Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Monday Evening Open Thread: Spare A Thought for the Media Mudlarks

Monday Evening Open Thread: Spare A Thought for the Media Mudlarks

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… A mocking, schadenfreudelicious thought. They’re so hungry for a Biden scandal, and he gives them nothing!

Donald Trump hired cronies and suck-ups. Joe Biden prefers people who know what they’re doing…

We can’t even goad his voters into rejecting him!

Ah, well, there’s always the Wingnut Wurlitzer…

Reader Interactions

268Comments

  2. 2.

    Poe Larity

    With Melinda leaving Bill, she’s semi-Ivy from Duke. But would a ~$50 Billionaire on staff be too snooty for Republicans?

  4. 4.

    dr. bloor

    The media dealing with no more Trump looks like nothing as much as a heroin junkie going cold turkey.

  6. 6.

    JanieM

    That guy thinks people plant dandelions, and he can’t tell the difference between one that hasn’t bloomed yet and one that has gone to seed.

    Probably he didn’t even know what a dandelion was until some staffer wrote the rant for him.

  7. 7.

    MisterForkbeard

    I mean, Trump literally saw people praising him on TV and hired them into the administration. I’ll all for having less Ivy grads in staff positions, but it’s like comparing apples to a garbage dump.

  9. 9.

    natem

    That Lippman piece is like the perfect crystallization of everything wrong with Beltway journalism. Just pure idiocracy all the way down.

  10. 10.

    boatboy_srq

    NEW: Joe Biden, a proud graduate of the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School, has stocked his top White House staff with nearly twice as many Ivy League graduates as the first iteration of the Trump White House, according to a POLITICO analysis.

    They think competence is a bad thing.

  13. 13.

    Edmund Dantes

    The only bad aspect of this is the assumption that Ivy League denoted competence in Biden’s appointees. It’s a belief that needs to be broken.

  14. 14.

    WaterGirl

    @JanieM: My interpretation of the blow-hard in the video is that he knows it has already gone to seed and his use of the word “planted” meant that someone had put that dandelion there specifically so that Joe Biden could make his big romantic gesture.

    Full disclosure:  Joe picking the dandelion as a romantic gesture left me close to virtually rolling my eyes, and if I am reading body language I suspect Jill’s reaction was the same.

    Still, geez, what the fuck is wrong with these people that they are still talking about a dandelion Joe picked, several days later.  On the other hand, maybe it was a plant!

    Tired of questions about about Russian and Iran, tired of the bullshit “will he call the situation at the border a crisis” comments and questions, so maybe someone said, hey, let’s plant a dandelion so Joe can pick it for Jill and the stupid press can talk about that for a week.

  15. 15.

    FelonyGovt

    As someone who has an Ivy League degree- albeit one dating from when dinosaurs roamed the earth- I’m bemused by the “Ivy League graduate” thing. Not ALL of us are clueless elite assholes.

  17. 17.

    Kropacetic

    @boatboy_srq: An Ivy League pedigree isn’t sufficient or necessary to prove competence or lack thereof.

    A willingness to work for Trump is likely sufficient proof.

  19. 19.

    Brachiator

    Forty-one percent of senior- or mid-level Biden White House staffers — or 82 people out of 201 aides analyzed — have Ivy League degrees. By contrast, only 21 percent of the comparable White House staff had such credentials under President Donald Trump.

    Isn’t this bad, bad elitism, or something? I’m surprised dipshits haven’t claimed that Biden is not hiring enough working class people without any degrees but just a love for the Baby Jesus.

    Also, do we really know how many Trump appointees had criminal records?

  22. 22.

    Kropacetic

    @Brachiator: Also, do we really know how many Trump appointees had criminal records?

    Before or after? What about those whose pre-existing criminal records lengthened during the administration, if any?

  23. 23.

    mrmoshpotato

    By contrast, only 21 percent of the comparable White House staff had such credentials under President Donald Trump.

    Maybe Ivy League-educated people didn’t want to work for a Soviet shitpile mobster manbaby?  Also, maybe they wanted to be employable after the Kremlin’s orange shitpile’s bastard administration crashed and burned?

  24. 24.

    Roger Moore

     “Biden ran center-right in the primary and has governed to the left of Obama.”

    This is what you get when you assume you know everything about a candidate so you don’t bother to check.

  28. 28.

    dmsilev

    @FelonyGovt:

    I’m bemused by the “Ivy League graduate” thing. Not ALL of us are clueless elite assholes…..

    …but it’s the way to bet.

    (Honestly, most of the Ivy grads I’ve met have been more or less indistinguishable from other-school grads. It helps that we’re all crazy in the sciences anyway)

  30. 30.

    dmsilev

    Survey methodology question: Did they count each separate “job” held by Jared Kushner as a different position?

  31. 31.

    zhena gogolia

    I have to admit, I copied Biden, and when we were on our walk I picked a dandelion and gave it to my husband. He was thrilled! (Mine was a yellow one, tho. And he wasn’t wearing yellow spike heels.)

  32. 32.

    JanieM

    @WaterGirl: Imagine having a president who is inspired to do some dopey sweet thing, without even worrying about whether it will put the usual suspects’ knickers in a twist for the next month.

    The horror!

  33. 33.

    CaseyL

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I admit to some unbecoming curiosity about why they decided to split up.  It’s none of my business, of course.  But they seemed unusual for megarich in that they’ve pretty much kept to themselves, don’t go around looking for vast acclaim, and their philanthropy seems sincere.  IOW, seemed to have their shit together and were not clear and present dangers to liberal democracy.​

  35. 35.

    Baud

    This story is entirely for the purpose of giving right wingers who call Dems elitist something to retweet.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Since it’s an open thread…

     

    Earlier today I saw Newt Gingrich [spit!] on TV peddling some kind of insurance — title protection, I believe. It started me thinking about celebrity endorsements in general.

    Has a celebrity endorsement ever influenced your decision to buy or not to buy a product?

    I can’t remember a time in my life when a movie star’s or politician’s or athlete’s imprimatur would have spurred me to purchase an insurance policy or snap up a particular model of car or eat at a specific restaurant.*

    However, there are plenty of celebrity endorsements that have turned me right off whatever product they’re hawking. I detest Newt Gingrich, so you can rest assured I won’t be buying that title insurance he wants to sell me. Nor will I be buying one of zombie Pat Boone’s walk-in bathtubs.

