The answer: The NYT doesn't get pop culture references.

annalthouse@gmail.com (Ann Althouse) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:43:46 GMT

All the front-page promotion of this article about Roger Ailes finally got me to read it — mainly in search of the answer why the NYT thought it had such an important article.

At a time when the broadcast networks are struggling with diminishing audiences and profits in news, [Ailes] has built Fox News into the profit engine of the News Corporation. Fox News is believed to make more money than CNN, MSNBC and the evening newscasts of NBC, ABC and CBS combined...

Yes, yes, how galling it must be, for liberal media to have a market share that corresponds to the actual proportion of liberals in the population. There is one news network that leans conservative, at it has an audience proportionate to the conservatives in the population. All you need is to observe that the presentation of news and opinion is going to have a slant, and it all makes sense. Presumably, the Times would like to rile its readers up about what a terrible, horrible man Roger Ailes is. They lob this quote from his son-in-law Matthew Freud (who is the great grandson of Sigmund Freud):

"I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’s horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to."

Aspires to, eh? But do they reach it? And if they don't, do they have self-awareness about their failure? I've got to think that this article itself is far from those aspirational standards.

Anyway, here's what caught my eye:

As powerful as he is within the News Corporation, Mr. Ailes remains a spectral presence outside the Fox News offices. National security had long been a preoccupation of Fox News, and it was clear in the interview that the 9/11 attacks had a profound effect on Mr. Ailes. They convinced him that he and his network could be terrorist targets.

On the day of the attacks, Mr. Ailes asked his chief engineer the minimum number of workers needed to keep the channel on the air. The answer: 42. “I am one of them,” he said. “I’ve got a bad leg, I’m a little overweight, so I can’t run fast, but I will fight.

“We had 3,000 dead people a couple miles from here. I knew that any communications company could be a target.”

The answer is 42?! What wag fed them that story? And who decided to pull the NYT's (bad) leg over the subject of 9/11? The NYT is still such a lamestain. It's a harsh realm indeed for the square old paper that wants so much to be hip.

Of course, the answer is 42! The answer to everything is 42. It's an old reference, a joke that is supposed to be so easily recognizable that you are really kind of a cob nobbler to resort to it these days. Ah, well. Rock on!

The man who put the heads on the Pez dispenser.

annalthouse@gmail.com (Ann Althouse) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:00:01 GMT

Curtis Allina. A classic obituary, depicting a man you're only hearing about because he has died. He was 87. The heads went on the dispensers in 1955. I'm old enough to have had a pre-head type Pez dispenser, and though the obituary says "In 1955, at his urging, what had been an austerely packaged Austrian confection for adults took on vibrant new life as a children’s product," we kids thought the original dispenser was really cool. Did I get a Pez dispenser with a head when I already had a Pez dispenser? I think I did. I think I had Popeye. But this isn't the place to tell you how much I loved Popeye. This is a post about candy... and packaging... and writing about death.

Curtis Allina was born Aug. 15, 1922, in Prague, and raised in Vienna. Between 1941 and 1945, he and his family, Sephardic Jews, were forced into a series of concentration camps. Mr. Allina emerged at war’s end as his family’s sole survivor in Europe. Making his way to New York, he worked for a commercial meatpacker before joining Pez-Haas, as the company’s United States arm was then known, in 1953.

Pez was invented in 1927 by Eduard Haas III, a Viennese food-products mogul. Small, rectangular and mint-flavored (the name is a contraction of pfefferminz, the German word for peppermint), the candy was marketed to adults as an alternative to smoking. Originally sold in tins, Pez was repackaged in the late 1940s in plain, long-stemmed dispensers meant to suggest cigarette lighters.

And so, we Boomers were turned away from cigarette-oriented play and into the world of pop culture characters... by a man who emerged from the Holocaust.

Apple 1, Lawyers 0

rsbrown@ualberta.ca (Russell Brown) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:59:14 GMT

Birdsong et al. v. Apple Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 08-18841. On Dec 30, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the class action which claimed that Apple...

Birdsong et al. v. Apple Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 08-18841.

On Dec 30, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the class action which claimed that Apple iPods were defective in the manner alleged in the action: that the ”iPod is defective because it poses an unreasonable risk of noise induced hearing loss to its users.”

