From Dave Weigel at Slate, “WWE Invents Odious Tea Party Character As Part of Publicity Stunt, Suckers Glenn Beck“:
The backlash started with Alex Jones’ InfoWars. Over the weekend, the WWE introduced a new wrestler/manager character, “Zeb Coulter,” who used his time at the mic to commemorate President’s Day and attack illegal immigrants. This enranged the Internet, as obvious attempts to enrage the Internet seem to do. Alex Jones lept on it first. Then Glenn Beck, who retains a (surprisingly boring) radio show and a subscription-based video channel, got angry about it….
If we’re inexorably falling into a “moment” of talking about this show, let’s give Beck some credit: The WWE is endorsing the pop culture consensus that opposition to immigration reform is 100 percent motivated by racism. Conservatives don’t have all that much pop culture backing them up on anything—gay marriage, birth control, increasingly even support for Israel. And now they’ve lost WWE, the organization that brought us the Iron Sheik.
Also via Weigel: That number again!
Arc of history, it’s on our side.
srv
Yep, you’re winning – best possible guy to run the Pentagon is an anti-gay marriage anti-abortion conservative. Onwards and upwards.
SatanicPanic
It should be noted that the McMahons (who own the WWE) are Republicans, maybe there’s more to it than just WWE trolling?
The Other Chuck
@SatanicPanic: Republicans yes, teabaggers no — at least that’s the perception they may be trying to create. The rift in the Republican party is growing deeper and wider, and I for one am tickled pink to see it.
FormerSwingVoter
Open thread?
…I’ll just leave this link right here, then. Creepiest gun ad ever, or what?
Alison
@FormerSwingVoter: Good lord. Ew.
Waynski
I think we should all use wrestler names on comments from now on. Can I be Rowdy Roddy Piper?
cokane
Weird too considering Linda McMahon (twice failed Ct Sen candidate) is pretty strong tea party person
SatanicPanic
@The Other Chuck: Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. I wonder how much influence the WWE actually has in red states.
Thor Heyerdahl
Oohh Yeah!
http://youtu.be/WVnPRKvCMEU
Elbow smash off the top rope to the Tea Party.
Or to quote the late Ed Whalen – Stampede Wrestling announcer – “There’s a malfunction at the junction!” and “It’s a ring-a-ding-dong-dandy!”
http://youtu.be/e_PkFrNpy9U
wasabi gasp
@cokane: But a stronger Opportunist person.
Mike E
@Waynski: Wooo! You gotta walk that aisle!
Sly
The guys who do the Tea Party characters actually did something kinda cool in response to the hubbub.
Carnacki
“Iran No. 1. Russia No. 1. America? Ptoooey,” Iron Sheik
NotMax
Sheesh.
Just shy of 5 inches of rain in this little pastoral neck o’ the woods on Thursday, and within the last 10 minutes the skies have opened the spigot full blast again.
@Waynski
Dibs on Gorgeous George.
raven
@NotMax: Same here, rained all day yesterday and sposed to rain through this afternoon.
NotMax
Winter storm warning at highest elevations (over 10,000 feet).
That’s more than a dusting of snow on the ground showing up on the Mauna Kea webcam.
raven
@NotMax: Could be a fun sunrise!
Baud
@Waynski:
I want to be the Junkyard Dog.
WereBear
I haven’t watched wrestling since my brothers were fans in the ’70’s (who was that guy who beat on his head with a board?) but I do like Rowdy Roddy; he was in some neat movies.
If the Tea Party wrestler does the Face Turn, will they become a Progressive? ‘Cause that would be awesome!
gene108
@Sly:
More than being loyal Republicans, the McMahon’s are really, really into making money.
If 20% (per the Zeb character) of the McMahon’s U.S. audience is Latino, along with an undisclosed number of fans in Mexico and other parts of the Spanish speaking world, the McMahons knows which side their bread is buttered and will cater to those guys.
For McMahon money trumps ideology.
Linda
@SatanicPanic: This here’s a choice quote in the Infowars story:
“WWE programming reaches 14 million Americans every week – and millions more worldwide. To put it in context – that’s more than 10 times the amount of viewers who watch America’s top rated news show, The O’Reilly Factor.”
Trot that one out when somebody blathers to you about Fox kicking MSNBC’s ass. The truth is, nobody much watches news shows the way they do entertainment.
geg6
@srv:
Yeah! Because the guy who runs the Pentagon is the guy who is in charge of all marriages and reproductive choices! And Obama will throw all his support for same sex marriage and women’s choice out the window because OMG CHUCK HAGEL!
Other than some of the stupid shit T&H posts, this might be the stupidest comment I’ve ever seen on BJ.
