Category: Uncategorised

Don't Love Lucy

Lucille Ball

The reality of I Love Lucy hadn’t really sunk in for me till just the other day.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYd0mmmQEd0]

Born of the same television era that happily allowed the concept of “The Lovable Drunk”, Lucy is obviously a caricature of a woman who suffers from untreated anxiety and depression. Our lack of medical and social understanding led to ill people being considered fair comedic game, as were the aforementioned drunks – or, really, black people and the mentally & physically handicapped – and all of the signs are there: the lack of self-confidence, the manic focus, the extreme swings in emotion.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLLw7JcU74]

It wouldn’t be tough to “Garfield minus Garfield” every Lucy clip, but the truth is undeniable: laughing at Lucy is equivalent to laughing at mental retardation.

Scary Tale

During my illness I stumbled across this one page story from Scary Tales No. 41 (Charlton Comics, Nov. ’83).  I found the gag clever enough that I’ve scanned the whole thing in to share.

There were no art or writing credits that I could find, although the penciling looks familiar.

Make Me A Star, Scary Tales

You can click the image to view a slightly larger version.

Is fat headedness at cable networks going too far?

KFC Double Down Sandwich

From the CNN article entitled “Is fat fare at fast foods going too far?”

“The bun-free (“so meaty, there’s no room”) sandwich features two pieces of bacon, two slices of melted cheese and “Colonel’s Sauce” – which KFC officials said is a “zesty mayonnaise” — slathered between two chicken filets, either original recipe (540 calories and 32 fat grams per KFC.com) or the slightly slimmer grilled version (460 calories and 23 fat grams).”

Oh, how absolutely ghastly! Large numbers imply horrible results for our waistlines!

Er, wait a minute – here’s a screenshot (with MS paint emphasis) from the McDonald’s nutrition calculator:

McDonald's Comparison Boigahs

I’m not saying a Big Mac is good for you, but the media should keep their cases of the vapours to appropriate situations.

Either that or be honest about ALL fast food.

Fordlândia

Fordlandia, photographed in 2003 by Meg Belichick.Fordlandia, photographed in 2003 by Meg Belichick.

In 1928 Henry Ford, looking to cut costs, decided to do something about the high price of rubber: he bought his own mini-nation.

Ford intended to use Fordlândia to provide his company with a source of rubber for the tires on Ford cars, avoiding the dependence on British (Malayan) rubber. The land was hilly, rocky and infertile. None of Ford’s managers had the requisite knowledge of tropical agriculture. The rubber trees, packed closely together in plantations, as opposed to being widely spaced in the jungle, were easy prey for tree blight and insects[…]. The mostly indigenous workers on the plantations, given unfamiliar food such as hamburgers and forced to live in American-style housing, disliked the way they were treated — they had to wearID badges, and to work midday hours under the tropical sun — and would often refuse to work. In 1930, the native workers revolted against the managers, many of whom fled into the jungle for a few days until the Brazilian Army arrived and the revolt ended. – wikipedia

Oddly, if he’d actually succeeded in starting a modern round of corporate colonization his fiefdoms would probably look very much like a heavily enforced version of ‘The Ideal American Home’ of the 1950s, with sobriety and hamburger sammiches for everybody. Even the reality of the Ford “Sociological Department” was tough enough to live under, the idea of the Ford Ministry of Sociology seems like it would be a 1984 caricature.

At least until the labourers were “liberated” by a General Electric tank battalion.