Side by Side
Ultra-intrigued — is that a word? — by this piece by Marcia Reynolds:
Sandra Bullock and Jesse James: A Model of the New Relationship
Cable flap du jour
Started writing this Game Plan column when ABC and Cablevision were feuding and it looked like many of us wouldn’t be able to watch the Oscars. Then, lo and behold, they flipped a switch about 20 minutes into the broadcast and there was The Academy Awards show. My thoughts on being manipulated in such an unnecessary way: In the Middle of Cable Squabbles.
Jenny McCarthy and autism
Again and again I find myself in conversations about autism where Jenny McCarthy’s viewpoint is misrepresented. In her latest piece on The Huffington Post, she says, “There has to be room for moderation on vaccines, for a recognition that one size does not fit all, for an honest dialogue around risks and benefits, and for a willingness to maybe delay or scale back some vaccines.”
Does anything in that sentence say that McCarthy is anti-vaccine? That she wants them abolished?
Nothing like questioning why or how frequently we’re injecting and ingesting chemicals into our bodies to get us painted crazy or obsessive.
Platform Soul
Was strolling up Washington Street, our main drag in Hoboken, to meet my friend Robin yesterday when I noticed a favorite shoe store, Platform Soul, was vacant. Oh no! Not them, too.
But lo and behold, they have relocated to Bloomfield and First and are opening on April 1. And they’ll be selling jeans, too.
Whew.
Oscar-less
Manipulative SOBs:
Disney Pulls ABC from Cablevision after Deal Fails
Acting & life wisdom
Must thank my friend, actor Kathi Carlson, for suggesting I take a look at a book she bought recently, How to Choose a Monologue for Any Audition by Karen Kohlhaas. She found its wisdom transcended acting and thought I might appreciate it.
So with Oscar weekend upon us, I’ve put my two cents in today’s Game Plan: Preparing for Your Next ‘Act’
Text this
I must say I’m really floored by the amount of people driving and texting and talking on hand-held phones these days. Since I live an urban existence that rarely has me behind the wheel, I see it mostly from a pedestrian standpoint. What in the world would possess an intelligent human being to think their attention can be off the road for seconds at a time and there won’t be consequences?
Yet again I saw a woman waiting to make a left at a light on our busy main drag here and she was texting in the middle of the intersection. People, if you have a death wish, find another way to see it through. I don’t. I like my life. And your kid in the backseat probably thinks life is pretty peachy, too. What are you thinking?
This is not just a teen-ager issue either. I have seen many a mommy in a minivan going to town on a keyboard. You have a busy life. We get it. We still don’t want to be maimed because you overbooked yourself.
I love that Oprah has taken this on and has a Web page devoted to her No Phone Zone campaign. It is loaded with info about how stupid — and, frankly, arrogant — this is.
Maybe next we can hit the less dangerous, but certainly annoying habit people have of texting while out to dinner …
The Bag Lady Papers
Thoroughly enjoyed attending a conversation — hosted by Women in Need — between The Daily Beast editor Tina Brown and author Alexandra Penney recently. Penney lost her life savings in the Bernie Madoff debacle and wrote about it in a book called The Bag Lady Papers (after the blog of the same name on The Beast).
Check out today’s Game Plan: Life for One Woman, Post-Madoff.
The good Dr. Seuss
Today is the birthday of the great Theodor Geisel, more commonly known as Dr. Seuss. Hard to say which of these creations of his I love more.
The popular and profound:
The little known, but so interesting:
Sunday reading highlights
Loved Frank Bruni’s piece in The New York Times Sunday Magazine on Scott Brown. I am ever intrigued by the guy and love that he found the Saturday Night Live skit on him as hilarious as I did.
Also read with great interest Al Gore’s op-ed piece titled We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change. Somewhere between ignorantly laughing it off because you don’t care for Al Gore and holing up in a forest so you don’t expend or consume energy is a rational and happy medium, methinks.
