Month: March 2011

Lately whenever I’m channel surfing and I see that something is on PBS that looks interesting, I go to it and–lo and behold–either I hit a pledge break, or I watch for maybe five minutes and then, stop the music, stop everything, time for a pledge break.

Understand that this is purely anecdotal, but it seems to me there used to be a lot fewer pledge drives, and now it’s literally whenever I happen to tune in. Now for all I know it’s just that they only run shows of interest to me during pledge drives, but jeez. Unless I record stuff so that I can buzz past the pledge drives, it’s pretty much impossible to watch the channel.

I don’t even want to think what it’ll be like if government funding goes away altogether.

PAD

The Red Cross is accepting donations earmarked for earthquake and tsunami relief. You can go to their website at www.redcross.org.

Alternatively–and what we’ve just done–is that you can text REDCROSS to 90999 from your cell phone which will result in a $10 donation.

Help if you can.

PAD

Because you see what’s going on there and you say, “Cheeeeeez.”

Passing a law that strips an entire union of its right to collectively bargain? What the hëll is up with that?

“We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…”

There it is, right there. The spirit of combining power in order to gain collective strength and be able to protect mutual interests, right there in the preamble to the Constitution. We’ve got “United” in our country’s name, for God’s sake.

It’s appalling, and the only thing more repulsive than the GOP ramming this through is the fourteen Democrats who headed for the hills rather than stay and try to slug it out. I am so dámņ sick of Democrats rolling over when it comes to a fight. And this time it’s teachers who are paying for it.

Please tell me that a lawsuit’s going to result from this. For all I know, it’s a First Amendment issue. The Supreme Court has protected the rights of jáçkáššëš to fling insults at funerals and the rights of big business to try and influence elections. If talking is protected speech, and money is protected speech, how is talking about money NOT protected speech? We draw the line of free expression at teachers assembling and speaking with one voice saying, “This is what we want?” How is THAT fair?

PAD

First of all…tempting fate by opening on March 15 was always a lousy idea. Even key cast members weren’t sanguine over the notion of opening on the Ides of March. How do I know? Reeve Carney, Broadway’s “Peter Parker” and a really nice guy, told me. Where’d I encounter him? At the Broadway Bears auction on Sunday. (Sorry the picture’s a little blurry; lighting wasn’t the greatest).

The announced push back comes as no surprise (although the reports of Julie Taymor supposedly departing are startling.) Anything that could be done to fix the show before March 15 would have been mere bandaids, and what the show really needed for long-term health is a tourniquet, which is what a several month delay at this point amounts to. By all reports, the second act is still a major problem (and the bizarre number about shoes remains in place for no explicable reason.) But the assertions that the show can’t be fixed are simply wrong. There’s nothing in the script that can’t be repaired. To me the delay just shows that they’re determined to do what needs to be done so that the story and score is able to match the much higher quality of the visuals.

PAD

I remember reading that Kunal Nayyar, who plays “Raj” on “The Big Bang Theory,” was getting short shrift in the salary department while everyone else in the cast was getting serious bumps.

I can’t help but observe that since Charlie Sheen had just been fired, you should have some additional money lying around. So how about giving some more salary love to the cast of the smartest half hour of comedy on television.

Even if Raj is wrong headed about Aquaman.

PAD