WereBear
The further truth is, the big media corporations want them to be the same thing.
geg6
@Waynski:
I’m in but I’m going old school. Just call me Bruno Sammartino.
debbie
I heard part of his ranting. Beck practically called for jihad against Linda McMahon.
Linda
@WereBear:
True enough. But now that the culture is shifting left, even conservative media owners will go with it (because they gotta follow the buck.). Even if it means some conservative-bashing. In conservative news outlets, like Fox News and Drudge, you will see the same conservative politics, but more prominence given to non-political stories like dead white girls and celebrity slut-shaming.
Lurking Canadian
@WereBear: If I remember correctly, guy-with-board was Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
Snarla
The name is great. Hey, did you know ‘zeb’ means ‘penis’ in Arabic?
WereBear
@Lurking Canadian: Thanks! That was a wild, very low budget, time. It’s certainly ramped up the production values since then.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Waynski I call Wahoo McDaniel.
Nunca el Jefe
I’m a little disappointed. If no one is going to do it then I call dibs on George the Animal Steele AND Randy the Macho Man Savage. I have to give props to whoever took Hacksaw, up there.
I am not proud of the space these things take up in my brain, lo these many years, but there they are.
Schlemizel
@Waynski:
~I’m going with “Andy Kaufman”, the Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World
Alex S.
Good morning, I’m feeling very well. Three stressful weeks are over, and Great Britain under the rule of the austerity fetishists loses its AAA-rating.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/23/george-osborne-britain-aaa
magurakurin
@Waynski:
I wanna be Professor Toru Tanaka.
And I thought that the tide was shifting when Alberto Del Rio became a good guy and then quickly the Champ…or one of the Champs. The Mexicans are good guys now. Say what you want about Vince,I know he’s a hard core republican, but wrestling has always tacked with the prevailing wind. Vince is a “make a lot of money and keep as much as possible” kind of Republican. And the money is in the Latino population. Vince ain’t nobody’s fool when it comes to promotion. Well, wrestling promotion…Senate candidates…not so much.
Rommie
Well, if we going to play this game I’ll take Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Trust Me!
I think you can this as a sign that Linda isn’t running for anything anytime soon, and that it’s possible Vince’s Kids are finally getting to influence the show. He may seem Immortal, but Vince is getting up there in years.
Southern Beale
I just found out about that last week, too, and wrote about it here.
The thing I find interesting is that Linda McMahon and her husband own and run WWE. And McMahon is the one who tried not once but twice to run for the U.S. Senate from Connecticut. Investing a huge chunk of the WWE fortune in her failed tries.
One might think that this is the McMahon family’s “fuck you” to the Tea Party for ruining her political dreams, except IIRC, McMahon was the Tea Party candidate. She beat out more moderate people in the primary. So maybe she blames them anyway? I don’t know, it’s weird.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Linda:
A typical SpongeBob SquarePants rerun draws more viewers than the top rated Fox “News” program…
Suffern ACE
I guess I’ll be leaping lanny poffo, because someone has to be. Or I’ll just be Suffern “Crowbar” ACE. I haven’t watched this stuff since gold dust started that business of licking his opponents. Seemed so unsanitary.
mai naem
Anybody catch the other Weigel piece there – Hillary beating Repubs in hypothetical prez race polls for 2016 in Texas?If they can’t hold onto Texas they might as well fold and save the money for 2020.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/02/22/steve_munisteri_hillary_clinton_texas_gop_thinks_clinton_could_compete_in.html?wpisrc=obnetwork
Ronzoni Rigatoni
How in hell’s name can anyone forget Bobo Brazil and his infamous Cocobutt?
Suffern ACE
@Southern Beale: Linda was not the insurgent candidate. Peter Schiff was, and he went nowhere. Simmons was just a front runner for awhile, but suspended his campaign when he failed to get an endorsement at the convention. So republican voters were forced to choose between a gold bug nut, a guy who spent a month or so acting like a loser who didn’t want the job and Linda McMahon.
Gin & Tonic
@Southern Beale: The one and only ideology Vince and Linda have ever had is the $$$. Don’t over-analyze.
Mike in NC
Ah, nostalgia! Back in the 70s my brothers and I watched pro wrestling on the UHF channels, and one time we even bugged dad into taking us to see it live at the old Boston Garden.
the lost puppy
ok, it’s an open thread so.
I’m watching A Place in the Sun. Good lord, the goodbye scene between Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift is about the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.
Anyway, why did Raymond Burr use a cane? Was it just a affectation of a character he played? Why didn’t he use one in Rear Window?
Did he really need a wheelchair?
Google this and most of what you find is about him being gay.
I have discovered from my teeny bit of research that the personal details of his life were hazy and often manufactured by Burr. But can no one seems to either care about or know the origin of this disability.
Why did he use a cane?? Dammit.
SteveM
Except at the level of, y’know, laws that can actually be passed. Other than that? Yeah, we’re kicking ass.
