Month: August 2015

Team Coco! (January 16, 2010)

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conan2

Isn’t it comforting to know, when you might be going through a period in which you can’t do anything right, when everything you touch turns to shit, that you can always look around and find someone or something more lost and confused than you? That touchstone for me right now is legendary TV network NBC.

Unless you have spent the last couple weeks spelunking, you have heard about the whole mess. Last Fall, the Peacock network gave The Tonight Show to the funny, red haired one and moved the tired old man to primetime. Though I think everyone in the free world could envision that a primetime show each and every night with Jay Leno would end up destroying viewership for everything else that aired, NBC thought it knew better. It in fact went into a mode of self-congratulation for its out of the box thinking and cost cutting savvy.

Fast forward four months and NBC has a real debacle on its hand. The Jay Leno show has been mercifully cancelled. But instead of giving Big Chin his walking papers, the next bright idea was to put him on at 10:35 PM (local time) and bump Conan’s program back to 11:05, which on the East Coast actually means The Tonight Show would air the next day.

Well NBC clearly didn’t count on someone having the integrity to put history before their own financial gain. But this is precisely what funnyman Conan O’Brien has done. This week he issued this statement:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/conan-obrien-statement-i_n_420521.html

Huzzah! So NBC, which has done nothing but bungle this whole situation, beginning six years ago when it promised The Tonight Show to O’Brien, found itself railroaded by a man with a Harvard education. And now, Conan’s people are saying that next week Friday will be his last air date – a mere 7 1/2 months after the first. On so many, many levels, what a shame.

Conan is a class act. I never liked Jay Leno on late night before, and especially after this outrage, I will never make an effort to try. As for me, and many others, it will take a long time to forgive the network. It is almost, but not quite, enough to make me stop watching Community.

Which End is Up!? Turns 1! (January 13, 2010)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

Blog Birthday

Exactly one year ago today, Jen of All Trades wrote the following post:

http://whichendisup2day.blogspot.com/2009/01/premier.html

This introduction ushered in Jen’s brand of uniquely relatable Everymom/Career Woman humor. The next day, she asked her frustrated writer sister, languishing at an administrative management job from hell, if she’d like to get off her duff, stop daydreaming about putting her work out there, and actually, you know, start producing.

A lot has happened since Jen published her first post. As Which End is Up?!celebrates its first birthday, let’s pause and reflect on some of the changes in our own lives and the world at large:

 

    • America’s leadership – Out with Dubya (mercifully), in with Obama

 

    • Inspired by the creative juices that began to flow as I wrote my own posts, I finally mustered the courage to leave corporate America and follow my dreams. In less than a year, I have published six articles for StreetWise (two of which have been nominated for awards by the Illinois Woman’s Press Association), over a dozen theater and book reviews for Edge Chicago, and two well received articles for Jettison Quarterly.

 

 

There is so much more, but birthdays are just as much about looking forward as they are about looking back. On a personal note, I want to thank my co-blogger and sister from the bottom of my heart. Her idea for this collaboration knocked something loose inside me, something exciting and scary that I am not sure would ever have come dislodged without her kicking me in the pants. Jen is more than a sister to me – she is an inspiration on so many levels.

But we write for more than just ourselves on these pages. We want to hear from you, your impressions about the work we’ve done the last year. Is there something you’d like to hear us talk about? Anything we could be doing better?

With Democratic Friends Like These, Our President Needs No Enemies… (January 12, 2010)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

Blagojevich: “I’m blacker than Obama”
Former governor, in a somewhat bizarre interview, goes off

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2010/01/11/blago

Reid’s Obama comments could worsen Democrats’ woes

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1153214&lang=eng_news&cate_img=83.jpg&cate_rss=news_Politics

Sigh. What the hell is going on here? Where is this crap coming from and why now, all of the sudden, from Obama’s own party? It’s like the Democrats have a death wish regarding the 2010 mid-term elections.

This makes me so apoplectic, I don’t even have words to form an argument. I am just disgusted.

