Friday, February 09, 2007
The Clinton luck ... again.
The Anna Nicole thing is a classic sad story. Country girl wants fame and fortune, goes to Hollywood, shows her assets, gets fame and fortune. Ends up in the hands of vampires and vultures who keep the fame going regardless of consequences to the actual girl, because the vampires and vultures are making a wonderful living off her troubles.
I'm tempted to say that the old-world method worked better. Leave fame and fortune to the aristocrats, who know how to handle it. They aren't necessarily better people, but their 'family retainers' are more focused on maintaining the family name than grabbing the maximum bucks from momentary fame.
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However, one Big Story will tend to occupy the drawkcaB sweN entirely, crowding out what would otherwise have been the big story. In this case, Anna Nicole's death has stomped all over Abu Hussein Obama's official announcement of candidacy! The drawkcaB sweN were undoubtedly planning a whole month of Obamafest, but now they have no choice but to cover a politically irrelevant story.
Hillary lucks out again. If I were an Abu Hussein Obama supporter, I'd feel paranoid right now, just as all the other Clinton opponents have felt paranoid when their cherished and well-timed stories were mysteriously drowned by other irrelevant events. It's not worth the paranoia, though; it's just the Clinton luck as always.
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Irrelevant sidenote: The name of Anna Nicole's chief vulture, Howard K. Stern, provides an interesting shibboleth. Anyone over 50 unavoidably says or thinks 'Smith' after 'Howard K.' I find myself doing it, and Fox's John Gibson is having real trouble with it. Gibson has to stop for a full second each time; you can hear him internally swallowing the 'Smith' and forcing 'Stern' out of his mouth, and still he sometimes misses. Indeed a testament to the power and authority of those old newsmen. Looking up Smith, I find that he retired from daily broadcasting 30 years ago and died in 2002. But his name is still an automatic instinct for those of us who grew up along with television.
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Polistra disagrees with my cold detached sociological approach. Instead, she simply wants to offer up a prayer for Anna Nicole's soul, aimed at Saint Germaine Cousin, the patron saint of country girls who endure a hard life and die young. Germaine never achieved fame and fortune in life, but her posthumous power among the country folk of France was so intense that the Communists of 1789 found it necessary to desecrate her grave.
¶ 7:47 PM
I'm tempted to say that the old-world method worked better. Leave fame and fortune to the aristocrats, who know how to handle it. They aren't necessarily better people, but their 'family retainers' are more focused on maintaining the family name than grabbing the maximum bucks from momentary fame.
= = = = =
However, one Big Story will tend to occupy the drawkcaB sweN entirely, crowding out what would otherwise have been the big story. In this case, Anna Nicole's death has stomped all over Abu Hussein Obama's official announcement of candidacy! The drawkcaB sweN were undoubtedly planning a whole month of Obamafest, but now they have no choice but to cover a politically irrelevant story.
Hillary lucks out again. If I were an Abu Hussein Obama supporter, I'd feel paranoid right now, just as all the other Clinton opponents have felt paranoid when their cherished and well-timed stories were mysteriously drowned by other irrelevant events. It's not worth the paranoia, though; it's just the Clinton luck as always.
= = = = =
Irrelevant sidenote: The name of Anna Nicole's chief vulture, Howard K. Stern, provides an interesting shibboleth. Anyone over 50 unavoidably says or thinks 'Smith' after 'Howard K.' I find myself doing it, and Fox's John Gibson is having real trouble with it. Gibson has to stop for a full second each time; you can hear him internally swallowing the 'Smith' and forcing 'Stern' out of his mouth, and still he sometimes misses. Indeed a testament to the power and authority of those old newsmen. Looking up Smith, I find that he retired from daily broadcasting 30 years ago and died in 2002. But his name is still an automatic instinct for those of us who grew up along with television.
= = = = =
Polistra disagrees with my cold detached sociological approach. Instead, she simply wants to offer up a prayer for Anna Nicole's soul, aimed at Saint Germaine Cousin, the patron saint of country girls who endure a hard life and die young. Germaine never achieved fame and fortune in life, but her posthumous power among the country folk of France was so intense that the Communists of 1789 found it necessary to desecrate her grave.
¶ 7:47 PM
