The JibJab Guys Say Goodbye to 2011

It has become a December ritual for several years now, watching the send-off that the guys who created the online digital media company JibJab, which makes funny online videos and e-cards, give to the year in news.

This year's installment has its moments but several of their previous efforts seemed more inspired. Take a look at a handful of other year-end wrap-ups here. I thought the 2007 installment had much more enthusiasm and 2008's reflected the buoyancy and grimness of the year.

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Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

A Glimpse of HBO's 'Game Change' ... I'm Not Optimistic

When I finished reading the best selling book Game Change, which chronicled the behind-the-scenes exploits of the 2008 presidential campaign, I was pretty steamed. Now I’m a political junkie and love books about campaigns. I read Richard Ben Cramer’s behemoth What It Takes (1,072 pages) about the 1988 presidential campaign . . . twice. Thought it was brilliant. Some folks have likened Game Change, by veteran journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, to Cramer’s book. So why did Game Change irk me? It demonized the women who were depicted as toxic, irrational villains.

In the Pop Culture and Politics column that I wrote in 2010 after reading Game Change, I lamented, “The men – [John] Edwards, Barack Obama, John McCain, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and Rudy Giuliani – were portrayed as feisty, profane, inspiring, cocky, narcissistic, messianic, shallow, phony and occasionally ill-tempered, although when their anger was discussed it seemed to be of a variety that didn’t warrant a bunch of florid, patronizing adjectives, as if such behavior is the norm while the women’s behavior is the aberration.”

“When it came to the two female candidates – Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin – and the female spouses of the candidates (with the exception of Michelle Obama), they were frequently described with negative, female-centric put-downs and held to starkly different standards,” I added.

Hillary Clinton was described as “bitter,” “befuddled” and had “a staggering lack of calm or command.” After Obama clinched the nomination, Clinton was painted as “somber, prideful, aggrieved, confused – and still high on the notion that she was leading an army, Napoleon in a navy pantsuit and gumball-sized fake pearls.”

Sarah Palin was compared to Eliza Doolittle and The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy. She was described as having a “hissy fit” and a “conniption,” and being a “big-time control freak.” She was called “mentally unstable,” having been in a “catatonic stupor” during debate prep, in addition to being “a hick on a high wire.”

Cindy McCain, ridiculed as a cold “beauty queen,” was a bawling mess who was, at one point, described as having “flounced back to Phoenix.”

The now-deceased Elizabeth Edwards, who was suffering a relapse of breast cancer at around the same time she learned that her husband had been messing around with another woman, was “an abusive, intrusive, paranoid, condescending crazy woman. Who was “prone to irrational outbursts.”

So when I learned that HBO had bought the rights to the book and was planning on making a movie based on it (set to be released in March starring Julianne Moore as Palin, Ed Harris as John McCain), I wasn’t thrilled.

I’ll be happy if the filmmakers opt to provide a balanced look at all the players in the 2008 campaign, regardless of gender. But if they are very faithful to the book, I fear the results will be nothing more than demeaning, sexist schlock as seen through the eyes of men. Let’s hope I’m wrong. It's hard to tell what the film will be like based on the short teaser that HBO released this week.

Image credit: Amazon.

Random Good Reads/Views: Women in Media, ‘Homeland’ Finale, What’s Eating the Grinch?

Joanne Bamberger, aka Pundit Mom, clued me in to this provocative and eye-opening speech by Megan Kamerick, a former president of the Journalism & Women Symposium, about how women’s voices are disproportionately absent from news stories and features, despite the fact that women constitute over half of the population.

“Stories by female reporters are more likely to challenge stereotypes than those by male reporters,” Kamerick said.

“Women are more likely to be defined by their body parts,” she said, showing a cover image of Wired Magazine of a woman’s naked chest, noting that women rarely appear on the cover of Wired unless they're sexualized.

Image credit: Showtime

On that Homeland Finale

*Warning spoilers from Homeland finale*

Homeland showrunners told New York Magazine’s Vulture that they originally anticipated that Sgt. Nick Brody would only appear in the first season.

“I think when Alex [Gansa, his co-showrunner] and I first conceived the series, it seemed obvious that we couldn’t take the show with Brody as a character beyond the first season. But then we realized how rich that mine was and how much more there was left to get out of it,” Howard Gordon, the other Homeland showrunner, told New York.

