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R.I.P. Andy Rooney: Original Blogger

14 Nov

November 14, 2011

In honor of Andy Rooney’s recent passing, here is my post from last year in which I argue that Andy Rooney was the first and original blogger. I’ve added some new links and edited out a dead link so if you read this the first time, you can still enjoy some new Rooney goodies.

From September 28, 2010

The Urban Dictionary defines “blogger” as a term used to describe anyone with enough time or narcissism to document every tedious bit of minutia filling their uneventful lives.

It does not, however, speculate on who the first blogger was. For that honor, I nominate CBS 60 Minutes contributor Andy Rooney.

Since 1978, every week near the end of the show, they give Andy a few minutes to talk about whatever is on his mind. Typically, there doesn’t seem to be much going on up there. One week he blathered on about all the plastic bags he has laying around. He didn’t talk about recycling them, he didn’t suggest uses for them, he merely pulled them out of his desk drawers and from various places around his office and showed them to the camera.

“This one is from Waldbaum’s.”
“This bag says ‘I Love New York’ on it. Good thing I do.”
“I seem to have gotten this bag at a Waldenbooks, but I can’t seem to recall when I ever shopped there.”

It went on and on like that.

I think that Andy Rooney clearly inspired a whole generation of observational comedians. Listen to Andy Rooney and you can plainly hear the genesis of Jerry Seinfeld: “What’s the deal with carrying things? What’s the deal with plastic bags?”

And “What’s the deal with modern music”?

ANDY ROONEY LOSSES TOUCH WITH MODERN MUSIC:

I suspect that the real reason he has lost touch with modern music is that he is 91 years old!

According to CBS News’s biography of him, “Rooney wrote his first television essay, a longer-length precursor of the type he does on 60 Minutes, in 1964, ‘An Essay on Doors.’ From 1962 to 1968, he collaborated with another close friend, the late CBS News correspondent Harry Reasoner – Rooney writing and producing, Reasoner narrating -on such notable CBS News specials as ‘An Essay on Bridges’ (1965), ‘An Essay on Hotels’ (1966), ‘An Essay on Women’ (1967), and ‘The Strange Case of the English Language’ (1968).

Give the man credit for consistency- he hasn’t changed a bit in over 40 years. As the man himself wrote in a letter, “Let’s face it, even on the nights when I’m good, I’m not that good.”

I’ll end now with a question I’m sure we all want answered:

WHAT’S IN ANDY’S DRAWERS?

ANDY ROONEY DOESN’T LIKE E-BOOKS

ANDY ROONEY ON CHRISTMAS

 

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Imponderable #25: West Sussex England (w/ John Travolta)

11 Nov

November 11, 2011

I’ve never had a lot of respect for John Travolta, either as an actor or a person.

As an actor, I think he is a step above microbes but without the range of fungus. Now before you start yelling “Saturday Night Fever!” I grant you, that is a great film. And I further grant you that he is prefect in it. But he is more or less playing a moron. Not a big stretch. Want more evidence of his lack of acting ability? Battlefield Earth. ‘Nuff said.

As a person I have nothing against him, and I am not going to bring up his son’s tragedy out of respect, though I think he made many wildly wrong decisions regarding his son. However, it does bring up another strike against him, Scientology. You may recall that Scientology is a religion that was totally made up by a bad science fiction writer. But if you have seen Travolta on talk shows you know he isn’t the brightest star in the sky so the Scientology thing doesn’t come as a shock..

And that brings up another point. Why is he still a star? His career is based on a pair of films (Grease and Saturday Night Fever) that he made 40 years ago. Yes, he has Pulp Fiction in his résumé but thank Quentin Tarrantino for that film’s success. By the way, type “John Travolta” into imdb.com and it says “best known for Pulp fiction (1994).” That was 17 years ago!

And now this:

Oh how the paunchy have fallen.

Whoever the employee was that told Barbarino to get in line with everyone else had it right. Big deal, John Travolta gets to cut in line because he’s from Hollywood? Screw that; wait for your extra-crispy like the rest of the world.

But this kind of underscores my point. Would Anthony Hopkins have been turned down?

More to the point, would Anthony Hopkins have tried to reserve a table at a Kentucky Fried Chicken? Nobu it ain’t.

How out of touch is Travolta? Did he really think that KFC has a celebrity section? This is the typical Hollywood crap that Scientology reinforces. He’s special. Of course any old fast food place would have a VIP section. And of course he would never wait in line. He’s the guy in drag from Hairspray!

How out of touch is this guy?

What is wrong with the world where washed up actors think they can reserve a table at KFC of all places? And worse, what is wrong with the world that people let them get away with nonsense like that?

Why do people treat actors like they are more important or better than the rest of us?

The question is Imponderable.

And that KFC spokesman at the end of the article is a toad.

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