On page 7 of the Sunday New York Times Style section, Lord & Taylor ran an ad that featured an attractive woman with a pocket pooch sitting on a couch and glaring at another woman clad in a form-fitting “Allen Schwartz Dress Only $188.”
The ad’s headline said, “THIS DRESS WILL MAKE YOUR FRIENDS INSANELY JEALOUS . . . which, you have to admit, is pretty much the goal.”
The Missus said, “That’s entirely wrong.”
I entirely agree.
Say, that was some Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde performance submitted by Serena Williams at the U.S. Open Saturday night, yeah?
First she went Chernobyl on the lineswoman who called a foot fault on Williams’s second serve at 15-30 in the second set (with Kim Clijsters up a set and and 5-4), which made it 15-40, except Williams was hit with a code violation for her profanity-spewing meltdown which was her second code violation, since she broke her racquet after losing the first set, so that meant she was penalized a point which happened to be match point.
Which happened to mean she lost the match.
But in the post-match press conference, Williams turned into Chauncey Gardner, all oblivious to what had just transpired on the tennis court.
I’m with Mary Carillo: Williams should either get anger management therapy, or an Oscar.
UPDATE: If Serena Williams’s statement about her U.S. Open meltdown Friday night is the best she can do, Williams needs some PR people who’ll tell her either to stand up or shut up.
Here’s her statement, as reported by the New York Times:
“Last night, everyone could truly see the passion I have for my job,” the statement said. “Now that I have had time to gain my composure, I can see that while I don’t agree with the unfair line call, in the heat of battle I let my passion and emotion get the better of me, and as a result handled the situation poorly.
“I would like to thank my fans and supporters for understanding that I am human, and I look forward to continuing the journey, both professionally and personally, with you all as I move forward and grow from this experience.”
That non-apology is not only pathetically egotistical, it’s also insulting to anyone who’s ever rooted for Serena Williams.
Maybe you should go away for awhile, girlfriend.
UPDATE UPDATE: On Monday, right before she played in the U.S. Open women’s doubles final that she should have been disqualified for, Serena Williams issued an actual apology (via Bloomberg) for her thuggish behavior in the women’s semifinal:
I want to sincerely apologize first to the lineswoman, Kim Clijsters, the USTA and mostly tennis fans everywhere for my inappropriate outburst. I’m a woman of great pride, faith and integrity, and I admit when I’m wrong.
Yeah – sometimes it just takes a second serve.
Novelist Elizabeth Spencer has the Wall Street Journal’s Five Best feature this week, subheadlined:
Elizabeth Spencer chooses her favorite works of Southern fiction
Problem is, none of them were written by Flannery O’Connor.
Look – somebody’s favorites are somebody’s favorites. But the WSJ feature isn’t Five Favorites. It’s Five Best.
Campaign Outsider Rule of Thumb®: When you’re talking about the best of Southern fiction, you have to include O’Connor.
Two quick quotes:
In “Wise Blood,” the Christ-Haunted Hazel Motes says this:
Nobody with a good car needs to be justified by Jesus.
And in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the Nothing-Haunted Misfit says of the grandmother he just shot:
She would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.
In terms of Southern fiction, it doesn’t get much better than that.
The Washington Post now has its scapegoat for the paper’s humiliating attempt last July to lease out its editorial staff in a series of macher-stroking dinners at WaPo publisher Katherine Weymouth’s no doubt lavish home.
From the Post’s report on the beheading of its general manager of events and conferences:
Charles Pelton, who had helped organize and promote the monthly dinners as The Post’s newly hired general manager of events and conferences, made no mention of the controversy in his resignation letter to Post President Stephen P. Hills. “Given the current circumstances with regard to the resources needed to launch [an events business],” Pelton wrote, “my family and I have decided not to relocate to Washington, D.C.,” from California.
Translation: someone had to fall on his sword, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be Weymouth or the Post’s executive editor Marcus Brauchli.
But if anyone was going to take the hit, it should have been those two – if they had any sense of decency, that is.
But decency is a commodity in short supply these days. Especially in D.C.
A Saturday Wall Street Journal piece headlined “New York Restaurant Loses Its Appetite for Cash” previewed the death of actual money:
At the Greenwich Village restaurant Commerce, cash is off the menu.
In the latest encroachment of credit and debit cards onto the greenback’s turf, the high-end New York City restaurant said goodbye to dollars and cents this week. The message to diners: Tip in cash if you wish, but otherwise, your money is no good here.
The Journal report featured this explanation of the Rich People’s Policy:
“If you don’t have a credit card, you can use a debit card,” said the restaurant’s co-owner, Tony Zazula. “If you don’t have a debit card, you probably don’t have a checking account. And if you don’t have a checking account, you probably shouldn’t be eating at Commerce to begin with.”
Regrettable as that statement was, the most distressing assertion in the Journal piece might be this:
Mr. Zazula, a veteran Manhattan restaurateur with an M.B.A. from Cornell University, decided the move was right for Commerce several months ago while on an American Airlines flight. “The flight attendants weren’t accepting cash for any of the food,” he recalls. “Suddenly, it struck me how unnecessary cash was.”
How unnecessary cash is? Hey, how about 10 p.m. at Walgreens when someone is buying two candy bars with a debit card and trying to get $20 cash back?
I’m not on this earth long enough to outlive all the debitcardniks ahead of me in line at my local retailers.
