scoopstories (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} scoopstories) wrote,@ 2008-11-04 18:12:00 |
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The Value of Satire, Odd News and Why Scoop Is MIA
My mantra in recent months has been more satire, more weird news stories (often via the Obscure Store) and less politics and division.
Part of this is I think we (I am using the royal we here) need to lighten up and laugh, be it at the woman who shoplifted and then returned to get stuff she left behind or the guy who had sex with his gas station car wash. (And who hasn't been there?)
I have certainly written my share of satires lately, some more funny and well executed than others (I still think my Palin and McCain stories were funny but I apologize for that whole pumpkin porn meme)
If you think and I others are exaggerating about how elections weren't always this divisive, that people didn't lose friends over voting times, let me tell you where my parents first date was at: a 1960 election results viewing party.
Can you imagine these days a party to watch election results? Well, I'm going to an party later but it's a party notably only open to Obama supporters otherwise fist fights might break out.
For the record, my dad cried into his beer as his guy, Nixon, lost while mom celebrated JFK's win. And then they each voted differently for 40 years cancelling out each others vote, perfectly, at times, symbolizing the frissions and divisions in this nation. But I digress..
Some may wonder why they have not seen 20 new seeds and 3 new stories by me in the last 48 hours and wondered, "did Mr. News Junkie go off the wagon or on another cruise?"
If you told me three days ago I'd only be posting three seeds on election day and that my one election day article would be an interview with a political punk band I would have said you were crazy. I expected to blog all day and nite and write (as I publicly promised here (in a well-intentioned, and so far successful, push to get us focusing on the positive) a Newsviner's Picks article to point the spotlight away from me to other more deserving viners.
Then I somehow fried my laptop (it's on Best Buy being fixed) and am instead online for just two hours today (via a college computer lab - shhh don't tell them I don't even attend this college) before going to an Omnivores for Obama party.
So it is what it is. I mention this to explain I wont' be around as much for a few days and that, well, I am just full of surprises.
I'll close this - and go write up the interview with Report Suspicious Activity before heading off to vote and then go to said party - with my favorite excerpt from the two pieces I just seeded about satire:
"But satire, at its best, requires a willingness to scorch the earth. Just as we need a leader who is steady, we need political satirists who are willing to find his sweet spot and never stop attacking. Laughter could prove to be the best medicine, so long as we don't lose our healthy skepticism.
My mantra in recent months has been more satire, more weird news stories (often via the Obscure Store) and less politics and division.
Part of this is I think we (I am using the royal we here) need to lighten up and laugh, be it at the woman who shoplifted and then returned to get stuff she left behind or the guy who had sex with his gas station car wash. (And who hasn't been there?)
I have certainly written my share of satires lately, some more funny and well executed than others (I still think my Palin and McCain stories were funny but I apologize for that whole pumpkin porn meme)
If you think and I others are exaggerating about how elections weren't always this divisive, that people didn't lose friends over voting times, let me tell you where my parents first date was at: a 1960 election results viewing party.
Can you imagine these days a party to watch election results? Well, I'm going to an party later but it's a party notably only open to Obama supporters otherwise fist fights might break out.
For the record, my dad cried into his beer as his guy, Nixon, lost while mom celebrated JFK's win. And then they each voted differently for 40 years cancelling out each others vote, perfectly, at times, symbolizing the frissions and divisions in this nation. But I digress..
Some may wonder why they have not seen 20 new seeds and 3 new stories by me in the last 48 hours and wondered, "did Mr. News Junkie go off the wagon or on another cruise?"
If you told me three days ago I'd only be posting three seeds on election day and that my one election day article would be an interview with a political punk band I would have said you were crazy. I expected to blog all day and nite and write (as I publicly promised here (in a well-intentioned, and so far successful, push to get us focusing on the positive) a Newsviner's Picks article to point the spotlight away from me to other more deserving viners.
Then I somehow fried my laptop (it's on Best Buy being fixed) and am instead online for just two hours today (via a college computer lab - shhh don't tell them I don't even attend this college) before going to an Omnivores for Obama party.
So it is what it is. I mention this to explain I wont' be around as much for a few days and that, well, I am just full of surprises.
I'll close this - and go write up the interview with Report Suspicious Activity before heading off to vote and then go to said party - with my favorite excerpt from the two pieces I just seeded about satire:
"But satire, at its best, requires a willingness to scorch the earth. Just as we need a leader who is steady, we need political satirists who are willing to find his sweet spot and never stop attacking. Laughter could prove to be the best medicine, so long as we don't lose our healthy skepticism.
