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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
most female DUI probation violators get sent to home detention.
What happens to the male DUI probation violators, and if it's different, why isn't that a story too?
I bet you it's a space issue. You can't house women with men, it's a bad idea, and even though the number of female offenders are probably higher now than ever, they probably haven't increased the size of the jail. Where I live, there aren't enough facilities for females in the city jail. They sleep on palletts on the floor, that's how bad it is. The crowding has gotten so ridiculous, but they haven't done anything to fix it.
At least that's my opinion. It could be an unfairness in sentencing, but I'm guessing they keep most of the room for violent offenders, drug charges, things like that.
That's just my two cents.
As always, a finely written article by Heather Havrilesky.
The very ubiquity of this celebrity news is part of what is so annoying about it. One finds oneself knowing the lives of these celebrities without ever clicking on Gawker or Perez Hilton or any of the other sites devoted to the uncovering of the celebrity lifestyle. I have almost no knowledge of the actual work produced by most of these celebrities and yet I know much more than I care to about the personal wreckage of their lives.
Meanwhile one can search in vain for meaningful dialogue about the suspension of Habeas Corpus or find a person who knows it even happened and what it means to their rights as citizens.
It seems like such a close analogy to the fall of the Romans with the amphitheater and the Roman Circus serenading the masses with more and more debased entertainments while they were all collectively flailing into oblivion. The cacophony does make it difficult to concentrate on what is important and vital for our society to move forward in a positive and informed manner.
I completely agree with this aricle about crazy celeb and media-obsessions. I am of an age where I don't even know half of those gossiped about and they seem to live empty lives anyway, so what's to envy?
I'll add this, not in contradiction of the above but due to direct experience with some great actors, politicians, et al.
Living in Manhattan you often run into celebrities. Even though the upspoken but hip action is to avert one's gaze, this is not always possible.
In diret contact with some celebrities--people who I love from afar, or whose work really affected me--it's only human to say hi, smile or even talk if they so desire. I'm thinking of my encounters--to name only a few:
how Tony Randall RIP, smiled at me, I waved back and then he asked for help with one of his young twins, and I happily helped put the kid on a park swing. How Gabriel Byrne met at a coffee shop, and I was sure I knew him from Columbia, as he nicely disabused me of that associaton.
One day I met Meg Ryan, and I'm not a big fan of hers, but as we both were buying baby toys and compared notes, I felt that high again. Or how twenty years ago Lyza Minelli, both of us in better days, helped me pick a bathing suit for my honeymoon. When the store closed she kept working with me for
"perfect outfits" for at least an hour.
Or the day I met Mario Cuomo in Grand Central Station, or say: the great Andre Gregory entering a hotel, who was delightful. Very Funny. These people know they are "known" but a casual contact is what they, like we, need.
Jason Alexander: I met in Hawaii with my sister who lives there. He was being mobbed and was even nice about it. But we told our then young kids NOT to talk to him, not to even look. And how then he was the one who saved one of my nephews from drowning--nephew thankful but didn't look up or say a word!
All these and more than I can now recall--were not only nice to be with for a few short minutes, (the nicest by far was Eli Wallach who hugged me) or Dustin Hoffman ( who my sister hugged,): all these celebrities gave off a light that felt magical.
I don't know why but something does accrue to great actors, like Ed Harris who I mistook for an old flame and he laughed. In long, when meeting most real celebrities in a ordinary way (one of my kids went to school with the son of Kyra SEdgwick and Kevin Bacon, so I saw them daily) and what I have felt from some, not all, is a real high. Unreasonable, sure is to me. I'm far more into intellectuals than popular culture but there you have it, what I bet is true for others here.
It's as if we get refracted light from them. I think of myself as immune to celebrity and recently I gave a singer I didn't know, one Steven Tyler from Arrowsmith, a "fuck off" because he was in my face, this to my kids' horror, (and how I learned his name). O, one of my best encounters, when I was sitting next to Heath Ledger at an airport many years ago, when he was a pre-teen idol, completely unknown to me. After hours waiting for a delayed flight, and chatting amiably, he gave me his home number because he said his mom would love me. Then Drew Barrymore, totally unaffected and homey, joined us and she was just herself... All these meetings for good or ill are I'll admit: utterly memorable. And I do not know why. It's the vibe, the feeling, the light in them that pours onto you.
I conclude from this that though I don't read celebrity news I do read and watch films as of course you all do too--and as a result, I've found that I feel really good after meeting someone I like or respect if from afar. Perhaps this benign affect is the underlying reason for the awful celeb news you read with distaste. Or could be.
Because it's for us regular folks, not about wanting to pull them down, but how celebs, however ridiculous it sounds, can pull us up. For a few minutes that I, for one. remember vividly.
PS:(Woody Allen once flirted with me in my beauty days, a good moment and the worst: when I was strolling with a group of "disabled" and poor inner city kids in Central Park and they went wild over Jerry Seinfeld. He was in no mood hear this tiny chorus scream his name. He looked around at this group and gave all of us the finger. I almost punched him for that. These were handicapped kids whose having a Hi from him would have made their day, or their year, for Lord's sake.
But basically I have only had fun or nice interactions with those celebs whose paths I crossed inadvertantly. It makes me feel good. They don't feel the crazy stalking of the media and I think that is key. In big anonymous cities or airports, they feel you are just someone with a nice vibe especially if you treat them at essence: no different than anyone else.
Of course, inside you are amazed, as in "I'm sharing toy tips with Meg Ryan?" So does anyone agree? Or am I of such a different generation that this doesn't even compute. I ask if anyone reading here has had like experiences.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
