The Amazing race 16--Episode 3--Do Cry for Brent and Caite, Argentina

Now I KNOW the budget has been cut because for the second week in a row, the Amazing Racers had to take a bus to their next destination. The cowboys continue to dominate and that's great. I'm also finding I don't absolutely hate Team Such As (Brent and Caite) and Team Big Brother (Jeff and Jordan). I hated Rob and Amber because they were arrogant and sneaky and thought the world owed them a living because they were big stars on Survivor (BTW, I know Rob is back on this new Survivor season, but I have gotten over him and don't even watch it.) These two reality-pretty teams aren't arrogant or nasty like Romber, so I am not broken up each week if they do well.

Caite and Brent paid for their good fortune in the looks department by contracting food poisoning and going to the hospital. While they were on the IVs, the lesbians were grilling the cowboys to find out how they found a quicker bus last leg. The cowboys were all "Oh, I want someone to care about me when they talk to me" and upset the lesbians were not making with the warm fuzzies. Hey, they were just trying to get information, you were under no obligation to tell them anything. Maybe they were confused by the use of the word "enigmatic." But, I don't mean to be mean. The cowboys are showing they're pretty smart and have made up for their mistake with getting the wrong money the first leg.

Once everyone got to Bariloche, it was just a matter of luck at the challenges. Of course Jet and Cord were going to breeze past the lasso task. We also found out that Brent can neither drive a stick or read a map, neither of the gay/straight brothers can drive worth a damn, and that the shorter cop only executed search warrants and never did a grid search--whatever that is. At the choice between finding the buried loot and riding the wooden polo horse, I would have taken the polo horse right away. Anything with a compass is going to screw me up as I found out at camp decades ago.

It's looking like the race will be dominated by the cowboys, Joe and Heidi and the lesbians. The father and daughter surged ahead to second, but I don't see them lasting there. The brothers, the cops, even the reality and pretty people will drop off. Thank god we're finally getting out of South America next week, getting on a plane and heading for Europe for some serious drinking and bungee jumping.

Sidenote: This morning on CBS Sunday Morning, they profiled Blake from Amazing Race 2 who is now a shoe entrepeneur and distributes shoes to improverished countries. Also Joel McHale has been showing more clips on the Soup of this Amazing Race than any other. Maybe it's becuase Jeff and Jordan--specifically Jordan--were so dumb on Big Brother. He said you'd have to be a brain-dead gerbil not to do well on this season.

Day 5--Bus from Puerto Vargas, Chile to Bariloche, Argentina. Arrive around 2:30 PM. Poker with the gnome. Lasso challenge. Wooden polo horse or buried treasure.

Jet and Cord win again (two wins so far). Prize: ten-day trip to Patagonia. But they were just there! Plus it's all earthquake-y now. A friend who lives in Santiago sent some pictures and it looks pretty bad there.

Leaderboard--
Jet and Cord (2 wins) Loot: two sailboats, trip to Patagonia
Jeff and Jordan (1 win) Loot: trip to Vancouver

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (13)--Comic Show in the Snow

New York was hit with a big snowstorm this past week, but that didn't stop me from going to yet another comic book show. This one was at the Penn Plaza hotel on 33rd and Seventh. Wearing my rubbers and a heavy coat and sweater, I went through hundreds of box of comics to find the following haul:

Action Comics--315, 325, 369

Adventure Comics--285, 287, 295

Atom--32

Batman--163

DC Showcase--66 (Bwana Beast)

Green Lantern--50, 66

Flash--152

House of Mystery--168 (Dial H for Hero)

The Inferior Five--6

Jimmy Olsen--59, 77, 85, 89

Lois Lane--29, 38, 39, 42, 44, 61, 70, 78, 83, 113 (80-page giant) (I've got so many Lois Lanes, it's ridic)

Metal Men--8, 46

Prez--3 (America's first teen president)

Strange Adventures--154, 190

Superboy--139, 150, 216, 250, 255

Superman--174, 182

Tales to Astonish--68

Thor Special--3

Thor--166

World's Finest--153, 180, 186, 187

Project Runway Skips a Week, Health Care Takes Precedence

So I get home last night after a hard day of reviewing plays expecting to watch the latest fashion smackdown on Project Runway and for some reason, the damned thing ain't even on. They're showing last week's episode and then some lame Will and Grace rerun (the one with Matt Damon pretending to be gay). We turn on Hardball with Chris Matthews who has an extra-long show to dissect the health care summit. Obama was on fire telling those obstructionist Republicans where to get off with their "Let's start all over again with a blank slate so we can get the credit" crap. When he told that smarmy congressman who favored health-care saving accounts, "Well that's fine for you because you make six figures, but what about the average American making $40,000 a year?," I was like "YEAH! Stick it to that smug bastard."

