Hello. Welcome to the Gene Pool in its inaugural attempt at filling Thanksgiving week, an enterprise that will be a bit abbreviated on account of nobody gives a crap about this sort of thing on Thanksgiving week, when we are all overeating and over-excreting.
That truck-nuts Wikipedia entry is great. My favorite parts:
"In 2011, a 65-year-old South Carolina woman was ticketed by the town's police chief for obscenity displaying truck nuts on her pickup.[6][7][8][9] The case, originating in Bonneau, South Carolina (population approximately 480), was pending jury trial on her $445 traffic ticket. The case was continued three times and no new trial date was set.[10] According to the Above the Law legal analysis blog, the ban was discussed in the ABA Journal and presents constitutional freedom of speech questions.[11]"
And:
"The stated position of the Honolulu Police Department on obscene decor on vehicles, such as 'exaggerated male genitals hung from rear bumpers', as stated in 2013 by their city corporation counsel's office, is that '[it] may be tasteless but it's protected as free speech.'[12]"
I'll assume by the way it's framed that the hypothetical in Q&A about the publication of a collage of aborted fetuses is for discussion purposes and not the usual rabid right attempt at deflection and false equivalency --- although, it was clearly prompted by the WaPo article on the carnage inflicted by easily obtained AR-15s and similar semi-automatic long guns. There is nothing even vaguely equivalent about extremely rare legal terminations later in pregnancy (1% of abortions occur at or after 21 weeks), overwhelmingly for medical reasons --- and the willful, premeditated murder of many in seconds by a single shooter. Unless, of course, secular law is somehow considered irrelevant. Beyond the issue of consent raised directly by Ted Dreyer here and obliquely in Gene's answer --- which is a legal consideration even for the release of law enforcement crime scene images --- the purpose of the image(s) and the article itself would raise serious questions about journalistic integrity. Simply labeling an abortion "late term" is meaningless and is, in fact, considered to have no medical meaning by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. So, such an article would simply be propaganda and the image(s) providing nothing but cheap, cynical shock value --- hardly "courageous journalism," let alone responsible journalism.
As a public service, and a way to briefly counteract those Hallmark movies that are starting to show up, here's a segment from the classic "Turkeys Away" episode of the TV series "WKRP in Cincinnati" (runs 5:50). Note: No turkeys were harmed in the making of this episode.
Thanks for reminding us of that episode. Hilarious!
A printing salesman once told me of a somewhat similar incident, only true (I take his word for it) and actually worse:
A former client in NYC had a brilliant marketing idea to promote his company’s brand of wieners to shoppers in-store. A fleet of large cardboard hot dogs, each hanging by string from a helium balloon floated around the grocery store. The promotion was quite successful. That was, until the balloons floated high enough to come in contact with the incandescent lights that hung from the high ceiling. They then became flaming debris that rained down on the screaming, terrified customers!
Apparently the "WKRP" episode is based on a real, similar promotion but in Texas, and involving turkeys tossed out of the back of a pickup truck --- with pretty much the same effect.
Once again you have enlightened me, Gene. I had never heard of truck nuts, and couldn't imagine what they were as I began reading this column, until I read about the position of the Honolulu Police Department on obscene decor on vehicles. Now I just ask, "Why are these even a thing?"
Happy to share. It's a look into the amazing subject of literary creativity, and as a literary genius, I am happy to share. I originally wrote that no one would object if I wrote "fucknuts," but then decided "truck nuts" was funnier, and looked it up because I knew what they were, but great journalists such as myself do Research.
I'm dietarily challenged, and I hate the crowds in the grocery stores, especially for these items that no one should eat in such excess. I did too, could still, and I'm not a prude, but how good is it? Just a little is really great. Honestly, none? Don't really miss.
I appreciate not seeing such explicit footage as the detail would be more emotionally disturbing than the footage. And if it were there, you would have to see it. Then regret it. I think this would be a normal response. Also, the captured soldier joke with, instead, a tiger that ends up purring is to me an important image in that joke.
