That is not Politic?

On this week's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Sarah Jessica Parker uses the phrase "that's not politic." I guess I don't get out enough in wealthy leftoid circles to know that "politically correct" has been reduced to one word, and that is the context that she used it.

It was on the tail of her gem that there used to be signs in NYC that said "No Irish, No Entertainers, No Jews, No ..." Which is another new one on me. Her rendition of the "No Irish, No Negroes, Need Apply/Served Here/etc." now includes "entertainers."

While looking for a reference to, well anything that could be called research, related to this "No" sign, I found this interesting paper by Richard J. Jensen from 12/12/2004:

"No Irish Need Apply":
A Myth of Victimization
Abstract (the whole article at the link)

Irish Catholics in America have a vibrant memory of humiliating job discrimination, which featured omnipresent signs proclaiming "Help Wanted--No Irish Need Apply!" No one has ever seen one of these NINA signs because they were extremely rare or nonexistent. The market for female household workers occasionally specified religion or nationality. Newspaper ads for women sometimes did include NINA, but Irish women nevertheless dominated the market for domestics because they provided a reliable supply of an essential service. Newspaper ads for men with NINA were exceedingly rare. The slogan was commonplace in upper class London by 1820; in 1862 in London there was a song, "No Irish Need Apply," purportedly by a maid looking for work. The song reached America and was modified to depict a man recently arrived in America who sees a NINA ad and confronts and beats up the culprit. The song was an immediate hit, and is the source of the myth. Evidence from the job market shows no significant discrimination against the Irish--on the contrary, employers eagerly sought them out. Some Americans feared the Irish because of their religion, their use of violence, and their threat to democratic elections. By the Civil War these fears had subsided and there were no efforts to exclude Irish immigrants. The Irish worked in gangs in job sites they could control by force. The NINA slogan told them they had to stick together against the Protestant Enemy, in terms of jobs and politics. The NINA myth justified physical assaults, and persisted because it aided ethnic solidarity. After 1940 the solidarity faded away, yet NINA remained as a powerful memory.

And now, an actress wishes to add entertainers to the myth.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

The Carolla Media Blitz is ON!

Trigger Warning: Adam Carolla, Don Imus, and Glenn  Beck mentions follow.

Adam Carolla and his Batchelder fireplace

From just a couple of observations, it looks like an Adam Carolla media blitz is on.  I happen to be a big fan of The Aceman since his Loveline days.  Nowadays, something from his site is streamed on my computer nearly every day.

Don Imus, notsomuch.  Yesterday I was tired with my local morning radio stations and happened to catch him talking about Adam Carolla.  I figured Ace was back in the news for something like this, and I stopped to listen.  No news item was mentioned, but Imus waxed on a bit about how smart and funny Adam is.  And he is, at least in the opinion of his many fans, so there is no revelation there.  However, the article contains a reference to President Me: The America That's in My Head, his new book.  Maybe it was this Salon article, that Adam spoke about on yesterday's podcast.  At any rate, Imus didn't mention that article or he didn't bring it up while I was watching, he just spent a few minutes talking about Adam Carolla, on a show that doesn't talk about anything without a sponsor.

This morning on the Glenn Beck show, I caught him quoting a comedian to the effect of - "when is the LGBT community going to raise hell about the lack of Jewish roofers?" I know that is not exact, but those elements caught my attention and, sure enough, the segment was all about Adam Carolla.  Almost as if Bernard Mcguirk had sent Imus' script over the Beck's people and it was reworded, the repeated points were how smart and funny Adam is.  Beck added that Adam is a very good businessman too.  The Adam Carolla love lasted a full segment.

If Adam mentions those guys on his shows, I missed it.  He mentions Dennis Prager sometimes and is a guest on Prager's show too, so I'm not seeing any reciprocity action here.

I know, two data points are not evidence, but there are a lot more than two data points here.  We have two shows at opposite ends of the audience spectrum talking about the same thing, the same way, within 24 hours of each other.  As a listener to talk radio for most of my life (yea, I was that kid) I can say that when certain things come up on several shows in this way, it is part of an advertising campaign.

From years ago I recall the Dawn Dishwashing liquid claim of washing a zillion dishes being discussed on several shows in the same week.  I think they got Stern, Roe Conn, maybe even Loveline, and the Don and Mike show to talk to them about the claim.  All of those shows tried to come across as independently finding this claim as outrageous and having Dawn representatives on the phone for at least half an hour to talk about it.  Sounded like an advertising campaign that was outlined, if not completely scripted.

They all did something similar when Queer Eye for the Straight Guy made it onto cable television.  Every week, some element of the show was discussed for half an hour.  They didn't have show representatives on every week or anything, but when Roe Conn is describing his shaving style as "I can't just go with the grain, I have to go both ways" the day after Kyan Douglas was featured on Queer Eye giving detailed shaving instructions, and all of the other radio shows were talking about that episode too, one wonders.

So, let the book tour begin!  And good luck to Adam in his new movie Road Hard, which sounds a whole lot like Jerry Seinfeld's Comedian.  But hey, how many different ways can you do a documentary about hard working comedians traveling all over the country?