Does this mean that Mr/Ms Birdsong's song is now a sad song?

Listen (if you can hear) to Pete Townsend.

As Nigel would have said: News at 11.

But not elvenses. Well, Nigel might have said that, too, but for another reason.

Addendum

One tangentially related view from south of the border.

Wrestlers and Enophiles: Let's Get Ready to RUMBLE!!!*

dkelly@winthrop.com (Daniel Kelly) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:00:37 GMT

VS.

Remarkably, this is not a new promotion for World Wrestling Entertainment. No, a few outlets reported last week that WWE has opposed The American Wine Foundation's application to register the trademark SOMMELIER SMACKDOWN for use in connection with "Entertainment services, namely, conducting contests in the field of food and wine pairing; Entertainment services, namely, wine and food tastings at which attendants taste food and wine pairings to determine which wine expert better pairs food and wines." For those pop-culturally challenged among you (as I sometimes am), WWE owns several registrations for SMACKDOWN for use in connection with entertainment services, namely, wrestling events.

As reported at SFGate, a spokesman for WWE claims that WWE coined the term "smackdown." That's a big claim, and one easily exploded by reviewing the voluminous evidence produced by the Trademark Office in the course of WWE's prosecution of an early application for SMACKDOWN demonstrating widespread use of the term in connection with sports that predates WWE's first use of the term (1999) and its claimed date of coining (1998, by Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a, "The Rock"). WWE dodged the descriptiveness issue by arguing in the alternative that it had acquired trademark distinctiveness in SMACKDOWN as applied to its entertainment services.

This promises to be an interesting case, as there appear to be factors that favor both sides. For WWE, the SMACKDOWN mark appears fairly strong, despite its descriptive roots. For the Wine Foundation, I suspect that it will be able to make a good case that its entertainment services appeal to an entirely different consumer market than WWE's entertainment services. (WWE has also argued that the Wine Foundation's mark dilutes its SMACKDOWN mark--an issue that also may have legs.) For the time being, we'll watch to see if this match goes more than one round.

*LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE® is a registered trademark of Ready to Rumble, LLC.

jly

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:49:33 GMT

A good ‘public service announcement’ from the folks at “Funny or Die” with a lot of TV faces you might recognize. Somehow it’s kind of funny to see ad executive Don Draper taking a poke at insurance executives – still works though, but doesn’t everything John Hamm does seem just a little better? [hat tip [...]

abwhitford

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:19:13 GMT

67.9 MPG. Top that.

jly

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:53:15 GMT

In the midst of furloughs and massive cut backs at many state schools, the University of Alabama’s announcement of Nick Saban’s 42.35 million dollar coaching contract is almost humorous … almost. The Faculty Lounge details the announcement here. But college sports pay for everything else at the university, right? As you may recall we already [...]

jly

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:03:18 GMT

Professor Linda Edwards (UNLV Law) has recently posted “Once Upon a Time in Law: Myth, Metaphor, and Authority” on SSRN. In the paper, she evaluates the use of narratives in legal authority and suggests that narratives are pervasive in the law and that we should learn to recognize their presence and hold them accountable by probing and questioning their factual accuracy, appropriateness, and utility. It is likely that her basic approach would provide useful leverage in analyzing domestic policy making, international politics, and even interpersonal relationships — all environments in which the use of narratives are plentiful — and perhaps sometimes questionable. [hat tip to Legal Theory Blog] The abstract is provided below the fold.

We have long accepted the role of narrative in fact statements and jury arguments, but in the inner sanctum of analyzing legal authority? Surely not. Yet cases, statutes, rules, and doctrines all have stories of their own. When we talk about legal authority, using our best formal logic, we are actually swimming in a sea of narrative, oblivious to the water around us. As the old Buddhist saying goes, ‘we don’t know who discovered the ocean, but it probably wasn’t a fish.’

This article teases out several familiar archetypes hidden in discussions of cases and statutes. In the midst of seemingly routine law talk are stories of birth and death, battle and betrayal, tricksters and champions. These stories are simultaneously true and false, world-shaping yet always incomplete. Their unnoticed influence over the law’s development can be powerful. But we so seldom question familiar narratives, and these archetypes practically run in our veins. We should learn to recognize and interrogate these stories, attuned to their truths, alert to their limitations, and ready when necessary to seek other more accurate and complete stories for the law.