Gene, I think that your recommendation to use the picture of Budd Dwyer with the gun in his mouth just before he pulled the trigger, was the correct call. It is the perfect example of Henri Carteir-Bresson's "decisive moment." Running that picture would have prompted many readers to recall the photo of the VIetnamese national police chief shooting a Viet Cong operative in the head during the Tet Offensive. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/saigon-execution-1968/
The decision to publish graphic or disturbing images would, in the best of all possible worlds, where journalistic ethics (what a quaint term) still more or less universally mattered, be relatively easily adjudicated. Is the image essential to telling the story ? Can the complete story be told just as effectively without the image ? I'm afraid, however (with few exceptions...), such considerations now too often fall victim to the cutthroat online competition for eyeballs and decreased attention spans.
A major difference in the comment about publishing images of fetuses as opposed to murder victims, is the element of consent. They would certainly need the consent of the woman involved to publish photos of aborted fetuses and it is hard to imagine why any woman would give consent for that. It isn’t like publishing crime scene photos since it isn’t a public event.
Of course, there is a constitutional tension between the bereaved family's right to information privacy and the government interest in releasing crime scene or other forensic images, as well as the media assertion that their publication is often in the public interest.
Pretty sure I saw that joke about the lawn-guy sleeping with the woman of the house in a WaPo column maybe 20-30 years ago. It was claimed by a Black columnist dressed in crappy clothes for lawn work, speaking to a Black driver passing by and wondering about getting work in the neighborhood. The point of the joke at the time was to make a point about social assumptions concerning Black persons in well-to-do neighborhoods.
I was waiting for someone to reference the Carl Rowan story from the sixties. I can't remember if it was in his column in The Washington Post or just a story he told...but a quick Google search shows the story has also been told of (or by) Thurgood Marshall, Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, Groucho Marx, and others...and must pre-date them all if it appeared in an Idaho newspaper 60 years ago...wait, that would be around the same time as the Carl Rowan column in the Post. "Tempus sure does fugit, don't it."
Sorry, I just gotta fan-boy here for a moment. Barry Polisar commented on my comment! Somewhere around in the storage locker full of my Mom's stuff we have My Brother Thinks He's a Banana on vinyl. When we first moved to Maryland back in '72, the local TV station had a story on this odd guy who was performing irreverent, ridiculous, and authority-challenging songs, which motivated my money-starved parents to go out and get this album for their sweet l'il childrens, my sister and me. This is my brush with greatness!
Oh, how I love this! That album was my second one, released in 1977 and I've gotta tip my hat to your parents for finding my albums back when they were pretty hard to find...and to you for remembering them so fondly after all these years. I often lost fans from 13-17 and then picked them up again in college...and truth be told, I think some of my biggest fans might have been the grown ups who enjoyed the irreverence. Of course there were others, who did not: https://barrylou.com/on-censorship/
Although I just checked your bio and it says I must have the dates wrong, because it says you started performing in '75, when I was already 13 and "too old" for such fare. Hah!
My grandfather said that to a woman in a Cadillac who stopped to ask what he was paid for the yard work he was doing. This was in Idaho and occurred more than 60 years ago (I am very old).
Yes, that was the point of the joke (which I submitted). I think it is more pointed, however, if the questioner is White. (Not sure why this is not showing as a reply to Tim's post, as I am pretty sure I clicked Reply.)