This is what the Prez should have done MONTHS ago, but he was too afraid of looking partisan and worried about another dose of Hilarycare with the Congress not being allowed to put together the legislation. He needs to go before the public every day of the week and sell the hell outta this bill. He needs to tell the people who don't watch Fox, CNN and MSNBC 24/7--"Look, don't listen to these right-wing talking heads, I am fighting for you every minute to get you affordable health care. Bohner and those other guys just want to help the insurance companies. Just listen to what they say--you don't need unemployment insurance or stimulus-created jobs, just suck it up. That's how they think. They think government shouldn't help ANYBODY except big corporations and you know where that leads. I am here for YOU, the mom working two jobs at Walmart and the Stop and Shop, the dad taking an extra shift at the toothpaste factory, the freelancer who can't afford a decent TV." Please make that message clear, Barack. People will listen.

Failing the Purity Test

Repubs continue to eat their own. Newly elected Mass. Senator Scott Brown voted with the Dems on the jobs bill (along with Collins and Snowe from Maine and the guy from Ohio). Immediately Glenn Beck and the right-wing horde pounced on him for betraying their trust. Reportedly Brown's facebook page was inundatded with hate comments from Tea-baggers. I couldn't comment myself unless I became a fan. So I did, though I am not a fan in the strictest sense, I just wanted to tell him how I felt. So this is what I wrote:

"Scott, I became a fan just so I could say this: I am a NY Democrat and hated it like hell when you won against school librarian Cokley. But I'm glad you voted with the Dems on this and it shows you are not just a rubber stamp Republican. You want to get things done and don't want to just say "NO!" to everything Obama does in order to make him look bad--which is all Bohner, McConnell and their pals want to accomplish in this congress. Good for you. Like Republican governors Crist and Schwarzenegger, you realize that it's okay to support the prez when you think he's right and not just toe the party line and be Glenn Beck's lap dog."

The reference to Repub governors is about how Arnold Schwarzenegger and Charlie Crist both came out and said it is a lie that the stimulus package did not create one job, because both of their states benefited from it and they aren't afraid to say so. The GOP is cracking with people like Michelle Bachmann wanting to get rid of Social Security and Medicare calling for the heads of reasonable people like Arnie and Charlie.

Beck's CPAC speech is a further example of extremism pushing and shoving its way to the center of the conservative movement. He says no more "big tent" in the Republican Party, America is not a circus or a clown show. Yeah, Glenn, just have everybody think exactly like you: no taxes, no government regulation, no laws, everybody owning their own home with all the money they save from all those taxes they save. But no trash collection, state parks, highways, public libraries you like so much (OK, I got that one from The Daily Show), no regulation on big business, etc.

Look, CPAC-ers, I am a chablis-drinking, brie-munching, NPR-listening, show tune-lovin' gay boy and I am just as much a part of America as you. We're equal. As Aunt Eller sang in Oklahoma: "I ain't sayin' I'm better than anybody else/But I'm be danged if I ain't just as good!"

The Amazaing Race 16--Episode 2--Stuck in Chile

Something tells me they've cut the budget on The Amazing Race--even more than last season--because we're still in the same damn country as episode one and the main means of transportation is a bus! I love that they skipped everyone opening the envelope with the route info and just started with the first-place Big Brother team leaving and then the rest of them just suddenly appearing at the bus station. No wasted time giving us info we already have about the teams and their relationships. If you missed anything, just go to the CBS website.

All the teams were on the same bus from Valpairso to Santiago. Brent and Caite whined about the lesbian couple joking about her tiara. Hey, if you can't take a little teasing, get outta the kitchen (or whatever), you pair of big model-babies. What the women said wasn't so bad. Go back to your photo shoots. When everyone ran to get their tickets for the second bus, the Asian couple held a place for the lesbians and everyone bitched because they got the last four seats. Hey, there is no rule against forming alliances and making deals, so the other teams should just suck it up.

Then some of them got clever--the supposedly dumb ones--the cowboys, the beauty queen and male model and the reality people. They all found a faster bus going through another town to make a connection. But the cowboys discovered the connecting bus was at another terminal. I thanked the Lord when they didn't say anything and prayed again as Team Big Brother and Team Such As all got in taxis for the other terminal and then just missed their bus (Hooray!) Then it got even sweeter when they rushed back to the first terminal and missed the bus there too! Sweet! They had to wait til 1 AM for the next bus. But the victory was bittersweet. They were behind the cowboys, the lesbians, and the Asians, but still ahead of everybody else.

Once everyone got to Puerto Vargas, it looked like Team Grandma would battle it out for last place with Team gay/straight. But the undercover cops' keen powers of observation failed them and they totally missed the location for the last challenge, allowing the brothers to surge ahead and the gay brother to sashay around with the llamas, doing that weird strip dance. Sidenote: Joel McHale pointed out on The Soup that the police guys can't really be undercover anymore because they're on national TV. another interesting sidelight: while waiting for one of the buses, the male half of the Big Brother team actually said he didn't understand how dogs could speak Spanish but not English. Incredible! Right up there with his partner asking for tickets to China when they wanted to go to Chile. Yet these mental giants keep placing high. Unbelievable.

