The Daily News
I love Thursdays because I love making lists so this week I got carried away and made two.
Kind of a crazy title but once you read the first two on the list you’ll know what it means. With all the headlines and whatnot around the primaries and who won what and why and who is staying and who is going…aren’t you just tired of it all?
Hopefully this guide will give you a deeper knowledge and clearer perspective on just who is who and reading what! Sent to me by Gail and I don’t know where she found it but here it is:
- The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
- The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
- The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and are very good at crossword puzzles.
- USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but they don’t understand the New York Times. They do, however, like their statistic pie charts.
- The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country, if they could find the time – and if they didn’t have to leave southern California to do it.
- The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a poor job of it,thank you very much.
- The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who is running the country and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the bus.
- The New York Post is read by people who don’t really care who is running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
- The National Enquirer is read by people who are trapped in the line at a grocery store.
- The Key West Citizen is read by people who recently caught a fish and need something to wrap it in.
Related articles
- Murdoch Editor Moves To Rival (lezgetreal.com)
- Is The New York Times Crossword Puzzle Trolling Car Enthusiasts? [Hoons] (jalopnik.com)
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
Pbenjay's Blog 
THE BUTLER – Swallow Hard-The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, tagged Academy Award, Barack Obama, Forest Whitaker, Gene Allen, Jane Fonda, Lee Daniel, Oprah Winfrey, Ronald Reagan, Washington Post on September 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »
When I found myself tearing up in the first scene, I knew the next two hours were going to be very long. I had a lump in my throat through out the entire movie and even those scenes that had the tears slowly rolling down my face did little to relieve that tight feeling in my throat
Lee Daniels‘ The Butler is “gut-wrenching and emotionally affecting” – that is the consensus from the web site, Rotten Tomatoes. Loosely based and inspired by A Butler Well-Served By This Election,, an article written by Wil Haygood for the Washington Post.
Here’s the GOOD: Oprah Winfrey gave a fine performance as the likable, edgy and often boozy wife and will probably receive an Oscar nomination. Forrest Whitaker in the starring role of Cecil Gaines is also an Oscar contender. When he looked at the camera and gave us the blank hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing and just serve look, you could never imagine him as the powerful and mad Idi Amin. The sight of the uber-liberal Jane Fonda decked out in Nancy Reagen-red had the audience laughing out loud. The casting of the “Presidents” was interesting; Robin Williams didn’t quite embody Eisenhower, Liev Schreiber isn’t tall enough to be Johnson and his Texan accent was questionable but I sure did enjoy his lines. James Marsden sounded more like Kennedy but was also short of stature and John Cusack was quite brilliant in his sinister shifty-eyed Nixon.
The BAD: The movie is NOT based on a true story. The real-life butler, Gene Allen, did not see his father murdered or his mother raped. He had only one son who served honorably in Vietnam and was not a Black Panther or involved in politics. Allen was born on a plantation in Virginia not in Georgia.
Forest Whitaker (Photo credit: Stephen Poff)
There has been considerable criticism regarding the movie’s portrayal of Ronald Reagan, particularly his position on apartheid in South Africa. There was no reference to the circumstances surrounding his non-action which had to do with the political climate of the day and the specter of yet another country falling to Communism.
If you are “of a certain age” as I am, then the chronological series of historical events was a trip down memory lane. The “events” marked the 34 years Gene Allen served eight Presidents. Unfortunately, we view these historical moments in Gumpian fashion through the eyes of a morally challenged hero rather than the mentally challenged Forrest.
THE UGLY; What was really ugly in this film? Racism is ugly, poverty is ugly, hunger is ugly, classicism is ugly. The true events were ugly because they really happened. Freedom Riders were killed, protestors were beaten and hosed down. College kids who sat in at the Woolworth’s counter were harassed, spit on and knocked down. That in my lifetime, there were still signs that said WHITE and COLORED is really ugly! Yes the truth is that the Ugly parts of this movie were all the true parts.
But that was then and this is now, and Barrack Hussein Obama is our President, who would have believed it?
Rate this:
Read Full Post »