If you go to Baltimore, and select Tyler Perry movies, you get a map of every neighborhood in Baltimore to stay out of.

Harry “light-skinned” Reid has been named 2009 Mormon of the Year (presumably by some Morons).

I’d like to get in an early nomination of Spazmo for the 2010 Fat Jerry Why Can’t We Just All Get Along Award and Nominal Stipend

As always:

1.  No wagering permitted;
2.  Negro dialects optional.

Also if anyone ever says “netflixing” to me I will punch them in the crotch (man or woman).

If you’re talking about the bad neighborhoods where the cops don’t go, are there really postal workers delivering netflix to those locations?

Anyway, as for the title, yeah, that was intentional. I had bets in my head on who’d be the first person to say, “Is that a verb?”

I lost, and owe myself $5.

The neighborhoods I want to avoid in the greater New York area are fairly well outlined by Star Trek and the Transformers, two movies that some asshole made me watch. They do well in Staten Island, other areas I’d rather not spend a great deal of time exploring.

Also on that list, Bride Wars and He’s Just Not That Into You. That’s the female equivalent of the above.

(presumably by some Morons)\

I really did intend that to read Mormons

If you’re talking about the bad neighborhoods where the cops don’t go, are there really postal workers delivering netflix to those locations?

Ah, my little sleuth, who even mentioned “neighborhoods where the cops don’t go?” I’m talking about Woodlawn, for example. Places you’ll see once you get to know the city you live in.

I just feel compelled to say that if there’s a racial bias to the conversation, it might be with someone who would assume that “bad” is synonymous with “black.” As in a neighborhood you stay out of (a bad one) must be black one, when Baltimore has plenty of bad white neighborhoods to avoid as well. If someone looks at a performer like Tyler Perry and sees his work as being “for black people” I’d say that’s a bit racist. Just because Tyler Perry has dark skin doesn’t mean that all African-Americans enjoy his low-brow humor. I know lots who don’t, and I’d have no problem driving through their neighborhoods… in fact I’d be a lot more frightened driving through a neighborhood that rents “Larry the Cable Guy.”

I’d venture to say that a performer who’s African-American might actually have more dimensions to their work than just their skin color. Tyler Perry’s low-brow humor is the sort that appeals to socioeconomically disadvantaged people (much like “Larry the Cable Guy"). Tyler Perry appeals to a less educated, socioeconomically disadvantaged demographic that, oh yes, also happen to be black.

If anyone really wants, I can look up a crime map and show anyone that there tends to be a correlation between crime and socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Baltimore, but a a cerain young woman might prefer that I join her in watching her DVR’d reality show “The Biggest Loser” tonight (I wonder if people in Staten Island watch that)?

Anyway, my point is, that some of those disadvantaged, dangerous neighborhoods in Baltimore that I just mentioned are full of white people who watch their own brand of low-brow garbage, comparable to Tyler Perry’s. I’m not afraid of those neighborhoods or people because they’re white, but because of the crime in their neighborhood.

But really, I don’t think the accuracy of what I said is in question, nor is anyone sugggesting that my comment was racist; it was just an unfashionable thing for an educated white person to say and hothouse flowers wilt at such vulgarity.

For that, I apologize, I don’t mean to yuck anyone’s yum.

And I think “netflixing” is kind of kicky.

a cerain young woman might prefer that I join her in watching her DVR’d reality show “The Biggest Loser” tonight (I wonder if people in Staten Island watch that)

Wow. You really don’t know about New York, do you? You think on Tuesday night Staten Islanders are turning in to watch fat people cry? During American Idol? Good god. Never. Besides, there’s a gay man on that show. And last season they had that big Yay-Obama episode. No, Biggest Loser is more a Manhattan-Brooklyn phenomenon.

I would call your crass dismissal of the most-awesomest-TV-show-on-(on-Tuesday) “fightin words,” but you called me “young.”

I don’t mean to yuck anyone’s yum.

I’ve heard that somewhere.

And last season they had that big Yay-Obama episode.

They only had a Yay-Obama show because of his lack of negro dialect.

I’ve heard that somewhere.

Whaddya want, a footnote?

A reflection on some of the odder zip code tastes can be found here.

Spazmo it was a light-hearted jab but I know the compulsion to defend yourself when someone suggest it. For the record I don’t think you’re racist. Sexist maybe (depending of course on who’s defining that), but not racist.

You did say Tyler Perry movies and not Larry the Cable Guy movies.  That means neighbourhoods with black people. Sure lots of black people don’t like Tyler Perry for a number of reasons.  The white viewing audience for Tyler Perry’s stuff has to be miniscule and probably not statistically measurable.  If you did an on the street survey I doubt 2/20 white people would know who Tyler Perry is.  I’d guess ~14+/20 for blacks. 

\I thought you and LP were an inter-racial couple.

Also I don’t think there was anything wrong with Reid’s comments (other than the poor political wisdom of making them). 