It looks bad for the gay/straight brothers and the cops. The former's lack of stick shift skills and the latter's ironic cluelessness (they're cops and they keep missing stuff and getting lost) is gonna bite them. I don't see them lasting much longer. The cops are so worried about female teams beating them. The way things are falling out, it looks like it'll be the cowboys versus team Big Brother and Team Such As (NOOO!) Go cowboys! I also noticed the two cowpokes don't like to hug.

Day 3--Valpairiso to Santiago; half the teams to Puerto Vargas

Day 4--rest of the teams to Puerto Vargas. Challenge with llamas or candors and roadblock with German refugees, several kicks in the head by cows.

Jet (like James Dean's character in Giant) and Cord finish first. Win a sailboat.

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (12)--

I stopped by Time Machine recently just before it was closing and brought up an old Jimmy Olsen (103) with the top half of the cover slashed off. Roger said it was worth about $4, but he'd let me have it for free. Here's an interesting letter from Jimmy Olsen's Pen Pals in that issue:

Dear Editor:
We all know that Jimmy's favorite girl friend is Lucy Lane. But who is his favorite boy friend, his best boy pal?
Gloria Samuels, Leonia, NJ
(Robin the Boy Wonder. They frequently work together on cases with Batman and Superman.--Ed.)

So, I wonder if Gloria Samuels is still around and if she realizes the homoerotic can of worms she opened?

They were other gay goodies to be found in my most recent batch of Silver Age purchases. In Superboy 147, an 80-page giant starring the Legion of Super Heroes, the story about the initiation of Ultra Boy is most interesting. In the first panel, a new kid and an older man alight from a train in Smallville, Superboy's home town. "We will go directly to the home I've rented," the older man says, "Be on guard! No one must suspect we are...different!" (Cue the creepy music) In the next panel, both figures are in their new home and taking their shirts off! They reveal bright red action costumes with a green bird insigna. Now if that's not gay, I don't know what is.

It turns out the kid is Ultra Boy and he's in Smallville to pass his initiation into the Legion of Superheroes in the 30th century. He must discover Superboy's secret identity. The older guy is later revealed to be some old coot named Marla, the Legion's senior advisor. But Marla never showed up again in any of the Legion stories when they got their own feature in Adventure Comics. What happened to him?

In The Story of Superman, Jr., reprinted in Superman Annual no. 7, Superman adopts a young boy who had gained superpowers when his father shot him into space thinking the earth would explode. But he didn't know Superboy would save earth. Years later, the now super youngster returns to earth and the grown up Superman adopts him. The boy's dad has since passed away. Superman just drops his Clark Kent identity and pretends to be the boy's dad. Weird, huh? It gets weirder. In one panel they are actually sleeping in the same bed. Later Superman Jr. loses his superpowers and Superman Sr. just leaves him on the street. Presumably Superman found a home for his former adopted son, but why just abandon him?

Project Runway Season 7: Episode 6: Send in the Clowns or Color Block the Pain

Tim Gunn has a new favorite phrase: clown clothes. He's used it twice so far this season. And what does he do for those 15 minutes while the contestants are sketching on their HP notepads? Anyway, Amy fell down the well this week with her bizarro outfit which didn't even look finished or tailored. That little kid nailed it when she said to the model, "Are you ready to go to the circus?" Jonathan's "toilet paper in a windstorm" wasn't that bad. It made me think of whipped cream. But Janeane's safe, drab thing was so nondescript I can't even think of a bitchy way to describe it. As soon as she was on that phone-organizer-keyboard doo-hickey to talk to her husband, you knew she was dead meat. My friend Lydia pointed out that whenever a designer had an extended scene via 21st century communication device with a loved one, they would be aufed by the end of the episode. Did that happen to Epperson last season?

Jessie looked much cuter this week with that adorable little hat and the bow tie untied. I think he's much cuter than that straight boy from last season that all the girls and the models had a crush on--see, I've forgotten his name already and I'm too lazy to look it up.

Anthony's no-talking challenge was funny. It broke the monotony with something different.

Not much else to report this week except that five years old is a little young to be walking the runway.

Memories of a TV Childhood--Part 3--The Funniest Moments in TV History

1. That episode of Maude where Vivian was trying out someting called Total Womanhood, a reaction to Women's Lib in which the wife is supposed to be all sexy and submissive instead of an "aggressive female." Maude and Walter go over to see Vivian who has been acting strange lately. She answers the door stark naked except for Saranwrap. You can only see her from the neck up. She was obviously expecting her husband Arthur. She screams and slams the door. Maude and Walter stare at each other for about 30 second totally deadpan.

2. That episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show where Rob accused Laura of opening his mail. He sends for an inflatible raft. Laura can't resist her curiosity and opens it. The raft inflates and now she can't hide it. Millie and Jerry come over from next door and just the way they laugh so hard without uttering a sound is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

3. That episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show where Paul Sand is an accountant auditing Mary. He sends her a box of chocolates. Rhoda starts to eat one and says "I don't know why I should bother to eat this. I should just apply it to my hips directly." At the age of 11, I had this image of Valerie Harper smearing her hips with chocolate.