    The practice of using famous people to sell commodities has a venerable role in the history of advertising. It must work, but on whom?

    * (On reflection, I would say that I’ve frequently bought books based solely on the fact that they were endorsed by someone whose literary tastes I admired. That’s not really what I’m talking about, though.)

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     

    I feel kind of bad for the Gateses. They’ve been married a long time.

    I always have mixed feelings when I hear about people getting divorced. I’m sorry that they need a divorce, but not that they get one once they decide they can’t make their marriage work.

  38. 38.

    Brachiator

    @WaterGirl:

    Full disclosure: Joe picking the dandelion as a romantic gesture left me close to virtually rolling my eyes, and if I am reading body language I suspect Jill’s reaction was the same.

    I guess I understand what you mean, but people don’t need to have a reaction to everything that Biden does.

    Still, geez, what the fuck is wrong with these people that they are still talking about a dandelion Joe picked, several days later. On the other hand, maybe it was a plant!

    “It was a plant…” A plant.  I seed what you did there!!!

    By picking that poor dandelion, Biden proved that he really doesn’t care about the environment. Maybe that dandelion was an endangered species! Maybe the dirt that got pulled up was contaminated with oil or pesticides! Maybe that dandelion was really… alive! And that monster Joe Biden is murdering poor, defenseless plants.

    And the evil fake news liberal media lets Biden get away with his vicious crimes against Vegetable Americans.

  40. 40.

    piratedan

    this is where I have issues… are there stories, yes there are…

    like how do we get to the point where we can manufacture more vaccine,

    why can’t the GOP do a better job in convincing their supporters to take the vaccine

    is there a game plan to address the upcoming indictments of the President by NY, GA?

    How much longer wil;l the GOP continue to be bad faith actors?

    why do national TV political shows continue to give traitors access to the general public?

    what are the challenges ahead in moving to a green economy?

    There are topics that could stand to be covered, they’re apparently uninterested in covering them

  41. 41.

    Poe Larity

    Next they’ll be putting a Starbucks in the Rose Garden. It’s too bad the Chinese bought Volvo.

  43. 43.

    zhena gogolia

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I loved to drink Shirley Temples when I was a child, but I learned from her autobiography that she detested them. But I guess that’s not really a celebrity endorsement.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @dmsilev: ​
     
    My impression is that people who get in through the back door because their parents went there or donated a ton of money give the people who get in through the front a bad reputation.

  52. 52.

    Tony Jay

    Is Lippman suggesting that it’s somehow a scandal that Biden isn’t hiring people from his old university? Or that it’s scandalous that Biden isn’t handing out White House jobs to hard-scrabble, blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth, trucker-cap wearing types like Democrats are supposed to do in order to show they’re not, like, total hypocrites or something? I don’t get it. Other than the deliberately unspoken implication that this thing Biden has done is somehow offensive to someone and totally a bad move… I don’t get it.

    Is Lippman just being a knob? That sounds like it must be right. I’m going with that.

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @zhena gogolia:

    I thought it was a very sweet, slightly goofy, gesture. And for all we know, the Bidens might have some personal romantic history involving dandelions. At any rate, it made me smile.

  55. 55.

    RSA

    Leaving the status of an Ivy League degree aside, this is what I’m always reminded of when I read about Trump’s hiring practices.

    André Weil suggested that there is a logarithmic law at work: first-rate people attract other first-rate people, but second-rate people tend to hire third-raters, and third-rate people hire fifth-raters. If a dean or a president is genuinely interested in building and maintaining a high-quality university (and some of them are), then he must not grant complete self-determination to a second-rate department; he must, instead, use his administrative powers to intervene and set things right. That’s one of the proper functions of deans and presidents, and pity the poor university in which a large proportion of both the faculty and the administration are second-raters; it is doomed to diverge to minus infinity.

    If this had been written after 2016, it might have continued: “…and fifth-rate people hire outright criminals.”

  57. 57.

    Ken

    @SiubhanDuinne: I detest Newt Gingrich, so you can rest assured I won’t be buying that title insurance he wants to sell me.

    It’s sufficient just to chuckle slightly at the thought that he’s reduced to hawking products on TV.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @RSA:

    but second-rate people tend to hire third-raters, and third-rate people hire fifth-raters

     
    How long before they reach someone like me?

  59. 59.

    Roger Moore

    @SiubhanDuinne: ​
     

    The practice of using famous people to sell commodities has a venerable role in the history of advertising. It must work, but on whom?

    You say you’ve never been influenced by a celebrity endorsement, but your subconscious works in ways you may not recognize. It’s entirely possible that you’ve been subtly influenced- you remember a brand better because you subconsciously associate it with that celebrity- without realizing it. Just as an example, I bet a lot of people my age or older know exactly which brand of car advertised having seats made from rich Corinthian leather because of the celebrity who told them about it. That’s what a good celebrity endorsement will get you.

  60. 60.

    catclub

    @MisterForkbeard: ​
     

    I’m all for having less Ivy grads in staff positions, but it’s like comparing apples to a garbage dump.

    I bet Obama’s number was over 50% Ivy’s

  61. 61.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @zhena gogolia: How many of us still dress the same way now as we did when we were younger? Thank God no photographs of yours truly wearing plaid bell-bottoms no longer exist.

  62. 62.

    Anne Laurie

    @zhena gogolia: Okay, now here’s this Billie Eilish thing. I thought her whole shtick was that she wore baggy clothes so no one would talk about her body. That was actually something I liked about her. What happened?

    She’s only 19!  I’m guessing she feels differently about ‘flaunting her figure’ for a world-class fashion magazine than she did as a 17-year-old being blamed for the bad behavior of the men stalking her (online or IRL).   And she’ll probably change her mind *again* in a few weeks or months, because that’s what 19-year-olds do!

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Has a celebrity endorsement ever influenced your decision to buy or not to buy a product?

    Nope. And I have an agreement with my sister that if I ever fall for something like this, then it’s time to put me in a rest home.

    I detest Newt Gingrich, so you can rest assured I won’t be buying that title insurance he wants to sell me. Nor will I be buying one of zombie Pat Boone’s walk-in bathtubs.

