Monday Morning Miscellanea

[vovat]

1. I feel somewhat obliged to defend Lady Gaga, inasmuch that a lot of the criticism of her that I see tends to be along the lines of, "She thinks she's a performance artist/shocking/weird, but she's really not!" (Either that or "she's a man," in response to which I direct you to this, a creation of not_glimmer.) I guess I don't really know what Miss Germanotta is going for, but if she's just a regular pop star who enjoys playing dress-up, is there something wrong with that? Why does someone wearing a goofy costume have to be seen as shocking or controversial? Oh, and speaking of Lady Gaga, do you think this is real? (WARNING: Picture not safe for work.)


2. What was Sarah Palin THINKING by not signing the books of people who'd waited in line to meet her? Wait, I just used "thinking" and "Sarah Palin" in the same sentence, didn't I? Maybe that answers my question right there. Really, though, the woman obviously isn't afraid of alienating people, but it always seemed previously that her disdain for certain people and institutions was calculated to make her Joe Six-Pack base like her more. The strategy apparently didn't work too well in her bid for vice president, but there's a certain amount of sense to it. But these people who came to her signing actually LIKE her, and bought her book to prove it! Does she really want to risk turning these people against her, if she really IS hoping for a presidential run in 2012? Well, maybe her friends in the right-wing media will find some way to spin this in her favor, like how she wasn't REALLY drastically unprepared and in over her head at the Katie Couric interview, but was simply taken aback by Couric's audacity in bashing Alaskans by asking if she reads any newspapers. People who like Palin might well be a vocal minority by this point, but they still baffle me.


3. As you might have seen if you read my Twitter updates, I was pondering the other day over how many cartoon characters have nephews, but no children of their own. Just offhand, I can think of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Scooby-Doo, Popeye (actually, he might not count because I believe Swee'pea was originally conceived as being his adopted child, but the cartoons put her in Olive Oyl's care), Bugs Bunny, Kermit the Frog (not a cartoon, but it's the same basic idea)...I'm sure there are plenty of others as well. I suppose it's easier for characters who have been established as single not to have unexplained children, but in how many of these cases do we see the sibling who did reproduce? I believe Huey, Dewey, and Louie have been officially established as the sons of Donald's sister Della, and the Duck Family Tree obscures the name of their mysterious father. It's interesting that Goofy apparently reproduced when Mickey and Donald never did, though.

Comments

[bethje.livejournal.com]

Ah ha! This is so great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGDsmGPGc8I

I can think of at least one other cartoon with the little boy, but I'm not so sure about his wife. I never would give Goof Troop a fair shake, because of these. "That is NOT Goofy's son," I thought about that Max kid.

Growing up, I was a huge fan of the Goofy sports and how-to cartoons, but now I'd have to say I love the everyman cartoons most.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I guess Goofy's wife has a type, since all the service people look kind of like him. Not the firemen, though.