Blue Sponge Newsroom: Vacation Wrap-Up

Today is the first day back at work after being on vacation all last week. Although our vacation rental in Maine has a TV, Shane and I didn’t watch any television during the week. We did watch a DVD – the original documentary of Grey Gardens. We had watched the new HBO movie version of Grey Gardens with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange numerous times, but had never seen the entire original documentary with the real characters.

We did hear about some news items. For example, I called my mother and heard all about commercial pitchman Billy Mays’ death from falling luggage during a plane landing. The house also had dial-up Internet access, so we saw a few other headlines. Also, we bought a newspaper one day.

After coming back home, it was apparent that this was a good week to be out of pocket. I got to avoid hearing the endless “news” about Michael Jackson’s death. Sadly, it continues.

There were some good news stories: Sarah Palin is resigning (but unfortunately I’m sure she won’t go away). My prediction is that she will be the new OxiClean spokesperson or will be hocking jewelry on QVC.

Norm Coleman finally conceded and Al Franken is finally going to be Democratic Senator Number 60! It is about time a close one goes our way. Let’s cross our fingers and hope it lasts.

Roger Federer and Serena Williams won Wimbledon again. This is the first time in many years that I didn’t see a single second of the tournament. This is Federer’s 15th major victory, breaking his tie with Pete Sampras for most career majors.

My favorite headline in today’s Express newspaper is about the death of Former NFL quarterback Steve McNair. The headline said: “Police: McNair’s Death a Homicide.” He was shot four times, including twice in the head. Those police are geniuses. His girlfriend, who had a single gunshot to the head, laid beside him, and the gun was found under her body. Luckily, OJ has an alibi.

A group called the Little People of America is asking the Federal Communications Commission to ban the use of the word “midget” on broadcast TV. It was prompted by NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice episode where they created an ad called “Jesse James and the Midgets.” Besides swearing, are there other words deemed politically incorrect that are banned from TV? I wonder if it matters what the context is? I could look these things up, but I don’t.

There seems to be a rash of plane crashes, train crashes, and celebrity deaths lately. There was a plane crash in the Indian Ocean of a Yeminia plane with a single 12-year-old girl surviving (152 people died). A man driving the monorail was killed at Disney World when it crashed. Karl Malden, Billy Mays and a slew of other celebrities have been dropping like flies and prompting fake reports that Jeff Goldblum, George Clooney, Harrison Ford, Natalie Portman, and Rick Astley all died. Only Jeff Goldblum's career is dead.
One person that is alive and well is D.C. mayor for life Marion Barry, but he is in trouble yet again. Barry is on a never-ending exploration to discover what he can get away with and still be elected to political office. In this week’s episode, he was stalking some woman. Barry was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor count of stalking. Barry blamed his actions on homosexuals being allowed to marry. It may be worth pointing out that at least he didn't have to go all the way to South America to do his shenanigans like a certain Republican senator.