I’ve had it, already. Can someone somewhere who supervises the hyped-up on-air talent at American television and radio stations please tell their people that “literally” is not a synonym for “practically” or “absolutely” or even “completely”? Two cases in point in recent weeks: • In a television broadcast from Haiti (Fox? CNN? Can’t remember which …
Monthly Archive: January 2010
Jan 27
Grant Desme has a higher calling than baseball
Part of me really admires former Cal Poly baseball star Grant Desme for giving up a promising pro career to enter the priesthood. Another part of me wonders why he didn’t save the seminary for a few years down the road and play ball now while he can. A top prospect in the A’s organization, …
Jan 24
Here’s what wasn’t so cool about ‘Avatar’
I went to see “Avatar” the other day after avoiding the hype for five weeks. Good movie, but I liked it better the first time I saw it. When it was called “Dances With Wolves.” Na’vi = Lakota Sioux 2154 = 1860s Jake Sully = John Dunbar American military plundering a native people = American …
Jan 22
Dear Abby has some numbskulls for readers
The dumbest thing I’ve read in a long time comes by way of today’s Dear Abby column, from a dim bulb in Alabama who wrote to the advice columnist to settle a disagreement. It seems the wife and author of the letter believes you screw in a lightbulb counter-clockwise, while the husband believes it’s clockwise. …
Jan 20
In Haiti, doctors and journalists are both people first
Here’s another observation on the response to the Haiti earthquake. The L.A. Times had a story on Tuesday pondering the supposed conflict of interest that faces the many medical correspondents working for TV networks in Haiti. The assumption of course, in the ivory towers of Journalism, is that reporters should be singularly focused newsgatherers, ideally …
Jan 17
Does this Haiti photo bother you?
The last week has been filled with hordes of disturbing images coming out of Haiti following Tuesday’s magnitude-7.0 quake. Most of them, you probably never saw. The piles of bodies outside the morgue, limbs and torsos tangled together like discarded mannequins. Shots of the dead still trapped in collapsed buildings, visible but inaccessible. And the …
Jan 12
Say so long to the sun
I was talking with the indomitable Bill Morem today, about the weather of all things. He was noting — his silver beard bristling in the climate-controlled breeze — how we have a bit of precipitation in the forecast. Such a bit, in fact, that apparently there’s the possibility we’ll see as much as seven straight …
Jan 05
What’s wrong with all you buttheads?
This is a message to the careless and selfish woman who, while driving her blue Kia Spectra south on Highway 101 through San Luis Obispo Monday morning, rolled down her window, stuck her hand in the air and then flicked away the remains of a cigarette, in the ever-so-thoughtless way that only someone who’s killed …