Thoughts?

Brace/Off (January 10, 2010)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

Sisters with Pretty Teeth 001

The photo above was taken yesterday afternoon when Jen dropped KK off at my apartment for one of her periodic overnight visits. This time out, the aunty/niece agenda included a three course meal at the Olive Garden (beloved by both KK and I), then a trip to the bowling alley for two games of cosmic bowl, with a splash of air hockey and Dance, Dance Revolution. I was ready for bed at 10:30 PM.

Anywhoo, those who are familiar with my face may notice a distinct difference upon viewing the snapshot. That is right – after 25 years of fleeing from cameras, scowling at people and covering my mouth when I spoke in public, I am free at last. No more snaggle teeth, and no more braces!

22 months of orthodontic treatment have taken me to a moment in time I could only fantasize about in my teens and 20s, a world where I can laugh at a joke without panicking that if I open my mouth too wide, I will disgust people (including myself). I cannot overstate what a source of shame, ridicule and sadness my crooked teeth have been to me for about as long as I can remember – the result of a first grade radiator face plant. But rather than dwell on unpleasantness, I would rather mention the tears of elation I shed on Friday morning in Dr. Colleen’s chair, my orthodontist, as she debuted the new Me to the most disbelieving of audiences – myself.

I really feel like a different woman now. It may sound shallow or vain, but the removal of my braces is truly one of the happiest events in my entire life, not withstanding the births of Jen’s girls and a few other milestones. This moment however, unlike a birth or wedding, is just for me, the first instance I can recall since six years of age when I can gaze in the mirror and genuinely appreciate the person looking back at me. Self-love has never been easy, and when it has come, I have only ever been able to recognize my inner worth. Outwardly? Well, the same way that Jen labeled me the “smart one” on Day 1 of this blog (which is a misleading label as my sister is clearly up there with the brightest), I was accustomed to idolizing her as the “pretty one.” I probably always will, as Jen is one mad hot MILF, but at long last I can allow that maybe, just maybe, I am not too shabby looking myself.

That’s huge. It’s impossible for anyone, even those who love me the most, to fully grasp just how big. I feel I have been let out of prison: the real, beautiful, confident and fabulous me locked away, for years, in an ivory tower of embarassing chompers. If I can overcome 25 years of shame by giving myself the keys to a vast self-esteem improvement, there’s probably nothing I can’t do. In my own socially responsible way, that makes me dangerous. I may even learn to smile.

Four Studying Days Left (January 7, 2010)

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I received an early morning text message yesterday from my good friend Timbo. It read: “So who are you voting for?” I felt that familiar old panic.

Because you see, good citizens of Illinois, I somehow fell asleep at the wheel again and neglected to realize the 2010 primaries were upon us. Timbo remembered that I had taken a vow in late 2008, after the whole Blago/Roland Burris dustup, never to cast an ignorant local vote again. For I must sadly own, my friends, I voted for deposed Governor Blagojevich, not once, but TWICE. I pay lavish attention to national elections, for years sometimes prior to the first vote being cast. But when it comes to my own backyard, I fall behind on who is in play and what they stand for. Why? Is this because Illinois elections are not covered on CNN or in the pages of the New York Times?

Be that as it may, there is no excuse for my lack of attention. There are so many critical issues and bureaucratic messes confronting the City, County and State. But it is not too late! With a little over four days left to cram and make decisions on who to throw support behind, I have found this handy tool an asset:

http://www.uselections.com/il/il.htm

It gives a pretty great summary of each open office, with links for additional information on the individual candidates. How did I not know we were operating without a Lieutenant Governor? For shame.

About the only vote I am sure of right now is that of the Democratic primary for Governor. I am likely to give Pat Quinn another chance. He has done the best he can with a very bad economic and PR situation post-Blago, and has managed to keep his nose reasonably clean in the process. After that I am not too sure. But I put you on notice Timbo: I will not go the ballot box unprepared this coming Tuesday.

Have you decided who should take the State of Illinois into the next decade?