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Tina Fey: Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

In today's episode, Jerry Seinfeld chauffeurs Tina Fey around for some chat, laughs, and coffee.  Tina was the first female head writer of Saturday Night Live, and starred on 30 Rock.

From Crackle: Tina Fey: Feces Are My Purview

Today's car is a red 1967 Volvo 1800S, 4 cylinder 105 HP, top speed 109 MPH, courtesy of John Holtzapple.  One of Jerry's neighbors has driven his over 3,000,000 miles.

Tina Fey reveals that she does not drive and she knows very little about how to drive.  That link goes to a post highlighting different aspect of her brilliance.

The comedians have their coffee in Harlem, at the Cuban restaurant Floridita, 2276 12th avenue New York, NY 10027.  Jerry has a little trouble finding the silver Acura SUV product placement vehicle for this episode.  While walking to the restaurant, they pass the world famous Cotton Club, or at least a building with that name on it.

At Floridita, the pair first order wheat-puff milkshakes, and then after Jerry's probative interrogation, Tina crumples like cardboard to a and blowtorch reveals that in the next year she would like to write another movie.  Eventually they start drinking some coffee.  They chat about holidays, both high and Christian, then Tina mentions her home feces duties.  She also postulates licensing Twitter users.

Eventually they drive over to The Village (Greenwich Village) for a cronut at the Dominique Ansel bakery 189 Spring Street, New York, NY, 10012, .  On the way, they pass a photoshoot on the 100 block of Greene Street of a model with a  fake (Jerry's conclusion) Porsche Spyder 550.  Jerry introduces Tina to Dominique, and the pair enjoys many tasty treats with more coffee.  At one point (about 13:30) , Jerry wonders if there are any Progressive coalminers.

Later Tina describes her writing session with Chris Rock, where all of the writers received $5,000 and a Rolex watch.  Louis C. K. was at the same gathering and told his version of the session in an earlier episode.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Tina Fey, Genius

Tina Fey, the genius of two coasts...

Fey: "Your kids, where are they on Santa Claus?"
Seinfeld: "Well, we're Jewish."

See the whole trailer here.
Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee: Todd Barry

Jerry's Guest is Todd Barry, dry humorist from The Bronx, New York.

Todd Barry gets coffee with Jerry in this weeks'

From Crackle: Todd Barry: So You're Mellow and Tense?

Season 3, Episode 4
Jerry borrows Kim de Bourbon's 1966 MGB Roadster, Tartan red, black leather interior. 89 HP, 4 CIL, 1.8L engine and it is Todd's first ride in a real sports car.
Episode begins in the East Village, New York.
Jerry takes his first trip EVER through a tunnel in a convertible.
They talk about the Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips.
Todd's famous orange joke is a recurring item.
They visit The Cyclone at Coney Island.
Jerry talks about his famous bumper car joke.
They have their first coffee at Tom's in Coney Island.
Then they visit Nathan's for hot dogs, then top it of with a bags of candy dessert from a candy store.
Jerry informs Todd that the NYC Marathon begins on the bridge leaving Staten Island, so the first steps of the race are out of Staten Island.
Afterwards, the boys go to a fancier coffee house, Everyman Espresso, 136 E. 13th (East Village location) where they have to wait for a table.  They waited for a short while and walked out.

Interestingly, the logo for Everyman Espresso (on left) looks a lot like the logo for the Fifth HOPE hacker's conference.

Logos: Everyman Espresso vs. HOPE 5

I heard somewhere that the Fifth Hope logo was inspired by the 1860 Democrat Convention, but I could be misremembering.  I thought I heard it in an audio file by the creators/decorators for the event.

As usual, a great show by Jerry Seinfeld!
Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Not Regulated Enough Already?

I recently watched the latest installment of Dr. Robert Lustig’s war to regulate sugars (he calls it something else) in the American diet.  Dr. Lusting is a celebrated physician in the regulatory world, and I suppose he knows his way around a human body as well as any government licensed physician.

His chat was not so much about physiology as it was about public policy. It seemed to be directed at scaring the fat-pants off of everybody listening in order to forward his public policy view that sugars are not regulated enough. He invoked that Supersize Me documentary, where a fellow intentionally ate too much at McDonald’s and fell ill from a month-long binge.

However, something more subtle appeared to be going on. In his chain of evidence and persuasion, he mentioned something curious: “Societal intervention says that your abuse of a substance has to affect me in a negative way for us to regulate it. For instance, nobody is saying we should regulate caffeine. Your use of caffeine does not affect me.”

Well, nothing could be further from the truth.  Caffeine is already heavily regulated, even though your use of it does not affect me.  Bonus, there are all sorts of people in power who think it is addictive.

The amount in soft drinks has been strictly regulated decades. The FDA literally has a book on it. This has also been going in the United Kingdom for quite some time too. Next year the regulations in the UK become more intense. The amount of caffeine in each serving of a non-coffee or tea based drink is already strictly regulated as well.