The end of "Battlestar Galactica"

tung-yin@uiowa.edu (Tung Yin) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:03:51 GMT

I finally finished watching season 4 of "Battlestar Galactica" -- all on DVD(!) -- and . . . wow. (Spoilers ahead, obviously.) From various heated comments on the TiVo users forum that were harshly critical of BSG creator Ron Moore, and from Amazon reviewers, I had the sense before watching it that season 4 had somehow self-destructed into some kind of awful, unwatchable mess.

But as the season unfolded, I saw the various story arcs being tied together in a way that made me think maybe Moore really did have a plan from the start. Unlike seasons 2 and 3, which both started and finished strong but sagged in the middle, season 4 seemed consistently good throughout. The Cylon civil war, with the Leobens, Sixes, and Sharons (except for Boomer) on the "good" side, and the Cavils, Simons, and Dorals on the "bad" side, was captivating.

What I especially liked about the series was that it was dark and grim, not just for the sake of being so, but because it was narratively important. BSG was never shy about killing off characters, but until season 4, they were rarely key players. (Offhand, the only exception I can think of was President Roslin's chief aide Billy Keikeiya, and that was driven by the actor's desire to leave the show.) In this season, the body count soars, and it starts to touch major characters. And unlike, say "24," which I love but dislike its gaudy way of killing main characters (look, Jack Bauer has to shoot his buddy Curtis!), the deaths in BSG made sense.

- Cally Henderson: "spaced" by Tory Foster for discovering that Tory, Tyrol, Tigh, and Anders were the original Cylons. This was a truly brutal scene, with Tory having appeared conciliatory, taking Cally's son (whom she intended to kill with herself), then smacking Cally and then opening the airlock. It made sense, though, because the writers had taken care to depict Tory, unlike the other newfound Cylons, as embracing her inner Cylon ruthlessness.

- Anastasia Dualla: shot herself in the head after the crew's discovery that "Earth" was nuclear wasteland. Totally shocking at the time, but upon reflection, it made sense that *someone* would simply be unable to handle the shattering of the dream of Earth.

- Tom Zarek and Felix Gaeta: executed by firing squad after Gaeta's mutiny is turned back. I always liked Gaeta, since he was the "nerd" of the ship, and I was sad to see him embrace the dark side. But this too was foreshadowed well, starting with his ostracization by the rest of the crew for his perceived treason on New Caprica to the loss of his leg by what turned out to be one of the original Cylons. And Zarek walked the line between terrorist and demagogue effectively, but this was a fitting end for him too.

- Sharon "Boomer" Valerii: shot by Sharon "Athena" Agathon. Redemption isn't always an option. Boomer has turned on the other Sharons by siding with the Cavil/Doral/Simon trio in the civil war, so her days were going to be numbered by the surviving Cylons anyway. But not only that, she seduced Athena's husband and kidnapped her daughter! Sure, she ended up bringing the daughter back, but it was understandable that Athena would shoot her.

- Sam Anders: piloted the humans' ships into the sun. When the only thing keeping you alive is the Cylon hybrid technology that keeps you immerse in a tank of goop, are you really alive still? But at least his torment induced by Kara Thrace is over.

- Laura Roslin: died of cancer. This was a bittersweet end for the Admiral Adama-President Roslin romance. I really thought when he took her for her last ride in the Raptor that he was planning on crashing and killing himself as well. I would've been happy for him, but I would have felt cheated as a viewer, if there had been some magic cure for her condition (though they kind of did that earlier with the Cylon-human hybrid fetus blood).

Did it make sense that they landed on our Earth 150,000 years ago, gave up technology, and blended in/mated with the humanoid creatures at the time, eventually spawning us? That's a little hard to take, but I guess the 150,000 year mark was dictated by the real-life finding of the mitochondrial DNA of "Eve." It was still an interesting and narratively-sensible end to the series. Really, it was almost a flawless resolution of the show, the one weakness being the end of Kara Thrace's saga. Having her just disappear into thin air was the one deus ex machina aspect of season 4 . . . .

abwhitford

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:23:23 GMT

From Information is Beautiful:

jly

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:36:05 GMT

Tim “Four Hour Work Week” Ferris has a classic post on some bad habits that you need to stop. Below the fold I’ve listed the first four. You’ll have to check out the link to get the rest (and his explanations). Of course, I don’t follow these rules nearly as well as I should. 1. Do [...]

