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Are you happy now?
by anna at 07:18 PM on September 02, 2005
ZX11XOH brands me as bigoted (actually I think he said "bigotted" but what's a typo or too among friends.) So now I know how Bob Dylan must have felt when he took the stage at 1966's Newport Folk Festival with organist Al Kooper and an electric band later known as The Band. The folkie purists in the crowd booed them off the stage.
And maybe it's true. But I'm not half as bad as KKK spokesman and frequent Howard Stern guest Daniel Carver.
I keep a radio on at work. The volume is set at a murmur level, more for background noise than anything else. I listen to Howard, then the Junkies, turn it off for blowhard Bill O'Reilly and then back on for Don & Mike. One fine morn, an African-American woman plopped herself down at my desk, seeking advice about a case. She always reminds me of Chris Rock's rant about how silly it is that people call Colin Powell "well-spoken." "Did he have a stroke or something..." She is quite articulate with a great sense of humor. She never says "axe" unless referring to a hatchet. So she's asking her question and who would come on the murmuring radio but Mr. Carver. My heart sunk as he drawled something along the lines of, "Filthy n____s ain't nothin' but monkeys dressed up in clothes. Worse'n dogs, even Koreans won't eat 'em."
Like a fart in a crowded elevator, the slur was audible but we both tried to ignore the ignorance fillling the air. At that point I had two choices: 1) Keep it on and leave the impression that maybe I feel that way too; and thus sit around listening to racists spewing their awful hatred. 2) Turn the damn thing off and call more attention to it. What would you do?
Later the same morning my boss plopped himself down at my desk to discuss the next business initiative. He wanted my input. Howard was interviewing some porn skank and as is his custom was playing the soundtrack of a porn movie in the background. It was replete with heavy breathing, moaning and some very demeaning talk directed at the moaning woman. I am surprised the FCC lets him get away with that. I thought there was a prohibition against explicit depiction of sexual relations over the airways.
I sure wished there were at the time. It is very difficult to be taken seriously in a business environment under those trying circumstances. I felt much the same way as I did several years ago when I stepped on the elevator with that boss's boss. We were the only ones in the elevator at first. Us and a lewd picture torn out of Hustler or something. The girl was slathered... There was this unmistakable feeling that somehow I had something to do with the offending presence of that picture, even though I had no inkling how it got there. As the elevator filled up, the collective discomfort was palpable. Eventually a guy picked it up as if picking up dogshit and tossed it in the trash.
So how's that, ZX? Normal enough? Can you relate? Or would you rather I write about wreaking my frecking cars?
comments (10)
I hear ya, anna...
...some folks are glued to tv coverage of katrina because it's like watching a train wreck...
...others watch because they would like to fuel a misguided sense of indignation...
by lockheed at September 2, 2005 7:32 PM
Hey anna,
Tell us about the time you wreaked you car while you were bonin' that skank ho.
That's my favorite story.
Maybe ZX needs to get Emeriled
by Long Time Lurker at September 2, 2005 10:14 PM
Anna, I'd advise you to invest in a pair of headphones.
Also, wtf is "normal" and why would I want to read about someone's life that was exactly like mine? The majority of literature and entertainment is written about people most of us would never likely meet in real life. Gatsby, Batman, Hamlet. It is an escape to read about someone else's life. Reading Anna's odd take on the world is like reading a science fiction novel - an entrance into another universe with its own, albeit unfamiliar, laws and customs. Sure it can be a little much at times (not so much his fault, as the rest of ours for not being around to dilute it without our own odd takes on the world), but it is always interesting, or at least uncomfortable, in ways sitting down and reading a page from your own diary never could be.
by mg at September 3, 2005 8:09 AM
I admit I've been glued to the Katrina coverage. I just don't understand human nature anymore. And yes it's true, my experiences have been atypical and maybe that is why the posts can seem so strange.
I wasn't boning the skank whore, she was actually sleeping with her head in my lap. But that isn't what the cop thought.
Headphone! What a great idea. And MG, what you said really does mean a helluva lot to me.
by anna at September 3, 2005 2:45 PM
Old whatisname's Anti-Anna rant struck me as more than a little over the top. Much of your writing is of a very different type than any I read elsewhere, or write myself. Then again, it's obvious that your current and past life is much different than mine. Like MG I find a pure Anna diet a little much at times, but that's the fault of the rest of us, not you. Keep up the flow of words... and don't let your detractor (1? only 1? out of 350+ posts?) get your goat.
I happen to detest talk radio myself. when I'm forced to listen to it or nothing, (reception in rural areas and the like) I choose nothing. Can't stand overly opininated people in real life, let alone on the radio. Most overly opininated people seem to have a habit of not letting facts get in the way of a good argument either. bleech
by chuck woolery at September 3, 2005 11:24 PM
Thanx. And that is why the radio goes off when Bill O'Reilly starts railing against whatever bug has crawled up his ass that day. Blowhard doesn't begin to described this opinionated a-hole.
by anna at September 5, 2005 1:17 PM
You can do that? I have an iPod. What's the deal?
by anna at September 7, 2005 7:44 AM
Anna, if you have a stock radio (ie one without external inputs) you have to either use one of those inputs that use a fake cassette (boring and only available if you have a cassette player) or... get one of the newfangled fm transmitter thingys. The fm transmitter attaches to the headphone out and broadcasts at a set frequency.
see: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16855999603
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16855997717
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16855999405
Don't have one myself, and can't say which one would work best.
by chuckwoolery at September 7, 2005 10:48 AM
I've used an earlier version of the Belkin, and it worked fine. However, if your car has a tape deck I'd recommend getting some kind of tape deck car kit adapater for two reasons: better sound quality - the transmitters broadcast a weak fm signal which can cause static and just generally flat sound. The other reasons is battery life - the belkin transmitter uses batteries die pretty quick. It looks like the other two don't (guess they run on the ipods battery?) so if you want to take a chance...
by mg at September 7, 2005 12:18 PM
I use the cassette adapter cause it's cheaper (about 10-12 dollars). I also bought a cigarette lighter charger (about 20 dollars) so it doesn't use up the battery on my Ipod. But if I had to choose the transmitter I would go with the Itrip. I think it transmits a clearer signal.
by Long Time Lurker at September 8, 2005 7:51 PM