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The Stupid 356 Project, Day 20: The World According to Arianna

October 20th, 2010



GOP CANDIDATE CAN’T SHAKE PUPPY GAS CHAMBER BILL HE SPONSORED

Quick — how many times did you read that before you understood and/or believed it? Is the screen swimming before your eyes a little bit?

Well, that’s news, according to Arianna Huffington.

The socialite millionairess with the eternally unchanging epoxy hair style is, of course, an online media czar. Her creation, The Huffington Post, is an interesting cross between The National Enquirer, the Democratic Party National Committee’s daily talking points, and the red-carpet material Joan Rivers thinks better of. It’s supposed to be a news site, but the slag quotient is uniquely high. They seem to be going for “edgy” but they can’t tell it from absurd.



KIM KARDASHIAN POSES TOTALLY NUDE. Whoa! Stop the car. First of all, why is anything Kim Kardashian does news? She could cover herself in mayonnaise, wrap herself in a tortilla, and offer herself up to feed the starving masses, and it wouldn’t make a dent in my day. Does anyone actually care what Kim Kardashian is up to? And if someone out there does care, do you think he or she is going to be surprised that Kim is posing not only nude but totally nude? I mean, isn’t that what she’s been leading up to through all these years of bad mascara and booty shots?

Also, just a nit: are you actually nude if you’re not totally nude? I mean, “Nude except for a strategically placed kitchen sponge” is pretty nude, but it’s not actually, you know, nude. And what’s old Kim going to do top this? Do I have to look forward to KIM KARDASHIAN TURNS HERSELF INSIDE-OUT ON DR. PHIL? It’s enough to keep me in bed for weeks.



ADRIANA LIMA RESPONDS TO GISELLE’S BREAST-FEEDING BELIEFS. Okay. I read it twice, and it still says that someone I’ve never heard of is “responding” to the “beliefs” (about breast-feeding — cool way to get “breast” in the headline) of someone whose last name is not provided. The very definition of news. I’m going to make a wild guess and say it’s not the Giselle the ballet is about. So that leaves me with the fact that no one in the world named Giselle is of any interest to me. And it’s unlikely that I’ll ever breast (teehee) feed. Pass.

RUSH LIMBAUGH HITS KARL ROVE. That’s more like it. Short, to the point, even punchy. (Sorry.) There’s just this one little detail. It’s completely untrue. Here’s what happened: Rush Limbaugh, during an uncharacteristically clear-minded moment (probably ran out of Oxycontin), said something unpleasant about Karl Rove, who really does look like the Pillsbury doughboy. The accurate headline would have been MAN WHO SAYS UNPLEASANT THINGS FOR MONEY SAYS SOMETHING UNPLEASANT ABOUT MAN WHO DESERVES TO HAVE UNPLEASANT THINGS SAID ABOUT HIM. Or how about RUSH BITCH-SLAPS ROVE FOR PUBLIC BREAST-FEEDING. If you’re going to make up the news, at least make up something interesting.

HANDLESS MODEL RECREATES WONDERBRA AD. I have to meet the person who wrote this. If the poor woman had stepped on a land mine, would the headline be ONE-FOOTED MODEL RECREATES WONDERBRA AD? If, oh, I don’t know, the Taliban disliked the way she ululated and cut out her uvula, would it read, UVULA-FREE WOMAN RECREATES WONDERBRA AD? Let’s face it: for this headline to make any sense at all, there’s only one thing the model could be missing (teehee). Not that I wish it on her. But, pleeease. It’s what we in the word biz call a non-sequitur. ESKIMO CAN SING BASS, CONDUCTOR SAYS. (I made that one up, but see what I mean?) REPUBLICAN HAS PET DOG. You can go on like this forever.

Try though Arianna may, none of these can touch a real headline from the LA Times that I had taped to the door of my refrigerator until it disintegrated: CAN’T STAND PAT, NIXON SAYS.

Now that’s a headline.




This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 at 10:02 pm and is filed under All Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “The Stupid 356 Project, Day 20: The World According to Arianna”


  1. fairyhedgehog Says:
    October 20th, 2010 at 11:41 pm

I lost my comment due to recaptcha. I think it said something like:

Your headlines are better and probably more accurate.

Something like that anyway.


