"Time and time again, contestants in the early episodes of this year's season whine obviously off key and then insist they are highly talented—in spite of the judges' protestations."
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The Chronicle of Higher Education makes the case that Idol's popularity reflects "a hunger for realistic evaluation."
According to Ephraim Lytle, far too much. I haven't seen the movie, but I have to admit I'm disturbed at the shoddy treatment of Demophilus' 700 Thespians, who heroically refused to withdraw with the rest of the Greek forces, and died with the Spartans.
I'm on deadline, so of course all I can think about is dinner. Think I'll go upstairs and start some chhole cooking, steam up a bunch of brown basmati rice, and mix up a raita—think I'll add some fresh mint, cilantro, and a chopped, drained tomato to that last 'un.
Oh yeah, and listen some more to the WATT/Puppy 8s, so I can turn my review in on time. Honest.
I'm still surprised whenever approached by some faithless audiophile — hair thinning, ears sagging, belly bulging — and asked (seriously): "Do you think there's any hope for our industry?"
How do I answer a question like this? Do I cite statistics, pull pie charts out of my hat, sing of the iPod, speak of love? I mean, who do I look like, The Incredible Kreskin? The Amazing Randi? Whitney Houston?
When they ask, so unapologetically, so apocalyptically, so Al-Anonically:
Do you
think
we will
sur
vive?
I really just want to say: "…
Robert Love gives us some historical perspective on non-factual "news." My favorite bit comes from his report of a 1903 Washington Post article on the unreliability of news garnered by remote stringers.
These are just the sub-heads of the story:
"Pope has died 25 times in five years
"Yellowness across the sea
"Americans outstripped in this kind of thing by English and German manufacturers—editors victims because reports are sometimes true—rivalry for news among oriental English dailies."