WereBear
@the lost puppy: I think it was simply a way of distinguishing his character. He may have played Ironside, but I don’t think he had a issue with his health.
And yes, A Place in the Sun is one of the all time great movies.
the lost puppy
Oh and the story “upstairs”? I can’t make any sense out of it.
Republicans spinning out of control. Spinning and spinning on their backs in the Walmart parking lot.
All that whiny static, that’s all I can hear anymore. The substance is inconsequential at this point. Just give us an excuse, ANY excuse, even if it’s a complete lie, to whine and whine and rend our garments and play total victims.
the lost puppy
@WereBear: I’m not going to lie, I was disappointed by the speculation that he was gay – I thought he was pretty hot in his younger years. I don’t mean that as a slam against gays, just that I couldn’t allow myself to fantasize about him after that.
A rumor surfaced that he and Natalie Wood, of all people, had a sexual relationship. Unconfirmed, of course. How the heck would those two have gotten together, I ask?
Apparently, he was seriously into raising orchids. Whoulda thunk?
raven
@the lost puppy: “Mr. Burr left the Navy in 1946 weighing nearly 350 pounds, and he immediately landed work in films as a villain. His first screen role, in “Without Reservations” (1946), starring John Wayne and Claudette Colbert led to steady work.”
Further research suggests he was never in the Navy and was not shot in the stomach at Okinawa.
quannlace
At least it’s not ‘Rain Tree Country’. Good Lord, that movie drags on forever, and the BIG secret about Taylor’s character which you figure out one third of the way in.
the lost puppy
@raven: I’m finding out that Burr had a very unusual, kinda quirky career. Godzilla movies and all that. Anyway, thanks guys for trying to satisfy my Raymond Burr obsession this morning! He was quite an unusual guy. I’d love to know the real background story, but too many people have died and apparently, those that were living in his time were quite loyal and wouldn’t discuss his personal life.
Crap, I got sucked into the Raymond Burr Rabbit Hole!
raven
@quannlace:
And then there was :
And this old porch is the palace walk-in
On the main street of texas
That’s never seen the day
Of g and r and xs
With that ’62 poster
That’s almost faded down
And a screen without a picture
Since Giant came to town
Evolving Deep Southerner
Four words for you all on the pro wrestling tip: Mr. Gordon Fucking Solie.
raven
@the lost puppy: Did you ever see “Gods and Monsters” with Ian McKellen about James Whale, the director of Frankenstein? Must see Hollywood film.
BigSouthern
@magurakurin:
And it should be noted that Alberto Del Rio is the best face wrestler the WWE has had in years, at least in terms of behaving strictly after the fashion of a good human being, and the audience is loving him for it. When he got the win over Big Show, I thought as soon as they got out of the Southwest the crowds were going to turn against him, but if ADR can get huge cheers in Birmingham, then the man is doing something right.
When Jack Swagger reappeared with Zeb Coulter in tow and calling his ankle lock the “Patriot Act” I was super excited. For once in the length of time I could remember the awful, xenophobic assholes were the bad guys. They’ve changed the the Patriot Act to the Patriot Lock, which I think is stupid, but on the most recent show they had Zeb tee off on a British wrestler who was all, “Mexicans, amirite?” with Zeb saying “You, Alberto Del Rio, all the same to me.” It was awesome.
The only problem is, the audience still isn’t quite sure what to do. They like Del Rio and they know they’re supposed to hate Swagger/Coulter, but I suspect a large percentage of the adult crowd fundamentally agrees with Zeb. So while ADR gets huge cheers, the audience starts out booing Zeb and Jack before sort of falling into silence.
The only thing I want during their Wrestlemania match is for the U-S-A! chants to be replaced with A-D-R!
WereBear
@the lost puppy: It’s my understanding that he threw up a cloud of rumors and wild stories to conceal his personal life.
And yes, he bred the Barbara Hale orchid.
He was an extraordinary fellow. And I have no trouble acknowledging his hawtness, body and soul. After all, I still have a serious thang for Burt Lancaster, and he’s dead.
Rosie Outlook
@debbie: A Teabagger jihad against professional wrestling. I’d buy tickets.
Was anyone else amused by the typo in the 1st paragraph of the story? I started singing, “Home, home and enranged…”
Phylllis
@Evolving Deep Southerner: The voice of my childhood. We used to go to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City every year for the wrestling. Mainly to see Mr. Solie in person. And I claim Andre the Giant.
raven
@Evolving Deep Southerner: I don’t know or care about rasslin but I know who Goldberg is. Woof Woof!
Phylllis
@WereBear: Oh my, Burt Lancaster. Have you ever seen The Train? Great flick, and he does his own stunts. Amazing.
General Stuck
Oh noes! Oh noes! Voter fraud – ACORN!! Black Panthers.
