Noted in Passing 2011/02/06

1 - Headline: "Bar fight Escalates into Melee"

1.  "bar fight" - most everyone knows what that means. Many have actually been participants.
2. "escalates" - this a bit harder, maybe advanced 12th grade or maybe some college English required.
3. "melee" - rarely used, college English major or History major. melee: a confused hand-to-hand fight amount several people (a brawl)

Judging from the videos, "melee" was the correct choice, with at least a dozen or more involved with no visible organization! How did this slip through the wallahs at the local TV station? Back in the days, when news had to pass by an editor, it would have been dumbed down to "Bar fight turns into drunken brawl". Have we actually got an intelligent reporter out there?

2 - To fill the enormous amount of air time before the Super Bowl, they were having the usual inane celebrity interviews, one of which was with Jennifer Anniston and Adam Sandler.  It drifted into a comparison between her hair (it was windy) and his bad movies. The comparison ended up undecided!

3 - Of course, my mind drifted into musing about where Jennifer fits into the scheme of things. She seems to be in the tradition of silly, adorable, lovable, one note personnas ala Carole Lombard, Zazu Pitts, Lucy, Suzanne Summers, Farrah Fawcet, Meg Ryan, Reese Witherspoon and so on who seems to fit a need for light comic, romantic relief in each generation (though Lucy, Farrah, and Reese can also do serious drama). Catherine Hepburn, Julia Roberts, and some others were/are capable of switching between this persona and many others (I deliberately discount Sandra Bullock, who, IMHO, is not credible in any genre). Heaven forbid that Jennifer could do anything but look cute, smile, and whimper. 

Reading between the lines, she seems to be a shallow, boring person, though very, very rich. Brad Pitt mentioned that she always had to go to the same Mexican Restaurant every Thursday night and have the same order. She seems incapable of making any long term romantic liaison. She seems to take almost all of her vacations with Courtney Cox. She is most famous for her one note character, Rachel, from "Friends", and most of her awards have been from the Teen Choice Awards or People's choice awards, mostly also as an also ran. Have you noticed how television has slid from such cutting edge programs like the various anthologies featuring top rate actors (so and so presents), Cid Caesar, Ernie Kovacs, Phil Slivers, Lucy, All In The Family, to such mindless pap as "The Seinfeld" and "Friends". (shame on you, Capt. - resorting to gossip)

(when are they going to get a college educated Spell Check!)

TTFN

(Bright)