    I figure that whatever Newt is hawking must be fraudulent.

    I figure that times are still tough because radio ads include a lot of questionable deals and products. There are fewer legitimate ads in the station’s inventory. And I don’t have ad free YouTube and have to watch a few seconds of clearly phony ads before I can get to a video.

    And there’s a pattern to some of them. Lots of ads for making quick money from “passive income” featuring fast talking handsome young men. I wonder who thought this might be effective.

  66. 66.

    catclub

    @Kropacetic: ​
     

    Before or after? What about those whose pre-existing criminal records lengthened during the administration, if any?

    I remain amazed that Wilbur Ross skated through 4 years, unfired and unindicted.

  68. 68.

    Roger Moore

    @Tony Jay:

    Other than the deliberately unspoken implication that this thing Biden has done is somehow offensive to someone and totally a bad move… I don’t get it.

    It’s all part of the “Democrats are a bunch of elitists” framing the Republicans love to use.  They’ve already pulled the “why are you objecting to our purely factual article” BS to defend the turd.  I’m not objecting to your factual accuracy; I’m objecting to your choice of which stories to report.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ken:

    It’s sufficient just to chuckle slightly at the thought that he’s reduced to hawking products on TV.

    Oh, yes. I’ll admit to enjoying more than a touch of Schadenfreude when I saw the spot.

  71. 71.

    leeleeFL

    @CaseyL: Mayhap they have outgrown each other in ways we cannot grasp.  I has

    a sad, though.  Seems a shame after 27 seemingly good years.  But, again, we don’t really know them.

  72. 72.

    Tony Jay

    @zhena gogolia:

    It’s her body.

    She’s already established herself first and foremost as a musician, not a singing sex-object.

    What serves as a form of self-protection can eventually calcify into a confining shell and needs to be shed at the right time or it defines you in ways that no longer fit.

    And it’s her body.

    Could be any of them, or none. End of the day, girl’s got nothing to be ashamed of. Not that I’m suggesting that you’re suggesting that she does.

  73. 73.

    dmsilev

    @RSA: 

    first-rate people attract other first-rate people, but second-rate people tend to hire third-raters, and third-rate people hire fifth-raters.

    Pity the poor fourth-raters.

  74. 74.

    JPL

    @zhena gogolia: If Obama showed up at my door selling Insurance, I’d invite him in.   ?

     

    btw, I can’t remember a time that I purchased an item because of a celebrity endorsement.

  75. 75.

    JoyceH

    @Edmund Dantes: ​
     

    The only bad aspect of this is the assumption that Ivy League denoted competence in Biden’s appointees. It’s a belief that needs to be broken.

    What an Ivy League degree denotes is that the degree holder is more likely to have such useful government skills as reading comprehension, writing coherence, and organizational skills than, say, a caddy. Or a security guard. Or a model.

  77. 77.

    Delk

    Too many Ivy League graduates and not enough college drop out media personalities.

  78. 78.

    JML

    I’m all for hiring more people from outside the Ivies; there’s too much nepotism flowing through there (you can call it “legacy” all you want but it’s the same stink) and it’s begun to utterly corrupt the legal profession and the judiciary, but this is still the most manufactured “scandal” I’ve ever seen.

    Biden’s doing exactly what he said he would do on the campaign trail. It turns out that’s awfully popular and is working out pretty well overall. Huh.

  79. 79.

    JoyceH

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I thought it was a very sweet, slightly goofy, gesture. And for all we know, the Bidens might have some personal romantic history involving dandelions. At any rate, it made me smile.

    What impressed me about the dandelion incident, which nobody else seems to be mentioning, is that Biden CAN pick a dandelion. Does anyone here seriously believe that Trump could have done it?

    Then today, Biden does that deep knee bend to talk to that little boy in Virginia, and I said resentfully, “Showoff!” Seriously, he must have the knees of a man half his age.

  80. 80.

    raven

    @JoyceH: Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.” And he says, “Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.” So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.

  82. 82.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    In this sweet clip, a female accountant starts crying and becomes hysterical just watching Obama reading audio book (video)​​

  84. 84.

    Chetan Murthy

    @zhena gogolia: Not that I know Billy Eilish from …. Lady Gaga, but I saw an interview with her in The Guardian [or maybe it was a quote from Vogue, published in The Guardian under fair use, I don’t remember], where she addressed this very question.  I think she thought it was a fun thing to do, getting photographed this way, but she certainly hasn’t given up her style of dress, and she explains in detail why.  I thought it was pretty well-thought-out.  Basically, -she- wants to control how her body gets seen.

    Can’t argue with that.

  86. 86.

    CaseyL

    @leeleeFL: ​
     

    They raised their kids right: No one knows who they are. I live in Seattle and I wouldn’t know a Gates kid if they walked up to me.

  88. 88.

    JoyceH

    @CaseyL: ​
     

    I admit to some unbecoming curiosity about why they decided to split up.

    Sadly, experience tells me that there’s a younger woman waiting in the wings. I’d love to be proven wrong, but time and time again, when one of these long-established couples split and it’s all so mysterious, it eventually turns out that the man (and it’s always the man) has fallen for a younger woman.

  89. 89.

    Philbert

    Celebrity endorsements: I know ‘rich corinthian leather’ from back then but have yet to buy a Lincoln.

    Then again, Tom Bosley and garbage bags: SOLD!

  91. 91.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud:  Bad WaterGirl.  I am clearly ungrateful when it comes to those little yellow flowers.  It’s the thought that counts.

    Maybe I’m just in a mood from looking at all the fucking dandelions in my lawn earlier today.

    edit:  But I would be most grateful if you dug dandelions out of my yard and handed them to me.  :-)

  95. 95.

    Tony Jay

    @Roger Moore:

       I’m not objecting to your factual accuracy; I’m objecting to your choice of which stories to report.

    They (as in almost all modern News Media) also have the reputational problem that, 99.9% of the time, whenever they’re reporting on the Whatever The Not-Conservative Party Are Called does, says or thinks, it’s a big old “Por Que Nos Dos?” trooping right up the Royal Mile from me.

  96. 96.

    Kathleen

    @dr. bloor: Instead of home invasions to fund their drug habit they do Twitter invasions. You can actually see drool on their Tweets.

