TV News

I have been watching TV news lately. It can be a painful thing to do, not because of the content. The world has always had troubles, and I doubt they are any worse today than in the past. But if one watches a local or national TV new broadcast in the U.S. these days he or she would think the sky is falling. Content now is mostly entertainment rather than news, what news is presented is more rumor than confirmed event and the presentation of it is more often given by pretty boy or pretty girl reporters unqualified and untrained in journalism. TV news has sunk to the same low level as most other TV programming, and I wonder if it is a sign that serious TV news may die altogether.

There are many things that annoy me about TV news. Here are a few that you may see on your own set too.

* those TV news anchors who thank each other ("Thanks for your report, Tom"...he says to his field team reporter. Why does he thanks the reporter every time he does his job?), use bad grammar and usage when giving news, report rumors ("an undisclosed source has told us"....I say, if the source can not be disclosed don't use it.).

* over-reports on crime stories and issues that attempt to frighten the viewer (viewers like to see train wrecks, particularly if they imagine the train is headed toward them).

* gives simplistic analysis of their news in order to make the viewer feel comfortable rather than challenging the viewer with straight reporting that forces the viewer to think fro him or her self, seeks to first entertain and secondly to report on issues that actually affect the lives of the viewers.

* slants or twists the facts of the news reported to a particular point of view- conservative, liberal, ethnic, religious, nationalistic etc.

* promotes an agenda or the stations on programming by creating a "news story" that attempts to advertise it (a local Portland TV station that is the one that runs a silly reality show called 'American idol' wastes large segments of time on it's hour newscasts promoting that show with the implication that it is "news").

* presents opinions as news (because most of the viewers don't think enough to distinguish between the two).

* rushes to broadcast a story before verifying it or pondering the value of reporting it (remember all the revisions that were made on the Osama bin Laden killing story?)
Just as newspapers are in decline, so is news on TV and, I think, TV itself in general is moving toward an appeal to the least educated viewer. Perhaps TV news is the bird in the mine, the detector that the medium of TV is losing appeal and impact.

More people are turning off their TV sets and using other mediums as sources of information and entertainment. if you don't believe me, just turn on the TV news to see for yourself....

On Ballads

What happened to the old ballad form of music, the rhymed quatrain (four) lined stanza poems often but not always set to slow emotional music and telling an impacting story? I think it is quickly dying as a popular music format, another casualty of the electronic age with it's high technology and low human impact design. Ballads are simple songs with deep messages, often emotionally heart wrenching. The songs that have the greatest impact on me tend to be ballads because they are not throw-away music.

Like poetry not put to music, ballads are more timeless than most other music. And though some dislike them , seeing them as maudlin or silly, I find the ballad to be the music of the people and story of their ordinary thoughts and emotions. The most valuable art is that which touches the most people by relating to the most common matters of our lives.

There are many kinds of ballads, but I am not going to try (I am not qualified and would only do it badly) to define them. What I miss is the modern ballad, songs we all have heard and been touched by but not longer are written and performed very often. They do what too many of us say we "don't have time for" today. They make us think about core ideas in our lives. I defy anyone to say the old Irish Ballad, Danny Boy, for instance, doesn't do that.

For a more personal example of a ballad I relate to, try the link below. The simple words are below but don't come to life until sung emotionally. It's a song I remember as a child and always loved, sung by the great baritone, Roger Whittaker, from (of all places) Kenya. I remember hearing it many times as a boy and how it impacted me as a melancholy tune. Only recently, after my move from New Orleans to Portland does the Durham Town relate to me personally. My own move from New Orleans contains a message similar to that of the Durham Town ballad. Here is the link. Listen to the Yu tube first . Then read the words below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utyVHRjHybk

I have got to leave old Durham town,
I have got to leave old Durham town.
I have got to leave old Durham town,
And the leaving´s going to get me down.

Back in nineteen forty-four,
I remember Daddy walking out the door.
Mama told me he was gonna war, he was leaving,
Leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving me. - fade

I have got to leave old Durham town,
I have got to leave old Durham town.
I have got to leave old Durham town,
And the leaving´s going to get me down.

When I was a boy, I spent my time,
Sitting on the banks of the river Tyne.
Watching all the ships going down the line, they were leaving,
Leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving me.

I have got to leave old Durham town,
I have got to leave old Durham town.
I have got to leave old Durham town,
And the leaving´s going to get me down.

The last week Mama passed away,
Good-bye, son, was all she would say.
Theres no cause for me to stay, so I am leaving,
Leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving free.

