« Friday Shuffle - The Mostly Thursday Edition | Main | Concerting »
June 17, 2005
Corporate shill
This morning I watched my Tivo'd episode of "30 Days" while Clara "Supersize Me" Jane napped. In case you're unaware: it's a new show from the guy who did the movie Supersize Me. Each episode he puts himself in someone else's shoes for thirty days to see how other people live. The first episode, he and his fiance try to live on two minimum wage jobs for a month. Good stuff. You should check it out. Entertaining, yet very informative and infuriatiing. It's a big reminder of just how screwed up our values as a country often are.
That being said, how awful is it that anytime I see anything with Morgan Spurlock, the creator of the show and Supersize Me, I get a jones for McDonald's fries like you wouldn't believe? Seriously. After watching the one-hour show today, which had absolutely nothing to do with McD.'s, I think I would have traded both of my dogs for an order of fries. I don't think that was Spurlock's intent.
Another thing: when the show ended and I turned on live TV, it was the local news, where the top story wasn't about the local grocery store manager who quite bravely foiled an armed robber, but instead about the potential sale of the local hockey team. Great. I just spent an hour being reminded how many people in our fair land are barely scrimping by, with lives where things like health care are luxuries, and what's the next thing I hear? Woe for the team owners because they lost 60 million dollars on the team over the past two years.
Sixty fucking million dollars? Jesus Christ, do you know how much rice and beans that would buy? Do you? Because I don't and I'd really like to know, just so I can be really, really sickened about where money goes. And that doesn't even count the money the team owner's daughter spent to buy her way through college.
Pardon me. I just vomited a little.
Stuff like this has always pissed me off, but now that our money is finally getting in order, it absolutely infuriates me. It really does. So many people go without, while so many people waste so much.
And I'm guilty of it, too. I made yet another trip to Wal-Mart today, which I should mention is where the owner of the hockey team and the cheat daughter made their fortune - and it sure as hell wasn't by stocking shelves or ringing out customers. That's two trips in two days. Three trips in two weeks, along with two Target trips this week. The reason for so many trips? My own poor planning.
I could make yet another trip to Wal-Mart, because I sure could use some anti-nausea drugs right now.
So, now what? Back on the bandwagon. Time to get back to staying the hell out of stores except for necessities. I don't need more crap. And I'll bet you don't, either.
Posted by Robin at June 17, 2005 07:42 PM
