Rocci Fisch

July 25, 2006

HE SPEAKS PLAIN ENGLISH

. . . President Bush did. Over in Russia at a luncheon table at that G-8 summit meeting, while speaking to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Prez used a dirty word to describe the Hezbollah (the militant Islamic group) attacks on Israel.
. . . “See,” he told Blair, “the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this sh_ _, and it’s over.”
. . . He was frustrated, just talking casually, man-to-man with his buddy Tony, obviously fed up with the situation over there in the Middle East. I mean, how many times is there a flare-up, bombings and a virtual war? So I guess he was being real-life. He’s only human.
. . . But he is the President of the United States and cussing is not setting a good example.
. . . So I guess I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth as many people in the press often do.
. . . ETYMOLOGY ANYONE? Actually, the word sh_ _ comes from the Old English (scite) and it means nonsense, crap.
People are saying that there’s not enough action in Superman Returns. For a movie that long (2 hours, 40 minutes) you should get more. Already, it seems, it’s come and gone.
Why does Brad Pitt look so scruffy all the time? Can’t he dress up once in a while? I guess he likes to act blue collar. I’ve had it with his act. He was down in New Orleans building new houses for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. I know it’s dirty work but …
CAR NEWS. The Lincoln Town Car is meeting its demise. A company spokesman said they’d be making the 2007 model but it appears that’s gonna be the last year for the largest manufactured American car. Closing plants, saving money. Sad. And there’s more: the Crown Vic (Victoria) and the Mercury Grand Marquis will probably disappear too, in 2010. Geesh. I’m gonna miss ‘em. I like a big, old-fashioned car. They get you places comfortably.
NOTICED: TOE RINGS. I’ve seen a lot of them this summer. Of course they’re noticeable because of the season. They don’t seem to be worn on the big toe. Other, more delicate digits are chosen. And sometimes they’re worn before the first joint of the individual toe. How do they keep from falling off when they’re so close to the tip of the this little piggy went to market?
. . . What kind of a woman wears a toe ring? Just asking.
Rosie O’Donnell has a blog. (Who doesn’t?) She has a lot to say, always did. Comments about a lot of things. She said that she loved American Idol contestant Kellie Pickler on The View and called her try-out (?) “perfection” and said that she “triple loved her.” So I guess Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie (executive producer) are taking that into consideration.
. . . And Ms. O’Donnell also writes poetry about current events. She wrote this recently about the Middle East (in all lower-case letters): “we must find peace//in r selves//first//work for it// oxygenate//send all light//toward the mid east// in unison.”
. . . GOOD GOD. Are we gonna have to put up with that crap from her on The View too?
. . . And the new season of The View begins Tuesday, September 5, and kicks off the show’s 10th year. That same day Katie Couric starts anchoring the CBS Evening News.
IDOL ONSLAUGHT. It will be just that on November 14, when first albums by American Idol/Season 5 alumni come out: Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee and Kellie Pickler’s. Fantasia Barrino’s second is due Oct. 17. And third albums are due from Clay Aiken (Sept. 19), Ruben Studdard (Sept. 26; where’s he been?) and Kelly Clarkson (also on Nov. 14).
. . . Good, I wanna hear more from Clay and Ruben. It’s about time.
SCRUBBING BUBBLES. That’s what John Bolton, the interim U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., looks like to me, with that mustache and everything. Reminds me of the commercial that used to run on TV with the bubbles scrubbing the tub.
That Sally Field commercial for Boniva, the once-a-month pill for osteoporosis, is pretty well done. She’s believable in it but after all, she’s an actress. She’s in the house and she’s talking frankly about healthy bones. “I try to do whatever I can to take care of my health. It’s a very big part of who I am,” she says. And then when she says that you only have to do it once a month she responds, “Hey, I can do do this.” So she’s a very cooperative consumer.
. . . And she’s shown in the kitchen peeling vegetables and later lifting small weights. She likes to take care of herself. She could be anybody’s mother. She smiles throughout. It’s Sally.
. . . Make me puke, for crissakes.
WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU? Make you look younger, that’s what. And that’s what White House spokesman Tony Snow’s hair’s doing. It’s more brown than gray nowadays. I knew it would happen. Brown is more viewer friendly than old-man gray.
ABC’s changed the title of it’s nightly news show. It’s now just World News. The Tonight has been dropped. (Roone Arledge must be rolling over in his grave; he came up with the name back in ’78.) But the formal title is World News With Charles Gibson, even though everybody calls him Charlie.
. . . So I think the new CBS nightly news show should be titled The CBS Evening News With Katherine Couric, even though everybody calls her Katie.
Mr. Big Stuff said Ann Murray (singer, Snow Bird, 1970) was in the Middle East. I looked questioningly and then he corrected himself and said, “Oh no, that’s Ann Curry (NBC).” Ha Ha Ha.
. . . Curry’s doing a lot of high profile work for the network. She’s gotten exclusives with Angelina Jolie, then Brad Pitt and now she’s in the Middle East, reporting for the Today show and NBC Nightly News and probably Dateline too. She’s more bearable when she does the hard news-type work – not so mothering in her delivery as she is back home on Today. So, I guess, her stock is high.
Someone left a plastic container of unsulphured dates on the kitchen counter here at work (yes, there is a kitchen where I work). What the H is an unsulphured date? (They didn’t smell like rotten eggs.) From Whole Foods. Typical.
CONFUSING. There was a report that Rolling Stone and Us Magazine founder Jann Wenner and his partner are awaiting the birth of their child with a surrogate mother, due the third week of August. An “insider” said this: “They combined their sperm so they don’t know who the biological father is.” Whaaaat? Don’t they want to know who the father is? And combined? That doesn’t make sense. Can they combine sperm? Can more than one sperm fertilize an egg?