I love it when this happens in the morning.
the lost puppy
@quannlace: Yes, that movie does drag. Also, it’s kinda sad since I understand part of the movie was filmed before his accident and part of it afterwards when he had lost his looks.
There was something between him and Taylor in those movies though. It’s not a chemistry so much as you can just feel this deep love that she had for “Monty” – it really seemed to come from the very depths of her heart that she loved this man dearly and it’s just so touching.
WereBear
@Phylllis: Yes, he was a former circus acrobat. A great movie for showing off that (Rrrrrrraor!) physique is The Crimson Pirate, where his sidekick is his former partner from his sawdust days.
But he was also a curious and intellectual man. Some of his best stuff came out of his own production company, after his Hollywood star had ever so slightly dimmed. Though, of course, not in my heart :)
rda909
@General Stuck: Crazy. And her sisters were also involved in illegal activities too…allegedly…
What a classy family! And of course:
“The staunchly Republican, conservative Catholic sisters from Pittsburgh’s North Hills suburbs…”
WereBear
@the lost puppy: Raintree County has a bit of a curse on it.
It was the author’s first book, and his name is misspelled in the credits. But he didn’t know… he’d committed suicide shortly after publication.
the lost puppy
@WereBear: His eyes were just, oh my. And a huge, hulking mass of a man! He could crush you between his thumb and forefinger.
Crush me, Ray! Crush me!
Shit, you don’t like girls, nvm
Joel
The WWE knows its fans (young, male, increasingly nonwhite).
glocksman
Heh…as long as we’re calling dibs on pro wresting names, call me I.R.S.
Though Gorilla Monsoon, ‘Superstar’ Bill Dundee, or Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler are equally acceptable.
Jamey
@cokane: Who would understand better how Teatard hatred and mistrust is a viral phenomenon? She’s a businesswoman first, and a failed political candidate second. If only the likes of Meg Whitman would get involved in, say, MMA…
the lost puppy
@raven: Haven’t heard of that, was Burr in it?
Joel (Macho Man Randy Savage)
@Nunca el Jefe: Hell no. Also, I just snapped into a slim jim. Art thou bored?
ankh hotep
This is not the first time that wrestling got political. I remember the GLOW Girls back in the 80s. They had Palestina, the wrestling terrorist. She always got the crowd riled up. And an angry wrestling fan is a fan who will pay to come back for more.
WereBear
@the lost puppy: Gods and Monsters is a modern film about the last days of James Whale, a visionary director from the ’30’s who was gay.
Pertinent to Burr because of the difficulty of never being able to un-closet.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Phylllis: Me and my brother – who’s 11 years older than me – would watch Georgia Championship Wrestling every Saturday morning on Ted Turner’s fledgling (and profoundly low-production-valued) station out of Atlanta. It. Was. The. Best. I can still hear Gordon Solie’s voice as clearly in my head as I can my late father’s. We went to see a couple of wrestling matches at our high school, which really kind of sucked to me even when I was six, but I can’t say that about the one and only time Pops, my brother and I went to the Omni in Atlanta to see “big time” wrestling. “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes versus Dick Slater in a bout – I guess it was a cross between a Cage Match and a Texas Death Match – wherein the wrestlers were in a ring surrounded by a 16-foot chain-link fence and were bound to one another by a thick, professional-tug-o-war-grade horsehair rope with a cowbell tied to the middle of it. And it was a match where pinning your opponent wasn’t good enough to win. To win, your opponent had to give up, and say it into a microphone, which the ref would grab and shove down in either guy’s face when it looked like he was done. It seemed like that God damn match went for three hours, and by the end, both wrestlers were so bloody – fake or real or a mixture, who knows – that we literally, truly, could not tell one from the other from our distant seats on the floor.
Good times, those were. Good times.
the lost puppy
Ok, it’s rainy, cold Saturday morning old movies time. Now I’m watching Double Indemnity.
“That’s a honey of an anklet you’re wearing” just slays me every time.
Phylllis
@WereBear: I remember Phil Donahue had him on one time and basically let him tell stand up and tell stories the entire show. Raconteur non pareil.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@glocksman: I will also claim Ricky Steamboat and Chief Jay Strongbow, if we’re claiming.
AliceBlue
@Evolving Deep Southerner:
I had just moved to Atlanta after graduating college and I got hooked on GCW. I remember Gordon Solie so well, but I can’t remember the name of the rassler who had a move called “The Diamond Drill Twist.” He was a bad guy.
the lost puppy
MacMurray: “His wife was cleaning a shotgun and his stomach got in the way”
Tripod
@Joel:
Pro wrestling fans skew heavily Democratic.
@Waynski:
“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I’m all out of bubblegum.”
They Live is a nice bit of anti-Reagan era allegory.
Tim C.