“Brody’s surviving the finale was very much in doubt,” Gansa said. “We really talked about it both ways. Ultimately we felt there was more to tell in the saga between Carrie and Brody, in that relationship.”

Now there are some who thought the finale was a cop-out and they didn’t like it in the least. I was surprised at the abruptness of its tonal shift when Brody attempted to blow himself up, only to have his explosive vest malfunction. He fixed it, was ready to try again, but hearing his daughter’s pleading voice on his cell phone (prompted to call him by Carrie Mathison) persuaded him to go another way and later rationalize to Abu Nazir that he could do more damage by working within the system rather than just killing the folks in that bunker.

I admit I was a bit let down when the credits rolled on this finale. Then I slept on it. Why was I let down, because Brody DIDN’T kill people? I didn’t want him to kill people. I didn’t want to see the glorification of a suicide bomber. When I woke up the next morning and thought about what the Homeland writers had done – turning a would-be lethal protest into something more subtle in the form of working within the system – I decided that the writers took the harder and more intriguing road. In the world of 24, things were always blowing up, even nuclear bombs. Sure, seeing a bomb go off is dramatic, but seeing people wrestle with their conscience, with right and wrong, with loyalties and with consequences is so much more interesting.

Later in the New York interview, Gansa, who noted that Brody’s suicide video is still missing, added:

“[Brody] flipped the switch, which satisfied our feeling that this is someone who would go through with what he decided to do, and then it opened up the possibility of redemption after the fact, when he fixes the vest and almost goes through with it for the second time. We all like Brody now, and we want him to be redeemed, and we kind of got to have it both ways.”

What’s Eating The Grinch?

In honor of the Christmas season, I’m going to direct you to an essay in McSweeney’s by Robb Fritz which dissected what was really bugging that mean old Grinch and discussed how the green being used his happy-go-lucky dog Max as his “put-upon canine slave, made to dress up as an unconvincing reindeer with one heavy faux-antler roped onto his head.”

“There’s no indication that the Grinch, unlike Scrooge, is a wealthy, malevolent, card carrying member of the 1%,” Fritz wrote. “He’s more just a finicky grump who hates it when his downstairs neighbors have late night parties, ostensibly because the noise keeps him up, but maybe just possibly because he hasn’t been invited.”

Image credit: Showtime.

A Streep Fan? Do Yourself a Favor & Check Out Her '60 Minutes' Interview

In anticipation for Meryl Streep’s depiction of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, the much acclaimed actress sat down with 60 Minutes for a down-to-earth interview that made me admire and respect her even more than I already did.

I haven’t always been a Streep fan. For a while, I felt similarly to the same way Jerry Seinfeld did when, in Seinfeld, he maligned Streep for over-acting when he likened Elaine to the actress, at least when it came to Elaine's behavior in the bedroom. But I’ve done a 180 since those dark, anti-Streep days and now see almost everything she’s in, from Mama Mia, The Devil Wears Prada, Prime and It’s Complicated, to Julie & Julia, The Hours, Adaptation and Doubt. (Other older Streep films I've seen include the classic Kramer vs Kramer, The River Wild, The Bridges of Madison County, Death Becomes Her, Defending Your Life, Postcards from the Edge and Heartburn.)

My favorite bit of commentary that she provided in her 60 Minutes interview was her discussion about playing “strong women” in film:

“No one has ever asked an actor, ‘You’re playing a strong-minded man.’ . . . We assume that men are strong-minded or have opinions, but a strong-minded woman is a different animal.”

She also had intriguing things to say about some of the men with whom she’s shared leading roles including Clint Eastwood, Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson.

Meanwhile, I’m antsy to see her take on the powerful Thatcher. I’m even thinking about taking my 13-year-old daughter to see it with me as she's fascinated with the notion of female political power. The movie sounds promising, particularly after reading The Hollywood Reporter's review of the film:

"Playing both the staunch human battleship and the diminished old woman sifting through her past, Meryl Streep is riveting in The Iron Lady. Her physical and verbal mimicry are uncanny, but her embodiment of an indomitable, uniquely British spirit perhaps even more so. The performance provides this engrossing if somewhat deferential biopic of Margaret Thatcher with a richly conflicted center that befits one of the most divisive figures in 20th century politics."