  1. Gary Says:
    October 21st, 2010 at 2:15 am

NAN SEES FUTURE WITH REAGAN CLAIRVOYANT

  1. Laren Bright Says:
    October 21st, 2010 at 8:02 am

YOu forget to mention the way they do their teaser headlines to get you to click through to the story: (Not that I ever read HufPo, of course.) Obama says he absolutely won’t… Or, GOP admits they were responsible for… So you click through and find out Obama absolutely won’t vote Republican in the 2012 election. Or The Republicans admit they were responsible for all the good things that ever happened to the economy. Still sometimes the teasers are pretty compelling. Like: Tim Hallinan’s next novel is sure to…

  1. Phil Hanson Says:
    October 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am

Funny! I had Karl Rove pictured as the Michelin Man. Oh, and who the hell is Kim Kardashian, a character out of Star Trek?

“Ambivalent” is the word I’d use to describe my feelings about Arianna; sometimes she pleasantly surprises, but more often than not she disappoints.



  1. Lil Gluckstern Says:
    October 21st, 2010 at 12:24 pm

I am rapidly becoming a groupie, Tim. Lo-o-o-ve this post. I had to call my daughter one day to ask her what a Kim Kardashian was. She couldn’t explain it to me. I remember that headline; guess that dates me. I’m delighted that you put into words my creeping uneasiness with Arianna Huffington. Yuch.

  1. Larissa Says:
    October 21st, 2010 at 2:23 pm

If I had a rifle and an invisibility cloak…ahem.

  1. Beth Says:
    October 21st, 2010 at 3:43 pm

Tim, if you lived in New England you would know that Gisele Bundchen is the supermodel married to three-time Superbowl winning quarter back Tom Brady.

Tom is the reason we won. Everything Tom does is news, especially because every weekend before the game Belichik lists Brady as one of the possibly sick or injured who can’t play. It is the coach’s little game but a lot of ink is spent on speculating whether Tom is or is not game ready and whether the masses should panic.

People outside of New England have no idea how many oceans of ink have been used in the “why doesn’t Tom cut his hair” discussion, especially since it has been revealed that Gisele won’t let him.

Surely you can appreciate this as news.



  1. Timothy Hallinan Says:
    October 21st, 2010 at 6:11 pm

Fairyhedgehog — First, thanks for the glowing mention on your blog. Whooooo! Second, ALWAYS block your text in Captcha and highlight it, and then go to edit and pick COPY. Then you can send it off, and if there’s a problem, it’s waiting for you to use PASTE to put it into the box again. If what you wrote is kind of dumb and poky, don’t bother because it won’t get eaten, but if it’s brilliant, it’s a goner.

Gary: MAN SWALLOWS WIFE’S FALSE TEETH (actual headline).

Laren — oh, I left out soooo much. The ones in the blog were all online yesterday, when I wrote it, and all on the front page. I didn’t even have to go to the really bent zones, such as Entertainment, where we get to critique the clothes of four-year olds with famous parents or compare “baby bumps,” which is a phrase I’d like to see vanish at once from the language. Here’s a real provocative one from today: KNOW YOUR ONIONS. That’s it. And thanks for the plug for the next book, whatever that may be. (Probably “Pulped.”)

Hi, Lil, and groupie away. We all need undiscerning approval, and anyone who says he/she doesn’t is not being candid. I’m impressed that your daughter couldn’t explain Kim Kardashian — says a lot for your parenting skills. And “creeping uneasiness” is exactly right: when the sire first came online, I thought, Another biased, highly selective news source, except it’s one I can agree with occasionally. But it’s gotten creepier and creepier.

Phil, Kim Kardashian is one of three tarted-up daughters or former OJ Simpson buddy Robert Kardashian, whom you may remember from the trial. Their mother is now married to Bruce Jenner, former Olympics guy, and they’ve brassed their way into a (what else?) reality show, although I have to say — although I haven’t seen it — it undoubtedly stretches the meaning of the word “reality.” I know all of this courtesy of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, orphaned copies of which show up completely randomly in our mailbox.

Riss — you don’t mean that. A nice girl like you. Anyway, it’s easy to get a rifle. If you find an invisibility cloak, e-mail me privately.

Beth, you have the SPORTS GENE!!!! I’m sort of amazed, although I remember you went on at some length once about baseball, over at MURDER IS EVERYWHERE. So Gisele Bundchen is a supermodel married to a superbowl quarterback. How super for them. Bet they still argue, even if it’s just over his hair.

It certainly IS news.



  1. Larissa Says:
    October 22nd, 2010 at 8:21 am

lol. You’re right. I’d never ever do anything like that. Ahem. Mainly because it’s way too much effort for someone like that. (c:0

And I’ll send you the details on that cloak…just as soon as I find one. (c:



  1. Timothy Hallinan Says:
    October 22nd, 2010 at 7:25 pm

I’ll need it in large, Riss. And I’d like it to have the Burberry plaid lining so I can wear it in Japan and fit in.

NOBODY embraces “brands” like the Japanese.




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