Day 2

Day 2 of the new blog theme and I'm already slightly off track. I decided to face my nemesis right of the bat... I went to People.com. I went in expecting all the useless drivel I see glaring at me in the grocery store checkout aisle. None of which interests me, ever. Not Tiger, not Brangelina, not Mary-Kate, not Ashley, not Octomom, not Madonna, not any of the Baldwins, not any of them, not any of that, not any of it. At least not that I can recall or to which I am willing to admit. So I went in expecting little. It did not disappoint on that count.

What grabbed me most was an updating Twitter feed of celebrity Tweets. Aside from the occasional... "hey, donate to help Haiti" post, it was as stupid as one could expect. If you tire of reading on Facebook about how somebody's kid had the sniffles today and seeing 45 people chime in "wishing Johnny a speedy recovery" and that"there must be a bug going around" and "OMG, little Susie has a tummy ache today, too" and so forth, be warned... Twitter takes that nothingness to new heights of nothingitude. "I'm eating a healthy sandwich, chicken on whole wheat" may have been the most profound, worthwhile and engaging Tweet I saw. And let's not overlook the fact that someone at People is being paid (with a paycheck, 401K, health and dental benefits, profit-sharing, daycare, free organic coffee and an on-campus gym) to read all these celebrity Tweets and choose the "best" to cycle through on People.com for me to read. It was mesmerizing. It was all stupid. Objectively... stupid. My challenge the next time I visit is to get beyond my initial gag reflex and probe (that is, somehow do the impossible) deeper into a "story" and not immediately dismiss what I see as shallow fodder for a celebrity-loving nation of fame-obsessed zombies. But for tonight... I'll leave it at that.

Last night Conan O'Brien signed off by mentioning how cynicism was a terrible trait and to "be a good person and good things will happen to you." It was touching, nicely said and he truly meant it. He believes in his show and his comedy and I respect that completely. As the "loser" in the Tonight Show fiasco he is walking away with $33 million. His staff will split up $12 million. Surely that takes some of the sting out of losing the show, yeah? How is it that we somehow wind up feeling sorry for a guy getting a $33,000,000 severance package. I'm not being a cynic here... but that's really really really twisted.