A reviewer from the U.K.'s The Guardian also heaped praised upon Streep -- though he didn't seem as enamoured of the film, writing:

"Yet Streep, it transpires, is the one great weapon of this often silly and suspect picture. Her performance is astonishing and all but flawless; a masterpiece of mimicry which re-imagines Thatcher in all her half-forgotten glory. Streep has the basilisk stare; the tilted, faintly predatory posture. Her delivery, too, is eerily good – a show of demure solicitude, invariably overtaken by steely, wild-eyed stridency."

About These Golden Globe Nominations . . .

Normally, I’m all amped up about the Golden Globe nominations because they combine both movie AND TV awards, which I like because the nominations usually help me determine which movies I’ll make a point to see in the theaters if they're not on my Must See list already. And because, as a TV critic, I watch a lot of TV, I’m genuinely interested in which shows and Hollywood folk get nominations. There’s usually some sort of discernible trend that you can glean from the nomination list.

Except for this year where, the general consensus seems to be, there’s no rhyme or reason to the nominations. And, given that AMC's Mad Men isn’t eligible this year because they haven’t aired anything in 2011 (thanks to prolonged contract negotiations), the fact that ABC's Modern Family hasn’t been having its best year and Friday Night Lights is now off the air and got blown off by the Hollywood Foreign Press anyhow, I don’t quite feel as invested in who’s going to come home a winner as I normally am.

Nevertheless, let’s delve into the good and the bad of the nominations, shall we?

TV

Good:

Homeland and Boss accolades. Showtime’s Homeland, about a CIA agent (Clare Danes) who is convinced that an American POW has been turned and is a sleeper terrorist, has been a wildly intense ride and I’ve loved watching it intelligently unfold. (Did you know that the guy who plays Marine Sgt Nick Brody – Damian Lewis – is English? Elevates his acting skills even more in my eyes.) Both Lewis and Danes, plus the show, received Golden Globe nominations It was also great to see Starz’ Boss, plus its lead Kelsey Grammer, snag Golden Globe nominations as well. While some folks may think that Boss, about the vicious, crooked big city mayor Tom Kane, can be a bit ham-fisted and bloviating at times, I sincerely enjoy it.

I was also happy to see Amy Poehler get nominated for her clever, quirky depiction of Leslie Knope on NBC’s Parks and Recreation. This fourth season has been loads of fun as she decided to become political and run for city council.

Bad:

The bulk of the nominations in the TV category, however, were a mystery to me. For example, why all the love for HBO’s Enlightened starring Laura Dern? I have tried to watch this show. Watched the first three episodes. I was thoroughly unmoved. Didn’t like it one iota. Yet Dern got a nomination as did the show for best comedy. Huh? Parks and Recreation and ABC's The Middle are heads and shoulders funnier. This is a head scratcher.

There was nothing for NBC's Friday Night Lights for its final season – which finally netted them some Emmy love this year. There was no Rescue Me (FX) for its last season when it finally got its act together. Men of a Certain Age was blown off as was NBC's Parenthood (Peter Krause was very good this year). Nick Offerman’s Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation is one of the funniest characters on TV. How could he have been ignored . . . again?

Film

Good:

The Descendants was a solid, unexpectedly moving film and George Clooney, ever the suave bachelor in real life, played a schlubby, distracted husband and father perfectly.

The Help, also nominated for best drama, was entertaining, in spite of the fact that many critics savaged it as a white hero version of the Civil Rights era, and I disagree with those critics. Viola Davis, nominated for best actress, delivered a solid performance.

I still want to see Moneyball and The Ides of March, all of which were also nominated for best drama.

Leonardo DiCaprio, who was nominated for best dramatic actor, was very good as J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar, even if the movie itself was wildly uneven, seemed to lack a unifying theme and featured some very bad face makeup.

