Musings on Various Things

[actor61]

Television has gotten so silly - I can't think of a better word. Kelly Ripa feels "disrespected" because her co-host got another job? She makes over $20 million a year. For that kind of money, you can "disrespect me" all you want!

 

Out of curiosity, I have watched The View and The Talk a couple of times. How have these shows lasted? The silliness of all of those women is mind boggling - and they all talk at once. Of course, a male panel show would probably be just as silly but there aren't many of those around except on sports networks.

 

The English language has become so defiled and not just by kids who don't know better. I listen to NPR a lot. Ira Glass and Terri Gross use the word "like" as much any teen I've encountered in my teaching career. And have you noticed the new trend to answer a question with "so"? I was listening to a political discussion on the radio and the person being interviewed began each answer with "so", e.g., "Do you think Trump will get enough delegates for the nomination?" Answer: "So, Ted Cruz is tying to stop that." Question: "Do you think he'll succeed?" Answer, "So, he doesn't have a chance." And on and on.

 

Why are female t.v. weather forecasters hoochi mamas? Do the powers that be really think that we won't pay attention to the temperature if the women giving the statistic don't have huge statistics of their own? The few male forecasters in my area are middle aged, paunchy, and boring. There's nothing wrong with that but if the women giving the weather are going to be hot, why can't the men be as well? Let's see a guy in a speedo with a huge bulge tell us it's going to be a great day for the beach for once!

 

Words and phrases I'm sick of: At the end of the day. Narrative. Impactful. Anything with "wise", as in "This is your forecast, weather wise". In terms of. (My boss actually said to me one day, "I'm going to eat in terms of lunch.") Like.

 

I feel so much better now.

[jjkrkwood]

I think you misunderstand Kelly's feelings. She feels disrespected in the sense that no one gave her a heads-up about changes being made that ultimately affect the show and

HER, and she was blindsided, NOT the fact that her co-host got a different gig. And she Should feel disrespected considering HER position on the show. Her name is in the title for Gods sake....

[actor61]

I think you misunderstand Kelly's feelings. She feels disrespected in the sense that no one gave her a heads-up about changes being made that ultimately affect the show and

HER, and she was blindsided, NOT the fact that her co-host got a different gig. And she Should feel disrespected considering HER position on the show. Her name is in the title for Gods sake....

You're missing the point. Of course, she has the right to feel disrespected because of they way the situation was handled on her show. My point is that it's all so silly to care about it and for her to think we care about it enough that she had to make a speech when she returned. Anyway, I'm an old grump and freely admit it. I find so much of what's going on at the moment in show biz, politics and sports "silly".

[mike carey]

Ok, my pet peeve on questionable use of English. People who use after when they mean when: He was killed after he was hit by a train. That implies that the killing and the being hit by a train were unrelated when in fact it was being hit by the train that killed him.

[jjkrkwood]

You're missing the point. Of course, she has the right to feel disrespected because of they way the situation was handled on her show. My point is that it's all so silly to care about it and for her to think we care about it enough that she had to make a speech when she returned. Anyway, I'm an old grump and freely admit it. I find so much of what's going on at the moment in show biz, politics and sports "silly".

 

I got your point, you objected to the public spectacle. But she's a celebrity, and that's what THEY do... You are lucky it wasn't Kim Kardashian, or you would probably she her fat ass in skin tight spandex, or even NUDE...

[longtime lurker]

We are a nation of immigrants despite the GOP's passionate efforts to stop them from coming in. For an increasing number of Americans, English is not their first language and, amusingly, grammar in this country (especially in the media) is all over the map these days. Yet should we all worry so much about it like Professor Higgins in PYGMALION/MY FAIR LADY when the whole point of language is simply a way of getting your points across? I am lousy with other languages and can only imagine how much I butcher those in the rare moments when I actually succeed putting together full sentences. I do, however, place greater control in my writing and typing than speech because that is something you can edit. Also bad grammar can often make me misunderstood... and not in a good way.

