Musings for a Saturday

Musings for a Saturday

      Are all weather persons required to have cutesy pooh names or just a lucky few? Storm Field (WABC) , Ray Ban (Weather Channel), Dallas Raines (KABC),  two Porn star names, Rick Dickert and Topper Shutt , plus local fave Rusty McRainey are but a few examples. Every time I hear Rusty's name, I keep waiting for the rest of the set - Sunny Daze, Tommy Tornado and  Iggy Isobar.

      What exactly do these things have in common?  Intestines, manic approbation and  work vehicles? Beats the shit out of me, but apparently there is a cult of Neo Deo-mechanists who worship them in one personage - a  pickup truck manufactured by the Chrysler corporation. Sam Elliott is apparently their chief priest, because we periodically hear him call the faithful with the reverently intoned "Guts, Glory, Ram."  Must be time to slaughter another sheep (before it gets recalled, like most of the others.)  

      At what point is it "OK" to stop referring to a heinous deed as "alleged" and just say , "OK, he did it!?" I have watched  reports of a deputy kneeing a handcuffed prisoner in the chest, seen the victim fall to the floor in agony, and seen him a year later showing the scar where his ruptured spleen was removed.  His police officer assailant  has been fired and is under indictment, yet the news stories regarding this incident, show the video of the holding cell and the assault, followed by describing it as the  "alleged" kneeing by the officer. I have seen football decisions overturned with less convincing video than this! Alleged my ass! He did it, we've all seen it. The only remaining issue here is how long will he spend in jail, (hopefully in general population!) and how much will the civil rights lawsuit cost the taxpayers of Orlando.

      And finally (for today): Remember when  TV commercials used to delicately dance around the more basic bodily functions?  We knew what they meant, but there was some sense of  decorum and restraint when advertising certain products.  I don't mean when Lucy was pregnant and CBS refused to allow the word "pregnant" to be uttered on the show. After all, how could she have become pregnant anyway? They were never in the same bed for all the years the show aired! I'm referring to things like menstruation, elimination, menopause, and the like.

Specifically, of late, we have seen new, cleverly named laxative/intestinal related  products like "Mira-lax", "Xifan" "Movantix." and others.  Get it? - "Mov" as in "go potty" or "do #2"). What I find in marginally bad taste is not the commercials addressing a problem which obviously affects millions, or the drug names, however cutesy-pooh they may be. It's the graphics accompanying the description of the drugs' function. One such actually shows a pink knotted bundle of animated intestines  walking around, which is bad enough, but a recent animated example actually shows a pink tube with a purple (no other way to say this at this point) "turd shaped" obstruction.  Not to worry, though, because one little dose of (whichever) wonder drug has that little guy gently moving onward and downward to the porcelain depot at the end of the line. 

Really? Please.