CSotD: And another thing … in fact, several

I pondered using Joe Dator’s cartoon because I’ve seen similar gags before, but then realized (A) there aren’t many absolutely brand-new gags, but a good cartoonist can make them fresh and (B) there are things that can’t be said too often.

(A) is covered in Russian literary criticism, where they have an expression “making new,” which is when the author describes something familiar but in a way that lets you see it with unexpected significance. When it happens, it’s worth noting.

But (B) is even more persuasive because of the apparent need to hammer home this observation, and not just because we’ve recently had a disastrous example of people listening to a male voice and ignoring a female voice based not on the quality of what they were saying but on societal prejudice.

At my 10th college reunion, two women jumped down the throats of the males in our department, accusing us of never letting them complete a thought in seminar. It seemed shocking and I still don’t think we treated them differently than we treated each other.

But with time, contemplation and reading a little Deborah Tannen and Carol Gilligan, I realized there really are two approaches to discussion, one of them based on competitive debate and one of them based on seeking common ground, and the first one does tend to overwhelm the second.

If you don’t think that men tend to take one approach while women take the other, fine, but if the shoe fits, shut up and listen for a change.

And if Dator’s cartoon made you cringe a little, the shoe probably fits.

And another thing: As long as I’m in a critical mood, I’ll criticize myself for suggesting that I didn’t want to run any more cartoons about Trump’s idiotic cabinet choices, because Fiona Katauskas manages to breathe life into that well-worn topic.

Not only did she avoid proposing satirical nominations, but she harkens back to the idea that Trump was a non-entity outside of NYC until NBC marketed “The Apprentice” on the notion that Trump was a business genius, a complete fabrication for which the head of the effort has since apologized.

Here we are again, only now he’s off-script and it’s no longer just an entertaining fiction.

A less monumental criticism in today’s Tank McNamara (AMS), and I’ll point out that Bill Hinds is a Texan and so has standing to discuss heat in food. There was a time when traveling Westerners carried small bottles of Tabasco to liven up their scrambled eggs because Eastern restaurants didn’t offer it.

But at some point, heat became a Thing, and not just a Thing but a Competitive Thing, with, as seen here, a sort of arms race to see who can move beyond flavor into meaningless pain, and the question of “Why?” leads mostly to discussions of machismo.

It’s one thing to step into a different culture and be ambushed by some surprisingly aggressive peri-peri or miang kham, but purposely seeking out pain is different: You could put superhot spices on a piece of cardboard and sell it to the folks who just want to see what they can stand. (The folks who make Doritos seem intent on proving this.)

And another thing: Monty (AMS) sounds a familiar gripe that I suspect comes from people who have not done this sort of work.

For one thing, you can’t really expect anyone to dig with a shovel for eight hours straight unless they’re wearing leg shackles and you’re carrying a shotgun. You dig for awhile, someone takes over while you rest, you step back in and they step out.

You’re going to need a break, whether someone steps in to relieve you or the job just comes to a halt.

Similarly, one of those people “standing around” may be a pipefitter, for instance, waiting for the pipe to be uncovered. If it’s a city job and you pay taxes, would you prefer that everything (except the clock) stop while they call HQ and let the pipefitter know it’s time to come down to the job?

You can’t complain about how long the street is torn up and traffic is slowed down and also complain about how they schedule people to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

No complaints from me about today’s Betty (AMS). I tried Amazon Prime’s video feed now that they’ve added commercials and I’m sticking with Turner Classics, which comes with my basic streaming service.

When I was in local TV, most locally-run movies came with suggested commercial breaks, but we still had to have someone decide exactly when to break and what commercials to insert.

What I saw on Amazon was none of that. They’d break in the middle of a scene and not even for a paid commercial but for a promotion of something they’d like you to watch. When we ran promos, it was because we hadn’t been able to sell the break but still needed the movie to end at the top of the hour. Streaming TV can start and end any time.

But I’m spared much of this sturm und drang by the fact that I can’t afford to be nickeled and dimed to death by all those premium services, even without paying them extra to actually be premium.

And another thing: I like Red and Rover (AMS), but Brian Bassett nodded on this one, because there weren’t any 24 hour marathons on TV in the vague nostalgic long ago in which the strip is set.

The sitcom ran from 1969 to 1974, then went into syndication. Cable penetration in ’74 was about 58% nationally, but its programming was distant broadcast stations. ESPN went on the air in 1979 and CNN the next year. In fact, I remember one of our engineers at the station in 1976 who left for Atlanta, because this guy Ted Turner had some interesting ideas.

But his interesting ideas didn’t include canceling regular programming on WTBS for a single-program marathon.

My proof? By the time marathons began, Red would have been riding a Mongoose.

And another thing: Judging from this Loose Parts (AMS), Gulliver just offended all the Giant People of Brobdingnag as well as the Horse People and the Cloud People by not thanking them, too.

Dagnabbit.