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1) Pope (Vatican) 2) University of KY basketball coach 3) University of Louisville basketball coach. Both Calipari and Pitino deny interest in new post and say they are focusing on basketball for now and not interested in trying to “move up” again after NBA experiences. Matt Yglesias nails it: The US budget debate isn’t about deficits, but about open-ended commitment to pay seniors’ health care costs. [Slate] I am not a regular shopper at Whole Foods Market. I like going there and feel better about myself when I do. But it strikes me as a sort of community among its regular shoppers—health conscious and committed to a lifestyle replete with Vegan dieters and Yoga instructors. I just don’t feel like I fit in there and suspect they sense a fraud. Or at least a Kroger shopper who missed the turn for Kroger and is in too big a hurry to turn around. It’s a little confusing for me and a little daunting too. I experience the same sensation when I am at a hardware store. Just looking at my hands you can tell I have never been asked by a neighbor if they could borrow some of my tools. That would be a pointless and rude and embarrassing to me. Like asking the neighbor whose house is in foreclosure if you can borrow $20. Just a common sense thing it never occurs to anyone ever to do in any neighborhood I have ever lives in. So bracing with my insecurities about neither being ever asked for direction to Rainbow Blossom, I confidently strode into Whole Foods Market. So far, so good. No one seems to be whispering “Who is that man who looks like he still buys Wonder Bread and what is he doing here?”
I tried to look healthy and fit in. I mussed my hair and looked earnestly at a magazine featuring simple, austere, healthful living practices. I noticed a lot of unhealthy and weak looking people shopping and wasn’t sure if they were here to change the way they look or if their pallid complexions were the result of too many glasses of strained carrot juice. I picked out a low calorie dinner that I would love to have someone I know walk by and see me eating. And say, “John, I didn’t know you were into….” And I could smile –while chewing (healthy food is really easy to chew so this isn’t difficutl or rude to do—and give them an affirming nod that says “Oh yeah. I am a regular.” But not having to say it since that would be a lie. Nobody I knew saw me and now it was time to leave. I put a serious concentrated look on my face with just a hint of deprivation that sent the message, “I may have just eaten but I am nowhere near full. And I only pretended to enjoy those things that looked like au gratin potatoes but tasted like something that someone tried to make look like au gratin potatoes otherwise no one would ever buy them because they taste like the drained off juice from real au gratin potatoes but without the cheese or potatoes.” In other words, I was fitting in. Until I walked out the store exit and while standing in the alcove bent down to look at the free magazine section. After thumbing through a publication with pictures of the health food culture equivalent of really, really smart nerdy looking people. Except instead of having the excuse of having a stratospheric IQ or two PHds from MIT, they were just really fanatical about health food. And remote from me. So I looked around to make sure no one was looking, grabbed the gigantic glossy and gaudy issue of NFocus magazine and quickly folded it under my arm and walked rapidly to my car. Hoping to escape before the Whole Foods fraud alarm went off or any of my newfound Whole Foods Market compatriots got my license plate. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy We are so proud to announce that contributing RP (and No Labels co-founder) Lisa Borders has been named the new chairman of the Coca-Cola Foundation. From the Atlanta Business Chronicle:
I am a Democratic, Scotch-Irish and English; Caucasian, Presbyterian from mid-American. I am, in other words, the Bean Soup entree on the Cracker Barrel menu. With unsweetened tea. I don’t get the benefit of my edgy, fun or complimentary stereotypes A Jewish friend and law partner explained to me this weekend how a client pulled him aside and said, “You people are good with numbers, right?” He explained he was confusing Jewish for Asian stereotypes. Asians were good with numbers; Jews good with money.” But what are Presbyterians known for? Presbyterian is cooler to pronounce than Methodist and we have a more sophisticated fashion sense than Baptists. But who talks about such trivial stereotypes for Presbyterians? Caucasians? Who gets excited about ordering one scoop of vanilla ice cream on a sugarcane with no sprinkles ? Has any minority group ever in history tried to emulate the dress style of Caucasians. We pick the most obvious and normal manner to wear every article of clothing. It’s like we follow a set of clothing directions perfectly as we dress each morning. And the directions say in bold letters: “No improvising! You could hurt yourself and embarrass your parents. (For Caucasians only. Others disregard)
