Hollywood Magic Is Dead

A few years ago, while sitting in front of the television with a friend, this trailer for the then new, Kangaroo Jack, prompted me to turn to her and say, "That's it. Hollywood has officially run out of ideas." Little did I know then that I was well off the mark.

Generation: Socially Inept

“I think it is kids’ preference to pair up and have that one best friend. As adults — teachers and counselors — we try to encourage them not to do that,” said Christine Laycob, director of counseling at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School in St. Louis. “We try to talk to kids and work with them to get them to have big groups of friends and not be so possessive about friends.”

“Parents sometimes say Johnny needs that one special friend,” she continued. “We say he doesn’t need a best friend.”

Link

Sometimes, There Is Really Not Much To Say

I've never heard of UPROXX. I've never read anything on their site. However, this makes them awesome. I had long considered writing up a post about everything that's wrong with television, and almost did it today. When I saw this scathing slam at creepy TLC programming, I decided that my take on the horrors of television can wait another day. This is a must read.

Asshole Spotlight: Janice Eberle

Illegally parking in a handicapped spot is something that society as a whole frowns upon. The reasons for this should be obvious. A person with a disability would have trouble getting from the far end of the parking lot to their destination while a person without a disability should have no trouble walking the distance. To illegally park in a handicapped spot takes a special kind of disregard for others, and even the most hardened asshole would never admit to doing it, nor would they protest being ticketed for the act, as it would bring attention to the fact that they illegally parked in a handicapped spot to begin with.

Janice Eberle, however, is different from other people, though probably not in the way she likes to imagine. Slapped with a $300 ticket for parking in a handicapped spot in a Danvers, Massachusetts BJ's, she has decided to sue the town of Danvers.

MSN: Where Almonds Are the Only Constant

I suppose I began to read MSN (UK version here) at around the time that I created my first dummy Hotmail address. I don't remember ever actually seeking this site out, or having anyone say, "Hey, Beagle, there are some great articles and hard hitting news here..." Yet somehow, over the years, both the US version and the UK version have ended up in my list of bookmarks.

Over the years, I have developed a love-hate relationship with MSN. The message boards and comment sections for articles on both sides of the pond tend to attract people on the low end of the human evolutionary scale, and can provide both cheap entertainment and horror all at once. It's no wonder they do, for outside of actual news, they make an art form of fluff, repetition, and contradiction.

The World Cup Scandal - Oh My!

The big outcry this week, because people have nothing better to bitch about in this world, are the World Cup sponsors, such as McDonald's, Budweiser, and Coca Cola. The World Cancer Research Fund is outraged...no OUTRAGED that instead of choosing healthy sponsors to promote a healthy lifestyle, FIFA has gone with fast food, booze, and soda.