weren't for his feud with Howard Stern, I wouldn't have)

I guess this country just needs trivial issues to fuss over every once in a while. I think that we, as a country, must get bored and look for something to obsess over. Every few months, something pops up to grab our attention. It was Janet Jackson, it was cartoon sex in Grand Theft Auto, it was Terri Schiavo, and now it's Don Imus. At least Congress hasn't gotten involved in this one yet. The bottom line is that stupid people say stupid things. There's no need to blow them out of proportion. If this hadn't turned into a media spectacle, the only people who would have been affected by Imus's comments would have been the 40 or 50 people who actually listen to his show. End of story.

Have you ever seen Vanilla Sky?

Yesterday was my Executive Health Exam, the annual uber-physical provided free of charge to employees of the firm. The EHE building is on prime real estate, sandwiched between the NBC News studio and Nintendo World at 10 Rockefeller Plaza. I walked into the pretty lobby and checked in at the security desk. I told the guard/receptionist (who looked strangely like Idi Amin) that I was going to EHE on the 4th floor and presented my ID. A few seconds later, Amin presented me with this:

"Ok," I thought "this is really creepy." If you haven't seen Vanilla Sky, you have no idea why. Or, you have seen Vanilla Sky, but it was only mediocre, so you don't remember it all that well. I'll explain... Vanilla Sky stars Tom "Nut Job" Cruise. For the first 90 minutes, a lot of crazy, yet unexplained things happen. For the purpose of this story, you don't need to worry about what those things are. Anyway, after the 90 minutes of crazy, Tom ends up at the Life Extension Institute where he learns that he's dead and he's been suspended in a state of lucid dreaming. He had signed a contract with LEI to erase the memory of his death and to keep him in this perpetual state of false life. Honestly, I don't remember the movie all that well myself, but I'm pretty sure he jumps off a building or something at that point. The bottom line is that it's not good to end up at the Life Extension Institute because it means that life isn't real and in about 5 years, you're going to reveal that you're a wacked-out Scientologist and rally against Psychiatry.