On the comedy side, I saw both Bridesmaids and Midnight in Paris – was enthralled with them both – but am really pulling for the very funny Bridesmaids as I’d like to see more comedies like this one in the theaters instead of mindless, insulting dreck. Ryan Gosling – who was nominated in two categories – was surprisingly engrossing in the sweet, smart flick Crazy Stupid Love. Can’t comment on him in The Ides of March because I haven’t seen it yet.

Bad:

Nada for Melissa McCarthy who stole Bridesmaids with her utterly brave performance. Not a smidgen of love for the final installment of Harry Potter, which was wonderful. Margin Call, a powerful film about the genesis of the 2008 economic crisis, got a grand total of zero nominations.

Full list of nominations is available here.

Which nominations did you applaud and which ones puzzled you?

Notes from the Political Middle: Cracker Barrel vs Whole Foods; Protesters of the Year & Newt Leading GOP Pack

Cracker Barrel vs Whole Foods

Quick, which one do you prefer: The restaurant/gift shop chain Cracker Barrel or the supermarket chain Whole Foods?

If you selected Cracker Barrel, you must be a Republican. If you picked Whole Foods, you’re obviously a Democrat. It makes sense that if you buy the $7.39 Chicken n’ Dumplins from Cracker Barrel, where they play country music in the background, you must be a conservative, right? And if you’re in the market for anything organic or for fare like arugula, man, you’re a liberal, just count up them Priuses in the parking lot.

Wait . . . what? Well that’s what the Washington Post asserted in a recent story saying that there’s a cultural divide between the two venues which can serve as easy proxies for patrons’ political choices.

“In 2008, candidate Barack Obama carried 81 percent of counties with a Whole Foods and just 36 percent of counties with a Cracker Barrel – a record 45-point gap,” the Post reported. “. . . This growing divide signals shifts in the electorate. In the 2008 primary, Obama was able to overcome Hillary Rodham Clinton partly because the Democratic Party had become more Whole Foods than Cracker Barrel.” Hillary Clinton is a Cracker Barrel most valuable patron? Since when?

An author/journalist from Texas told the paper: “Politics is aligned with lifestyle right now, not policy. Food used to be political because it represented a class of farmers or workers. Now it represents certain tastes.”

While I’ll concede that there may be some discernible lifestyle correlation between an organic/free-range/Whole Foods-type lifestyle and voting Democratic, this type of false dichotomy makes my hair stand on end. It’s a lazy, simplistic shortcut which ideologically paints folks with one, broad brush. Even here in liberal, blue state Massachusetts, I know folks who defy this simplistic either-or stereotype. I know Republican Whole Foods shoppers and Democratic Cracker Barrel patrons. Scott Brown, in case you’ve forgotten, is from here, and we’ve had many Republican governors who likely never went to a Cracker Barrel but I'd wager they've set foot inside a Whole Foods, or a similar market because they can afford to do so.

Now picture Mitt Romney for a second. Which seems more likely to you, that Romney would be shopping at a Whole Foods or dining at Cracker Barrel? What about Jon Huntsman? Hillary Clinton? Chris Christie? The comparisons don’t always work as cleanly as people would like to make them seem. When you have such a growing body of independents in the electorate who could vote blue or red depending on the candidate – and regardless of where they buy their groceries, which is more related to income than a political culture – it seems more than a little insulting to try to pigeon-hole voters by grocery stores, restaurants or by what sport their kids play, as pundits are wont to do. (I’m a soccer mom AND a hockey mom AND a basketball mom . . . and none of that has anything to do with how I vote, rather it has to do with my kids’ interests.)

Protesters of the Year

Every year Time Magazine’s selection for “Person of the Year” creates controversy. That’s by design. At around Christmas, Time gins up some robust watercooler buzz as people debate their choice.

This year the magazine’s editors went out of their way to make an outside of the box selection by annointing “The Protester” -- whether it’s an Occupy Wall Streeter or an Egyptian woman or Tunisian street vendor, all of those who rose up in protest of their government, their economy, the elite class or all of the above -- was given the props.
“Protests have now occurred in countries whose populations total at least 3 billion people, and the word protest has appeared in newspapers and online exponentially more this past year than at any other time in history,” explained Time’s managing editor Rick Stengel. “. . . Everywhere, it seems, people said they’d had enough. They dissented; they demanded; they did not despair, even when the answers came back in a cloud of tear gas or a hail of bullets. They literally embodied the idea that individual action can bring collective, colossal change.”