Ahem….
Pro Wrestling died the day Leaping Lenny Paffo became “The Genius” That is all.
Jay C
@General Stuck:
Isn’t her sister also in jail for [getting caught in] political corruption? Maybe they can share a
cellroom at Club Fed….the lost puppy
@WereBear: I understand he studied Lon Chaney and you can really see that in some of his tortured scenes. He becomes sort of animal and human, like Cheney did. It’s something that’s hard to watch but at the same time can’t turn away, as in Elmer Gantry.
Cheryl from Maryland
@WereBear: Have you seen “The Leopard?” Fabulous performance by Lancaster even though dubbed with this high pitched Italian voice. That body, those pants! Even Sydney Pollack in one of the DVD featurettes was swooning over Mr. Lancaster.
gbear
@Waynski:
I’ll take Wally Karbo. He was a promoter rather than a wrestler, but I’m no wrestler either and his name is more appropriate for how I look.
Josie
I can’t believe nobody has called Ric “the nature boy” Flair. Loved his wardrobe.
WereBear
@the lost puppy: OMG, Elmer Gantry. Talk about larger than life.
@Cheryl from Maryland: Yes, an extraordinary performance. He has such “body presence,” maybe call it? Totally overrode the dubbing, and as you point out, that is not easy.
One of my favorite scenes is in From Here to Eternity. Sure, he shows his tender side on the beach, (no complaints,) but in the bar, when he leaps to his feet to confront the raging Ernest Borgnine character; I’ve never seen anyone practically teleport in their body movements the way he could.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Josie: I call dibs on the whole Funk family – Dory Funk, Dory Funk Jr., Terry Funk. And also the Von Erichs, who were more numerous than the Osmonds and way more bad-ass, too.
Woodrowfan
whatever happened to Gorgeous George anyway?
Mr Stagger Lee
@Carnacki: I remember for awhile when Sgt Slaughter was on the Iron Sheik’s side, that was a bummer. Ahh the cold war days, Dick the Bruiser vs Ivan Koloff
SatanicPanic
@Evolving Deep Southerner: Terry Funk is awesome. I can’t believe no one has mentioned an actual liberal in the WWE- Mick Foley.
I’m calling Dynamite Kid.
Mike in NC
@WereBear: When we visited Honolulu we had the opportunity to visit several places where they filmed “From Here To Eternity” and it was great fun. Also checked out places where my dad was stationed early in WW2 before he shipped out to the South Pacific.
SatanicPanic
@Woodrowfan: Drunk himself to death.
Frankensteinbeck
Geek time! If we’re wrestlers, can I be El Tigre? Also becoming a fan of the WWVE.
Mr Stagger Lee
@glocksman: Ravishing Rick Ruud,(gotta love that name) and the Hart Foundaition, the Great Kaballa.
@Evolving Deep Southerner:The Von Erichs are more of Wrestling’s version of the Kennedy Familiy, with the tragic ends they had, I think there is only one left.
raven
@the lost puppy: No, it’ just timely.
Roy G.
@gbear: Aka, Wally Caribou, as Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura referred to him. Before there was the WWF, the AWA ruled: Jesse, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Mad Dog Vachon, The Road Warriors, and Baron Von Raschke: ‘and that is all the people need to know!’
Josie
Ok, now I’m really going to show my age. Speaking of wrestling families, does anyone remember the Garibaldi brothers that wrestled at the same time as Gorgeous George? I was young enough to believe that it was all so real then.
West of the Rockies
@debbie: Might we consider Linda MacMahon’s political career over anyway? She’s spent, what, $150-200 million of her own cash to finance two losing efforts? Maybe she’s read the writing on the wall.
Keep in mind, WWF (or whatever it’s called now), often will make a villain ultimately heroic or sympathetic. They may try yet to make this Coulter character eventually be seen as the good guy.
Southern Beale
It’s my Oscar time post!
I take a look at all of the Best Picture nominees. Anyone see them all?
jeffreyw
Thread needs moar breakfast porn.
raven
@jeffreyw: needs something that’s fo sho
GregB
@SatanicPanic:
First, if you have never heard Jim Cornett’s rant against conservative right wingers, it is a thing to behold.
Link.(Two audio links within)
Secondly, I was always partial to Captain Lou Albano and The Grand Wizard.
Thirdly, when I was very young the WWF used to wrastle at the local Catholic boys school, Bishop Guertin. My cousin went to see them and walked into the locker room to get autographs before the matches and all of the men were sitting around playing poker. Heels(bad guys) and faces(good guys) alike. So I learned early on it was an exhibition.
Just don’t make the same mistake that John Stossel made and call it fake.
raven
Guess I’ll go antiquing with the princess.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Sitting at the dealership waiting to find out why my car has been hard to start. Feh.
gbear
@Josie:
Fox News puke John Strossel found out it wasn’t such a good idea to tell a wrestler that what he does is fake.