4. That episode of The Carol Burnett Show when Carol as Eunice and Vickie Lawrence as Mama were having a fight. Lawrence delivered the line "Eunice, you gotta hole in your dingy! Your pilot light blown out! You got splinters in the windmills of your mind." Carol then breaks character and cracks up, sputtering "That's a new one, Mama." Obvioulsy Lawrence either ad-libbed the last one or the writers gave it to her as a surprise. She stayed in character and said "Now you look at me when I'm talking to you, Eunice!"

5. Laugh-In. There was one show where one of the running gags was Lily Tomlin as a strict librarian and Larry Hovis as a patron.
Hovis: Do you have any books on manners?
Tomlin: No we don't, stupid.

Hovis: Do you have the autobiography of William F. Buckley?
Tomlin: Yes, you go down that aisle and take a radical turn to the right.

Hovis: Do you have the autobiography of Lawrence Welk?
Tomlin: Yes.
Hovis: Is there a penalty if you keep it late?
Tomlin: Yes, if you don't return it after three weeks you have to keep it.

Speaking of Laugh-In, I'll never forget when the producer of the show was on the David Frost Show and he said they did 250 jokes every show. Of course, the next time Laugh-In was on, I counted every joke. And it totaled about 252.

6. On The Jetsons, daughter Judy was once again bitten by the love bug. Rosie the Robot Maid was sick of it. "This is Miss Judy in love, tra-la-la, tra-la-la" she said and pretend to prance around as best a robot can. "This is Mis Judy out of love, eh-heh, eh-heh" and then she bends over and moans. "I never sounded like that," Judy says. "I bet you could if you tried real hard," Rosie answers. My brother and I started imitating Rosie, going "Eh-heh" and moaning at the least provocation.

7. The episode of Batman with Tallulah Bankhead. She has them trapped in a giant electronic web and is open to unleash two spiders on them. "Well, dahlings, you may be caped and you may be dynamic. But to me you are a crashing BORE! So bye-bye, bat-baby."

8. On the Today Show they were interviewing people who were the subject of weird stories in the National Enquirer (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize this year for their John Edwards coverage). One woman claimed she had a toaster possessed by the devil. She displayed samples of toast with pictures of the antichrist scratched out of the burnt part. She put in a piece of bread and it caught fire. "So, why do you keep this toaster if it's so much trouble," the interviewer asked. "Well, you know, in spite of everything, it still makes a pretty good piece of toast."

The Amazing Race 16--Season Premiere

The 16th season of Amazing Race started up with an exciting episode and a minor twist. Instead of having all the contestants hop into their cars and drive to the airport, they had to find their way via public transportation--in Los Angeles where everyone drives and no one takes the bus. Ironically the first three teams to arrive had their flight delayed and they all wound up on the same plane with all the other teams.

The gimmick casting this season is a team from Big Brother and the Miss Teen South Carolina who gave the dumbest answer in the history of beauty pageants--"Some people in this country don't have maps, so they couldn't find the Iraq such as South America, etc."--with her model boyfriend (of course). I hate that she spells her name Caite. Is it short for Caitlin or something? Both mentally challenged but beautiful teams did very well this first leg. I pray this doesn't turn into a series where the presumably dumb beauty queen and reality TV winner show they aren't so dumb after all and win the million dollars which they don't really need. I prefer it when "normal, average" contestants win.

So I was disappointed the Big Brother team came in first, but at least I like them better than Miss Geography and her boyfriend who didn't take the fenicular (and didn't even know what it was) and therefore lost 30 minutes, dropping from 2nd place to 7th.

It's too early to tell which teams I like but so far here are my impressions:

Big Brother team--both kinda dumb, but they seem to have a healthy spirit of cheering each other on, so they're not so bad. But I hate it when one reality show contestant wins on another show.

Beauty Queen and Model--I hesitate to judge people before getting to know them and I'm sure they are both nice, but they are too beautiful and already famous, so they don't need this money.

Gay Brother/Straight Brother--Hopefully, they won't descend into the bickering of siblings Sam and Dan from last season which reached epic proportions. It already seemed to be headed in that direction with the fight over the missing paint brush (15 min. penalty). Also the gay brother seems to be a bit of a bitch with his nasty imitation of the beauty queen. OK I admit it, I was doing it too, but I would have said "Hi" to her and asked for fashion tips, then made fun of her behind her back.

Lesbian couple--love them and Brandy's spirit, she overcame her shakes on the highwire challenge and got across. I also loved their Martha Stewart and shopping references which break the stereotypes of lesbians being all about plaid shirts and truck driving.

Cowboys--cute as hell and also humble. Absolutely no macho bullshit about them which is great. They admitted their mistake about getting Brazilian money instead of Chilean money--possibily the stupidest first-leg error ever--but it only cost them fifteen minutes on the bus to Valpariso and they overcame it to finish 3rd. They do need different clothes. The hats are fine, but they both looked like they were all duded up for the Saturday night hoe-down instead of some tough challenges and got their fancy duds all sweaty. Wait a minute, maybe that's not such a bad idea. The granddaughter had eyes for them. Plus they have their own theme music--you notice that "Big Valley" soundtrack whenever they came on?

