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An Old School Story
Will Ferrell with a tiger face painted on is enough to get anyone’s attention.
But wait! If you keep watching and reading, there’s more!
Off the wall and goofy? Yes. Funny and entertaining? Yes.
But inspiring? Also yes.
I, like you, am still hoping that Will Ferrell will pull a similar prank at a Home Depot…on a Saturday, of course. And, if there’s time, he’d venture over to a nearby store.
Rest assured, if his professor friend is with him, then there would definitely be time for Bed, Bath & Beyond.
Swap & Pop, Said Fred
And you thought the only difference between East Egg and West Egg was money.
You can say “Gatsby,” where the vocal range is aimed up with a splash of authority or “Gatsbee,” where the vocal range goes exactly straight out with no hints of, well, anything.
SNL-alum and impersonating savant Fred Armisen has a special skill that involves detecting the molecular, distinguishing accents from country-country and city-city and, quite possibly, from neighborhood street-neighborhood street in the same community. If you listen carefully during the video clip (and in everyday life), we all speak with a unique dialect.
However subtle, it’s there.
We should all burnish our current skills at acute vocal observations of the human condition, especially the next time you travel throughout Germany.
Doug E. Doug is shaking his head in disappointment. Fred Armisen was clearly missing his lucky egg.
Apple’s Core
Taking a bite out of Apple isn’t as easy as one may think.
The pivotal debate of national security versus personal liberties is shining its spotlight on revolutionary tech giant Apple because the FBI insists that a “backdoor” be created to peek inside an iPhone of one of the San Bernardino, California terrorist attackers. From 36,000 feet, most Americans support our nation’s security forces doing whatever they can to learn, infiltrate and defeat terrorist cells and networks. And reasonably so. However, when Americans zoom-in from the birds eye view of this complex, serious situation (from a drone in the sky, you could say), the collective damage this individual request poses gives reason to push back.
Precedent is inevitably what’s at stake.
Once a government can legally force the hands of a public company consisting of private citizens to do its bidding, regardless of outspoken reservations and, more bluntly, refusing to perform such a service after careful consideration, the door then swings wide-open for an uncertain expansion of said questionable action.
What kinds of expansions? How will this affect you? Will this security measure definitively makes us safer or will it expose us to a myriad of unforeseen digital invasions?
There will never be a perfect balance between the equitable assets of national security and personal liberties. Each situation needs to be dealt with individually and with a fresh set of eyes with considerations to the past and future, especially in an increasingly connected world/digital grid. Moments will arise when tough security responses must be green-lit with immediacy, as well as difficult scenarios when security officials should practice restraint for the sake of protecting the bigger issue(s) at hand.
Should Tim Cook’s Apple “open” the San Bernardino phone? He says no.
Does co-founder Steve “The Woz” Wozniak think Apple should “open” the San Bernardino phone?
Apple vs. The FBI will directly influence how the United States (and possibly its allies) combat the guerrilla terrorism used by ISIS and similar terrorist networks for the foreseeable future, especially as technology continues to evolve and expand.
The stakes in this dispute are insanely great.
The Big Man Under Fire
- Frannie’s Turn
- Grace Under Fire
- Cybill
- Dharma & Greg
- Two and a Half Men
- The Big Bang Theory
- Mike & Molly
- Mom
- And Future #1 Comedies To-Be-Created
The man behind-the-curtain of all these sitcom hits is Chuck Lorre.
Clearly, he is the sitcom king of network television. When I’ve been in the audience for live tapings of The Big Bang Theory (including its pilot) and Two and a Half Men (including the series finale), I’ve always looked for Chuck Lorre on the floor. He’s a bonafide TV star. However, the ride hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the mega producer.
(Charlie Sheen and Angus T. Jones, cough-cough)
And as the interview below reveals, Mr. Lorre has faced adversity in many forms, from crazy outbursts from his actors to uptight studio executives.
Speaking of uptight…
That vanity card was probably one of the censored ones.
Jimmy's Daily Planet 