1. Do not answer calls from unrecognized phone numbers.

2. Do not email first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

3. Do not agree to meetings or phone calls with no clear agenda or end time.

4. Do not let people ramble.

jly

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:27:50 GMT

David Simon comments on the growing movement on Prawfs Blawg. Perhaps most interesting is his observation that since the medical marijuana laws require ailments for which almost everyone over 45 qualifies, marijuana could soon become an old person’s drug. Maybe this movement needs to start holding town hall meetings on legalization. They could be held at the same time as the healthcare policy town hall meetings – side by side. At the end of the day, we’d have no healthcare policy, but no one would care and they’d all be a little hungry and giggly.

"Wise Latina" junk for purchase and ego-boosting.

annalthouse@gmail.com (Ann Althouse) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:12:19 GMT

And condescending admiration from the New York Times.

abwhitford

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:12:31 GMT

From TUAW. It’s official. The iPhone has come into its own in the legal world. It took a little time, and lawyers are notorious Luddites (you can pry the WordPerfect out of their cold, dead hands) but they do like Bright Shiny Objects, and nothing fills the lapel pocket like an iPhone. I bet Yates still [...]

From TUAW.

It’s official. The iPhone has come into its own in the legal world. It took a little time, and lawyers are notorious Luddites (you can pry the WordPerfect out of their cold, dead hands) but they do like Bright Shiny Objects, and nothing fills the lapel pocket like an iPhone.

I bet Yates still uses Wordperfect when nobody’s looking.

14 or so hours 'til my new HD TiVo goes online!

tung-yin@uiowa.edu (Tung Yin) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:33:45 GMT

Back when I was setting up the utilities for our new home in Portland, I was confronted with the cable company vs. phone company dilemma. I opted for the cable company (Comcast) partly because I was concerned about having satellite...

However, I was prepared to abandon my beloved TiVo because the two Series 2 machines that I have aren't HD compatible, and Comcast threw in free use of an HD DVR for 6 months.

WIthin a couple of days of using the cable DVR, though, I couldn't stand it. It's not just that we're used to the comforting doo-doo-doo sound that TiVo makes when you fast-forward; it's that TiVo's interface is technologically superior in just about every way you can imagine. When you super fast-forward and then hit play, TiVo is smart enough to rewind a few seconds back. That way, when you see your show start again (after speeding through commercials), the auto-rewind gets you to the right spot without forcing you to rewind manually. Not so with the Comcast DVR.

And then when it comes to scheduling recordings . . . . I can't believe how stupid the cable DVR is. Although I selected the option of recording only first run and not repeats, it somehow gets confused by cable network shows like "Burn Notice." I ended up having to delete manually a bunch of repeat episodes -- ones that I'd watched within the last 30 days(!).

So, I called up TiVo, found out that I was eligible to upgrade my dual-tuner Series 2 TiVo and get a new HD TiVo for $100 off. Cool deal! It arrived today, and the Comcast tech is scheduled to come tomorrow to put in the cable smart cards, and then I will be reunited with my beloved TiVo!

office

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:57:00 GMT

Madison Avenue Ad Agency - circa 1961

Not a lot of people know that I actually got my start in the advertisement business back in the early 1960s … when I smoked … and was more fit …. and was much cooler and better looking than I am now. (By the way, that’s me with the cigarette and coffee). I suppose everything was pretty different back then. But isn’t that what the theme of AMC’s “MadMen” show is – making yourself into something your not? You can make your alternate reality icon on the “madmen yourself” site. By the way, season three of “Madmen” premieres on August 16th – don’t miss it.

paulmcollinsjr

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:46:07 GMT

As we head into the weekend, I thought I would share a post discussing one of my favorite passions: music. The State of Texas has produced a wide range of high-profile musicians: Waylon Jennings, Buddy Holly, Lyle Lovett, Roy Orbison, Townes Van Zandt, Stevie Ray Vaughan, ZZ Top, to name but a few. While these musicians have certainly earned their places in the canons of Texas music history, below I discuss some lesser known Texas artists who have excited me in recent years.