Grandma and Granddaughter--great spirit. Nanna's age probably won't hold them back and hopefully they will last a while.

Team Undercover--as soon as they said "I don't wanna be cocky, but I see us winning every leg," I knew they would be in trouble. I loved it when they found out they were in 9th place. Like the cowboys, they don't seem to have any macho attitude, so I will give them a chance.

Lawyer/moms--again great positive energy and they don't take themselves and the race too seriously.

The rest sort of blended together--the father/daughter, the married couple with the husband making a big deal of being the boss--sign of trouble ahead--and the highschool sweethearts (eliminated)

Valpairso looked beautiful. South America is the one contintent I have never visited. I would love to see it.

Day 1--Los Angeles to Santiago

Day 2--Arrive Santiago--bus to Valpairso

Big Brother team wins a trip to Vancouver.

Memories of a TV Childhood--Part 2--TV to Make You Gay

Here are some TV episodes from my childhood that convinced me I was gay:

1. Dave Draper on "The Beverly Hillbillies." Mr. Drysdale sees Ellie Mae is being courted by movie star Dash Riprock who is backed by another banker. Fearing the Clampetts will withdraw their fortune from his bank, Clampett hires Dave Draper, Mr. Universe, to woo Ellie and to keep her millions with Drysdale. But instead of being impressed with his massive muscles (which he flexes to the tune of Popeye the Sailor Man), the family thinks he's suffering from some rare disease that causes his body to be "puffed up."

2. Dave Draper on "The Monkees." The popular Draper appears on this silly sitcom as a rival for Mickey. He muscles in on Mickey's territory with a girl on the beach. But it's all a trick to get my sister's favorite Monkee and future star of Aida on Broadway to join an evil cultish gym.

3. That "monkey" episode on "Bewitched." This is the episode where Endora transforms a monkey into a sexy male model who becomes the face of a MacMahon and Tate advertising campaign for Brawn cologne. Previous to this transformation, another ad guy (other than Darren who is strangely missing from this episode) ushers three men in long capes into Larry Tate's office where the female head of the cologne company is conferring. The trio whip off their capes and display their fabulous physiques, flexing their pecs. "It's remarkable how they get those things to pop," the vampirish lady executive coolly says while licking her lips. Larry Tate just looks astonished and embarassed.

4. The 1971 Tony Awards--need I say more? This was the 25th anniversary of the Tonys and they did numbers from every winning musical of the past quarter century. I remember I had to go to bed at about 1954, but I caught up with the whole show later in life.

5. The entire Batman series--not just for the superhero antics of Adam West and Burt Ward but also for the outlandish campy villains.

6. Much Ado About Nothing from early 1970s with Sam Waterston and Kathleen Widdoes. This Joe Papp production of Shakespeare's comedy was adapted by CBS and presented on a Saturday night. We were supposed to go to my grandparents for a family party. My parents brought a TV set for me to watch it upstairs (my grandparents had only one set which was downstairs where the party was being held.) OK, maybe this just proves I loved Shakespeare and the theatre, which are not necessarily gay attributes, but it did show I was "sensitive."

7. Upstairs, Downstairs. British, class, soap opera. I remember being one of the few kids to watch PBS in prime time.

Memories of a TV Childhood

While contemplating our new huge high-definition TV I recalled how much of a big deal it was just to have color. When I was little, our house and that of just about everyone we knew had black and white. Many of the programs were in B&W and the complete transition to color happened gradually from the late 60s to the 70s. I can remember watching most of the Mary Tyler Moore Show in black and white which premiered in 1970 and ran until 1977 (When the last episode aired, I was acting in a high school production of The Sound of Music. We had a set backstage and as I was playing Herr Zeller, the mean Nazi, I didn't have many scenes and I could watch it.)

My great-aunt Lilly and great-uncle Carl had a color TV and it was so exciting to visit them because we could watch our favorite shows in living flesh-tones. One time we had dinner with them and I remember we watched Time Tunnel which was on Thursdays (I think). I asked if we could have dinner with them on a Wednesday because that was when Lost in Space was on. The first season of Lost in Space had been broadcast in black and white. Then the second year the cast got all new colorful costumes--which I couldn't appreciate because of our cheap b&w set. Back then, I didn't understand why they suddenly change their clothes if they were wandering aimless in the cosmos. Where did they get the new duds? It was like the castaways on Gilligan's Island. Only the Howells had a complete wardrobe. The Robinsons had their black and white space suits and their color ones. Later I realized it was just to take advantage of the color. Judy in particular benfitted from the makeover. In season one she wore this drab dark skirt thing. In season two she was in a bright yellow and purple pants suit. (I later got Marta Kristin's autograph at a sci-fi convention, but that's another story.)