That truck-nuts Wikipedia entry is great. My favorite parts:
"In 2011, a 65-year-old South Carolina woman was ticketed by the town's police chief for obscenity displaying truck nuts on her pickup.[6][7][8][9] The case, originating in Bonneau, South Carolina (population approximately 480), was pending jury trial on her $445 traffic ticket. The case was continued three times and no new trial date was set.[10] According to the Above the Law legal analysis blog, the ban was discussed in the ABA Journal and presents constitutional freedom of speech questions.[11]"
And:
"The stated position of the Honolulu Police Department on obscene decor on vehicles, such as 'exaggerated male genitals hung from rear bumpers', as stated in 2013 by their city corporation counsel's office, is that '[it] may be tasteless but it's protected as free speech.'[12]"
"hung" hawhawhaw
I'll assume by the way it's framed that the hypothetical in Q&A about the publication of a collage of aborted fetuses is for discussion purposes and not the usual rabid right attempt at deflection and false equivalency --- although, it was clearly prompted by the WaPo article on the carnage inflicted by easily obtained AR-15s and similar semi-automatic long guns. There is nothing even vaguely equivalent about extremely rare legal terminations later in pregnancy (1% of abortions occur at or after 21 weeks), overwhelmingly for medical reasons --- and the willful, premeditated murder of many in seconds by a single shooter. Unless, of course, secular law is somehow considered irrelevant. Beyond the issue of consent raised directly by Ted Dreyer here and obliquely in Gene's answer --- which is a legal consideration even for the release of law enforcement crime scene images --- the purpose of the image(s) and the article itself would raise serious questions about journalistic integrity. Simply labeling an abortion "late term" is meaningless and is, in fact, considered to have no medical meaning by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. So, such an article would simply be propaganda and the image(s) providing nothing but cheap, cynical shock value --- hardly "courageous journalism," let alone responsible journalism.
Any such article showing aborted fetuses would be nothing but a far right-wing attempt at false equivalency.
As a public service, and a way to briefly counteract those Hallmark movies that are starting to show up, here's a segment from the classic "Turkeys Away" episode of the TV series "WKRP in Cincinnati" (runs 5:50). Note: No turkeys were harmed in the making of this episode.
https://youtu.be/HiSkjcl9yW4
Thanks for reminding us of that episode. Hilarious!
A printing salesman once told me of a somewhat similar incident, only true (I take his word for it) and actually worse:
A former client in NYC had a brilliant marketing idea to promote his company’s brand of wieners to shoppers in-store. A fleet of large cardboard hot dogs, each hanging by string from a helium balloon floated around the grocery store. The promotion was quite successful. That was, until the balloons floated high enough to come in contact with the incandescent lights that hung from the high ceiling. They then became flaming debris that rained down on the screaming, terrified customers!
Apparently the "WKRP" episode is based on a real, similar promotion but in Texas, and involving turkeys tossed out of the back of a pickup truck --- with pretty much the same effect.
I’m slightly ashamed that I never recognized the Tofurkey / “faux turkey” spoonerism until the WaPo how-it’s-made article pointed it out.
(https://wapo.st/3uvLTdA)
I’m surprised Gene was surprised by the poll. I hope I’m not alone in finding jokes about necrophilia unfunny.
Well. I'm sure there might exist necrophilia jokes that I would find funny, but not that one.
"Homosexual necrophilia is not all it's cracked up to be," said Frank, in dead Ernest.
Once again you have enlightened me, Gene. I had never heard of truck nuts, and couldn't imagine what they were as I began reading this column, until I read about the position of the Honolulu Police Department on obscene decor on vehicles. Now I just ask, "Why are these even a thing?"
My brother was one of the reporters at Budd Dwyer's "press conference." He still won't talk about it to this day.
No one else wonders why Gene was researching truck nuts?
Happy to share. It's a look into the amazing subject of literary creativity, and as a literary genius, I am happy to share. I originally wrote that no one would object if I wrote "fucknuts," but then decided "truck nuts" was funnier, and looked it up because I knew what they were, but great journalists such as myself do Research.
I'm dietarily challenged, and I hate the crowds in the grocery stores, especially for these items that no one should eat in such excess. I did too, could still, and I'm not a prude, but how good is it? Just a little is really great. Honestly, none? Don't really miss.