C’mon, people. Carry some walking-around money.
Many thanks to Dan Kennedy for posting the New York Times “Portraits of Grief” series on his (really) hardworking Media Nation blog.
It reminded me that I should revisit the NYT portrait of my cousin Tommy Ashton, tragically murdered in the World Trade Center terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.
[September 10] was also Thomas’s first day at electrician’s school, part of his apprenticeship with Local 3 in Manhattan. The second day on the job, Thomas, 21, was sent to the 95th floor of the north tower.
Tommy’s sisters Mary and Colleen have done a wonderful job of keeping his memory alive, most notably through the Thomas Ashton Foundation. (Its annual 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament is a monster Queens, NY event.)
Once again, Dan, thanks.
Forget about real-estate classifieds migrating to Craigslist. Seems they’re also relocating to Page One of the Boston Globe.
Exhibit A: Thursday’s front-page Globe piece about the condominium fire sale at the hopelessly pretentious Natick Collection mall.
Nouvelle at Natick, the portentously unoccupied 215-unit condo development adjacent to the mall, is auctioning off 42 condominiums starting “about 70 percent below previous asking prices.”
Granted, the Globe front-pager absolutely blowtorches starry-eyed General Growth Properties,the nearsighted developer of Nouvelle at Natick:
Bankrupt mall operator General Growth Properties is planning to auction off more than 40 high-end condominiums attached to the upscale Natick Collection with minimum bids starting at $160,000, about 70 percent below previous asking prices.
The 215-unit project, known as Nouvelle at Natick, opened last year and was supposed to usher in a new era of suburban living – marrying shopping and luxury – without the hassles and high prices of the city. But with only 37 of the residences sold or under contract, GGP has hired Accelerated Marketing Partners to handle the auction of 42 units on Oct. 4 as a way to jump-start sales and get some desperately needed cash.
Not exactly an ideal depiction of the property.
But a fabulous ad for the auction.
As if that weren’t enough, enter the Nouvelle at Natick Post-Ad pasted to Page One of the same day’s Globe West section. On the front, the four-color sticker touted the auction; the verso listed sample prices for a handful of auction units.
(Campaign Outsider Home recommends Unit 927 – an 1891-square-foot two bedroom with study, two bathroom unit with a minimum bid of $315,000.)
Taken separately, there’s nothing unusual about either the Globe’s Page One Nouvelle story or Nouvelle’s Post-Ad on Globe West.
Taken together, there’s something entirely unseemly about the Globe’s editorial judgment.
From Thursday’s Wall Street Journal piece headlined, “Kraft Covets Cadbury’s Know-How in India:”
Cadbury estimates that more than half of India’s more than one billion people have never tasted chocolate.
Shut up.
“Style Boston,” a truly Amateur Half-Hour program, debuted on regional cable news network NECN Wednesday night, and the thunk could be heard all the way to Worcester.
The Boston Globe’s ever-upbeat Names page described “Style Boston” this way:
The show, which is cohosted by Terri Stanley and Tonya Chen Mezrich, focuses on fashion, design, and all things chic and sophisticated around New England.
No doubt the Boston air-kiss set considered it terrific TV, but back here in the real world, “Style Boston” was barely community-access-cable ready.
The real problem, though, is not “Style Boston’s” styleless premiere, but NECN’s companion blurring of the line between advertising and editorial.
As far as I can gather, “Style Boston” is paid programming on NECN, with the producers buying time from the cable net each week and selling ads to offset the cost. It also appears that “Style Boston” falls into the category of “branded content,” which is to say the advertisers don’t run commercials during the program, but have their products and services embedded in the show itself.
Nothing unusual about that these days, but here’s my question: Why did NECN promote this advertorial in its News Day Live program, and why does NECN’s Arts & Entertainment webpage overflow with features from “Style Boston”?
This is different from NECN’s unfortunate collaboration with “The Open Book Club” paid program, cohosted by former Massachusetts House Speaker Sal Dimasi’s wife. The Open Book Club was closed back in June, as the Globe reported:
New England Cable News is pulling the plug on “The Open Book Club,” saying that airing the program cohosted by Deborah DiMasi could create an appearance of a conflict of interest as the station covers the federal corruption case against her husband, former House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi.
The monthly show featured Deborah DiMasi and Christy Cashman, the wife of wealthy contractor Jay Cashman, chatting with authors in Cashman’s wood-paneled home library. The former speaker appeared on the show to discuss “Bridge of Sighs” with the author, Richard Russo.
Fun fact to know and tell:
Cashman paid NECN for the airtime. Station officials also would not say how much NECN charges Cashman for the “paid program.”
Not sure which Cashman paid NECN for the airtime, but why get technical about it.
Back to “Style Boston:” Not sure why NECN is pawning off advertising as editorial content on its Arts & Entertainment webpage.
But why get technical about it.
Rafael Nadal is the finest sportsman in men’s professional tennis since Bjorn Borg. This kid is modest, respectful, and – better than Borg – joyous.
(Sample quote: “I don’t want to talk about injuries. Sorry. No, no, I am a bit tired to talk about injuries.”)
So why did the crowds at the French and U.S Opens cheer – no, chant – for Nadal’s asshole opponents, Robin Soderling and Gael Monfils respectively?
I don’t get it. Nadal deserves better.
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