Letters to the Editor
tomreedtoon
Published Letters: 766 Editor's Choice: 80
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Um...thanks, Snarkity Whatever.
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry, "S-S-S", but I pay for things I believe in. I believe in Salon, for its large quantity of good writing. (It's when it's bad that I start getting angry.) Likewise, I pay for bartcop.com because Bart attacks evil in an unpretentious but gleeful manner. You-know-who might take a few lessons in writing from that Oklahoma so-called primitive. I also tip for good service.
The big problem with "snark" is that it is a substitute for life, just as "cool" was. Do any of you remember where "cool" came from?
In jazz nightclubs, black musicians were given extravagant compliments by the same white people who would snub and curse them during the day. Accepting those compliments would mean validating the white people's racism. So the black musicians became indifferent to the compliments, thus invalidating the power of those compliments. Thus, "cool."
Problem was when the attitude of "cool" became popular. It became a way of insulating oneself from the world, not attacking one specific problem (racism). "Cool" became a way of not caring, period. There's a war in Vietnam? Cool. People are drowning in New Orleans? Cool.
"Snark" operates in a similar fashion. It is more active; it insulates the person from being real when that person throws out meaningless insults and feigns superiority. You don't have to admit liking anything if you're "snarky." Love is, after all, a sign of weakness. And not looking weak has become a cultural imperitive...for the weak. Glance up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for an example. He sure is "snarky," and "smirky" too.
It also makes a woman seem "assertive" if she's "snarky." For these people, Sharon Stone stabbing her sex partner to death at the point of orgasm is "assertive." So a woman can be as soulless as Ed Gein. That's progress!
"Cool" and "snark" are pretense. When pretense moves from an amusing pose to a pathological syndrome - as it does in Hollywood, Washington and Heather Havrilesky - it's no longer fun.
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To Clarissa French, my love, who knows nothing about anything.
[Read the article: Welcome to celebrehab]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How nice of Clarissa to explain it all. When she knows nothing.
Really, an ad hominim attack? An instant analysis of who I am and what I do? Seriously, you are clearly outclassed here. This is discussion at a higher level. Discussion where you actually have to say something. The other stuff belongs in the talkback columns on "Ain't It Cool News."
Clarissa's "frenching" also is a reminder that people quite often hate in others what they hate in themselves. Which might explain a lot of this celebrity nonsense. Having raised people like Mel Gibson and Britney Spears high on the celebrity pedestal, removing all imperfections from their visages, it must anger celebrity syncophants to see that these idols are as flawed, racist, and dissolute as they are.
All this was said, with much better and elegant language than I can muster, in the book "Intimate Strangers: The Process of Celebrity" by Richard Schickel. He also touched on assassins, both of celebrities and Presidents, in his exploration of what this celebrity nonsense is all about.
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Havrilesky, is that you?
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Is that you, posting behind my posts, letting your fourteen-year-old Bratz grrl out? How nice of you to respond as your true self, not the New York Cappucino Queen you pretend to be in your column. And of course you used a pseudonym.
I've experienced many liars in my life; a video production guy who talked like the next Ted Turner but who was really a Klansman; a roommate who lied about getting acting work and is currently wanted for credit card fraud in several states; most recently, a would-be cat rescuer whose "expertise" has killed more cats than she's adopted out. With such training, spotting you behind the - gotta use that word because it's the only one appropriate - "snarky" self isn't hard.
You ever want to come out of the closet and talk like a human being, even if it's only in private, I'll be ready. No pseudonyms and no pretense, please.
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Eric Cartman, we need you now!
[Read the article: The bunny vs. the blue box]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If there was ever a post that cried out for a big-boned kid to scream about "goddamn hippies," this was it. And never with better justification.
For the record, quite often I eat Kraft's, a.k.a. America's Favorite Poverty Food. There are simple ways to make it taste better: use sour cream instead of the milk and butter, mix in a pouch of sweet 'n' sour tuna fish for a quick meal with nutrition, season with Mrs. Dash. I also make homemade cheese sauce; if I want to make my own stuff, I'll avoid the canned sauce, thank you.
But really. Is this outfit trying to tell us that "no bunnies were killed in the making of this product"? There is so much fraud in the "natural" food business that selling crack cocaine in schoolyards looks honorable by comparison. It's the conjunction of several terrible trends; fear of corporate power, fear of food processing, fear of being un-trendy, and perhaps most important, fear of being considered an ordinary person. That this business is driven by fear should be proof that Republicans aren't the only people using terror for monetary advantage.
The biggest gangsters in this business are the wholesalers, or the "pushers," like Whole Foods. The food they sell is no different than the stuff at a supermarket chain, only it's got pretty yuppie packaging and a much higher price. On the West Coast I found a place called Traitor Vic's or something like that, which has more moderate prices, but whose stuff resembles traditional supermarket stuff even more - but, of course, not their prices.
For my part, I mourn the fact that Kraft no longer sells the powdered "American cheese food" in shakers next to their Parmesian cheese. That makes it impossible to make quick cheese meals, including (yes) cheese popcorn. Melting slices of Kraft cheese over popcorn in the microwave doesn't have the same elegance, and it burns your fingers.