There's been some controversy over Peter Hoekstra's Superbowl TV advertisement aired in Michigan in his campaign to unseat incumbent Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow:
I've talked to many Chinese people. Rarely do they ever talk like this in reality. Except in stereotypes. Coincidentally, I watched the movie "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" before I watched the Superbowl this past weekend.
Mickey Rooney
Contained in the movie are numerous references to the racism that Bruce Lee encountered, including Mickey Rooney's turn as a fake Japanese man in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. The woman in the Hoekstra ad has the same sort of stereotypical accent.
Hoekstra can do better in other ways. The whole "Debbie Spenditnow" name befits someone making up playground insults, not a mature adult involved in the serious craft of governance and legislation. Sorry, Pete, this is amateurish and not ready for prime time.
He could have made this ad a lot better by having the Chinese woman speak in proper English, as so many do. That would have zeroed out any possibility of anti-racist reaction to this ad. Which would have still left the problem of not having much of a message and being focused on a 3rd grade level recess insult.
Besides, Pete's main point is blunted when one realizes the fact that he voted for the $800 million dollar TARP handout to the big banks (something most Republicans opposed). I wonder if he can come up with a juvenile name for himself to denote his own massive record-level spending voting record?
Today is Superbowl Sunday. Yes, I know that Sleestak are great at playing basketball, not football. But I was remembering memorable Superbowl ads.
One of them was for the movie "Land of the Lost". By the time of the Superbowl, I'd already known that this forthcoming movie, which I had been waiting 30 years for, was going to be pretty bad. It turned out even worse than the following Superbowl spot might lead you to believe. And yes, there are Sleestak in the commercial, for a split second toward the very end.
I also remember when an unknown non-politician named Rick Snyder went for broke and bought time to run his "One Tough Nerd" ad during the Superbowl. It worked: he was elected governor later that year
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There is one commercial that shows the Sleestak in their hissing glory, and that one was one by Subway. But not during the Super Bowl:
Fed up with the Superbowl and commercials? Then go to Dog Ears Books in Northport for its "Escape from Football" tonight. Will they be serving a Tussssscan chicken melt submarine sandwich? I wonder if there are any great books on football. I know people who have read "North Dallas 40" and liked it, but the highlights they mentioned were scatalogical.
Critic George Plimpton had the "Small Ball Theory" of sports writing:
"This stated that there seems to be a correlation between the standard of writing about a particular sport and the ball it utilizes -- that the smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature. There are superb books about golf, very good books about baseball, not many good books about football or soccer, very few good books about basketball and no good books at all about beach balls. I capped off the Small Ball Theory by citing Mark Twain's "Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," perhaps the most universally known of sports stories, in which bird shot (very small balls indeed!) is an important element in the plot."
Click here to read more about it. After reading this, I guess I should end my quest to find great Earthball literature.
This postcard is from 1904 to 1918. There's no writing or date on the back, but there is "AZO" in the stamp box, and a cryptic array of four triangles pointing up. Which, according to Playle, indicates 1904 to 1918.
Some of the photo might be cut off on your screen:
Fountain City, Wisconsin, 100 years ago (postcard)
Fountain City is in the west of Central Wisconsin, in the "Hiawatha Valley" on the Mississippi River across from Minnesota. It's also in the southern tip of Wisconsin's "Indian Head country". Stephen King's book Black House, which took place nearby, called the city just "Fountain".
I've featured Fountain City a few times before. Click here to see some other posts. This postcard is 100 years old, give or take a couple of years. Fountain City, the last time I was there. looked much the same now, but with many of the old wooden buildings gone.
I found I had a copy of "Homeground" (Kate Bush fan magazine) from Christmas 1986. It contained this really interesting illustration of Kate Bush vs robot troopers and clone commandos. It is by someone named "Steve the Duck". Steve comes up 0 in a Google search, otherwise I would love to let him know about this blog posting.