Josie
@gbear: Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@gbear: That’s one of my favorite old news clips of all time. I don’t even have to click on the link to see where it goes. And I cannot look at John Stossel or hear his name without thinking of it and snickering.
Spike
@Waynski:
Can I be the Mongolian Stomper? No, I’m not Mongolian, but neither was he.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Mr Stagger Lee:
True that.
Cassidy
@Josie: Back then it was sort of real in that it was staged catch wrestling. Everything they did would have worked in a real grappling match.
Rock n Roll Express baby. They were amazing.
22over7
Again, the BJ community knocks my socks off. Pro wrestling (I dibs Haystack Calhoun)! Raymond Burr! My mom was so in love with him that she swore she was going to name me Perry Mason. A few years ago I went to Sanibel Island FL, and there is a shell museum there that Raymond Burr and his partner founded. Yes, gay as a maypole, but so pretty.
And don’t get me started on the fabulous Burt Lancaster.
I’m trying to get up the courage to buy a new car. Yes, I need one, and yes, I can afford it, but geez it’s a lot of money. Looking at the new model RAV4.
Jewish Steel
I have been all this time.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@22over7:
Welcome to the car buying club! I’m going to be replacing my 1998 RAV-4 and I’m very ambivalent about it.
The new model RAVs have gotten too big for my taste, but I am considering a Prius-C. Or a Subaru Impreza.
Steeplejack
Haystack Calhoun.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Wrestler names? Dibs on Freddie Blassie, ya’ pencil-necked geeks!
Thor Heyerdahl
Going old school and calling Superfly Jimmy Snuka and Superstar Billy Graham (SBG for the awesome mustache)
22over7
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Thanks! Mine’s a ’96, and noisy and creaky (like me). Yes, the small SUVs have gotten bigger; the new Honda CRX is the size of a pickup truck now. But I still like the utility of the model, that is, it works for me.
So last weekend I went to the dealer, all revved up to buy one. They didn’t have any. They were out. I’m looking at this huge car lot and, well, sorry, they say, they’re popular. This morning the salesman called me to say they just got two in. I can’t go today, but if they’re still there tomorrow, I might buy one.
The Ancient Randonneur
We must be moments away from at least four front pagers putting up a new thread.
Fluke bucket
I claim Rip Hawk if not already taken
jayboat
I’ll take Haystack Calhoun.
And for some flugtag-level humor-
Mexican Wrestling Team
WereBear
@22over7: Mr WereBear and I used to be so frugal and sensible; buy a good used car, lower mileage.
But three times in a row this turned into a nightmare. Apparently if you are going to use a car as a low mileage trade in, you don’t have to bother doing any maintenance at all. In an extreme climate like ours, this is an invitation to body rot, strut failure, engine trouble, and mysterious electrical problems.
I declared that I would rather budget a certain amount every month and get a reliable car. I was sick of hoping the car lasted until it was paid off and dodging the four digit repair bills to keep it on the road and hope each time it wasn’t in the shop for longer than a week…
And we got an inventory leftover, brand new Ford Focus with a three year warranty. Mr WereBear now praises this as the excellent decision it was.
chrome agnomen
@Waynski:
bobo brazil for me!! here comes the coco-butt, beck!
damn, beat out at #40!
Elizabelle
@WereBear:
Focuses are pretty cars, and comfortable. Enjoy the newness!
Phylllis
@WereBear: The first brand new car I bought as an adult was a Ford Focus, about 12-13 years ago. Drove it to 100,000 miles. I miss that car. The person in town who bought it from the dealer I traded to…is still driving it. Wish I was.
22over7
@WereBear:
Mr. werebear made his first excellent decision in marrying you.
I’ve been driving this old Toyota for a very long time, and it has been an excellent car, but my office moved and my commute is longer now (my office mates had their commute cut to practically nothing, the creeps). I’ve never bought a brand new car with all my own money before, and at 53, I decided it was time. But of course, now I’m waffling…
Evolving Deep Southerner
@The Ancient Randonneur: Yeah, it’s getting kind of funny how we’re all gamely trying to keep this thread alive. Wrestling’s cool and funny and all, but …
Otherwise, I also claim Magnum TA (I think his real name was Terry Allen, but he loved the tire so well he took his name from one) and Tony Atlas.
Ole, Gene and Arn Anderson are mine, too.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@22over7:
If you’re the kind of person who keeps their car for a long time (like me and apparently you!), I would always suggest buying new if you can manage it. It really can help with the kind of problems Werebear was having with used.
I just got back from a test drive and I have to say, the Prius-C was pretty sweet. It’s just sporty enough that you don’t feel like a soccer mom in it and it’s pretty roomy inside (at least if you’re 5’2″ like me).