 

Since the 1970s, the decade when TV was almighty powerful, is a long ago memory and we live in an era of multiple cable channels and the internet (i.e. laptops and iphones replacing the TV, just as TV used to replace radio and movies to a degree), what I find most interesting is how TV shows and whole networks are each after their "demographic" that they want to clutch onto as long as possible before each gets cancelled off the air due to poor ratings.

 

Therefore a show like THE VIEW is specifically aimed at ladies with strong opinions who feel they can't express them enough in their own environment and are used to arguing simply to get heard.

 

Fox News' Talking Heads consist mostly of older Caucasian males over the age of 50 and much younger blonde women (who sometimes resemble the occasionally brunette Lennon Sisters on the Lawrence Welk Show in the '60s and '70s that was watched by those who did not attend Woodstock) since that particular demographic favors that long ago era when there weren't so many different "races", "orientations" and "secularisms"... and everybody responded to their superiors with a "Yes, Sir". The latter explains the enormous popularity of I-am-always-right Bill O'Reilly, since he talks like a drill sergeant belittling his guests and talks down to all of his devoted viewers in a way that gets them all sexually excited since so many have this fetish for authoritative Islamiphobic torture and paranoia that is repeatedly covered on the same network in-between the Cialis commercials.

 

What I find most interesting about the Turner Classic Movies crowd is how much of that demographic is too young to have seen so much broadcast in an actual movie theater many decades ago, but there isn't much in black and white on TV these days (and too much color does hurt your eyes). Of course, that demographic is not overly nostalgic for Yee Olden Days because they know fully well they were sometimes the Bad Ol' Days (lots of segregation, Nazi atrocities, too much cigarette smoking, women forced to wear dresses unless they are Hepburn or Dietrich, etc.) but it is comforting to know that not all of the antiques were destroyed and we can revisit the past. Likewise, the TCM crowd still collect view masters on ebay simply because they a fun toy, not because they are too "old".

 

In response to the disappointment in weather reporters, there was a Canadian (?) network decades ago (not sure if it still exists) called NAKED NEWS. Both genders disrobed while reporting. Sometimes you can find old excerpts on Vimeo and other video channels online. VH1 still runs NAKED DATING every summer. They do blur out the front ends of the contestants, but often don't bother with the back-ends, unlike ABC and other more "regulated" networks.

[geminibear]

 

Fox News' Talking Heads consist mostly of older Caucasian males over the age of 50 and much younger blonde women (who sometimes resemble the occasionally brunette Lennon Sisters on the Lawrence Welk Show in the '60s and '70s that was watched by those who did not attend Woodstock) since that particular demographic favors that long ago era when there weren't so many different "races", "orientations" and "secularisms"... and everybody responded to their superiors with a "Yes, Sir". The latter explains the enormous popularity of I-am-always-right Bill O'Reilly, since he talks like a drill sergeant belittling his guests and talks down to all of his devoted viewers in a way that gets them all sexually excited since so many have this fetish for authoritative Islamiphobic torture that is repeatedly covered on the same network in-between the Cialis commercials.

Anyone that references the Lawrence Welk Show gets a like from me.

 

[mike carey]

We are a nation of immigrants despite the GOP's passionate efforts to stop them from coming in. For an increasing number of Americans, English is not their first language and, amusingly, grammar in this country (especially in the media) is all over the map these days.

The US is a nation of immigrants as are other countries like Canada and Australia.

 

There is one other significant characteristic of the US that can't be ignored. The US did not universally start with English as the main language. The Louisiana territories started out being French speaking and what is now Louisiana had an inflow of Arcadian French speakers (Cajun); huge areas of the south west were part of Mexico and when they were acquired by the US they came with significant populations of Spanish speakers. Some of the people in Nuevo Mexico considered themselves Spanish, not Mexican. Similar with Florida.

 

Australia does not have other European language areas, and indigenous languages are incredibly varied, but we do have large immigrant population groups that we are [sort of] trying to use to build relationships with their source countries. Canada is doing the same thing.