Speaking of visiting relatives and TV, another time we were visiting my Uncle Joe and Aunt Marion in January 1966 to go sledding with my cousins. I remember the date because my sister and I watched the George Sanders Mr. Freeze episode of Batman with my cousin James. (There were three Mr. Freezes, Otto Preminger and Eli Wallach were the other two) That was the third or fourth Batman episode. It was a Wednesday because it was part one. Part two was on Thursday. It was an unusual experience because in those days before DVRs, we would watch Lost in Space on Wed. from 7:30 to 8:30 and see part two of Batman on Thurs. Anyway, we kids were all excited because we thought with all the snow we'd have to stay overnight. I was only six so this was a big deal. But my dad said it was time to go home. Driving back, our car hit a patch of ice and we crashed into a fence. I don't remember how long we were there, but my dad must have called a tow truck to get us out and we got home eventually.

Project Runway Season 7: Episode 5: Bible Study Time

When the episode opened with another funny quip from Anthony ("Wake up. It's bible study time. But I use it as a weapon" and then hitting Jay with the Holy Word which was a riot), I thought he was in trouble. He was getting too much camera time which is always a bad sign. But expectations turned upside down as the comic-relief designer emerged as a winner and the ice-queen former favorite (Milla with the bangs and the Anna Wintour haughty attitude) got slapped down.

It got very tiring to hear Heidi and Tim endlessly bray about how this was the BIGGEST challenge in Project Runway history. Tim's sole advice seemed to be "Just make it perfect!" And what was up with that bitchy Marie Clare editor-in-chief? Was she vying with Nina, her subordinate, for all the attention? Did someone tell her that because she's British she should be like Simon Cowell and say the nastiest things that pop into her scones-and-buttter head? Nausea, polluted seawater, and hospital food were her main images. EWW! You don't gots to be so mean, bitch! And why do they always cut away from the muscular arms of that hot make-up artist so fast? Linger on them biceps, Mr. Cameraman.

Everyone but Ben and Emilio seemed to be afraid of bold colors. And you need those to make an outfit stand out on a magazine cover. Emilio's was very sexy and I loved that whipped out his scissors and snipped those spaghetti straps right off. I wasn't wild about his color, it was too burgundy for me. I would have preferred a brighter red. Ben's bright combinations should have won. They really popped and the textures were interesting. The belt was nice too. Anthony's was nice and flowing, but it didn't have the vibrancy of Ben's. Jonathan's superheroine-hooker look was good for a laugh. Isn't Ben the one who worked in comic books?

It was a close call for elimination between Jeaneane (bridesmaid at the wedding of the Little Mermaid) and Ana (pregnant teeny bopper on the way to the beach in Datoyna). They both didn't have long for this world.

Palin Appeal

Quote from a Dec, 7, 2009 New Yorker article on Palin: "To an extent unmatched by any recent political figure, she offers the erasure of any distinction--in skill, experience, intellect--between the governing and the governed. As one supporter told Conroy and Walsh (authors of "Sarah from Alaska," a pro-Palin tome), "If she can run a home, she can run the government." Palin agrees: "There's no better training ground for politics than motherhood." Yes, except households don't go to war with other households and settling arguments with the kids over who gets to watch Spongebob is not quite the same as settling the Middle East crisis.

I understand Palin's appeal. She's the mom from next door you might meet at the Walmart. She's just like you. She ain't got no fancy degree (she went to four different colleges in five years!) She writes notes on her hand--some find that endearing. She doesn't remember all the founding fathers or even when the Korean War was. So what! You don't have to be a walking encyclopedia to run the the most powerful nation on earth. All you need is common sense, some lip gloss and a pair of waders.

Everybody lovers her--for different reasons. The left wants to keep her in the spotlight so they can say "This is the best the GOP has to offer? You're kidding, right? Obama wins in a walk." The Tea-baggers (and yes, I will call them tea-baggers despite their sensitive protests to be associated with a sexual practice) love her because she repeats back their slogans and makes 'em feel good and everything. The only ones who don't love her are the moderate Republicans who fear that she will drag down their chances to take back the White House in 2012.

Super Bowl Thoughts

Believe it or not I actually watched some of the Super Bowl. I wanted to see the ads really since everybody says they're the best part--and I love New Orleans as witness by the earlier blog on my visit there on Halloween. So I am happy the Saints won. What I'm not happy about is the anti-abortion ad they allowed and the gay dating site they did not. I have no problem with Focus on the Family buying ad space if they can afford it, but Planned Parenthood should be given equal time. (And I understand CBS turned down a commercial from MoveOn.org last year because it was an advocacy ad, why did they change their policy now?) Also apparently the football player's mother who decided not to have an abortion for medical reasons was risking her life and that was her choice. But neither she nor her football-hero son has the right to tell any woman what choice they should make, or even suggest that they visit Focus on the Family's website.