I did have to talk the sales guy down from pushing too hard, but saying, “I’m in the middle of planning my dad’s memorial and can’t make any decisions right now” works like magic to deter them.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Best part is that’s not a lie.
Are we abandoned here?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@WereBear:
For some reason, Sir Tristan showed up in my dream last night. I may be hanging out here and/or at Way of Cats too much. :-)
He was just as adorable as advertised, FWIW.
Michael
Maybe I can start an inane convo, but, according to a terror trial in the UK, the drones are working.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Yutsano:
In my defense, I only pulled it out as a last resort. And since this is the dealership where we go for service and we’ve bought cars here before (well, a car, in 2005), I didn’t feel too bad about it.
Which reminds me, I really should be reading the site contract for the memorial location. Ugh. Not as much fun as planning a wedding, believe me.
22over7
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
You’re right. The Prius doesn’t sound quite roomy enough for my taste (I’m much bigger than you, and the spouse is 6’2″ and >200lb) but I do want something reliable.
We bought a 2000 Camry back in, well, 2000, and it’s still running like a champ. But that’s his car. Well, tomorrow we’ll see.
WereBear
That is fiendish genius!
I mean, I know it’s true for you. But it has so many applications
22over7
Also, Mnemosyne, I’m so sorry about your dad. I lost mine last May and it’s still hard.
handsmile
@General Stuck:
Department of Due Credit:
As one of this blog’s correspondents from the Keystone State, geg6 has been filing dispatches for some time now about the legal travails of state Republican worthies Joan Orie Melvin and her sisters Jane and Janine Orie. But of course, such schadenfreude is delicious at any time.
Department of Belated Thanks:
I appreciate your response to my query last week for more information to distinguish “legislative” and “executive” Congressional sessions. Your summary description and links were posted after I had left for an off-line weekend.
WereBear
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): He is an insidious darling, is he not?
He’s got a new thing, where we let him out on the stairwell to play, and he rings the temple bells so we open the door, and he throws one of his spongeballs into our hall. So we can throw it back out into the stairwell.
Thank goodness the second floor neighbors love him too.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@22over7:
Thanks. It simultaneously feels like it happened very long ago and then my mind goes, “Holy shit, it’s been less than 2 months!” It was January 3, 2013.
It’s one of the reasons I feel a little ambivalent about buying a car — I’m going to use some of the money I inherited, and that feels a little weird and not right.
SiubhanDuinne
It’s been 11 hours (or close enough to make no never-mind) since AL posted this thread, and nothing since. Does the dearth of new posts have anything to do with the much-anticipated site upgrade? Is this the weekend it happens?
Death Panel Truck
The shit’s fake. These “wrestlers” are actors. They’re all members of SAG/AFTRA.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Death Panel Truck:
But that’s the point — the wrestlers are actors who are playing characters, and WWE has decided to create characters that mock Beck and the teabaggers.
Since it’s a pretty blue-collar form of entertainment, it seems significant that WWE has chosen to take their stories in that direction rather than doubling down on conservatism.
22over7
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Yes, exactly. Me too. But I also know that if he were standing here beside me, he’d be yelling, “Buy a damn car! You need one! That’s what money is for!”
He never understood the concept of piling up money for its own sake. Money, to him, was a coupon that allowed him to feed and care for his family, and have a little fun when he could afford it.
I miss him so.
WereBear
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): It’s tough; but this is what life does.
It goes on.
WereBear
@22over7: Sounds like he had the right idea.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@22over7:
My dad would make me explain all the reasons for it, and then would let me get whatever I wanted. Because I was the princess (youngest and only girl).
We lost a lot of family members in 2012 including G’s dad, and I keep telling people that my dad was supposed to go in 2012 with everyone else, but he held out for 2013 so he wouldn’t mess up our taxes. Because that’s exactly the kind of thing that was important to him — making sure his family was financially taken care of with a minimum of fuss.
Bubblegum Tate
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
My dad–who does not golf–ended up partnered with Blassie in a charity golf tournament back in around 1990 or so (the WWE has always been very involved in the CT charity community, which is something for which I will always give the McMahons credit). He said that Blassie was one of the nicest, funniest guys you could ever hope to meet. He didn’t really know anything about Blassie (or wrestling, for that matter) but he thought it was really funny how they would be chatting in the golf cart and Blassie was a normal, friendly guy, but then when the public demanded it, he’d turn on his insult-comic/”pencil-necked geek” persona, and people would eat it up.
Redshift
@22over7: We have a 2007 Camry Hybrid and love it. We were going to get a Prius, but at the time they still had that weird split back window, and the Ms. wasn’t comfortable with the visibility.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Suddenly the Giant Ebil Corporation makes sense… :)
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@22over7:
Also, he obviously trained me right, because I’m planning to take a chunk of the money he left me, run right out, and replace my 15-year-old car with … a small, fuel-efficient car with high safety ratings.