I, for one, think it was an inspired choice. What say you?

Seriously, Newt’s Leading the Pack?

As I noted in this post in September (where I wrote about becoming a voter who’s unaffiliated with a political party), I don’t and never have towed any kind of a party line in the voting booth. I vote the person, not the party. Being of the moderate ilk, I tend to cotton to people who are not fire breathers and are apt to feed big, bloody slabs of red meat to their base. As Pollyanna/Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as it may seem, I like the person who doesn’t demonize his or her competitors and who is willing to work for the compromise that’s best for the most people, and who'll do so by collaborating with politicians with whom you don’t necessarily agree, as opposed to thwarting everything in order to just make a stand or prevent someone’s re-election.

Which brings me to my Newt Gingrich question: How is it possible that the GOP primary voters would think that the voters in what’s called the “mushy middle” (Independents and the like) would ever, in a million years, vote for a President Gingrich? I remain stunned by the phoenix-like rise of the former House Speaker as primary voters are scrambling to try to find anyone other than Romney to be their presidential nominee. Certainly there are more appealing candidates who do not have such steep negative ratings as Gingrich.

As I’ve perused the commentary from various political pundits about Gingrich's sudden surge in the polls, the piece that resonated most with me was from conservative Peggy Noonan who, in a blistering Wall Street Journal op/ed likened Gingrich to “a human hand grenade who walks around with his hand on the pin, saying, ‘Watch this!’”

“What is striking is the extraordinary divide in opinion between those who know Gingrich and those who don’t,” Noonan wrote, after calling him “ethically dubious,” “erratic and unreliable," "impulsive” and “egomaniacal.” “Those who do are mostly not for him, and they were burning up the phone lines this week in Washington.”

Once we hit 2012, I have to believe that the primary voters will go in a different direction, unless, of course, they’re just looking to cede the election to President Obama.

Image credits: Cracker Barrel, Whole Foods, Peter Hapak/Time, Charlie Neibergall/Christian Science Monitor.

Notes on Pop Culture: Keaton's Memoir, 'The Descendants,' 'Boss' Rules & Meeting 'Morning Joe'

Diane Keaton’s Charming Memoir

Perhaps Diane Keaton’s Then Again, should be called a “mom-ior” instead of a memoir as Keaton decided that instead of simply writing about her life and loves (Allen, Beatty, Pacino among them), she’d write an autobiography in which she parallels her story with that of her housewife mother Dorothy Hall, someone whom Keaton called the most influential person in her life.

After I finished reading the moving and endearing book -- I was especially fond of Keaton’s honesty and self-effacement -- I wrote a column about it and Keaton's attachment to her mom.

One little nugget of trivia which I found cool: Keaton's parents nicknamed her "Di-Annie." Her given surname was Hall. Di-Annie Hall. Yes, Woody Allen based the flighty lead character of his Oscar winning film Annie Hall on Keaton, whom he’d dated, and some of the characters, including Grammy Hall (which is what Keaton called her father’s loan shark of a mother), were loosely based on Keaton’s family members.

After spending several hours languishing in Keaton's world -- and learning that she drives her kids to very early swimming practices while she sits in her car and waits for them -- I've developed a hankering to see Annie Hall again. I’m also curious about Reds, which I’ve never seen, as Keaton said she thoroughly despised her character when the film was shooting and only emotionally opened up to it during the “train station” scene.


Image credit: Fox Searchlight

The Descendants Asks How Well We Know Our Parents

In the same week in which I finished Aimee Bender’s quirky, cool novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake -- where the protagonist discovers she can discern the feelings of the person who made or harvested her food by tasting it – I also laughed and sniffled my way through the new George Clooney film, The Descendants. When I exited the theater, I was surprised to discover similar themes in both the movie and the book I’d just read, hence my column which asked the question of whether we ever really know our parents, or our children for that matter.

In The Descendants, Clooney plays a distant husband with two kids, who learned, after his wife was critically injured and in a coma, that she’d been cheating on him. The film explores what happens when we open our eyes and really see what’s right in front of you and the fallout when you hide parts of yourself from the ones you love.

