Letters to the Editor
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to the proofreader with his/her head up my ass
you forgot to mention the commas i missed and the run-on sentences.
grammer and spelling criticism. the last refuge of the witless.
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That would be "grammar"
If you're going to bust someone's chops, have the balls to proofread. Or just STFU.
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Substance use disorder is a DISEASE, not a moral failing!
Whitney has a disease. Her long term use has by now changed the pathways in her brain and sobriety from just the cocaine is only about 60% likely. When you add the other drugs she probably uses, her chance for a relapse is probably 100%. Therefore, she will need the help of some of the newer medications to help her deal with the cravings that are physiologically caused by the changes in her brain wiring. Recovery is always possible but much more complicated than just stopping, even with detox for someone who uses cocaine and together with other drugs.
I, too am surprised that her daughter has not been placed with a sober family member. She is being emotionally abused at home. Usually the state steps in and asks a family member to take over the parenting duties until both parents are stable.
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Er...no....
>So, just for the record: all drug addicts are just sublimating their gay urges. Wow. Who knew?<
More like "Girl from religious family with gospel-singing mother and a record company that wants big crossover success pretends to be straight--and lives to regret the soul-destroying bargain she made." In all fairness to Houston, '80s mainstream America not only would not have accepted an out black singer, they would have made sure she had no career (or relegated her to niche status) no matter how talented she was. And she probably knew coming out would have reflected badly on her mother and hurt her career. (And it _would_ have. African-American homophobia in general is a big problem, and homophobia among churchgoing folks is virulent beyond belief.) And I would bet there was a lot of "good girl" factor here--you try to please everyone else no matter what. Unfortunately for Houston, she didn't (or couldn't) see where to draw the line. Or she only discovered where to do so too late.
That said, her experience confirms something I've long thought--if you want to wreck a potential star, advise them to try living up to the "all-American" girl/guy image. Houston ain't the first to crack under that strain, and she won't be the last.
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I always knew she was as dumb as a stump
Perhaps the greatest voice of her generation, and she chose to sing those trite, empty pop songs. She was a waste of talent from the beginning. Her marriage to Bobby Brown was just another indication of her lack of intelligence. So finding out that she is trapped by the stupidest drug addiction known to mankind is no surprise at all. It's just sad that she never had someone to guide her, so that she could have fully realized the treasure that her voice could have been.
Of course, it is also sad that this was a lead story in Salon. Another justification for my decision to stop giving Salon any of my money.
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deering
Did you know the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?
While you're looking, see if you can find the definition of "joke."
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grammer redux - for still looking
just making sure you are paying attention. i like the way you hang on my every word.
do you actually have anything interesting to add to the Whitney conversation or do you just patrol Salon's message boards correcting peoples grammer and speling?
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Friends like these
I've been wondering why reading this article made me feel queasy and now I realize it’s because the sentiments are so false and the tears so distinctly crocodilian. Why on earth would Traister turn to media (and mostly tabloid media) insiders for a criticism of the media, for insights into how “Houston's thunderous slide was surely precipitated by racism and sexism and a celebrity machine that chews people up and leaves them for dead” if that indeed was what she set out to discover?
No wonder that in the course of the article we get further ogling of Whitney’s misfortune in the guise of “mourning.” The real problem is that Traister has bought, hook line and sinker into the notions of success and failure that she (with whatever sincerity) tries to criticize. If Traister and her interviewees’ concept of success means being dolled up and marketed as a crossover hit while almost still a child, then naturally their notion of failure will be that "Now she's not even worthy of 'The Surreal Life.' She's fallen below the entertainment C-list level. It's almost too tragic to deal with." I wish that such a high level of articulation as befits a Salon writer would bring with it an equivalently developed concept of fulfillment, but that does not appear to be the case. With willfully ignorant friends like these, Whitney does not need any enemies.
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The Real Tragedy
As others have alluded to, the real tragedy of Whitney Houston is what she (and others) chose to use her talents for, like those God-awful pop hits. The thing that always got to me about Houston back in the day was the realization that her songs were only hits because of the sheer power of her voice. When handed an amazing song - like "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl in '95 - Houston could do amazing things, almost unearthly things. Too bad she almost always sang dreck.
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No the only difference is this -
Today's high strung drug addled 4 note range divas are as disposable as kleenex. Ms. Houston is pathetic because she was 'famous' for so long, but famous in that way that makes people scratch their heads asking "Why is she famous again?" Trust me though this new crap of self absorbed princesses who think they're the artistic director for their own tours because they sold their name to a clothing line in JC Penny will fall off the earth just as certainly but a lot quicker and in 5 years we'll see a piece about Lil Eve or Pink trading blowjobs for crack and we'll say "Sheee-it, thought that bitch died in a fire years ago...." So Whitney if you have any self respect left at all just be a man and eat a gun already.