I can’t get it out of my head. I’m still stuck on Black Friday. It confounds me. In cataloging abnormal and aberrant human behavior, one of the main indicia of such is the lemming-like, sheeple convergence on Black Friday. And the media’s coverage. I can’t get enough of the story and the pschodynamics of “crowdthink.”
I’ve a few thoughts on the subject. My PIX 11 News commentary highlights such infra.
As you can see my disquisition on the subject is the model of pellucidity. (Ahem.) Or not. You know you’re on to a good topic when, as in the case here, you can substitute riot photos for actual Black Friday photos and no one’s the wiser. The audience absolutely sees that what you’re showing isn’t at all far-fetched. How fetching!
Discussed herein.
- The source of my appreciation of the absurd
- The miserableness of people
- Women’s loud shoes
- Whistlers and bad singers
- Stuttering as a child and tricks to conquer such
- New media, new delivery systems
- Barney Fife and Ted Baxter: Two of the most important figures in our American culture
LIONEL AUDIO: Remembering Frank Drebin & Meeting Leslie Nielsen
I will never forget meeting Leslie Nielsen.
When I was with 970 WFLA in Tampa in the early 90’s, I had the opportunity to meet Leslie Nielsen at Wade Boggs’s annual charity softball game. After shaking hands, I was horrified by what I heard. It seemed that this most famous actor passed very audible gas in my presence. I didn’t say anything, embarrassed obviously for this poor man who must himself have been embarrassed. He wore very noticeable hearing aids so perhaps he didn’t hear his rather sonorous contribution.
Later when speaking with colleagues, especially my dear friend and Tampa legend (which is the subject of another paean altogether) Tedd Webb, I learned that they too had experienced Nielsen’s “gas-conade.” When confronted, he showed us the source of that unmistakably universal fanfare. Han-D-Gas. It was a device that we all had to have and were never without. It was secreted in one’s palm and was the source of more hilarious terror than I can even count: elevators, physicals and intimate moments. On more than one memorable occasion, I punctuated many an interview on TV and radio with that universally-recognized report to the horror and chagrin of the interviewer.
As Nielsen did to the horror of two British chat show hosts.
Godspeed, Frank Drebin. And on behalf of a grateful nation, thank you.