I have got to leave old Durham town,
I have got to leave old Durham town.
I have got to leave old Durham town,
And the leaving´s going to get me down.

I have got to leave old Durham town,
I have got to leave old Durham town.
I have got to leave old Durham town,
And the leaving´s going to get me down.

No offense to Lady Gaga and the rest of modern music styles, but I wish there would be a resurgence in this kind of ballad. There should always be a place for music that tells a story that makes us laugh or cry or just think deeply. Someone ought to write a ballad about the decline in ballads....

Botox Baby

Have you read of the story of Britney Campbell of California, an eight-year-old beauty pageant contestant whose mother, Kerry, a part-time aesthetician , regularly injects her daughter's face with Botox to help the child win beauty pageants? Wow! It might be time to test and license people who want to be parents. Forcing babies to compete in "beauty pageants" is already taking a step across the line of reason, but injecting chemicals into a child's face is enough to have that lose her parental rights.

It is frightening to imagine the self-esteem related issues that may be down the road for little Britney (her mom has Britney convinced she already has "wrinkles" that need the Botox) after a monster parent like Kerry makes her think it's "Botox or I am worthless". Isn't this how the Lindsay Lohans of the world are created? Not only is it emotionally abusive to the child but can cause horrible physical problems for one so young, paralysis of muscles, a distortion of growth in the facial muscle, severe drug reactions etc.

And there are more clue less moms like Kerry out there. Just recently another furor was created when a California mom named Sharon Evans forces her 10 year old daughter, Bree, to take Botox injections in her forehead and lips every two months in an attempt to make Bree more star like in appearance. Sharon is one of those moms who lives life through her child. She wants Bree to be the next child movie star. Mom says these alterations of Bree's face give her a jump in the child beauty pageants that she makes Bree enter. "What I am doing for Bree will make her a star', she has announced to the world.

In addition to her just being a really lousy mothers and role models these two woman who see their children as objects to manipulate, should lose there licenses to be an aesthetician, investigated for child abuse and ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation. Injecting Botox into a minor's face that comes from a source that she will not reveal... Sigh...Someone should inject Kerry and Sharon with a common sense drug, for they are completely lacking of that substance.

Let My People Go...Dump

Portland has so many environmental types..it's way over the top. I can't even get rid of broken appliances, broken or old furniture, anything other than normal trash without paying a big pick-up fee. They have the Al Gore mentality about alleged policies to assist in "protecting the environment" here. The trash in Oregon has to be divided by type, and if anything is deposited that is not "allowed" one can be fined for each unauthorized trash item.

In New Orleans you can practically put dead bodies on your curb for trash pickups. They take anything. Here in Portland trash pick-up is 10 times more expensive than in New Orleans and is only conducted once a week (it's twice each week in New Orleans and in almost every other city in the U.S). New Orleans gives each user a huge roll cart to use to place trash into and also allows residents to place on the curb anything they wish to dispose of. Portland has three different cans...one for trash, one for yard waste and one for recyclable items. In my view it is overkill and an excuse to charge exorbitant fees to residents, most of whom dislike this set up as much as I but who fear complaining. Too, their list of "forbidden items" is long, so not much of what the homeowner wants to be rid of is eligible for pickup. The residents here do not wish to be labeled as "global warmer deniers" or as "environmentally unfriendly", so they hold their tongues and pay the fees for awful garbage service.

I have so much junk in my garage, including many items broken during my move here, and I can't economically dispose of them. To do so myself would mean to load it in my car in stages and to haul it to an "authorized dump" (a place that is run by the city and which charges enormous fees for each item dumped) and pay a big fee for them to take it, and I can't fit some of my junk, like a sofa, in the car to take them. My other option is to hire someone to haul it at even greater cost or to pay that garbage collection service company that picks up trash here each week an outrageous amount to take it way when making the normal trash day pick-up. The principle of being served so badly this way and having little fair recourse is frustrating.

Now I have a space heater to get rid of as of yesterday (Jane uses one downstairs as a supplement heating and it just broke, which precipitated this rant today about the trash pickup policies of Portland), and don't know where to throw it away without paying 25 dollars or more to do so. In Portland they think the world will end in heat waves if I dump my space heater for them to pick up and dispose of. It "burns me up" to see such stupidity. So alas! I will resort to civil disobedience...

I will sneak the broken space heater into my at nightfall and find a dumpster to deposit it. The commercial businesses pay a flat fee for real garbage pick-up
(the kind residents here don't get) so putting it in one of their dumpsters, though illegal, is a reasonable option. You may call me 'The Dunpster Rebel' if you wish...or wait to see if I am nabbed by the police while making my heater deposit and just call me a common criminal.. In that case my usual title of 'Just Plain Stupid' will be verified again.