GET UP TO DATE. They ought to rename Wired magazine. That term was relevant when the technology periodical started up in ’93 but now everything is wireless. So they better keep up with the technology.
CNN’s Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr was reporting aboard the USS Nashville last week off the coast of Lebanon. She was walking around on the deck (not swabbing it), talking into the camera, and holding her own microphone with what looked like a shag rug cover on it. I had to look twice at what she was talking into. Looked like a Muppet to me.
Sometimes I might be caught singing a phrase or two from some pop song and the last time I did one of the interns heard me and said, “If Rocci sings again, consider it my two-weeks’ notice.” (And consider that intern, history.)
Is Valerie Plame ready for TV or what? The blond hair, the makeup, the glamour girl image? The wife/CIA agent of Joe Wilson, the former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, whose identity was was revealed by columnist Robert Novak allegedly based on information he got from someone in the administration, is coming out now, from behind those fashionable sunglasses she wore while driving with hubby Joe in a sports car on the cover of Vanity Fair, incognito. She’s not that way now. She’s suing the White House and she’s ready for her 15 minutes again. So watch the limelight.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: Dean Man’s Chest. This is what Mr. Highfalutin had to say about it: “Boring, boring, boring. Dead in the water. They denatured it and it has no oomph. Too much dialogue, over the top and too many characters. And they turned Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow from fey acting into downright mincing.”
There was a picture of a man who was knocked down on the ground by a wild cow after the running of the bulls at the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain last week. The “reveller” was lying on his back, trying to push the animal away with one foot while the heifer was trying to gouge the man in the other leg. Good, serves him right. They’re always running a buncha bulls over there in that country plus having bullfights, stabbing the poor animals with spears and letting them bleed all over the stadium. Get PETA after ‘em all.
GET MORE TALENT. It seems when Sheryl Crow plays guitar all she does is strum. Anybody can do that. You never see her doing anything else with her instrument, like maybe fingering the frets or playing a chord. Bonnie Raitt does.
Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, had her teeth cleaned one day last week at the vet’s. They put her to sleep to do it. When she woke up, she was cranky but happy to be back home. Owner Sally has been instructed to brush the dog’s teeth twice a week. And what an adventure that will be.
ASSASSINS. A dark comedy musical about the history of assassinations in America. Odd topic to undertake but the Stephen Sondheim piece works. Saw it outside Washington at the Signature Theatre with a good, versatile cast; played in New York Off and On Broadway.
. . . The assassins or would-be assassins of Lincoln, McKinley, Garfield, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan have parts and the play delves into their reasons why.
On cable news, all news seems to be breaking. The Breaking News advisory has lost its impact. So they need to come up with something else. Somebody do that, you get paid enough.
Somebody wrote in to an online discussion at washingtonpost.com that he/she got the giggles when he/she saw Nicholas Cage in the preview of World Trade Center. Chat host Desson Thomson, Washington Post film critic, revealed that Cage’s character is stuck under the rubble for about three quarters of the movie. So he can’t do much.
. . . That sounds like a static performance.
WONDROUS OBLIVION. Quirky title, good small film. About two families in London in the ‘60s, one Jewish and the other Jamaican and how the sport of cricket draws them together much to the consternation of the neighborhood. Young David Wiseman (Sam Smith) improves his skills at the game by being taught by Dennis (Delroy Lindo) and gains acceptance from his school teammates. Simple story about complicated issues (race discrimination, social acceptance) handled in a sensitive and entertaining way. Worth seeing amidst all the summer blockbusters.
A co-worker of mine thinks Anderson Cooper should dye his hair. She thinks he’s using his gray mane to try to act distinguished and that there’s plenty of time for it later in life.
Goodbye to Wally Bruckner of Washington’s News4 Sports department. He’s left the station after 16 years and is going to Connecticut. He’ll be replaced by Dan Hellie from Orlando. The sports reporter and anchor was a pleasant respite from the loudmouthedness of some of his colleagues.
. . . HIS SIGN-OFF: “I’m Wally Bruckner and that’s sports.”
Monica Crowley has a long flowing blonde mane. Perfect for the news (MSNBC).
It’s a good thing Floyd Landis won the Vie de France. Uh … I meant Tour de France. (Vie de France is a bread company.) His mother Arlene said, “We felt in our hearts he was going to win. He is not one to take second place.”
. . . So I guess he’s not in it just for the sport.
I ALWAYS THOUGHT ‘PENNY LANE’ WAS A PERSON. How wrong I’ve been. “Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes …” I thought it was a girl the Beatles were singing about. I’m ashamed to say I’m that dumb. But the news about the 1967 the song is that the actual suburban avenue the song is about can keep its name. Liverpool officials said that they would modify a proposal to rename streets linked to the slave trade, according to Associated Press. (James Penny, who the street was named after, was a wealthy slave ship owner and the Beatles’ northern England hometown was once a major slave trade hub.)
. . . So they made an exception.
FROM THE CURMUDGEON’S CORNER. I told my fellow occupier that I had a kink in my neck from a fan blowing on me. He said it was just an after-effect of bitterness.
. . . How biting he was.
UH . . . All Day and All of the Night – The Kinks, on Reprise, 1964.