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    @catclub:

    I’m all for having less Ivy grads in staff positions, but it’s like comparing apples to a garbage dump.

    I bet Obama’s number was over 50% Ivy’s

    It still chaps my hide that people praise the shit out of Biden’s appointees without noting that many of them served in the Obama administration.

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I know, me too.  Not sure exactly why because I have no special affinity for Bill Gates or Melinda.

    Actually, now that I think of it, I think I teared up when I looked at the photo of Bill and Melinda that’s in the Washington Post article announcing their divorce.  The way Bill Gates is looking at Melinda in that photo (from 2019) I would have to guess that Melinda is the unhappy one, because Bill looks like he LOVES her in that photo.

  100. 100.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I feel kind of bad for the Gateses. They’ve been married a long time.​

    MELINDA: Well, Bill, now that it looks like they finally have a vaccine for malaria, there’s no reason for us to stay together any longer – our work is done.

  101. 101.

    Another Scott

    @JoyceH: Then again, her name was first on the letter, so maybe she’s dumping him.

    Who knows??

    What gets me is the letter specifically says they’re going to both continue working on the foundation, yet there’s all kinds of speculation on Twitter that this means The End of Philanthropy, or something.

    (groucho-roll-eyes.gif)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  105. 105.

    chris

    @SiubhanDuinne: A friend is vacationing at Hilton Head and today proudly posted on FB that she met Newt..I quickly replied and said “On purpose?”…She is a Trumper from Buffalo sadly..

  107. 107.

    CaseyL

    @Roger Moore:

    I bet a lot of people my age or older know exactly which brand of car advertised having seats made from rich Corinthian leather because of the celebrity who told them about it. That’s what a good celebrity endorsement will get you.

     

    I do remember those ads, mostly because Montalban can make anything sound incredibly sexy. But I was never clear on what, exactly, Corinthian leather was. “Corinthian,” to me, meant a type of Greek column. Or a charioteer.

  108. 108.

    CliosFanBoy

    I wonder if rightwingers buy what their celebrities sell more than the left. It seems to me I see a lot more rightwingers selling stuff on TV commercials …..

  110. 110.

    Jeffro

    @piratedan:what are the challenges ahead in moving to a green economy?  There are topics that could stand to be covered, they’re apparently uninterested in covering them.

    This one especially.

    “Why is there even an opposition to moving to a green economy?  Who stands to benefit from burning vastly more carbon and heating up the planet even more?  Why isn’t this a matter of a percent or two on a carbon tax?”

  111. 111.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Roger Moore:

     “Biden ran center-right in the primary and has governed to the left of Obama.”

    Amazing how many people are ready and willing to compare, among other things, eight years to four months as apples to apples

  113. 113.

    WaterGirl

    @zhena gogolia: Oh, it’s true!  My family went to a nice kind of fancy restaurant sometimes on Sunday afternoons, and it was a big Joe Biden deal to get those Shirley Temple’s with the splash of pink and a maraschino cherry!

  122. 122.

    Ken

    @CaseyL: You prompted me to look it up, and “rich Corinthian leather” was invented… by the advertising company, for use in the Chrysler commercials.  So no long history of craftsmen from ancient Greece developing a superior grade of leather.

    OMG, you don’t think… NOOOO!!!!  There is no such animal as a nauga, either!

  123. 123.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @NotMax: I knew my life had taken a dark turn when I found myself ordering a Keith Richards in a dive bar at two o’clock in the morning.

  126. 126.

    debbie

    @JanieM:

    If they were going to plant them for Joe to pick, you’d think they’d use buttercups or violets. Far more romantical.

  129. 129.

    Another Scott

    @Roger Moore: Yup.

    People change and sometimes they need to be apart.  Being trapped in a bad marriage is toxic.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  130. 130.

    Citizen Alan

    @zhena gogolia: The only lawyer with a Harvard degree I know personally is notorious for filing nondischargeability actions in bankruptcy court over $2-3k cases and then filing motions seeking $10-20k in attorneys fees. Guess she has to pay her student loans back somehow.

  131. 131.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore: ​
     

    Just as an example, I bet a lot of people my age or older know exactly which brand of car advertised having seats made from rich Corinthian leather because of the celebrity who told them about it. That’s what a good celebrity endorsement will get you.

    I remember Ricardo Montalban talking about “rich Corinthian leather” (or parodies of him saying it), but I never knew what car he was talking about. That part never clicked.

    Sometimes ad companies become too clever. There was a famous commercial that won ad industry awards. It featured a guy doing a commercial and flubbing the lines “Mama mia, that’s a spicy meatball.”

    The ad was for alka seltzer, but a lot of people thought it was a real ad for a pasta sauce.

  133. 133.

    RSA

    @JoyceH:

    Does anyone here seriously believe that Trump could have done it?

    I had the same thought, until I remembered how much golf Trump plays. I haven’t actually seen him pushing a tee into the turf with a golf ball on top, but if he weren’t able to do it himself, I think we’d have heard about it. To be honest, I also find it surprising that Trump might be able to bend over so far without falling down.

  136. 136.

    Ken

    @Eunicecycle: my husband would know better than to give me a dandelion; my eyes would swell shut and I would start wheezing.

    I think I saw that on a Columbo episode once.

  138. 138.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @debbie:

    We did too! But before that, when they still had their yellow blooms, we’d hold them under each other’s chins. If there was a yellow reflection, it meant you liked butter.

  143. 143.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @opiejeanne:

    Quite likely. It still seems like the flimsiest of reasons to make a purchasing decision. But that’s probably just me being old and cranky.

  144. 144.

    Mike in NC

    @CaseyL:  I recall Ricardo going on the Tonight Show or some other program and admitting “Corinthian leather” was just some marketing BS.

  145. 145.

    H.E.Wolf

    Re: billionaire Gateses divorce one another.

    Seems a shame after 27 seemingly good years. But, again, we don’t really know them.

    Melinda French dated and married the boss, and wore an ermine-trimmed wedding gown. Bill Gates booked every hotel and helicopter on the island of Maui, to forestall the hoi polloi polluting their nuptials.