An interesting tidbit. Maybe. Sam Rubin is an entertainment reporter in L.A.  He went to Occidental College with Barack Obama (Obama tranferred to Columbia after two years).  According to Rubin, Obama went by *Barry* back then.  No idea whether that was simply a nickname or a self-determined anglicizing of his name. I don’t know what he went by when he was doing coke in Chicago.

Anglicizing

That means neighbourhoods with black people.

Sure, but that wasn’t the reason I was suggesting to avoid them. And I knew you were just poking fun. No biggy.

But seriously, Me? Sexist? I’m intrigued.

Oh, wait! Maybe you mean all the sexist stuff I used to say to a certain knee-jerk, I’ve-spent-way-too-much-time-in-grad-school person? That was all meant to antagonize. It was my own stupid, knee-jerk reaction in a way. Or more than in a way. Or in more than a way.

I’d heard that Obama went by Barry. He also kind of looked like a Barry in pics I’ve seen from those days. He looked like a hug.

I was partly taking the piss with the sexist comment but yes also alluding to those old exchanges. That’s hilarious if that stuff was all contrived Spaz.  It’s always hard to read subtleties and nuances online.  At the time I just guessed your comments were informed by some messed up life experience like from working in the p0rn industry or whatever.

Actually, you were right. It did come from a messed up life experience - I used to date someone like her. But, it was also contrived as I knew all the right buttons to push. I was just winding her up as I’d learned that you can’t really get anywhere in a discussion with someone that irrational. However, I went way too far and looked like a jerk (as LadyP has informed me) and I kind of ratcheted it down a bit. As it turned out, being calm and methodical in explaining myself pissed her off even worse, so it was kind of a win/win for us.

The porn industry is weird, but mostly because of the drugs and stupidity. I kind of kept out of that. Mostly.

As a side note, pornographic material itself (separate from what you’re discussing) actually had no effect on me at all… or anyone else I knew back then. I know a woman who edits porn films eight hours a day, seven days a week and has done so for a decade. She’s a very sane and healthy person. I always think of that when someone argues that it’s addictive and makes people perverts and whatnot. I’d love to have them meet the moms and wives and husbands who look at it all day and lead very happy lives.

As it turned out, being calm and methodical in explaining myself pissed her off even worse, so it was kind of a win/win for us.

You, not necessarily us. In the end, she was mad at me too for multiple reasons (as far as I can tell, they went something like, being a shitty admin/dating you/not telling you off when y’all argued, which actually I frequently did behind the scenes, but anyway, and probably other reasons that I am too blind/dumb/narcissistic/apathetic to see), but I was certainly not trying to alienate or banish anybody. I just want that clear. I’ve only banished one person: HWSNBN, and that was after a physical threat. I actually tried very hard to smooth things out with the lady in question, until it became pointless/impossible/too much drama, and then I gave up.

On the subject of porn I saw an interesting documentary the other night on CBC about the cultural saturation of porn with instant online access.  It was discussing the current generation of children that has grown up with access to extreme content from the get go.  Seeing porn back in the day was so different. I think we’re all old enough to remember as kids somebody getting a playboy from their Dad’s stash or whatever and catching first glimpses of nudity.

When I first thought about this a few years ago, I thought Oh well it’s a good thing to burst the (you’re not allowed to see it so it’s so much more enticing) taboo appeal and also get over some of the puritanical prudish nonesense in the U.S.

I think that’s the way it is working out for most well adjusted kids but of course there are now kids who are getting messed up watching porn 24/7.
And of course you have 14 and 15 year olds uploading mobile phone pics of them doing oral.  When we exercised bad judgment back in the day there wasn’t a lingering record of it to haunt us for years to come.

which actually I frequently did behind the scenes

Only that once from what I remember, and it was justified because I was just antagonizing her. Other than that, it was pretty much her blowing up and you requesting was that I ignore her, which is a silly thing to ask someone to do when they’re not able to voice they’re opinions because someone else flies off the handle when their thoughtless PC offesensitivity is triggered by people who live in reality.

I actually tried very hard to smooth things out with the lady in question, until it became pointless/impossible/too much drama, and then I gave up.

Right. So she realized her nonsense didn’t play out here and left. Now I can think and speak, and you aren’t being attacked. Win/win for US.

When we exercised bad judgment back in the day there wasn’t a lingering record of it to haunt us for years to come.

I’m really scared for kids today. The permanence, public (global) record of their mistakes/humiliation/ostracism are like a sci-fi nightmare.

I remember seeing a girl talking about how a video of her being beaten up was posted online, and all the kids in her school were leaving comments making fun of her… even the ones she thought were her friends. “Devastating” doesn’t even touch that.

LadyP and I were in a shop in ChinaTown and some 10-year-olds were having a fragfest against each other and one boy said “I’m gonna rape you,” to the other. I realize that things change, and at one time Elvis’s hips frightened people, but Jesus, there’s an issue of violence and non-consent there.

That to me is worse than kids watching porn.

That was weird.

This would be a great opening line to a story:

LadyP and I were in a shop in Chinatown where some ten year olds were having a fragfest with each other, and then it got weird.