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September 30, 2004
Texas Justice
The Lonestar Iconoclast, George W. Bush's hometown newspaper, has officially endorsed John Kerry for president. Hats off to ya!
Posted by Michele at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2004
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Is No Joke
Pollers at The University of Pennsylvania spent lots of money to confirm what the public already knows: People who watch The Daily Show With Jon Stewart are just plain smarter than everyone else.
Over 19,000 adults were given a six-item political test within a two month survey period. Those who do not watch late night TV at all answered 2.62 items correctly. On the other hand, Letterman fans answered 2.91 correctly, Leno fans 2.95, and The Daily Show viewers 3.59.
With the exclusion of The Jimmy Kimmel show, this test also confirms the complete insignificance of late night ABC.
For more details on this survey (a.k.a. demographics, statistics, standard deviation, blah, blah, blah), go here. And if you want to be a wise & informed citizen, don't forget to tune into Comedy Central every night at 11 p.m. EST.
Posted by Michele at 10:39 PM | Comments (1)
In The Year 2009...
After 17 years of bad jokes and high-pitched blabber, Jay Leno has announced that he will leave The Tonight Show in 2009, when frat favorite Conan O'Brien will take over.
I am thrilled that Conan will be on in an earlier time slot. Since I have trouble staying up until 12:35 a.m. now, I'm sure my propensity for lameness will only increase in 5 years. Plus more Conan can only mean funnier monologues, quality skits, and of course, more Triumph.
Like most people under the age of 55, I find Jay Leno pretty irritating, and will be excited to witness this turnover. However, I'm ashamed to admit that a tiny part of me will miss Jaywalking. Exploitation of stupid people - no matter who's behind it - is ALWAYS funny.
Posted by Michele at 03:23 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2004
A Smelly Job, But Someone's Gotta Do It
Scientists in London recently discovered that dogs have the ability to detect cancer in human urine. An assortment of canines - including 2 cocker spaniels (the most accurate), a papillon, a labrador and a mongrel - were trained to sniff out urine from cancer patients, and ignore urine with no traces of the disease.
With only a 41% accuracy, this method of testing still has a long way to go, but it made me ponder about its future applications. Wouldn't it be great if dogs could sniff out fear of commitment too? Or bipolar disorder? Or racism? We could be on to something here...
Posted by Michele at 01:24 PM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2004
Are You Flat or Full?
Everyone's favorite bullseye corporation recently introduced their "Target to a T" website. There, men can fully customize shirts and chinos, and women can customize jeans - all for the relatively low price of $44.99 or $34.99.
The features are robust. When ordering women's Mossimo jeans, for example, you choose the following variables: color, fit, rise, front & rear pockets, leg style, stomach shape, seat shape (see above) and thigh shape. Plus, you specify the basics too: height, weight, inseam, pants size, etc.
While it's absolute hell to shop for jeans, I'm skeptical of having to select my "stomach shape" or "seat shape" based on a very rough sketch. Target's probably hoping this concept will revolutionize mass marketed fashion. Unfortunately, I see this idea of good intentions going terribly wrong. Won't someone (not me) please dare to try and share your experiences?
Posted by Michele at 09:35 PM | Comments (1)
September 08, 2004
The Surreal Life: Welcome To Terrordome
The Surreal Life is a Real World-type reality show with C & D-List celebrities as housemates. While adolescent drama makes The Real World tick, egos and hubris make this show the cultural pit it is.
In the past two seasons (aired on The WB), the creators have stuck with a rough casting formula, which always includes:
1 - One normal person, aka "The Mother Hen" (Gabrielle Carteris, Erik Estrada);
2 - Those with anger issues over their exploited fame (Gary Coleman, Corey Feldman, Vanilla Ice);
3 - One former reality contestant whose right to the title "celebrity" is questionable (Jeri from Surivor, Trishelle from The Real World);
4 - Those who are just plain crazy (Tammy Faye Messner).
The 3rd season of the show, which has just begun airing on Vh1, weighs heavily on the crazy. Sure, it would be nice to see Charo and Jordan Knight making music together, or the brunette American Idol reject singing "You Oughtta Know" to Dave Coulier. However, NOTHING compares to the burgeoning romance between former Mrs. Stallone Brigitte Nielsen and gold-toothed, pint-sized rapper Flavor Flav. Burn Hollywood Burn!
When Brigitte meets Flav for the first time, she dances around silly and then just slaps him on the face Mommie Dearest-style for no visible reason. This apparently seals the deal for Flav and foreshadows what is to come.
Throughout the premiere episode, Brigitte alternates between wearing an unflattering black bodysuit, flashing her chest, and throwing back significant amounts of alcohol. When she passes out right before dinner, the concerned Flavor Flav - who by the way, sports an unexplained viking helmet - brings food to her bed to help sober her up. Previews of upcoming episodes show their constant canoodling and kissing.
If you've known me long enough, you probably know that one of my biggest fears is live poultry (don't ask). Whenever I see them on TV, I cringe in terrible fright, but at the same time, can't help but peek. That's pretty much how I feel about Brigitte, Flav and The Surreal Life 3 in general. Its camp appeal will make me return on occasion, but too much surreality is bad for the soul.
Posted by Michele at 10:10 PM | Comments (1)
Double Vision?
While doing a routine Google search of my name today, I made a sudden, but alarming, discovery: There's somebody else in this world with my exact name! Go here, scroll down about 1/2 page, then click on the words Michele Debreceni.
As you can tell, this lady is nothing like me. She's blonde, I'm Asian. She helps people relocate, I market music compilations. And as a resident kiwi, I'm sure she's appeared in at least one of the three Lord Of The Rings films. Damn you New Line Cinema!
Now I know all you "John Smiths" and "Jennifer Jones" probably think this is no big deal. However, when you grow up with a long, unique, unpronouncable name all your life, you sort of come to appreciate your individuality. A shock like this can only be equated to finding out you have a long lost sister or brother. I feel so violated!
Posted by Michele at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)