[longtime lurker]

I hope I wasn't too cruel with Lawrence Welk. He was a lovable guy after all. Such a clean show with all of those bubbles.

[+ purplekow]

Anyone that references the Lawrence Welk Show gets a like from me.

 

It is interesting in that clip that there is a black male in the group and that the black male is an island while all the other singers have arms interlocked. It was the 60s and I guess his presence was a sign of progress, and his isolation a way of saying: "Not so fast"

 

My grandmother was a big fan of Lawrence Welk. An Italian immigrant, after 50 years in the US her English was still very limited, but she could understand the music. At one time, Gilligan's Island was on opposite Lawrence Welk and I am ashamed to say that my 8 year old self would try to deprive my grandmother of one of the few diversions she had, by watching Gilligan on the one TV we had. My father usually would come in and change the channel midshow despite my caterwauling, which was neither condoned nor tolerated for very long. After the Gilligan-Welk conflict ended, with the cancellation of GI, I did make up for it by reminding her that "La Musica" was on TV and I would watch it with her and with the rest of the family. One TV, one family, united by bland cornball music and unimaginative show design. This was my reality of the American Dream in suburban NYC in the 1960s.

[longtime lurker]

Aside from re-runs, I saw his first-runs mostly during the Ford (maybe late Nixon) years, since you have some years ahead of me (i.e. I arrived a little after GI went to re-run heaven and the made-for-TV movie). For my parents and other conservative family members trying to move from the fifties through the seventies without all of that "trouble" in between, he was the one "constant" in the storm of change.

 

Land of the Lost was still a much better show.

[+ FreshFluff]

And have you noticed the new trend to answer a question with "so"? I was listening to a political discussion on the radio and the person being interviewed began each answer with "so", e.g., "Do you think Trump will get enough delegates for the nomination?" Answer: "So, Ted Cruz is tying to stop that." Question: "Do you think he'll succeed?" Answer, "So, he doesn't have a chance." And on and on.

 

It appears that the interviewee was substituting "so" for "well." Both words signal that there's a long explanation ahead.

[Bearofdistinction]

I think you misunderstand Kelly's feelings. She feels disrespected in the sense that no one gave her a heads-up about changes being made that ultimately affect the show and

HER, and she was blindsided, NOT the fact that her co-host got a different gig. And she Should feel disrespected considering HER position on the show. Her name is in the title for Gods sake....

 

Kelly Who? Oh!

Who the Fuck Cares - She is another no talent TV Bimbo - who gives women that are REAL journalist a blackeye

[+ sync]

It appears that the interviewee was substituting "so" for "well." Both words signal that there's a long explanation ahead.

One of the teachers of English at the high school I attended would go for the throat whenever a student began to answer a question with "well." It serves me "well" to this day.

[+ glennnn]

My pet peeve is folks using the conditional tense unnecessarily, as in, "The family of John Smith would like to thank you." This implies that some condition beginning with " But" or "However" prevents them from expressing their gratitude: ie. "The family of John Smith would like to thank you, but we are just too busy." Or, ..."However, since you didn't do shit for us, we can't " The conditional tense requires a condition that must be met for the action to proceed.

 

What they want to say is, "The family of John Smith thanks you.," Only English speakers who have studied a non English language seem to get the conditional and the subjunctive.

[actor61]

My pet peeve is folks using the conditional tense unnecessarily, as in, "The family of John Smith would like to thank you." This implies that some condition beginning with " But" or "However" prevents them from expressing their gratitude: ie. "The family of John Smith would like to thank you, but we are just too busy." Or, ..."However, since you didn't do shit for us, we can't " The conditional tense requires a condition that must be met for the action to proceed.

 

What they want to say is, "The family of John Smith thanks you.," Only English speakers who have studied a non English language seem to get the conditional and the subjunctive.

This is the one I hate the most: If I would have known, I would have gone. Correct term: If I had known, I would have gone.

[+ poolboy48220]

NPR died a little for me when they started covering sports.