In the book, the lead character Rose, who is a child when the book begins, is horrified to discover by tasting the food they made that her mother is severely depressed, her father is dissatisfyingly withdrawn and her older brother is plagued with all manner of unhappy problems. This was knowledge Rose really wished she didn't have.

I didn’t wind up happening upon any unique answers to the question of whether you can really know anybody all that well, but I was thoroughly entertained and moved by both.

Boss Rules

Over on the TV blog to which I contribute – CliqueClack TV -- they recently had a poll asking readers to vote for their favorite new fall show. While I really like some of the top vote-getters like Homeland and Once Upon a Time (which I cover for CliqueClack TV), I made the argument that, despite the fact that Boss is on Starz, which artificially limits the number of viewers it has, it is the shining dark freshman show of the fall season.

After comparing Kelsey Grammer’s fictional Chicago Mayor Tom Kane to Tony Soprano, I wrote: "For a news and political junkie like myself, Boss has everything. It’s like The West Wing, only meaner, more sinister, more profane, violent and set in the gritty underbelly of Chicago politics. And if Grammer doesn’t win an Emmy for best actor in a drama, that’ll be a crime.”

Its first season has been stellar. If you have the chance to check it out, do.

Meeting Morning Joe

I’ve written here numerous times about my love of the MSNBC morning chat show Morning Joe. It’s on my TV every weekday morning, entertaining me, challenging me, angering me and informing me. I’m a fan of the fundamental organizing conceit of the show: To have rational, intellectual discussion about the important issues of the day without chopping everything down to soundbites and without demonizing one political side or the other. Both sides get a voice.

Thus when I attended the Massachusetts Conference for Women in Boston this week, where Morning Joe’s hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski gave the keynote address, and learned that they’d be meeting and greeting folks and signing books, I had to get in line.

They were very gracious and Joe Scarborough was incredulous when I told him that my kids watch Morning Joe along with me as they get ready for school and that my fifth grader has actually gone to school and had arguments with his classmates over tax policy. True story.

The photo quality is pretty cruddy – what do you want from a BlackBerry camera? – but the smiles were genuine.

Image credits: Amazon, Fox Searchlight, Amazon.

Sick of the Same Christmas Tunes? Here are Some Alternatives.

I’m seriously trying to embrace the holiday spirit this year and not be so Grinchy, even though I have zip, zippo, nada shopping done. One of the ways in which I’m trying to simply enjoy the Christmas season is by listening to music, but I’m kind of tired of the same old stuff I’ve been hearing for decades. I want something fresh. I mean, I love “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” as much as the next person, but it is so overplayed. I need to not hear it for about 10 years before it’ll get its luster back.

So I went on iTunes in search of some different or lesser played Christmas carols. Here are some of my favorites (which I’ll try not to overplay and thus, ruin them for myself):

“Cool Yule,” Louis Armstrong (Originally found this song while watching the movie Serendipity.)

“Silent Night,” Low (This is a plucky sounding version, just voices and guitar.)

“Silent Night,” Sara Ramirez (Ramirez -- Callie from Grey’s Anatomy -- sang this a cappella version of this on the ABC drama last year. It’s a spare, utterly moving rendition.)

“Christmas Wrapping,” The Waitresses (A rocking, fun alternative tune.)

“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” Death Cab for Cutie (Though U2, whom I love, did the most famous version of this song, hearing Death Cab for Cutie cover it gave it a new lease on life.)

“Someday at Christmas,” Jack Johnson (The Hawaiian hipster’s politically tinged, pro-peace tune sayin’, “Hey man, can’t we all just get along?”)

“Maybe Next Year (X-Mas Song),” Meiko (This is a dark, snarky and slightly naughty song in the vein of “Santa Baby.”)

“Carol of the Bells,” American Boychoir (I don’t hear this on the radio as often as I think it should be played. It reminds me of that old West Wing episode when Josh was suffering from post-traumatic stress after President Bartlet was shot.)

“The First Snowflake,” The Boy Least Likely To (This is a lilting ode to the joys of snow.)

“Christmas Time is Here,” Ivy (A cover of the famous Christmas song, this version was made to sound as though you’re listening to it on an AM station on an old radio the size of a small bear.)