This detailed drawing must have taken forever to make. It's a sort of Where's Waldo of robots and armored science fiction characters, with a Cylon, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Stormtroopers found among the 'bots. Others to look for include Judge Dredd, Iron Man, and Gort. You will find them there. I am sure Doctor Who's pooch K-9 has to be in there somewhere, but I have nto found him yet. Are Darth Vader or Baron Karza illustrated? If not they should be. Alas, this illustration was made way too early for Bender to have been included.
Steve the Duck even had a contest to name all the "guest stars". Warning: If you click to see the larger image, it is very large and very detailed. What all can you identify?
"One Man, One Prehistoric Walking Lizard*. Both seeking the top office in the United States. What happens when man meets lizard?
(* the prehistoric walking lizard is the one on the left)""
In one of the debates, Bob Dole utters this prophetic statement:
"It is as if we went to sleep
in one America and woke up in quite another land which happens to be
lost. It is as though our government, and our institutions and our
culture have been hijacked by lizards and are careening dangerously off
course."
Probably a majority would agree with this at this time.
And here is a quoted exchange between Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich mentioned at the Sleestak political blog "Enik Rising":
Gingrich: "Why do so many people take an instant dislike to me?" Dole: "It saves time."
How many have been following the debates and other parts of the campaign closely? I admit I have not watched one debate yet, but I have been tempted. I mostly rely for information on these after the fact from radio news, newspapers, and internet sites (including blogs).
Byaaaaahhh!!!
So I know very well about Rick Perry's campaign-killing memory failure. And if someone decides to scream like pterodactyl during a primary-related speech, I will be sure to find out about it. Am I really missing out from not watching the debates "live" ?
To the right is a picture of the pterodactyl-headed mutant Sauron., a minor 'X-Men" villain. Ever since he went public, he has faced mounting debt from the lawsuits from the J.R.R. Tolkien estate. In 2008, he decided to supplement his income by writing Howard Dean campaign speeches.
Has anyone been watching the debates and the speeches on C-SPAN and other channels? And at this point in the Republican race, with people still having major misgivings about Romney and Gingrich (an uneasy mix of what I see as lack of great enthusiasm from anyone for Romney, and a strong animosity toward Gingrich from some), should a Sleestak enter the race to make it interesting? Or can see say that Ron Paul was close enough, and we don't need to try that again.
And yes, I have some animosity toward Ron Paul and his supporters dating back from a time a group of them attached campaign flyers to cars in my church parking lot, and threw a lot more than they attached to the cars on the ground. I guess the libertarian respect for property rights does not extend to automobile owners, nor does it prohibit trashing privately-owned parking lots.
"Go Quackie! Ducks head into the quackstretch"
I found this postcard in a book in a box today.
Dayton Duck Derby (Ohio)
The back says "Dayton Duck Derby
An annual favorite at the Dayton County fair, ducks race for prestige and prizes. Produce and pie judging are other events at "Ohio's Week of Fun", which runs August 2nd through the 8th.:"
Apparently, the duck derby is no longer held. The only thing I can find on it in Google are references to other copies of this postcard.
I guess in a world where animal rights activists have actually tried to ban rubber duck regattas, a derby of live ducks would not fly at all.
There used to be a feature called Postcard Friendship Friday. I don't know what happened to it, but I participated several times. Today's entry is of the Swinging Bridge at Rock City Gardens near Chattanooga, Tennessee
The pencil handwritten caption on the back reads:
Hi, Didn't like yesterdaybut today sure makes up for it hot and sunny. Have my windows down. It's 1:30 Sat. Hope they let me drink in Ga tomorrow. On Sunday they don't in some states. If I can't, I'll play golf. I'm only 120 miles from Atlanta. Easy from here. - H___
Seriously, I can make out every word except for the writer's name.
It was postmarked at 6:30 PM on Sunday, December 24, from Chattanooga. Looks like H. didn't make it to Georgia the next day after all.
Some years after this postcard was mailed, I ran across this bridge. I did not golf or drink in Georgia on a Sunday afterwards. I was 2 years old at the time.