    I don’t care to know them… they don’t seem like my type. :-)

    https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-mark-zuckerberg-wedding-2017-12#to-keep-the-wedding-private-bill-booked-all-the-rooms-in-the-hotel-along-with-all-of-the-helicopters-on-the-island-of-maui-to-prevent-unwanted-visitors-from-flying-over-forbes-reported-4

  147. 147.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Brachiator:

     

    I don’t have ad free YouTube and have to watch a few seconds of clearly phony ads before I can get to a video.

    A few seconds? Some of those ads are a full blown 30 minutes or more infomercials.

  148. 148.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    You know, I was thinking the same and almost added another paragraph to my original comment saying just that. It’s solely because of BJ raves, for instance, that I just placed a pretty hefty order with Penzey’s. It should arrive tomorrow, and I can’t wait to take a few nice deep sniffs and then start cooking!

  149. 149.

    A Ghost to Most

    Has anyone seen Miss Bianca? A mummified woo leader turned up in her neck of the woods. Crestone is a strange place.

  150. 150.

    Cassandra (fka mostly a lurker)

    First, I never bought Taster’s Choice because of him, but I loved that series of commercials with Anthony Head, with their slow-release plot , and I was thrilled when he was cast as Giles on Buffy.

    Second, I got my 2nd pfizer today, and would like to request a Nancy Smash sticker from @WaterGirl 

    Thank you!

  153. 153.

    Feathers

    @WaterGirl:  Their kids are grown now, too. There are often a spate of divorces upon reaching the empty nest stage. Sometimes the marriage has been dead for a while, but not bad enough to justify putting the kids through the custody wringer and shuttling between two households. Other times a couple isn’t able to cope with winding back down to a household of two.

    Also, his philanthropy has papered over it to a large degree, but Bill was the Zuckerberg of his day, repellent in both business practices and personality. I know several people who interacted with him. None had a favorable impression of him.

  154. 154.

    dnfree

    @SiubhanDuinne: I used to own a Buick Rendezvous—in fact, two of them, 2002 (the first year they were sold) and 2007 (the last year). I drive them for 11 years.  Buick used Tiger Woods as a spokesman to try to make them seem cool, but most of the people who bought them were fifty and older.  So the spokesman didn’t help.  It was a good car for old people, though.

  157. 157.

    Mo Salad

    So in the upcoming settlement negotiations, who am I supposed to root for to receive custody of my nanobots?

  159. 159.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    Jesus, that’s one ugly car. But I don’t remember any celebrity Isuzu endorsers, except, of course, Joe Isuzu, who was a “celebrity” in the same way Flo from Progressive is a celebrity.

  161. 161.

    Roger Moore

    @Philbert:

    Celebrity endorsements: I know ‘rich corinthian leather’ from back then but have yet to buy a Lincoln.

    You must not know it well enough, because ‘rich Corinthian leather’ was used by Chrysler.

  162. 162.

    Another Scott

    @H.E.Wolf: Yup.

    There are all kinds of stories about Gates being a horrible person to be around when he was in charge of Microsoft – especially early on.  Her marrying him just proves (to me) the adage that there’s someone out there for everyone.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  164. 164.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne:  Celebrity endorsements don’t make me buy stuff.  Most often, I think stuff like “why the hell is Tom Selleck hawking reverse mortgages” or “wow, that guy has sure fallen from grace”.

  165. 165.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Roger Moore: specifically the Chrysler Cordoba, wasn’t it?

    One of my favorite bits on the old Larry Sanders show was when Rip Torn’s Artie would talk about his good friend Ricardo Montalban. It was in the delivery.

  167. 167.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Entirely O/T, but Joy Reid is ranting in Tucker Carlson’s general direction and she keeps addressing him as “Tuckums,” and I’m laughing my ass off.

  168. 168.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @WaterGirl: what I always think is, how the hell does that guy need money? I remember Ted Danson, the first TV actor (I think) to get a million dollars an episode back on Cheers, saying he did CSI because he needed the money to keep his house on Cape Cod.

  170. 170.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Let’s see:

    Agent, accountant, lawyer, etc.: 35%

    Taxes: 40%

    Bad investments: 10%

    1E6 * (1-0.85) = $150,000  Not bad, but not “rich”.

    Who was it, parachute pants man?, who blew through millions and lost his home and everything?

    There are always, always people more than willing to help celebrities use up their income.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  171. 171.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I mean, Trump literally saw people praising him on TV and hired them into the administration. I’ll all for having less Ivy grads in staff positions, but it’s like comparing apples to a garbage dump.

    That’d be “fewer” rather than “less.”

    Gotta keep higher standards if you’re gonna dump on the Ivy League, my friend.
    /s

  176. 176.

    JaneE

    @Roger Moore:  IMO Obama governed like an Eisenhower Republican, so anything to his left would probably be center-right in the Democratic party. I think the actions of Trump and the GOP post election was the proverbial 2X4 to get Biden’s attention on just how much change was truly needed.

  178. 178.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    “The backlash against teaching about race is happening in states from Idaho to Missouri to Rhode Island,”

    I blame the anti-wokists. Really? They didn’t KNOW it would end up like this? They lent it legitimacy and now here we are, with these ridiculous laws and Republicans on a big insane rampage targeting public schools.
    I knew the antiwoke warriors would end up nowhere good. For one thing, the people who embraced it were all horrible.

  179. 179.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: 

    what I always think is, how the hell does that guy need money? I remember Ted Danson, the first TV actor (I think) to get a million dollars an episode back on Cheers, saying he did CSI because he needed the money to keep his house on Cape Cod.

    People often assume that there is some magical level of money where you need never work again and will always be rich.

    This is not often the case, especially for actors and musicians who have to work for a living or at least earn enough to keep them going through career declines and retirement.

    And depending on how they have things set up, percentages that they may have to pay to managers, agents and others can be substantial.

    And you sometimes have to allow some room for bad investments, etc.

    Someone like Jerry Seinfeld, who owns a percentage of his TV show, is on a bit more comfortable ground.

  180. 180.

    rikyrah

    @Brachiator:

    The regular GQP folks that previously staffed Republican Administrations wouldn’t work for Dolt45, that is why he was stuck with a bunch of unqualified bottom feeders.?