Now to the gay dating ad. I don't get CBS's decision not to run for Man Crunch, the gay dating site's ad. Well, I do, they were scared of homophobic negative reactions or maybe Man Crunch didn't submit it in time. But logically it doesn't make sense. All things being equal and if Man Crunch and Focus on the Family had the money and made the deadline, they both should have been on. But something curious happened while I was watching the commercials that did make the cut--

There was one ad for a telenetwork or something and there was this supermodel in her bathtub telling about how this wonderful new service will update her Facebook and twitter and email and everything all at once. Then she took of a picture of her naked self with her Iphone and said "I wonder what would happend if I sent this picture out using INSERT NETWORK here." There followed a series of quick scenes of what would happen if that naked picture went around the world. One had a mother knocking on her adoloscent son's door asking what he was doing in there. It was pretty obvious he was pleasuring himself (which is pretty risky for a family football show. So it's OK to hint at masturbation, but not have two guys kissing?) In another scene a wife slaps her husband for apparently looking at this girl's goodies. One second later, we get a shot of two men and one slaps the other. It went by pretty fast, but it looked like two stereotypical queeny types and one was jealous of the other looking at the same naked supermodel picture. WHAT???

That was wrong on so many levels. First of all, I was offended that CBS rejected an ad rejecting gay stereotypes--the ManCrunch ad featured two manly football fans discovering their attraction while reaching for the same bowl of chips--but accepted an ad which, however fleetingly employed gay stereotypes--two flouncy queens, one of whom only needs to see a hot woman on his cellphone to straighten him out. Number Two, why would a gay couple have a spat over a naked woman's picture? Or maybe he who got slapped had a bisexual history. But that's too much subtext. I'll bet the ad was a one-time thing and we'll never see it again. But CBS needs to grow up and stop being scared of homophobes tearing down their studios. If they allow Janet Jackson's nipple, why not some ManCrunch?

Doesn't that sound like a breakfast cereal? Maybe if they had marketed it that way, it could have gotten on the air.

Project Runway Season 7: Episode 4: Soup and Hearts

This will probably be the only "real person" challenge on this season of Project Runway. Since they've got that dumb Models on the Runway thing right afterwards, they're probably only going to have one segment where the models don't appear. At least that was the pattern last season. It wasn't a particularly exciting episode but it certainly was full of "Lifetime TV" moments with each of the real women telling their designers about their history of heart problems and how it impacted them. (Love that the word impact is now officially a verb.) I also loved that one woman who said "Out of all the women here, I'm probably the last one you would think had open-heart surgery." What the hell does that mean? Was she being competitive about her scar tissue? Or lack thereof? Also campbell's Soup wins the product placement award of the year. Lifetime must have been wracking their brains on how to get a soup company to buy ad space.

There wasn't much drama between the designers this week. I suppose because they were taken up feeling all "Lifetime"-y and making their heart women feel all special. This season and last is not as exciting as the one with Jeffrey and Laura (who I saw on the subway once) and that guy who got kicked off the show and that annoying Holly-Hobby woman and the guy who looked like Paul Lynde. I think that was Season 3.

I really thought Ana Marie would go home because she had so much camera time and her dress did not flatter her full-figured lady. Jesus did deserve to be aufed. This was the third time he was in the bottom two and his dress was kinda slutty. BTW, did you notice both Seth Allen and Ben stole Jesus's cute bow-tie look this week. And what was up with Jay's clam diggers?

I did like Amy's winning look, but didn't it remind you of the nightgown flying suit Agnes Moorehead used wear when she played Endora on Bewitched? And BTW I found a video of an old Lone Ranger cartoon from the late 1960s on YouTube where Moorehead played a villainess called the Spider Woman. That's a common villainness name (There was one on Space Ghost and I think in a 1940s Superman movie serial and of course Tallulah Bankhead played the Black Widow on Batman) and is worthy of a separate blog post.

Another thing I just realized: if there is only one "real-woman" challenge per season, that also means there will be no men's wear challenge and that means no male models. Damn, yet another drawback to this season!

Huff vs. Ailes and Beck: Do Words Matter?

It's getting so I don't have to even watch TV anymore. All I have to do is go to Huffington Post or YouTube and I can watch little three-minute videos of all the latest media chatter without having to view the whole program. I had stopped watching all the Sunday shows because of my disgust with spineless Democrats. So I was able to see the few minutes of This Week on Huffpost in which Arianna challenged Roger Ailes on Glenn Beck's inflammatory language. And I didn't even have to sit through windbag George Will's stern lecturing as if all America were a fifth-grade class guilty of talking out of turn during algebra.

The pity is the whole argument is down to a squabble over whether or not Beck used the word "slaughter" in describing what the Obama administration wants to do to the American public. Beck said he never used that word. Huffington played the tape where he said it. Beck says of course he didn't mean it literally. The whole thing is petty. I wish they would debate the tenor of fear and paranoia Beck is creating rather than nitpicking over a single word. This just makes Arianna descend to Fox's level and the argument becomes "No I didn't say that." "Yes you did."

Keith Obermann is becoming just as bad for his over-the-top slamming of Senator-elect Scott Brown of Mass. by taking minute details and blowing them up to label Brown as racist, sexist, homophobic, and advocating violence against women. Most of the time I agree with him, but he just went too far this time (and Jon Stewart called him on it.)