Though he was a Fox News addict, so he would have made fun of me for looking at a Prius.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Yutsano:
I went to Disneyland with my BFF and some of her visiting family last weekend, and her 13-year-old niece announced that we were at Disneyland and, damn it, where were the princesses?!
I don’t think we were able to find one for her to take a picture with (the line at the Princess Faire was way too long), but it still cracked me up. Her younger sister was already jaded, but not B.
dewzke
Superfly Snuka!
MikeJ
@22over7:
To paraphrase Fred from slacktivist, money is a tool. If somebody had a million forks in his garage you would think he was mentally ill.
gene108
@Evolving Deep Southerner:
I wanted Arn Anderson :-(
Him, Ric Flair and the rest of the Four Horseman…
Oh well, I’ll get a bit more modern and go with Sabu and RVD (Rob van Dam). As a tag team the jumps off the top rope to the ground were nuts, but so was ECW.
Hill Dweller
Check out Krugman’s latest blog post, which perfectly encapsulates the current political environment both here and in Europe.
The media is every bit as responsible as the Republicans for the current mess.
Yutsano
@MikeJ: Or has a shrine to Catherine de Medici.
Steeplejack
@Hill Dweller:
Link for that: “Little Statesmen and Philosophers.”
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: Sigh. What does KThug have against cocktail weenies? And if Sally Quinn didn’t have parties, what would the Village DO on weekends? Has he even considered those implications?
AHH onna Droid
@Linda: Dead white girls killed by spearchucking caribbean black males who the corrupt creole authorities refuse to prosecute. Oh wait, she was killed by a cute rich white guy whose daddy is a judge? Our bad. The racist agenda never sleeps. You’d better believe it’s political.
Hill Dweller
@Yutsano: I noticed Krugman used “he” when referring to the pundit in his scenario. I’m betting the unnamed pundit is Brooks.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Excellent comment by reader Qbert at the Krugman post:
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Josie:
You’re not so old. I can remember watching wrestling and “Kukla, Fran, and Ollie” on a neighbor’s television when I was a sprout. The TV was in a huge cabinet and it had a round screen about six inches in diameter. We thought it was wonderful. And kudos to that long ago neighbor who would patiently allow half of the kids in the neighborhood to come in and, with much shushing, allow us to watch Kukla weekday mornings.
handsmile
@Hill Dweller: , @Steeplejack:
Thanks for the alert and the link. Krgthulu as essential and gimlet-eyed as ever. But I sense an intensifying exasperation, born out of post-election disbelief or despair, in both his NYT columns and his more casual blogposts. He’s a beacon for many and yet a target for so many more.
And in that regard, Hill Dweller, your final sentence cannot be stated often enough and with no less conviction. Each and every day brings fresh evidence of its truth.
TG Chicago
Wow, hardly anybody is picking wrestlers from the past 25 years. I’ll put my dibs on Sami Callihan.
Anyway, it’s pretty great that Dutch Mantell (the guy playing Zeb Colter) is getting work in 2013.
NobodySpecial
Since no one has claimed it yet, dibs on Verne Gagne.
Johnnybuck
@Evolving Deep Southerner: dude you can’t have them all!
I will claim the “tower of power…too sweet to be sour” The American Dream Dusty Rhodes.
Booger
@gene108: Or, which side of the tortilla is toasted, so to speak.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@TG Chicago: Holy fucking shit! Good catch! What do you think it would take for them to lure The American Dream out of retirement to become a gay-married behemoth that no one could beat?
maus
WWE is like Fox entertainment, the McMahons know their audience and leave plenty of fodder for the generally decent and surprisingly left-leaning audience.
Mike G
I especially liked how the “Iranian” Iron Sheik suddenly became “Iraqi” during the invasion of Kuwait and Desert Shield/Storm…
Redshirt
I am the love child of King Kong Bundy and Kamala the Ugandan Giant.
Somehow, I am not very big.
Patricia Kayden
@Alex S.: So despite all the austerity steps Britain took, their rating was still downgraded? Yet Repubs are still shouting about deficits.
Kyle
@Patricia Kayden:
Because it’s about ideology, not results. If reality doesn’t confirm their ideology they’ll rewrite reality, vid. Fox News.
Eric G.
I can tell you exactly how the WWE came up with this idea. They stole it from Lucha Libre. There’s a white Lucha Libre wrestler named RJ Brewer who’s supposed to be Jan Brewer’s son. Here’s a Nightline about it.
JS
@Eric G.: About 7 years ago, WWE did something similar with (Texan millionaire gimmick) JBL adopting an anti-immigrant, border security anger storyline against then champion Eddie Guerrero.