The Gourds. Almost impossible to categorize, The Gourds represent a blend of music that ranges from county to rock to zydeco, with some bluegrass thrown in for good measure. They achieved some notoriety in the late 1990s with their cover of Snoop Dog’s “Gin and Juice.” The Gourds have a well deserved reputation for incredible live performances. Recommended album: Heavy Ornamentals

James McMurtry. One of my absolute favorite songwriters. He is the son of Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry and he certainly inherited his father’s storytelling chops. James McMurtry’s songs range from outrageous accounts of family reunions (“Choctaw Bingo”) to sublime tales of weathering a hurricane (“Hurricane Party”). Recommended album: Just Us Kids

Okkervil River. Okkervil River is one of the bands that I have been most excited about of late. I suppose one would categorize them as indie-rock (although I’m not sure what that means as a genre). I’d make a favorable comparison to Wilco. Okkervil River is defined by phenomenal songwriting (“John Allyn Smith Sails”) and occasionally abstract musicianship (“Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe”). Recommended album: The Stage Names

Old 97s. One of the pioneers of the alt-country scene, along with the likes of Uncle Tupelo and Whiskeytown. Rhett Miller and company’s tunes reflect the careful combination of country music and punk rock, although they have been known to write the occasional sentimental ballad (“Question”). Another great live act. Recommended album: Wreck Your Life

RTB2: Denton boys done good. Two dudes playing straight ahead blues rock on a guitar and drum kit. Ryan Thomas Becker writes moody, rocking tales of everyday life (“The Spilling Blood Child”). RTB2 have become local critical darlings of late, so I am expecting big things. Recommended album: The Both of It

trusted newscaster

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:55:34 GMT

Personally, I was pulling for Ted Baxter, but: hat tip Buzzfeed. Don’t get too happy Stewart, I don’t think Fox News was considered in this Time Magazine online poll.

Personally, I was pulling for Ted Baxter, but:

hat tip Buzzfeed. Don’t get too happy Stewart, I don’t think Fox News was considered in this Time Magazine online poll.

bonneau

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:39:49 GMT

So, while I was away last week in beautiful Bermuda, I had some time to catch up on some leisure reading. My two major non-academic hobbies are baseball and our Brussels Griffon, Boss. Those of you who have similar interests would enjoy reading: The Yankee Years, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci. One Nation Under Dog, by [...]

The Yankee Years, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci.

One Nation Under Dog, by Michael Schaffer

A book I read earlier this summer, which I cannot recommend enough to baseball fans is:

As They Seem ‘Em, by Bruce Weber.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the best book of the summer: In Defense of Judicial Elections.

Marshall

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:54:08 GMT

This is a very interesting piece on some close, but no cigar stories on the presidency. Here’s a taste: Marshall was Vice President under Woodrow Wilson, and he probably had a legitimate reason to become president. In 1919 Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke which left him unable to carry out his duties as president. Marshall, though, [...]

This is a very interesting piece on some close, but no cigar stories on the presidency. Here’s a taste:

Thomas Riley Marshall

Marshall was Vice President under Woodrow Wilson, and he probably had a legitimate reason to become president. In 1919 Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke which left him unable to carry out his duties as president. Marshall, though, had one major obstacle standing in his way to the presidency. This obstacle was the president’s wife, Edith Wilson. She was going to make sure that her husband finished his term in office, and did so by taking on many of the executive duties herself. She also kept the knowledge of Wilson’s condition a secret. Marshall reportedly never found out the true extent of the president’s stroke until his last day in office. Many go so far as to say that Edith Wilson was the first woman president, but no matter what her real standing was she was certainly closer to the office than Marshall.

Recent Articles tagged pop culture from LexMonitor

The answer: The NYT doesn't get pop culture references.

The man who put the heads on the Pez dispenser.

Apple 1, Lawyers 0

Wrestlers and Enophiles: Let's Get Ready to RUMBLE!!!*

jly

abwhitford

jly

jly

The end of "Battlestar Galactica"

abwhitford

jly

jly

"Wise Latina" junk for purchase and ego-boosting.

abwhitford

14 or so hours 'til my new HD TiVo goes online!

office

paulmcollinsjr

trusted newscaster

bonneau

Marshall