McCain Tacks to the Right

John McCain showed his true red-state colors today. When discussing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, he's always said if a military leader said we should reconsider this shameful policy, then he would do so. But today he went back on those words. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff in full uniform told the armed services committee, the policy was wrong and Mccain went out of his way to say--"Hold on a minute, the Congress decides these things, not you military guys. We need to study this thing for at least 25 years and then I'm not even sure it should ever change, cause you know us straight guys don't want no show-tune-singing nancy boys seeing our junk in the shower."

It was obvious why he said that (OK he didn't say exactly those words, but that was his subtext). He's facing a challenge for re-election in the Arizona Republican primary from a tea-bag type. If he appears the slightest bit moderate, they will jump on him--"He lost us the White House. His daughter just loves those gays! His wife posed for that ad in favor of gay marriage--and here we thought she was the perfect Stepford robot! He may as well be having a Cosmo at a piano bar. Damn, you cain't trust nobody these days! Brother Glenn Beck says he's more dangerous than Obama. He's brainwashed our Sister Sarah into endorsing him."

But the Joint Chiefs chairman basically said the policy was wrong and it should end. Oh and BTW, Colin Powell just said DADT should end as well. So that's two major military people on our side. More on Beck and Arianna Huffington and Roger Ailes at their set-to in a further post. It's very late.

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (11)--Comic Smuggling in Times Square

Though I had resolved to cut down on my comic book habit, I came across an incredible deal on Ebay and just couldn't resist. A seller based in NYC was putting up for auction 31 Silver Age DC comics and the bid was only $45. That's less than $2 a book. Maybe the price was so low because they were readers--copies in such poor shape they are only good for reading the comics not for collecting. So I made my top bid $50. What the hell, the guy was in NYC, I wouldn't have to pay postage and handling. I won for $47.50! After a week while the seller had a bad cold, I finally met him in Times Square in front of the Toys R Us on 44th St. and we made the transaction. I felt like a drug smuggler picking up an illegal cache of halucinogentics. Although I shouldn't feel so bad, I did go during lunch and I didn't take more than an hour total, eating my lunch on the subway. He was selling them because he was now collecting science fiction book covers.

Interesting side note: while in Times Square, I spotted the Naked Cowboy for the first time in a while. This is a hunky entertainer who dresses only in a pair of briefs, a cowboy hat and guitar to pose with tourists. It was about 30 degrees and he was getting a lot of attention. Unless I am mistaken this was a different Naked Cowboy that the last one I saw a few years ago. The old one was beginning to put on weight. This one looked a lot younger and buffer. I could be wrong. It could have been the same guy.

Anyway, in addition to the haul of 31 from the Ebay seller, I also recently bought seven Silver Age comics from Time Machine for only $25 and a really beat-up Jimmy Olsen from another shop for $5 (more than it was worth. I should have waited til there was a sale.) Here's the rundown--
Action Comics #344 (beautiful Curt Swan cover, dull Wayne Boring art on the inside)
Adventure #277, 302, 357, 359, 370
The Adventures of Bob Hope #107 (were they really that many Bob Hope comics? Or did he take over another title?)
Challengers of the Unknown #39
The Flash # 130, 141, 183
Fox and Crow #5, 75 (a funny animal title, a genre of which I have very few. #5 is from 1952 which makes it the oldest comic in my entire collection)
Jimmy Olsen # 81, 82, 91, 98, 100, 104 (80 page giant),107, 108, 113 (80 page giant), 115, 129
Lois Lane #81, 88, 90
Sea Devils #13
Strange Adventures #205 (first appearance of Deadman, fantastic Carmine Infantino cover)
Superboy #117, 125, 127, 134, 135, 143, 145, 147 (80 page giant featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes)
Superman Annual #7
Wonder Woman # 131

I haven't read them yet of course so I haven't had a chance to form any commentary. However, I did find something interesting in the Jimmy Olsen #98 (pictured) which I bought at Time Machine a week or so previously. On an episode of The Big Bang Theory from last season, Sheldon, Leonard, Wallowitz, and Raj are arguing about how Superman cleans his super costume since it is just as super as he is. Sheldon had a very funny line about the Man of Steel flying into the sun whose rays burn away any dirt and leave his suit downy fresh--or words to that effect. I thought this was just some funny dialogue the writers came up with that the comics-obsessed Sheldon would say.

But oh no! In Jimmy Olsen #98 in the story "The Four Clocks of Doom" (not the cover story, I might add), our favorite cub reporter is appearing on a TV trivia show answering questions about his best super-buddy. "How does Superman clean his indestrucible uniform?" asks an audience member. "By flying into the sun and letting the flames of old Sol burn away the dust and dirt." So the Big Bang writers were referencing an actual comic. You can imagine Sheldon actually finding the comic and pointing to it, saying "How could you doubt me? If you spent more time on comics and less pining for unavailable women, we wouldn't be having these pointless conversations."