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Newest fashion trend? Eco-friendly caps and gowns! Congrats to all of the grads! [L.A. Times] You can now shop for your little one(s) at H&M AND support a good cause at the same time! [WWD] Want to know what everyone else is buying in the fashion world? Say hi to Net-a-Porter Live! [SHEfinds] One step forward: in its third year, Full-Figured Fashion Week is in full force! [Bed-Stuy Patch] Snooki + Flip-Flops + Pickles = Fashion? Hmm…I’ll let you decide! Check it out: [Styleite]
Never fear, it’s time for the latest version of my prosaic performance of a half-Letterman: a top five pop culture list. (If you missed my earlier gems, check them out here: My Favorite Breakup Songs , My Favorite Hoops Books, The Most Jew-ish Gentiles, and My Favorite “Docs” who Weren’t Doctors.) Today’s list emerges from my admission a few weeks ago that I never liked John Edwards because he reminded me of the pretty-boy jock in high school whom I envied and privately despised. Turns out there were other — less personally insecure — reasons to object to the former Senator. But this journey of introspection into my high school-based shallow steretoyping — as I argue, a trait that most every human shares — has helped me understand why I unfairly disliked other pop culture figures, and how age and hopefully wisdom has helped me understand the error of my ways. As you read my list of the Top Five Pretty Boys that I Begrudgingly Admire, I encourage you to think about whether you apply a similarly unfair standard to high-profile celebrities. Or whether I’m just full of Freudian psycho-babble. Here goes:
As a youth delegate to the 1988 Democratic National Convention (my first of six), I had two brushes with greatness. First, I stayed at the same hotel and shared an elevator with Rob Lowe (who just barely missed this list) at the height of his fame. (I learned a few months later that he temporarily derailed his career a few floors below my room in an encounter with an underage girl.) Second, was my attending a speech to our delegation by a then-unknown-to-me supporting actor in a movie I hadn’t seen (Married to the Mob). My frustration at attracting merely a C-list actor was heightened by the cliched bromides the pretty boy shouted at crowd. I grew to despise Alec Baldwin. His ridiculous marriage to the gorgeous town-purchasing Kim Basinger, and his dramatic movie career in which he seemed to always play the same arrogant pretty man that I assumed him to be in real life only accentuated my feelings. And then he gained a bunch of weight. I ended my Baldwin boycott, and watched his hilarious hosting turns on Saturday Night Live (Ahh.. Schwetty Balls), and his frankly brilliant portrayal of Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock (I still think this scene in which he performs family therapy for Tracy Morgan is his finest work.) The man is a comedic genius. And in re-watching Glengarry Glen Ross, I’m forced to admit, the pretty boy can act. (Coffee is for closers!)
Growing up in Kentucky before the advent of the Tennessee Titans, the logical NFL team to support was the Cincinnati Bengals. OK, stop laughing. As ESPN The Magazine just ackowledged by rating the Bungles the very worst professional sports franchise — 122nd place to be exact — I was forced to find another team. After a childhood infatuation with the Dallas Cowboys, I ultimately settled on my college-area team, the New England Patriots. That, of course, was an uninspired choice for more than a decade; until 2001, when it looked like the team had the makings of a champion. Then our quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, went down, and was replaced by the unheralded pretty-boy in his second season, Tom Brady. I refused to give him credit for that Super Bowl win, and the rings he won in 2004 and 2005 were overshadowed in my mind by his dumping the pregnant Bridget Moynahan for the supermodel Gisele. But Brady kept improving, winning MVP awards and leading the Pats to an almost-perfect 2007 season. I gave up. I’m a Brady fan. No matter how pretty he is. (WARNING: Next Pretty Boy Picture –after the jump — is NSFW) Read the rest of… Today has proven to be one of the most trafficked days in The Recovering Politician‘s short history. The RP’s piece in The Huffington Post — “Choose Another People! Anti-Semitic Taunts Will Backfire in the Bible Belt” — has generated considerable attention both in Kentucky and nationally. Within the past hour, the National Jewish Democratic Council weighed in on the controversy:
Click here for the NJDC’s full statement. On a brighter note, we welcome all of our new readers, and encourage both new and old to continue to give us your feedback. The Politics of Tech Al Franken (D-MN) has taken the initiate in regards to companies collecting information on consumers. He has introduced a bill that aims to “close current loopholes in federal law to ensure that consumers know what location information is being collected about them and allow them to decide if they want to share it.” [ars technica] One of the most promising contenders for the best artificial heart yet made. It produces no heartbeat, no pulse, and a flat EKG, but it works. One of the inventors, Dr. Billy Cohn, described the futile efforts of early inventors trying to make flying machines that resembled nature: bats, butterflies, etc. as an analogy of their thought process. The author said it best “…what works in nature is often not the only mechanical solution, or even the best one.” [NPR] ICANN, one of the governing bodies for the Internet, is all set to officially expand the use of domain names. As long as you can pay $185,000 to license the domain name and prove your connection to it, you can have your own. What is $185,000 to Apple or Sony? Not much. [Reuters] Wow. The Bento Box. Hands down, one of the best designs I have seen. In terms of function it is something completely new and innovative. [Yanko Design] Ministers in the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church write an open letter to Governor Robert Bentley, Senator Scott