Dog Lovers...look away

Watching The Daily Show with John Stewart is the most reliably funny thing on TV. This afternoon I took in the Dec 3 edition. Apparently Vice President Dick Cheney is giving his boss George W a puppy chipper for Christmas.

I can't believe I used to find the Late Show with David Letterman funny.

Another funny post about Cheney over on The Daily Beast taking a look at the decline of the use of Dick as a contraction of Richard and the etymology of the appellation.

When Richard B. Cheney moves out of One Observatory Circle on January 20, it will mark the much-anticipated end to an era of man-sized safes, undisclosed locations, and vice-presidential shooting sprees. Less remarked upon is the passing of another historically significant aspect of the 67-year-old veep’s identity: his name. In all likelihood, Cheney will be the last person to occupy such an august position in American life while answering to the increasingly awkward sobriquet “Dick.”

Full story

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Go figure

Took my daughter shopping tonight. We had dinner out. Got back home late. She laid her new clothes out in neat rows so she could choose what to wear for tomorrow. She's 5. I see her just every second weekend. How can such incredible errors of judgement (marrying my daughter's mother) result in such a wonderful little human being? Go figure

Mac Air Music

I love the idea of the Mac Air but, call me old fashioned, …no disk drive? How will I watch Ratatouille, Toy Story, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Cars and A Bug's Life on DVD? The music on the MacAir launch commercial is terrific. I tracked the artiste Yael Naim's video for you. What is the name for this genre (Regina Spectre et al)? Apparently Steve Jobs chose the track personally for the TVC. Order from Amazon: Splash out:

Sexist Advertising and stereotypes

Advertising lives in the short-form world. Because mass media is so expensive the 30 second commercial is conventional and because there is so much clutter simplified signals are essential to 'cut through'. One form of communication short-hand used as a default is the stereotype - "A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the "other group" have in common. Stereotypes are sometimes formed by a previous illusory correlation, a false association between two variables that are loosely correlated if correlated at all. Though generally viewed as negative perceptions, stereotypes may be either positive or negative in tone." In the 1950's and 60's when men dominated advertising stereotypical impressions of women as inferior or subservient were not only commonplace but usual. It was normal to show women as housekeepers, largely because most wer...

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