February 22, 2008
FOUR FOR FRIDAY
Q1 - Human Nature: The new season of "Big Brother" (a popular reality television show on CBS) already has more than its share of controversies. One guy has been accused of being a racist; one woman has been called a whore; another was called the "c" word, over and over, loudly; one man referred to autistic people as "retards"; one couple is pretending to be lesbians; one woman revealed that her dad committed suicide, only to later have a roommate tell her to "go hang yourself." Regardless of whether you watch the particular television show in question, can all of this be good for the television viewing audience (that these issues are raised)? Or is it just shameless provocation? Is human nature really this bad?
Q2 - Foreign Relations: Three days after stepping down as Cuban leader, Fidel Castro is calling on the United States to change its longtime policy of sanctions toward Cuba. Do you think the United States should lift its embargo on Cuba?
Q3 - Stamp It: Earlier this week, the U.S. Postal Service immortalized novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953), best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Yearling, and her memoir Cross Creek In the foreground of the stamp art is a portrait of Kinnan Rawlings based on an undated photograph. The background depicts a fawn at a watering hole in the Florida scrub, which is consistent with descriptions in The Yearling. Who, if anyone, would you like to see immortalized on a postage stamp, and what imagery would you suggest including on the stamp?
Q4 - Lineage: How far back can you trace your family's lineage?
Posted by Mikal at February 22, 2008 8:08 AM
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1. I think all those "reality" shows are completely gratuitous and unnecessary. I think it's gotten out of hand with all the different reality-type shows on TV. Who cares if you're in rehab? That's none of my business. And playing a game where people are demoralized on TV in front of millions of viewers to win money, is sad. It says a lot about our culture that we enjoy the schadenfreude. A lot of children and teenagers watch hours of TV and it does affect them to some degree. I think we need to have more positive messages on TV, and get rid of the negativity. If you change it from bad to good, people will still watch it, and they might even be influenced to do something good for someone else.
2. I think the U.S. should end the embargo when the Cuban government ends its oppression of the Cuban people. I have a very good family friend who tells me of the atrocious living conditions of her family in Cuba. Once things turn around for the better, commercialism is going to explode there and hopefully the people will have better living conditions and less oppressed lives.
3. Not sure if one already exists for him, but how about Leonardo da Vinci? He was a great artist and inventor well before his time.
4. I know the names of my great-great grandmother and grandfather on my maternal grandmother's side. I keep meaning to make up a geneological chart, but never get around to it. I'd better do it soon as a lot of the cousins who might have some information are getting old.
1) I think when watching reality shows such as Big Brother, it is key to remember that these people are not picked at random from society, but are hand selected because they are crazy and unstable. The TV producers know that if the so-called "reality stars" were normal people, no one would really watch. So they cast people they think will do insane and controversial things. And as it turns out, they are very good at their job. But luckily for us, human nature is not nearly as bad as reality television.
2) I don't think we should lift our embargo on Cuba until we have a strong relationship of trust with the new leader, who will most likely be Castro's brother. If a better relationship can be developed, then we should re-evaluate the embargo, but not before.
3) I would like to see Gordon B Hinckley on a postage stamp. They should use the picture of him in his hat at the BYU football game.
4) I think I have my family history traced back 20 generations.
Q1 - Human Nature: Is this big brother stationed in a prison? I may be speaking out on an edge here but it's a bit out of the ordinary for someone to tell a person who just lost their pa to suicide to go hang themselves. Everything else sounds fairly normal! I'm artistic and I am called "retard" quite often; my wife and I have pretended to be lesbians; I think white people are completely an inferior race; and I'm pretty sure someone has called me a whore and yelled at me over and over again that I was a cow. Sounds like a "true" reality show.
Q2 - Foreign Relations: Ummm...why is Cuba still on the map. I think we should put a lock down on Cuba, remove all innocent by standers and make it into a giant Alcatraz. Like Escape from Cuba instead of New York. Kurt Russell could even do the christening.
Q3 - Stamp It: Doggy doo! And it would only be printed on the lickable stamps.
Q4 - Lineage: My Mom's side goes back to King Edward the second. My Dad's side goes back to my Russian Great Grand Father who somehow ended up with someone else's name and passport.
Q1 - I don't think human nature is that bad. Although, I think if you purposely choose a bunch of hot-headed idiots to live together in an attempt to get better ratings, I think human nature can turn ugly. I guess some people get a kick out of watching people be ugly to each other. I got tired of that after watching the first season of the real world. I don't like drama and I don't like to argue, so reality TV just ain't for me.
Q2 - I'm not sure if we should lift the embargo or not, but I'm interested in seeing how big of a change Castro's stepping down will have. Will Cuba become the next vacation hot spot? They do have socialized health care... Hmmm...
Q3 - I seriously pay no attention to what's even on stamps. Stamps are a huge nuisance, I can't wait until we get rid of them. Stamps and Pennies, who needs em?
