Nice Fall day... 60's and sunny.. lots of fat clouds, but no rain.
"I had never had a piece of toast
Particularly long and wide,
But fell upon the sanded floor,
And always on the buttered side."
James Payn (1830-1898)
01. "There must be a pony in here somewhere."
I'm reading a book about Alexander Wolcott and his friends. The book is full of funny stuff, and this is an example:
Humorist Robert Benchley and a friend took a trip to Venice, the "canal city" in the 1920's. They carried with them, two suitcases filled with horse manure. "Why?" you ask.
Well, they had read that there had never been a horse in Venice. So Benchley and his friend went out secretly after midnite and spread their manure appropriately, here and there. You can be sure that there was a bit of excitement in Venice the next morning.
02. "They" don't want you to know about this...
BerkeleyWellness.com: Another trickster, but on a criminal level, Kevin Trudeau, was sentenced to ten years in prison for lying in TV Infomercials. You remember him... he's the sweet-talking guy who pushed magic juices, colonic irrigation, bee pollen, enzyme pills, and lots of other ineffective or harmful procedures and products late at night, when the audience's resistance was low.
Some of the information that "they" don't want you to know: sunblocks cause cancer; AIDS is a hoax; you should never have surgery; microwaved foods will poison you.
Trudeau has been fined millions of dollars over the years because of his false and misleading advertisements.. but apparently, he has never paid any of them. He is currently appealing his ten year prison sentence and while the appeal is ongoing, he is probably going to make some more TV appearances. There must be lots of gullible people who haven't yet sent him $19.95.
03. The "Elite" among us
New York Times: Elaine loves to look at the marriage announcements in this newspaper. One notice in particular is a classic example of information about WASP privilege (at least in my opinion.) I'm sure the parties involved are fine folks and I apologize for picking on them.
SSM, the daughter of SCM and RPM or New York, was married Saturday to WHC, a son of DHC of Mountain View, Ala and GMC of Dallas. The Rev. Dr. TFP, an Episcopal priest, officiated at the Beaulieu Garden, an events space in Rutherford, CA.
The bride will continue to use her name professionally. She is marketing director for a magazine publisher in SF. She graduated magna cum laude from Lehigh.
Her father is the chairman and chief executive of CG Asset Management, an investment advisory service in New York. Her mother is the executive director of the New York Society of Mayflower Descendants.
The bride is a descendant of five (count 'em) Mayflower passengers: John Alden, William Brewster, Stephen Hopkins, George Soule and Richard Warren.
The groom, is an owner of a SF company that wholesales promotional products and rock 'n' roll memorabilia.
His father is the vice chairman of MSW, an Insurance Brokerage; he works in Dallas. The groom is a stepson of MAC.
(They all have good American names; the men are "chairmen" of American companies; the mother and daughter are proud to be related to the Mayflower folks (five of them... yaya.. we are related to eleven) .. lots of keywords here... and no Hispanics, African Americans, Italian Americans,.. nobody but good old fashioned well-heeled Yankees. Kind of reminds one of Mad Men.)
I wish them many many years of happiness together. I don't think they will have any problems in their lives (except maybe divorce.)
04. More marriage diversity
New York Times: As I said, Elaine likes marriage announcements. Here are some more.. people that do not look like the "elite" WASP couple above:
Julia and Joseph (a Jewish couple)
Jill and Harrison (an African American and Jewish couple)
Florencia and Ali (a Moslim and Catholic couple)
Elisa and Mo (a Catholic couple)
Pedro and David (a gay couple)
Amy and Jacob (Spiritual Humanists)
Blair and Jonathan (a Protestant couple)
Jody and Kyle (another Jewish couple)
Allison and Brian (married by ministers of the Church of the Latter-day Dude)
Nancy and James (a free-thinking couple)
All of these people are "professionals" of some kind: Doctors mainly. I wonder what it costs to get an announcement in the New York Times.
Closer examination of these notices reveal some "common" words and sentences, like: event space; cum laude; will keep her name professionally; ... and many more. There must be a form that the New York Times provides the couple, and when returned is used to feed a notice prepared by an intern, as one of their first jobs on the paper
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Enough for now.
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