On Elevators

I rode on an elevator today. There's nothing unusual about that, as I do it all the time. But while going up and down I pondered on why how we ride on elevators reflects the changes in human behavior in our present time. Elevator rider ship has changed as much as society has, almost parallel to those changes. And it's not for the better!

One thing that is different is the disappearance of elevator operators. Remember those guys (almost always men..I wonder why?) who wore the fancy costumes with the colorful bangles on the coat sleeves? Their whole job was to, while being gracious and welcoming, press the button on the elevator panel to take us where we wanted to go? Just like gas stations today without attendants to pump the gas for us, elevators now are empty spaces and self service.

I think the loss of those elevator operators is a nod to the coarse nature of culture today, the sterility of it. It used to be you would walk onto an elevator and never be alone. The elevator operator would guide and converse pleasantries with the rider while the other passengers would smile and speak niceties. Today it is not so, but then few people who are "strangers' to us want to chat casually with newcomers any more. I know not having elevator operators in big buildings is cost effective, but civility is dying. Bring back the elevator operator to restore it!

Another change in elevator rider ship is the role of the female. Women are what make the world beautiful, soft and kind. But the way women are treated on elevators now is a reflection of the changes in the female role today. It used to be the man always deferred to the female rider, waiting for her to enter the elevator first, nodding and smiling with a "Hello, Ma'am", as they embarked. The man always smiled non threateningly and the woman never felt she was a possible target for indecent exposure or robbery while on board. They exchanged stories about self or family ass if they were long time friends. the elevator was a place to talk freely and openly. It was quite a civil ride, with the man respecting the female and deferring to her always.

Today it is "first come, first serve" when men and women ride on elevators. The better sex (females) are seen as "equal", not special. The loss of the old etiquette when riding in elevators is a reflection of the change to a more equitable society. It's great that women are now treated equally in this society, but the elevator instead has become a refuge for men to practice their lack of respect for women. It's one of the last places where a male can be sexist toward women and not be censured often for it. What an ironic notion that equality still hasn't reached the elevator shaft.

But men suffer from this refuge mentality too. The men who are kind and respectful suffer because of the crude ones. It's sad, but when a man and a woman are on an elevator alone there is often unspoken tension between the two. The man looks upward and ponders, "Oh, my...she has a defiant look. I bet she thinks I am going to harm her...I'll just keep staring away from her and won't smile or chat....better to do that than be accused of sexual inappropriateness". The woman riding that elevator with the stranger who is male has a look of constipation, of being trapped when alone in an elevator with a stranger who is male. "I hope I can make it to my floor without that guy saying something sexually suggestive or touching me. Maybe he might drop his pants.....I'm going to just stare away from him until I reach my stop."

There is too little recognition of each other today on elevators. Humans should not ignore each other, even if strangers to each other. We act as if no one else is their, quietly looking away from them, playing with our technology ("connecting" with others who are away from us and ignoring humans we can see and hear directly next to us) or just doing what I did today (thinking about the inconsequential...as in the way elevator riding is different now).

If we can tell how gentle and kind a society is by looking at how humane the zoos are in it, we can tell how society communicate by observing how people relate when in elevators. Right now, it looks sterile and cold, anxious and tense. Yes, "tense" is the best word to describe how we feel when riding elevators. Next time you ride on your elevator, observe the surrounding and see if I am right or if instead, my brains have been rattled too much from the ups and downs of the elevator world.

Sigh....I should ride the escalator more often.

Death By Chocolate Milk

The food police are out and about all over the United States school systems and they're assaulting a sacred item now! It's the noble chocolate milk serving all rational people love to drink. With schools under increasing pressure to offer "healthier food", the staple on children's cafeteria trays has come under attack over the very ingredient that makes it so popular. That would be my favorite food item- sugar. So I come to you to defend chocolate milk, sugar and to denounce food police tactics of finding something tasty and falsely claiming it is running the health of kids and grownups alike.

An increasing number of U.S. school districts have banned flavored milk, with the state of Florida considered a statewide ban in all of it's schools. And the movement is growing. Don't those food policers know that if you take away a child's chocolate milk (almost 70% of all milk that the kids drink in schools is chocolate milk) he or she won't drink anything healthier as an alternative. Just look at the trash cans of cafeterias and you'll find mostly "healthy" foods that taste awful and that kids are dumping. Perhaps the food police want to starve kids, because the more healthy items on the menu the less, they will eat of what is put on their cafeteria tray.