It might seem a bit harsh to criticize Dr. Lustig for being unaware of this particular fact, since many people are unaware of caffeine regulations. Then again, it is hard to find anything in America that is unregulated. Most people remain unaware of this fact, though as far back as a 1990s college marketing class, we were informed that there were some 40,000 regulations on a hamburger. Lustig, however, is selling a program of increased regulation. He could at least be expected to be aware of the current regulatory climate.

Returning to caffeine, the federal government has been pressing its flight crewmembers to stick to “3 to 4 cups of coffee” or equivalent limit for decades. A US Navy version: “Caffeine ― Excessive caffeine from coffee, tea, cola, etc., can cause excitability, sleeplessness, loss of concentration, decreased awareness, and dehydration. Caffeine intake should be limited to not more than 450 mg per day, or 3 or 5 cups of coffee.” A US Army Aeromedical manual gave similar advice, and cautioned: “Caffeine is also addictive, and continued use builds tolerance. Over time, people must ingest increasing amounts of caffeine to obtain the same physiological and behavioral effects.”

In 1985, during US Army flight school, our instructor mentioned that high levels of caffeine could be used as a pilot error factor in an accident investigation. However, I never once heard even the hint of that happening in reality.

In 2013, even Jay Leno thinks caffeine is addictive:

Which brings me back to Dr. Lustig’s talk. His contention rested on the notion that “nobody” was talking about caffeine because it does not have a negative effect on society. Well, the federal government has already bought into the notion that it is addictive, correctly or not. Also, his criteria for a negative effect on society is suspect; literally anything can qualify: “If you smoke or drink or take drugs, that is bad for me, because of secondhand smoke, car accidents, declining housing prices when your house turns into a coke den. Also work productivity and absenteeism.”  Shouldn't the employer be the final arbiter of what level of productivity and absenteeism he will tolerate, no matter what the cause?

On that secondhand smoke nonsense, I direct you to a couple of physicians and a community college dropout with some staggering findings via a long term study on secondhand smoke.  Conclusion: No correlation in lung cancer due to secondhand smoke (Journal of the National Cancer Institute direct link is behind a paywall).

More to the point, the FDA is already talking about expanding its regulation of caffeine: FDA to Investigate 

Added Caffeine

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that, in response to a trend in which caffeine is being added to a growing number of products, the agency will investigate the safety of caffeine in food products, particularly its effects on children and adolescents. 

Michael R. Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine at FDA, answers questions about his concerns and possible FDA actions.

One of their top items for scrutiny: waffles.

The article goes on to outline how the FDA plans on studying how to regulate jelly beans, waffles, gum, water, syrup, and other products that might contain caffeine―under the guise that it is about children’s health. The same article notes that since 2010 the FDA has forced the withdraw of caffeinated alcoholic beverages from the market. The latter was widely publicized in the Four Loko saga , three years ago.

Yet, we still have physicians preaching that caffeine is not regulated in the United States. The reality is, it is nearly impossible to find any product that is not regulated in the United States, and those who love a good regulation don’t mind adding more to the mix.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Jay Leno's First Cup of Coffee

In the new Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Jay Leno thinks caffeine is an addictive substance.  Jerry Seinfeld drives Jay around in a 1949 Porsche 356/2 (number 40 of 52 produced) and Jay has his first cup of joe ever at Jones Coffee Roasters in Pasadena, California.

Funny jokes are told by all.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

"How Would You Kill Superman?"

PATTON OSWALT

"How Would You Kill Superman?"

(Sorry, I have not cracked the code to embedding the show here)

PATTON OSWALT

"How Would You Kill Superman?"

In this week's Jerry Seinfeld adventure, Jerry and Patton Oswalt discuss how one might kill Superman while Jerry's borrowed 1981 DeLorean DMC 12 is attended to by the on-call mechanics who have to follow those cars around.

Patton's first acting role was in the Seinfeld episode "The Couch," Season 6, Episode 5 which originally aired on October 27, 1994.

The DeLorean breaks down with engine coolant dripping from the right side exhaust pipe, but Uber comes to the rescue with a 2012 Honda Accord SE, driven by trusty Armenian born driver Uri, to take the stars to their coffee shop of this episode, "The Handsome Coffee Roasters."  The shop is in downtown LA on Mateo, which Oswalt describes as "slowly turning into Brooklyn."  BTW, HCR carries no sweeteners, so remember to bring your own.

The biggest surprise for me in this episode was discovering that Keith Olbermann is back to announcing sports.

The most fun was Jerry asking Patton about the "downtown LA starter kit" which turns out to be the general hipster doofus ensemble that fits into any downtown or campus, from LA to Knoxville: Messenger bag for laptop, goofy looking but expensive sneakers, weird dog, be very white, read Salon.Com, be all about diversity while still being secretly afraid of other races.  No bright colors either.  Pretty much the same sort of person in real life as Elaine's Communist boyfriend character on Seinfeld (Season Six, Episode 10, "The Race").

As usual, a great show.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