Odds and Ends

1. A different take on the Michael Jackson memorial service, from Noli Irritare Leones:

   Is the fuss over MJ’s death frivolous? I have mixed feelings. Yes, there’s something off about our investment in celebrities, the way we idolize them, then tear them down, then idolize them again. I see Paris, I see France, I see Britney’s underpants. And it’s the ruin of some of them, people who have gifts for entertainment, but not for surviving the public eye. Who can’t live with either the intrusion into privacy, or the lack of normal limits, or both. I cheered, like a lot of people, at that Youtube video of the news anchor who refused repeatedly to read (and finally burned) her script when she saw that the lead story was about the doings of Paris Hilton. And I certainly don’t want to lose sight of, say, news about Iran, or Honduras, or what’s happening to the Uighurs in China, to devour every detail of gossip about the last moments of MJ’s life.

2. An examination of Sarah Palin's appeal, from Fetch Me My Axe:

   Because what this article [at The Moderate Voice] doesn't say explicitly, although it's clearly there in the allusion to Nixon's well-known anti-Semitism: the resentment in question isn't just about being relatively "have-not." It's about people who think that they -deserve- to be, not just living well, but -on top-, and--for some reason--aren't. Hence the railing at both the Powers and Principalities and at "freaks" and assorted minorities who are taking their rightful pottage away from them. Hence the rather sig heilish zeitgeist at the McCain/Palin rallies (and in the post-election Tea Parties and so forth). Hence, a lot of us feeling just a tad wary of these people.

3. A meditation on St. Louis' pre-All-Star Game spiffing up, from Angry Black Bitch:

   On the other hand, a bitch is rather surprised that the city even noticed all the areas they are now targeting with amazing accuracy. I almost hoped that all those broken windows in all the abandoned buildings were there because the right people weren’t aware of them…that the layers of filth on the street had not been attended to because most folks don’t walk around downtown St. Louis to notice…and that the trash and neck high weed/grass lining highway 70 was the result of the bad economy coupled with no one wanting to take responsibility.
   
   But a bitch was wrong!
   
   No way in hell my ass was right because St. Louis city got their clean on too swiftly with too much accuracy…much like this bitch does when someone says they’re going to drop by the house.

4. Also, Coca-Cola in Japan tastes funny:

   After drinking half a bottle of Japanese Coca-Cola, I realize this is the first food item that I am going to miss from the U.S. The Japanese version doesn't taste the same. It has sugar, but somehow manages to leave an aspartame like flavor in my mouth.

   Disclaimer: Consuming is a former neighbor, and that comment is from me.