An Evel Kneival stamp would be cool though... Or a Walter Payton stamp... Do stamps have to be dead people?
Q4 - My Dad's side we can trace way back to Italy at least 5 generations, My Mom's side is less intact. I still have relatives in a very small town in the south of Italy called Corgoleone. (I might have totally butchered that spelling) My Dad's cousins went back to visit and they ended up staying at the mayor's house. it's on my list of places to see.
1. I think it's terrible, shameless provocation and no, human nature isn't that bad. That's one (of many) reasons I don't watch Big Brother or reality TV in general.
2. Don't know enough about the situation to comment intelligently.
3. I would like to see Patrick Ewing immortalized on a stamp. In the background would be jungle scenes and primates swinging from trees and picking fleas off one another... and maybe a basketball.
4. Personally, I can't trace it very far, but before she died, my grandma had traced our line back to Charlemagne--which gets me back to about 742 AD.
1- I can't really say that these reality shows are any worse than the average evening news... at least nobody (so far) has died on a reality show. I do think most reality TV is designed to get the biggest overreaction on screen, but I think there are plenty of examples of equally poor human behavior everywhere. With all that said, that kind of entertainment can't be good for us, we should be out there looking for the positive, cause that's out there too.
2- All Castro's done is hand the reigns to his brother, the guy who's been running things behind the scenes for years. There's no real change until the people have an actual voice in their government, so why should the US stance change first?
3- I like series stamps, so maybe something like a Super Bowl set... I can't honestly say I really bother to care about stamps all that much though.
4- The oldest line goes back through Old King Cole, from the nursury ryhme, so that one gets traced back to the 1200's. Another line goes back to the 1500's with early American colonists. The rest of the lines go back to the 1700's.
q1: "Reality" more like Dramality.
q2: Not sure on this one...I'd lean toward not changing the embargo until they make some changes though. Some quid pro quo.
q3: I think Gordon Hinckley would be an excellent choice.
q4: I've seen charts that record back 5 or 6 generations. Far enough to know that my ancestors come from Norway, Switzerland, Wales and England.
1. I'm afraid brotherly love might not serve as entertainment good enough to attract an audience. It's provocation: human nature is not that bad. It's mostly good.
2. Responsibly, yes.
3. Hmmm, maybe Ayn Rand with a shining light.
4. My father has written a book about my family lineage dating back to 1616 in Stavanger Norway.
To be honest I think the show is really a wais tof time and demoralizing to those who are on the show as well as those who watch. I think it is not good to show these types of things to public, especially children.
I really have no idea about it and what the results will be.
I am pretty sure they have one but, Martin Luther King Jr. I think may be with him holding a child in his arms or somehting like that.
Both sides of my family are very into our family history. My aunt has created a website for her county about family history as well a creating a couple of non-profit organizations for it. On my other side of the family they are mormon and it is very imporantant to make sure we have a chance to do temple work for the dead in our family. Not sure how far back but it is pretty far!
I posted my answers on my blog.
http://thememesection.com/2008/02/22/four-for-friday-february-21st-2008/
Thanks.
1. Human Nature: Well, I was mostly in agreement with Zirker on this one. Then I got a little insight to Eljuan's life. Now I'm just confused with the thought that I'll grow up to be a bitter old man -- and a perverted one at that!
2. Foreign Relations: When they change their government, we can think about it.
3. Stamp It: I'd like to see General Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller again. I missed out on the first round. Even better, ME with a comic book word bubble saying, "Watchu lookin' at bastie?"
4. Lineage: Uh... I think somewhere around 6 or 7 generations on my father's side (where I discovered I'm not really who I thought I was!) and only about 3 generations on my mother's side, due mostly to records being destroyed in a fire.
1) I think it's what the public wants. It's probably not "good" for the audience... but clearly it's desired as this is what... season 9?
2)The Embargo has failed to remove Castro... old age did that. It's been wholly ineffective and we need to re-think. If we want change we should drop a few McDonalds in there and let the people taste (no pun intended) what we've talking about.
3) Me. That'd be cool. I think they should put me in front of a space shuttle. That way people would think I was an astronaut. :)
4) General Meade - Civil War (Union Gen. @ Gettysburg)
1- Shock and awe sells, have you ever seen Nip Tuck? I think for the most part people are not that naive, just about everything happens somewhere. As long as you educate your children and strive for your own decent lives - who cares about all the shock and awe. It's just simple entertainment.
2- I just read a book (Three Cups of Tea) that opened my eyes to the idea that everything is NOT as it seems. No surprise, but government/media plays the shock and awe game to rule by fear. If opening the doors helps to change lives, i'm for it.
3- I typically only appreciate stamps for the artistic flare they add to my boring envelope. For this reason alone i vote for engaging colors and an artsy composition. I like Ayn Rand as much as Chris - perhaps her in a vintage flying poster format.