  181. 181.

    trollhattan

    @Feathers:

    I credit Melinda 80%* for turning two-dimensional Bill into an approximation of a fully formed human. She has always been a good interview, even on dumb chat shows. He seems/ed to actually like and respect her, as I don’t believe he has adequate guile for such things as faking relationships.

    *Science provides this percentage, rounded down from 81%.

  182. 182.

    sukabi

    You know they’re just mad because they pushed him as a centrist – right leaning dem and he’s implementing left leaning policies and hiring progressive, educated, competent women and poc….

     

    Not at all the repub policy friendly administration they were hoping for.

  183. 183.

    MomSense

    @Another Scott:

    The pandemic probably forced them to spend more face time together than all the previous years of their marriage combined.  I’m guessing it was too much.

  185. 185.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    IMO Obama governed like an Eisenhower Republican

    Jesus fucking christ.

  186. 186.

    Barbara

    @Tony Jay: “And it’s her body.” Indeed.

    This is when I am reminded of French politicians who wanted to outlaw female Islamic garb while also trying to force female sunbathers to wear maillots and/or bikinis.  We decide what you can wear should have gone out of style a long time ago.

  188. 188.

    sukabi

    @Feathers: Years ago I knew a person (psychiatrist) who went to school with him….she said he was on the autism spectrum, was good at computers and horrible at personal relationships…

  189. 189.

    trnc

    @natem: ​
     

    That Lippman piece is like the perfect crystallization of everything wrong with Beltway journalism. Just pure idiocracy all the way down.

    I don’t see the negative connotation in Lippman’s tweet that other people see and I don’t know anything about Lippman, so I went through some of his feed. Most of the tweets and retweets look pretty Biden-friendly. Biden works hard on his speeches, he makes sure people who had policy input get credit, the administration is tightly run, Biden reads the news (unlike DT) and there’s no drama.

    I don’t get the hate on Lippman for tweeting a data point about Ivy League hires.

  190. 190.

    Another Scott

    @sukabi: Plus, there’s the “US is a center-right nation!11” mantra, so obviously anyone elected president must be Center-Right (or have run that way).

    We can’t have actually elected a LIBERAL as president??!11

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  191. 191.

    trollhattan

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    The Joe Isuzu ad campaign has to rank among the best ever from an entertainment perspective. He had the deadpan smarmy celebrity pitchman Dead Perfect.

    When it comes to actual celebrity endorsements, the “Tastes great” “Less filling” beer campaign using various athletes has to be among the best. You could just see “I’m being paid how much?” written on their faces. Uecker might have been involved.

  193. 193.

    WaterGirl

    @WaterGirl: This is the photo I mentioned in my comment above.  Bill looks to me like someone who still really loves his wife, and that was 2019.  So I’m kind of sad that they are splitting.

    I always wonder in cases like this what happens between year 26 and 27 to make you say “nope, I don’t want to be married to this person anymore”.

    Monday Evening Open Thread: Spare A Thought for the Media Mudlarks

  195. 195.

    zhena gogolia

    @JaneE:

    I don’t believe you were alive in the Eisenhower adminstration. He was considerably to the right of Obama.

  196. 196.

    Barbara

    @WaterGirl: ​The last of their kids finally left the nest? Down among the more earthly earners this is a frequent trigger.​

  197. 197.

    trnc

    @boatboy_srq: ​
     

    They think competence is a bad thing.

    I don’t see anything in the tweet or the linked article that indicates “they” think any such thing. Politico’s bad reputation is often well deserved, but not for this piece.

  198. 198.

    sukabi

    @WaterGirl: photos capture a split second in time, what is shown in the photo is interpreted by the viewer and is probably not representative of the person being photographed true feelings.. . Also, interview photos are problematic as the subjects of the interview have a message they are projecting / selling…

  200. 200.

    The Pale Scot

    @Brachiator:

    I’m surprised dipshits haven’t claimed that Biden is not hiring enough working class people without any degrees but just a love for the Baby Jesus.

    Yes, the President should follow the example Reginald Perrin, it’ll all come  uproses if he just tried to destroy himself and the country in the process

    Reggie then opens a shop called Grot, where he sells useless products – like square hoops, round dice and Tom’s wine (made from sprouts, nettles and the like) – hoping it will be an interesting failure. However, the products are snapped up as novelties and Grot becomes a huge success. Reggie relapses into alienation and tries to destroy Grot from within by hiring incompetents, but this backfires as they all display unsuspected talents.

  201. 201.

    Brachiator

    @Ken: ​
     

    So no long history of craftsmen from ancient Greece developing a superior grade of leather.

    “Hi there. I’m Achilles, son of Peleus. When I want a chariot to ride into battle, I always pick the Zeus Bolt 1400BCE. The interior is made of rich Corinthian leather. From actual rich Corinthians defeated when I sacked their city.”

  203. 203.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl: Aww, that is kind of poignant (never thought I’d be thinking of anything connected to Bill Gates as “poignant”).

  204. 204.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @trollhattan:

    I agree. Both ad campaigns were great fun to watch. It’s just that they never inspired me to consider, even for a moment, buying an Isuzu or drinking a beer. Possibly I’m an anomaly.

    Yeah, an anomaly. That’s it.

  206. 206.

    Tony Jay

    @Barbara:

    Bang on. The whole “Cover up or pucker up” virgin/whore trope is just… nah. Eilish can, and has, made her own decisions about where, when and to who she shows her skin.

    She’s a smart 19. Those rules aren’t her rules, and that’s just fine with this old fart.

  210. 210.

    piratedan

    @H.E.Wolf: well, there’s a part of me that is somewhat sympathetic to wanting a wee bit of privacy if possible.  For chrissakes, the media damn near ruined Bindi Irwin’s wedding and forced them inside a building instead of outside in their own zoo.

  211. 211.

    trollhattan

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’m 1 of 2, but not “Lite” or “Light” beer so just amuse me for 30 seconds already.

    Interesting, the effect the DVR has had on teevee commercials. If they’re not amusing (identifiable as such in the first 2 seconds) folks won’t watch them. Pity.

    Have never known an Isuzu owner other than the rebadged Isuzu “Chevys.” Not inspiring rides.

  212. 212.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: my favorite Kinks lyric: Take a good look around, the misfits are everywhere.

