In this edition, you'll find a little more entertainment than is usual. We offer a DVD review of Barefoot in the Park. We'll be noting other comedies in coming editions as the release date of Jane Fonda's Monster-in-Law approaches. That's a decision we made after seeing the trailer and noting the rumbles emerging from the right as they attempt to lay down the workings for a boycott.
We'll stand firmly with Jane Fonda -- someone most of us heard about at length while growing up. And not by rabid, foaming at the mouth types but by liberals who admired a strong actress who was also a strong woman willing to speak out.
This was a late in the week decision (Friday night) and had we planned it ahead of time, we probably would have reduced the entertainment content in this issue. However, we'd already made our notes on The Apprentice and when we made this decision, Ava and C.I. of The Common Ills were pulling from the notes and adding additional comments to create the humorous social commentary that appears in the TV review.
We'll note also that our TV section remains the thing we receive the most e-mails on.
C.I. also added input on the trend story. On that, you're intended to laugh. This is our spoof of the weekly media general interest mags attempt to create trend stories based on little to nil actual data. It's a send up so please beware before you rush out to buy a Vespa Scooter, for instance.
Being John Malkovich, er Being Bill Keller-vich is something we had help on with from Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Attitudes and Screeds throughout. When it was a piece on the Times institutional problems only, C.I. did assist by steering us to a CJR article and Naomi Klein's articles cited in the story.
Rebecca also assisted us with the editorial on Lawrence Summers.
The Barefoot in the Park review was written in a round robin fashion with no outside assistance or reading due to the late timing of it. We will urge people to visit not just their local video rental places, but also their libraries since many library systems have outstanding video and DVD collections.
We treasure and appreciate any help or assistance we can beg, plead or steal from C.I. but having read Rebecca's entry this week we don't want to be responsible for driving C.I. to the point of exhaustion and out of the blogosphere. Especially not when this week produced our blog spotlight entry. Check that out and see if you don't laugh. Remember, it's often the embarrassment from ridicule that brings about change. So tell your truth and, when possible, tell it in a humorous way. Or, if we can coin a new phrase, don't pull a Keller when you can be interesting instead!