I appreciate not seeing such explicit footage as the detail would be more emotionally disturbing than the footage. And if it were there, you would have to see it. Then regret it. I think this would be a normal response. Also, the captured soldier joke with, instead, a tiger that ends up purring is to me an important image in that joke.
Gene, I think that your recommendation to use the picture of Budd Dwyer with the gun in his mouth just before he pulled the trigger, was the correct call. It is the perfect example of Henri Carteir-Bresson's "decisive moment." Running that picture would have prompted many readers to recall the photo of the VIetnamese national police chief shooting a Viet Cong operative in the head during the Tet Offensive. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/saigon-execution-1968/
The decision to publish graphic or disturbing images would, in the best of all possible worlds, where journalistic ethics (what a quaint term) still more or less universally mattered, be relatively easily adjudicated. Is the image essential to telling the story ? Can the complete story be told just as effectively without the image ? I'm afraid, however (with few exceptions...), such considerations now too often fall victim to the cutthroat online competition for eyeballs and decreased attention spans.
A major difference in the comment about publishing images of fetuses as opposed to murder victims, is the element of consent. They would certainly need the consent of the woman involved to publish photos of aborted fetuses and it is hard to imagine why any woman would give consent for that. It isn’t like publishing crime scene photos since it isn’t a public event.
Of course, there is a constitutional tension between the bereaved family's right to information privacy and the government interest in releasing crime scene or other forensic images, as well as the media assertion that their publication is often in the public interest.
Pretty sure I saw that joke about the lawn-guy sleeping with the woman of the house in a WaPo column maybe 20-30 years ago. It was claimed by a Black columnist dressed in crappy clothes for lawn work, speaking to a Black driver passing by and wondering about getting work in the neighborhood. The point of the joke at the time was to make a point about social assumptions concerning Black persons in well-to-do neighborhoods.
I was waiting for someone to reference the Carl Rowan story from the sixties. I can't remember if it was in his column in The Washington Post or just a story he told...but a quick Google search shows the story has also been told of (or by) Thurgood Marshall, Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, Groucho Marx, and others...and must pre-date them all if it appeared in an Idaho newspaper 60 years ago...wait, that would be around the same time as the Carl Rowan column in the Post. "Tempus sure does fugit, don't it."
Sorry, I just gotta fan-boy here for a moment. Barry Polisar commented on my comment! Somewhere around in the storage locker full of my Mom's stuff we have My Brother Thinks He's a Banana on vinyl. When we first moved to Maryland back in '72, the local TV station had a story on this odd guy who was performing irreverent, ridiculous, and authority-challenging songs, which motivated my money-starved parents to go out and get this album for their sweet l'il childrens, my sister and me. This is my brush with greatness!
Oh, how I love this! That album was my second one, released in 1977 and I've gotta tip my hat to your parents for finding my albums back when they were pretty hard to find...and to you for remembering them so fondly after all these years. I often lost fans from 13-17 and then picked them up again in college...and truth be told, I think some of my biggest fans might have been the grown ups who enjoyed the irreverence. Of course there were others, who did not: https://barrylou.com/on-censorship/
I enjoyed your blog post. I'd never heard of you nor heard any of your songs or read your books, but I suspect I would like them.
Although I just checked your bio and it says I must have the dates wrong, because it says you started performing in '75, when I was already 13 and "too old" for such fare. Hah!
My grandfather said that to a woman in a Cadillac who stopped to ask what he was paid for the yard work he was doing. This was in Idaho and occurred more than 60 years ago (I am very old).
Yes, that was the point of the joke (which I submitted). I think it is more pointed, however, if the questioner is White. (Not sure why this is not showing as a reply to Tim's post, as I am pretty sure I clicked Reply.)
"Your Mother's on the Roof" was a local program decades ago which ran for years in Boston. The title was, of course, from the joke many have heard.
Yes, many have heard that joke, including me, years ago.