    @zhena gogolia: Didn’t “Digby” (Heather Parton) start all that “Obama is an Eisenhower Republican” shit, and made a lot of proto-Rose-tweeters think they were very savvy for repeating it?

  213. 213.

    Another Scott

    @piratedan:  They could have just eloped like normal people. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (“Who actually agrees that the paparazzi are out of control.”)

  217. 217.

    patroclus

    I specifically remember an ad where Arthur Ashe held up an old racquet and said “this is the racquet I won Wimbledon with” and it was a great racquet for its time, but technology has massively changed in the last two decades and I would never play with this one again.  Instead, “I play with this racquet now” and I recommend everyone else should too.  I think it was the Head Ace originally and the Head Edge in the ad – I bought the Head Edge.  He was right.

    I also remember once when George H.W. Bush was walking with Barbara (I think) to a helicopter, and like a 13-year-old, he backkicked her butt and the priceless look on her face was like “I can’t believe I married this immature little twit” while he just laughed.  I’d put the dandelion incident in that category.

  219. 219.

    Roger Moore

    @Brachiator: 

    People often assume that there is some magical level of money where you need never work again and will always be rich.

    Never underestimate the ability to spend money faster than it comes in.

  220. 220.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s not an entirely unreasonable take. Rachel Maddow has said that she agrees with everything that was in Eisenhower’s platform and that is why Republicans in the 21st century think she’s a Marxist.

  221. 221.

    Feathers

    All this Ricardo Montalban talk is causing me to recommend two of his early Hollywood films, both excellent film noir and in fairly frequent rotation on TCM. In MYSTERY STREET he is a Barnstable cop who comes to Harvard Medical School
    for help in solving the mystery of a woman found dead in the dunes of Cape Cod. Also features great cameo by Elsa Lancaster and on location shooting in 1940s Boston. In BORDER PATROL he is a Mexican federal agent who goes undercover as an illegal migrant in a joint operation with the US govt to bust a smuggling operation. Directed by Anthony Mann, cinematography by John Alton, for
    those who appreciate such things. Both highly recommended.

  222. 222.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Citizen Alan: I’ve heard Maddow say that, and I haven’t read the platform, but the politics of the 1950s can’t really be compared to the politics of the 20-aughts and tens– one might ask kindly Doc Maddow where Ike stood on gay rights, abortion and climate change. The point of that phrase was to put the words “Obama” and “Republican” close together, because he didn’t indulge their thirst for Green Lantern emo-politics.

  223. 223.

    patroclus

    I simply cannot believe that frickin Rachel Maddow favored abolishing the interest rate differential for REA loans, vetoing that water projects bill, implementing the Dixon-Yates contract and using bonds rather than the gas tax to fund the interstate highway system!!  She’s dead to me now!!

  224. 224.

    Another Scott

    @trnc: I looked at his feed too.  He seems to really, really like retweets of his stuff.  As if his job is getting clicks.

    What bothers me about it is his framing.  Uncle Joe went to UDel and Syracuse Law but he’s more of an elitist than TFG!!…

    It’s yet another “here’s a bunch of ‘data’ and some insinuations, how dare you question me” story.  Just one would expect from Politico.

    Relatedly – https://twitter.com/AmesCG/status/1389368675887554562

    (a spin on https://xkcd.com/2456/ )

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  225. 225.

    Roger Moore

    @patroclus:

    I think there’s a big difference between a celebrity endorsement where they have some relevant expertise and one where they’re just trading on their name.  Arthur Ashe saying “buy this new racquet because the technology is a genuine improvement” is in the first category; him endorsing life insurance would be in the second.

  228. 228.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: and if Obama was an “Eisenhower Republican” how do you define Kent Conrad, Max Baucus, Jon Tester, Byron Dorgan, Tim Johnson, Mark Pryor, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Evan Fucking Bayh, Robert Byrd, Claire McCaskill, Kay Hagan, Tom Carper, Mark Begich, Mary Landrieu, Jim Webb and, in a category all by himself: Joe Fucking Lieberman?

  229. 229.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Well if Biden was gonna hire some Blue Hens (U. Delaware) he definitely would want to avoid white ones, because I saw a WHOLE LOT of blatant and virulent racism from most of my white college mates (’92-’96).

  231. 231.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I’ve heard Maddow say that, and I haven’t read the platform, but the politics of the 1950s can’t really be compared to the politics of the 20-aughts and tens– one might ask kindly Doc Maddow where Ike stood on gay rights, abortion and climate change.

    There was no climate change in the 1950s. The country barely had air conditioning.

  232. 232.

    Gravenstone

    @CaseyL: I know you’ll be floored by this, but Corinthian leather was – a marketing gimmick. No such thing.

  233. 233.

    Stuart Frasier

    @dnfree: I knew a weed dealer that drove a beige Rendezvous on the theory that it was basically invisible to cops.

  234. 234.

    dww44

    @SiubhanDuinne:  I’ve seen that Gingrich ad for the most definitely non-elitist product he’s hawking and immediately knew he just needs the money.  The Trump gravy train has ended for him.

  235. 235.

    Dan B

    @WaterGirl: I’ve been seeing a lot of Bill without Melinda.  I know a fair number of people who know them and worked with Bill.  They’re all progressive people who are glad that “Bill listened to the right people.”

    I put on an event with Bill Sr.

    I would not want to know what happened but it seems like they grew apart and there’s only a small chance of an affair.

  236. 236.

    Dan B

    @The Thin Black Duke: A duel:  Purple and grey striped hip-hugger bell bottoms with a purple satin shirt with huge cuffs and giant pointy collar!

    I think I wore it twice and realized I didn’t want to accidentally encounter friends in that outfit.  If I’d run into you we could enjoy the mutual absurdity.

  237. 237.

    Mike in NC

    When I was stationed in Coronado, once or twice a month I’d head up to L.A. to shop and sightsee. One time in the Hollywood Hills I drove down a cul-de-sac and the name on the estate’s gate was Ricardo Montalban.

  238. 238.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    There was no climate change in the 1950s.

    /rubs temples/

  239. 239.

    Dan B

    @H.E.Wolf: From reports of friends who know them they’re nerdy and okay to be around – nothing special for the super driven rich.