Mid-America is a good place to raise a family but isn’t considered an edgy place that inspires new artistic theories. I have yet to hear someone look at a piece of art and say, “That piece has a heavy Mid-American influence.” Or “That guy is the Andy Wharhol of Kansas.” Of course, we do get credit for Mom (and Dad) Jeans. Democrat? We aren’t described by our party to strangers as in “He’s above average height, stocky but not overweight, a big Republican.” I guess it is assumed it wasn’t a choice for us –and hence nothing noteworthy or special–and not to expect us to say anything very provocative politically. Which may explain the whole Republican idea that sexual orientation is a choice too. And why they like to talk so much about gay marriage—it is politically provocative. Democrats assume sexual orientation was inherited and pick less titillating and more mundane political subjects. Like filling potholes. Which is important but has never been a swing vote issue in a presidential campaign. And really, who wants to talk about filling potholes? OK, I do. Which brings me back to my lament that, basically, I know deep down that when Jack Kerouac wrote “The only people for me are the mad ones . The ones who are mad to live. Mad to die. Who never sleep or say a commonplace thing….” Kerouc probably wasn’t thinking of someone like me or my ancestors. On second thought, he probably was. And then thought of the Biblical verse about vomiting out the lukewarm. And then went on to write his famous passage. Paul Simon. A short little ordinary looking white guy. With a one syllable common first name and two syllable common last name. And then I remember not even Paul Simon is as bland as me. He’s Jewish and therefore, so I hear, probably good with numbers. I saw the movie Side Effects last night
A powerful and timely critique if our country’s over reliance on the pharmaceutical industry –and the literal and figurative side effects we experience, and try to deny or (in this film’s case, try to manipulate). The film refers to about a dozen popular–and actual—mainstream meds prescribed today (from Zoloft to Adderall). But the tragedy in the movie plot centers around a drug called Ablixa. We are told it is a new drug just approved by the FDA but not told it, unlike other meds referenced, is a fictional drug. Ablixa supposedly is a miracle drug in the film but with potentially worrisome side effects.
And so, we are left to wonder what the ultimate impact if this movie will be on our medicated society–partly healed, partly experimental volunteers, partly risking side effects impossible to rationally justify. Or whether the script option available to our mental health doctors will become once again more of the brilliant medical tool originally intended or increasingly the too-easy crutch to short-circuit dealing with complicated patients and circumstances. And, finally, and perhaps most poignantly, whether “customers” (aka patients) will stop relying more on the “pitch” of pharmaceutical commercials to deliver miracles than on their doctors to deliver slow but real improvements.
If my reaction is indicative, the answer to all these questions is less encouraging than I had hoped. I went home and Googled Ablixa —to see if it was a medication I should learn more about. Only to learn it is a fictional drug. And then –chastened and disappointed in myself—checking to see if any new Ablixa-like meds had come out recently. Just in case. Waiting rooms, magazine ads, and the grieving process. It just occurred to me while thumbing through a magazine in a waiting room that I will probably never post pictures of myself on Facebook (or anywhere else for that matter) of a photo shoot of my modeling underwear in the forest. I can’t say that I’m sad about that. Or that it ever occurred to me to ever want to do such a thing. It didn’t. But something about closing in on 50 causes a mental shift. Instead of looking past a magazine ad I’ve seen before and thinking nothing of it, except perhaps, “I can’t believe that guy is actually posing like that. Embarrassing.”
It’s not as dramatic as it sounds. Not really. I remind myself I never really wanted to do that anyway and that I used to roll my eyes at the ad, back when “potential” was still part of my vocabulary and could be applied to me. And, no, I don’t want to buy the cologne being sold. I don’t hang out with 25 year olds in the forest with my shirt off. I’m not the target audience, I guess. I shrug. After shrugging, I turn the page. And see the new Brad Pitt Channel ad. And start looking for Highlights magazine to thumb through instead of the glossy grown up magazines? I’ve grieved enough for one day already. |
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