“Sleigh Ride,” Ella Fitzgerald (This uber-classy version reminds me of something I might hear playing at Roger Sterling’s place, very Mad Men.)

What are some of your favorite Christmas tunes that are off the beaten path and not played every 10 seconds on some radio station somewhere?

Sardonic Laughs for the Literary Types

Before Thanksgiving, one of my friends with a killer sense of humor sent me a link to a snarky and profane column by Colin Nissan from the web site McSweeney’s Internet Tendency about autumnal decorative gourd season gone awry. Oh my God. It was damn funny, the perfect antidote to over-the-top, Good Housekeeping-type of fall home decorating tips.

As a result of reading that column, I’ve been noodling around on the site for the past week and found other pieces that were witty and cutting, though not as profane as Nissan’s. Two of my favorites:

Writer Cirocco Dunlap’s “Literary Genre Translations” took one sentence -- “I ate a sandwich and looked out the window” – and translated it according to various genres of books. The results were hilarious.

The Russian Classic version of that same sentence:

“I, Shanvokovic, steadily finished my becoldened soup made by Gregorinoviczh as if the weight on my conscience weren’t pressing deep down into my darkening soul. I looked out the architect’s airhole into the bleak grey of the day – grey, indeed, as my mortality – as I waited for the sweet nightshade to seep into my bloodstream and for Borsha to find my explanatory farewell tome.”

The 19th Century British Romance version:

“Being but a governess with no prospects but a fierce wit and a quick temper which is out of mode, I nibbled a soda biscuit and looked off into the glade, awaiting my dear friend – whom I surely could not come to love – Mr. Wadswortherton.”

Then there was Karen Gilmore’s “An Open Letter to Friends and Family Regarding Inquiries About My Reproductive Plans.” Modeled after literary agents’ submission guidelines which tell writers exactly, in precise detail, what they should and shouldn’t do in order to be afforded the opportunity for an agent to simply glance at their cover letter extolling the virtues of their unpublished manuscript, Gilmore wrote:

“Dear Friends and Family,


Thank you for your interest in my reproductive plans. Before submitting your inquiry, please read the submission guidelines below.”

On “Simultaneous Submissions,” she wrote:

“Please do not simultaneously submit the same inquiry regarding our reproductive plans to both my husband and I. This could confuse us and if you confuse us, we may accidentally delete your query without responding to it and then we will laugh maniacally and sleep the peaceful, uninterrupted sleep of the childless.”

I so needed to find this web site. Since there haven’t been many new David Sedaris and Dave Barry columns to read on a regular basis, I’ve had this void in my life when it came to this kind of comedic writing. McSweeney’s fits that void very nicely.

Huntsman Daughters At It Again, Bringing Huntsman ‘Back’ with Timberlake Tune

Who knew that GOP hopeful Jon Huntsman’s three daughters – Liddy, Abby and Mary Anne -- had decent voices? In their continuing campaign to promote their dear old dad as a solid potential commander-in-chief, the trio of Huntsman daughters have released an unofficial campaign song on YouTube set to the tune of Justin Timberlake’s SexyBack.

Seriously.

Among their lyrics:

“We’re bringing Huntsman back. The rest of them is one big circus act.”

“Herman Cain, we like your pizza but you can’t explain how 9-9-9 will get us back in shape so pass the pizza and we won’t complain.”

“Jon Huntsman, the real job creator.”

“The governor who stands for sanity.”

Late today, The Washington Post reported that an “advisor” to the former Utah governor's campaign isn’t impressed with the daughters’ video or Twitter feed (@Jon2012girls) and now considers them as having “gone rogue.” The Post quoted an unnamed aide as saying: “The girls were asked by a number of campaign officials to not release the video. The campaign was not informed of the release of the video. The video does not have a disclaimer and is not a campaign product.”

They need to seriously chill out. They’re his daughters doing what people their age do: Put stuff on YouTube. They’re enthusiastic about their father and, barring them doing, wearing or saying something highly inappropriate -- which they haven't done -- I don’t think that this video, and the one they did spoofing Herman Cain’s weird smoking ad, is doing Huntsman any harm. At this point, they’re getting more attention than their dad. And he could sure use the press.