Beason, and Representative Micky Hammon protesting what they describe as “the meanest immigrant legislation bill in the nation” and “an embarrassment to our state” that “does not represent the spirit of hospitality of our churches.” [North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church Blog] While public protests in Saudi Arabia are rare, women are challenging a religious edict that prohibits them from driving. [Sky News] The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution that seeks equal rights for gays and lesbians. The resolution states “no one should be subject to discrimination or violence due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.” In response, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said “the right to choose, who we love and to share life with those we love is sacred.” [VOA News] GOP candidates and their Simpsons character look a-likes. [Huffington Post]
Politicians, at times, see what should be done, but can’t quite persuade citizens to act–as when Franklin Roosevelt, despite the terrible threat Hitler presented, couldn’t convince Americans they should fight. Right now we’re on the cusp of taking seriously an insight about GDP that my father, Robert Kennedy, originally had more than 40 years ago. For those who haven’t been reading speeches from 1968, let me remind you what my father said a few days after he announced his candidacy for the presidency. Speaking to students at the University of Kansas, he said:
For years, my father’s words were viewed not as a practical challenge to the use of GDP but as an affirmation that a nation, like individuals, needs a purpose that is not merely material but spiritual. His policy insight didn’t catch on. With little dissent, we’ve continued to measure the success of a nation by a single number, its GDP. Read the rest of… The return of Harry Potter? J.K. Rowling’s mysterious new website has the internet buzzing. [CNN Tech] An explosion in the universe of internet names is about to take place. [New York Times] Google’s “I’m feeling lucky” button may have finally run out of luck: read about its alleged demise here. [CNET] Breathing new life into old technology: programmers create a video game utilizing an old printer, and lots and lots of paper. [Engadget] Veteran political reporter Jack Brammer revealed in this morning’s Lexington Herald-Leader that Larry Forgy, the 1995 GOP nominee for Governor in Kentucky and a leading supporter of State Senate President David Williams’ 2011 bid for that same office, made the following statement:
The Williams campaign has not issued a comment on Forgy’s statement. I have. The Huffington Post published my response — as well as my analysis of the state of anti-Semitism in Bible Belt politics. Here’s an excerpt:
Click here to read the rest of my Huffington Post article.
I hope you enjoyed today’s posts as much as I did. Our RP Nation is filled with some outstanding writers with some beautiful stories. We ended a few minutes ago on an important note. As Phil Osborne suggests, don’t forget to tell your father (and all of your loved ones) how much you love them. If you are lucky enough to have Dad still in your life, make sure to tell him today. Say it now.
This is the second Father’s Day I’ll spend without mine. He passed away in March 2010. He would have been 79 last month. We had an interesting, and sometimes tumultuous relationship. He was an absentee dad because he had to be. That’s where his jobs were. Long-haul trucker, construction worker, shift worker at factories, military service. You get the picture. But when he was home, I have fond memories of hours at Fultz’s pay lake in Carter County where we’d fish for bluegill and mud cats. Or the special Christmas gifts that my sister and I would make like cutting little ovals into a carton of cigarettes to insert our latest class photos. Low budget production. But we were never really close. And now we’ll never have the chance to be. He grew up in Carter County, as did my mother. He dropped out of school at 16 and lied about his age to get into the Army. He was a decorated veteran of the Korean War and was stationed in Alabama in 1953 when I was born. When he was discharged, he came back to Carter County and held a series of jobs before we moved to Ohio when I was four. There, we lived in what is euphemistically referred to now as federally subsidized housing. We called them the projects. That’s when the call of the road came and he started trucking. So between truck driving and some factory work my mother took on, we made it through three years in Warren, Ohio. Then, back to Carter County and the little community of Globe. More trucking, but then he landed a construction job in Winchester. Sometimes he would come home on weekends; sometimes we would visit him staying with my aunt and uncle in the Clark County version of the projects at Stephenson Heights. But income was more predictable. We moved to Winchester when I was in fourth grade and moved out of the projects and into our own modest little house the next year. I graduated from high school in that house. When he secured a good paying and steady job at Rockwell, we were set. No more worries about absentee fatherhood, which put us in the house together to argue, fuss, fight and fume. All fathers and sons have their issues. We had enough for two families on occasion. I’m not writing this as a “woe is me” bit of narrative. I got some lucky breaks in my life that my father never did and I’m thankful for it. And I’m thankful that life’s lessons have made me a better person because of who we were and what we did while I was under his roof. I loved my father. Problem is, I never told him. And I know he loved me, he just didn’t say it. Nearly every conversation with my wife, mother or any of our four children ends with “Love you.” That never happened with my dad. The only time I told him was when I kissed him on the head at Clark Regional Medical Center and said goodbye for the last time after he had passed away.
William Amon “Doodle” Osborne. I love you. |
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