    I thought their wedding was on a private island in Hawaii.  They may have had guests staying on Maui.

  240. 240.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ken:

    @CaseyL: You prompted me to look it up, and “rich Corinthian leather” was invented… by the advertising company, for use in the Chrysler commercials.  So no long history of craftsmen from ancient Greece developing a superior grade of leather.

    The reddish-brown leather often used in wingtips is sometimes referred to as “cordovan,” from Cordova. At least it was on the Kiwi tins at the time (I still have one or two!). I wonder if that’s what the sonsofbitches at the ad agency were aiming at, to get the listeners to hear “cordovan” when they weren’t entitled to use the term.

    (As a Baby Bolshevik back in the day I used to tell people that if I had sufficient explosives to blow meaningful shit up, I wouldn’t bother with the politicians – I’d go right down Madison Avenue and demolish every fucking ad agency I could, and shoot as many “creative” types as I could as they fled the wreckage. The (occasionally) original purveyor of lies, half-truths and misdirection to the American public in hopes of relieving them of their hard-earned cash in return for crap,)

  241. 241.

    Dan B

    @Cassandra (fka mostly a lurker):  Congrats!  I hope you feel the great relief I did that the end of personal anxiety was in sight.  We’ve been enjoying having friends and my brother and his girlfriend over -all fully vacc’d, no masks but outside or inside with windows open.  A slow return to semi-before times.

  243. 243.

    There go two miscreants

    @SiubhanDuinne: I think the closest I come on the “buy” side is that I buy Newman’s Own stuff a good bit.

    On the other hand, I no longer purchase any Goya products! And I haven’t shopped at Safeway since it was revealed that one of their execs was a bundler for W. (I think I have a few others on the anti list but can’t recall them at the moment.)

  244. 244.

    J R in WV

    @Philbert: ​p>

    Celebrity endorsements: I know ‘rich corinthian leather’ from back then but have yet to buy a Lincoln.

    Those were ads for Chryslers, not Lincolns. Ricardo Montalban…​

  246. 246.

    J R in WV

    @Ken: ​
     

    There is no such animal as a nauga, either!

    Years ago, a co-worker set out to josh another guy in the shop, who was telling stories about his hunting prowess. Rick talked about the rare animal he had successfully hunted, and Hunter hadn’t a clue.

    Finally Rick asked Hunter, “Haven’t you ever heard of Naugahide!??” and everyone broke up…

  247. 247.

    Ksmiami

    @Brachiator: having grown up among those ppl, a lot of entertainers are not necessarily the best investors and spend on flash. Like there is a huge difference between rich and wealthy.

  248. 248.

    Steeplejack

    @Another Scott:

    A quibble: Taxes would be 26% of gross, I think, because it’s 40% of his income after he deducts the agents’ 35%—40% of 65% = 26%. Still a hefty bite.

    Re MC Hammer, some entertainment industry pundit made the point that Hammer made the classic mistake of thinking not “I made $7 million off this one song!” but instead “My salary is now $7 million a year!”

  249. 249.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ken:
    I looked it up in Wikipedia: the city of Corinth is the seat of the Greek municipality of the same name. Among the industries associated with Corinth is leather, so there is at least one tannery in or near Corinth. I have no idea if GM actually buys the leather to upholster its Cadillacs from tanneries in Corinth.

  250. 250.

    Gvg

    @Brachiator: he picked one going to seed. It probably helped the darn weed spread it’s seeds further. Also I think they are non native, but not positive about that.

  251. 251.

    Feathers

    @Steeplejack: Had a fascinating conversation with the actor who played the manager on The Partridge Family once. He was staying at the same hotel and we got chatting by the pool. He had just come from an autograph event. He said that you see lots of older actors doing ads and appearances not because they are financially hard up, but because they want money for their grandchildren’s college funds. He said that never entered into his financial planning earlier, but once the grandkids are there, and you can earn extra money to help them get a better start in life, you do it. Really nice guy.

    So people often end up with a set of money issues they might not have taken into account when they were younger. Also, Danson lost a lot of his Cheers money in the divorce that followed his affair with Whoopi Goldberg. He’s going to blame the house, not the wandering willie.

  255. 255.

    columbusqueen

    @Anyway: With Tipper as the initiator.  She also remarried quickly to a fellow photographer.  I think she was fed up with politics.

  257. 257.

    Ken

    @rikyrah: On the one hand, I can’t help but think this reduces his credibility, since he’s claiming to have intelligence on what was going on in the White House, one of the most secure buildings on the planet.

    On the other hand, if any administration could be counted on to screw up the security arrangements….

  258. 258.

    columbusqueen

    @Feathers: There is also 1947’s Fiesta, where Ricardo & Esther Williams (!) play twins from a Mexican bullfighting family. He wants to be a composer instead of following in dad’s footsteps; she does want to, & ends up donning the suit of lights. Watched it once on TCM, & am convinced smoking weed beforehand would have enhanced the experience.

  259. 259.

    James E Powell

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Has a celebrity endorsement ever influenced your decision to buy or not to buy a product?

    Does Tang count? Astronauts were major celebrities back in the 60s.

  261. 261.

    Barbara

    @Another Scott: Nothing can prepare you for this statement. I stopped reading when he started rambling about how his behavior was nothing compared to the way the putative reader behaves at sporting events.  Huh?

  265. 265.

    SWMBO

    @SiubhanDuinne:

     
    When I was growing up, there were the food endorsements that sponsored different programs. I used Crisco shortening because Loretta Lynn said it would do you proud every time.
    I drank Tetley tea because Dandy Don Meridith did.
    And Tennessee Ernie Ford was sponsored by Martha White. I used the flour or cornmeal. Yeah I was influenced by their commercials but on the other hand, what brand were you going to use?

  266. 266.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @SWMBO:  I used a male aphrodisiac pill endorsed by Jimmy Johnson.  I figured anyone with the name Johnson would be an expert in this area.

  268. 268.

    SWMBO

    There was a show Revenge of the Nerds that was about the early days of computers. Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, and Wozniak were all in it. It was fairly well done and included some references to the original writer of DOS. If you can find it, it’s worth the time. 1. Old age may have scrambled the memory of this. 2. We are again without internet and I tried looking on my phone using cellular data instead of wifi.

Comments are closed.