4- I have not personally taken an interest, but I have a few relatives that could trace lineage quite far back for me.
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February 22, 2008
FOUR FOR FRIDAY
Q1 - Human Nature: Some of these shows simply pick the oddest people to be in the cast ... it is all about the drama (good, bad, and the ugly). Some shows are not to bad, like American Idol, but on the whole I must say that I long for the news and a good new mini-series (maybe the Knight Rider or something). I have enough odd drama around me and I surely don't want to add to that stress with some nighttime soaps or weird reality TV.
Q2 - Foreign Relations: NO! The reports I've heard are that Fidel's brother is even more rough than Fidel himself, and Fidel's brother is next in line to be the leader of Cuba. Fidel is supposed to keep an active role in the Cuban government, which is even worse. We need to see some movement towards a more free Cuba before lifting the embargo. I do think our US Presidency needs to encourage a more free Cuba, and we should invite the new leadership of Cuba to meet here on US soil to discuss and plan the future of Cuba.
Q3 - Stamp It: Never thought of it really ... Maybe they should put a picture of the dollar bill on the stamp, since it is heading that way anyhow. I am glad my wife just moved to online bill pay!
Q4 - Lineage: My wife can trace her family back to Adam (and Eve). For my side, I really am not ready to know! My brother says he can trace back 5 (or so) generations though ... I just can't get past the stories of Uncle Pete .
Oh Brother: Seriously, I don't think people are that nasty till the cameras come on. Some of those reality show "stars" have said they're prompted to pump up the nasty level. And then there's the editing which can spin it all over again.
Cuba: I'd love to see Cuba opened up. I like all those old cars. But evidently they are still holding lots of political prisoners, and if they let them all out there won't be enough parts for the cars. So it's pretty unlikely to change.
Stamp: I believe a stamp should be issued honoring the king of all sitcoms, Sherwood Schwartz. It could be a series of stamps featuring cast members from his best shows Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch. Hmmm lets see...Ginger, Mary Ann, or Marsha?
Lineage: I can get as far as Noah, but there's a lot missing in between.
Q1 - I have watched BB in the past. I have been watching BB9. I think it is one of the worst displays of media I have ever seen. This season is ridiculously over-dramatic and not about game-play. (I know, that wasn't your question.) Much of the BB environment - isolation, no distractions, creative casting - is fodder for this type of human behavior. I certainly wouldn't extrapolate these idiots and their lewdness out to the human race as a whole.
Q2 - Let's give it some time. I don't know if Castro's brother is a trustworthy guy.
Q3 - Give Quentin Tarantino a stamp. Put a gun and fake blood on it.
Q4 - Reliably, only like 4 generations. But I have found someone else who posted one of my lines online and it goes back to 1550 and traces our family's immigration from Surrey, England to Virginia in the 1600s.
1. Sounds like what MTV plays 12 hours a day. Well it's pretty mindnumbing, but then again so are check cashing loan commercials. It's all mind pollution, I would like to purge the lot of it "this town needs an enema!" (batman reference...er yeah) The Wire is where it's at! It's more reality than that junk
2. We embargo Cuba, yet they still allow us to keep brown people there for us to torture? (hypocracy? nah) hmm I think it's not going to change, but if it's because of human rights, we should take a look at ourselves.
3. I would like to see steve irwin on a stamp playing a horsshoe crab as if it were an electric guitar.
4. My gramps...dude I haven't looked so I kind of suck at this one
1. Reality shows are engineered for sparks and controversy, and the castmembers are chosen to fit specific roles, but being 'on' only magnifies the traits that they already embody. I don't necessarily think that it's good, but it does reinforce that exterior good looks are no guarantee that the person inside matches the packaging.
As to human nature being 'that bad,' I tend to think that it is. Our goal-oriented, win at any cost culture has made people hard and cruel as long as their actions don't have direct consequences to them or people they care about.
2. The embargo should have been dropped decades ago. The US has done business with communist countries for decades, so why single out Cuba? Because they have political prisoners? Unlawful confiscation of land and property? Human Rights violations? Ever hear of a couple little countries named China or Russia? Cuba is a conveniently small country within our hemisphere available to bully as an economic proxy for what our politicians wanted to do to the USSR and China before it became profitable to do business with them. Nowadays, the embargo has to be continued because the Cuban expat/refugee community demands it of our politicians who have promised that they will someday return to their former lives as if nothing ever happened, unlike Russian or Chinese refugees from communism who were told to suck it up and be thankful that they got out alive.
Don't get me wrong... the current regime in Cuba is reprehensible, but you can bet that if Wal-Mart determined that the Cuban economy could generate billions of dollars of profits through a combination of trade and slave labor wages like China does, the embargo would be dropped in a heartbeat.
3. Edgar Allen Poe. The background would either be a bust of a raven or an image of a human heart.
4. My mom's family disappears at my great grandparents. Dad's family? The late 1600's
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