The School Nutrition Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association, and National Medical Association, argue that the nutritional value of flavored low fat or skim milk (ugh....it's bad, but at least it's edible when made chocolaty) outweighs the harm of added sugar. Milk contains nine essential nutrients including calcium, vitamin D and protein. I say, Let them eat cake....err chocolate milk! (Come to think of it...cake isn't a bad item either..hmnmm).

All this banning is the result of kids being too fat in the U.S. But is a serving of chocolate milk really fattening? And when districts who have banned the chocolate milk have seen that kids there drink less milk. Milk consumption drops 35% when flavored milks are removed from the cafeteria. By allowing kids flavored milk, they still get the calcium they need So the food police burn down the barn to kill what they imagine is a rat when they remove chocolate milk.

By the logic of food policers, diet cola, has less sugar than white milk, so maybe the kids should switch from regular milk to to diet cola? Sugar is not a demon. It is just an empty calorie, but causes no hard. For food policers to ban it is stupidity. Fact is, ts not the chocolate milk in the school cafeteria that is making kids fat. It is the gigantic sugar laden soft drinks and snacks that kids consume outside of school that they that, along with a lack of exercise because kids stay "connected" to electronics most of the day and night that schools themselves love, by the way) that is causing obesity. Chocolate milk is like any other food, used in moderation it is greatly beneficial.

Schools should not make decisions on what they will serve in a cafeteria that are based on trendy feel good political correctness . It is a parents responsibility to feed, clothe and shelter their offspring. This includes food selections. Schools have only to serve a reasonable selection for the student's lunch meal. Anything else is just a case of their thinking too much without drinking their chocolate milk.Hmmmmmmmmmm I wonder if it is possible to ban food police stupidity.

Tip Of The Day

Blame it on Americans! The art of the tip, given to service workers like waitresses and parking attendants is now a universal practice. The British started it all in the 18th century in their drinking pubs. Tipping was considered an essential incentive for better service in the pub. 'To Insure Promptness' (of service) was turned into 'TIP'. But America's wealth in the 19th and 20th century made tipping a normal thing here. As Americans traveled abroad they tipped and the locals decided they had to tip as well.
I can remember when tipping even in allegedly, cultured in Europe was almost a rarity.

One time, years ago while in an Austrian cafe, I saw some of those 'crazy American' tourists leave tips on the tables of the restaurant in which I was enjoying my gulashasoup. I sighed to think they also probably wanted tips from me as well (well, I am crazy and am also an American). But alas! A little fellow in disheveled clothing who was sitting a few tables away from me had a better tipping strategy that day. As each American table left it tips and departed the restaurant, he slightly slithered to the table and deftly swept the money into his own hands, departing to his corner table and cup of coffee to await the opportunity to steal the next tip he spotted before the waitress was ever aware it had been left.

I soon learned that tip thieves flourished in Austria. But eventually the wait staff caught on and even Austrian patrons were expected to leave a tip. When too few did leave tips the infamous "gratuity will be added to the bill' appeared as a sort of forced indenture to giving a tip. Now that is a universal practice in restaurants all over the world. It's curious though. Tipping was meant as a reward for promptness and skill in service. now it is an entitlement in certain professions.

The latter is the rub for me. Why is it the waiter in a restaurant gets a tip but the dentist or fast food server does not? Should we tip the barber or hair stylist every time we get our hair cut (I do)? What is the correct protocol for who is to be tipped, how much and when? These days, many workers rely on tips as a substantial and necessary part of their income because their employers exploit the tip system by underpaying and forcing the customer to subsidize their employees incomes with the tip. More and more people want tips. There are even web sites that list how much a person should be tipped. One I saw says we should tip gas station attendant 1 or 2 dollars for pumping gas. But Why? What extra service does a gas station attendant give when pumping gas?

I can't understand tipping, any of it. According to research in Bartender Magazine (now that is a reputable scientific journal...) the best and worst tippers are as follows.
- lawyers and doctors are the worst tippers (probably because they never get tipped themselves). Next in line for least likely to tip are, computer technicians, teachers, musicians, pro athletes and pipe smokers (I have no idea why on this one)
- The best tippers are bartenders, waiters and waitresses ( probably because they get the most tips themselves). Next in line as best tippers are hair stylists, regular customers of a place and gangsters ( I suppose that's why gangsters are not pipe smokers).

I have no tip for you today, but feel free to send one back in appreciation that I didn't write more garbage about this subject.