Patterson in a Snit Over ‘SNL’ Skit
From the NY Post [original article]:
Gov. Paterson didn’t see the humor in a “Saturday Night Live” bit that mocked his blindness.
During the “Weekend Update” segment of NBC’s irreverent comedy show, actor Fred Armisen played Paterson, imitating his wandering eye, gravelly voice and blunt, self-effacing demeanor.
But Paterson and advocates for the visually impaired didn’t appreciate stock blind jokes that had Armisen pretending to be disoriented and wandering aimlessly.
“I can take a joke,” Paterson told reporters.
But he called the SNL spoof a “third-grade depiction of people and the way they look” that could lead others to believe that “disability goes hand-in-hand with an inability to run a government or business.”
“I run the place I work in, so I don’t have to be worried about being discriminated against,” noted Paterson
Although Paterson is legally blind and has aides help him with some tasks, the governor is rarely out of step with his surroundings and seems comfortable in virtually all settings.
After Armisen’s sketch with “Weekend Update” co-anchor Seth Meyers, the joke continued.
As longtime “SNL” player Amy Poehler was announcing her departure from the show, Armisen’s Paterson started wandering, as if lost, in front of the camera.
“Gov. Paterson . . . you’re in the shot!” a chuckling Poehler said.
The skit could leave viewers with the impression that blind Americans cannot be competent employees, advocates for the disabled said.
“When you have a perception problem like we have, you take these things a little more seriously,” said Chris Danielsen, spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind.
“We have 70 percent unemployment - and it’s not because we can’t work. Obviously, the governor of New York is blind, and he’s doing the job. Whenever you have a portrayal that calls the basic capacity of [blind people] into question, that’s a potential problem.”
Danielsen claims “SNL” has a long history of mocking the blind - going back to Eddie Murphy’s Stevie Wonder impression and, more recently, a “Weekend Update” one-liner that hybrid cars are dangerous to blind people because they can’t hear the engine.
Paterson’s spokesman, Errol Cockfield, said, “The governor is sure that ‘Saturday Night Live,’ with all of its talent, can find a way to be funny without being offensive,” Cockfield said.
“Knowing the governor, he might even have some suggestions himself.”
An NBC spokesman could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Okay, first I’ll admit it, I actually found the skit pretty darn funny. If that makes you hate me then I’d suggest not reading further because you’re not likely to enjoy what you’ll find.
. . . click here for the rest of the entry . . .
The Saga of the Christmas Tree
Growing up the holidays were always a bit of a conflict for me. I love seeing my friends and family open their gifts, singing carols, baking cookies, and decorating the tree. To this day I still get giddy when the tree turns on for the first time after being decorated and one of my greatest pleasures is to sit in my father’s living room with only the tree on and watch the multi-colored lights twinkle away deep inside the branches,¹ breathing in the scent of fresh pine.
Of course, I wasn’t really allowed these luxuries until I’d moved out of my mother’s home at 17. For most of my childhood and teenage years, my mother was a devout Jehovah’s Witness and wouldn’t permit me to celebrate Christmas or other holidays. I think this is one of the many reasons why the very simple things about holidays make me the most happy and I’ve never let myself get stressed with regards to preparation.
Anyway, among the gifts I received the Christmas before starting college was a “Charlie Brown tree” from Keith. It was about two feet tall — just the right size to fit on my mini-fridge — and I made sure it was properly displayed each year in my college dorm. It was also just right for use in my first apartment, given it was a tiny studio.
So, when I finally moved into a “real” apartment a year after that, I was determined to have a proper tree go in my living room. Not one to let a grandchild go without some holiday decor, my grandmother donated her own tree (claiming she was “downsizing” anyway and wanted a new one, even though this particular one was only bought the year before). She packed up a bunch of ornaments and her and Poppy brought it over right after Thanksgiving. I was especially touched when I saw that she’d given me the stuffed ornaments we’d made together when I was five! I didn’t realize until we stood it up, though how big it was — or perhaps how low my ceilings were. Luckily we forgot to get a topper that year because we wouldn’t have been able to use it! Which is saying quite a bit as the tree is only about 6″ but I do remember width-wise it filled up a good third of my living room! I also recall finding it quite amusing that I specifically tried to put the big “hole” of branches in the back, only to discover after all that manual labor it had just as large a gap in the front anyway. I’ve always just blamed that kind of stuff on me being blind: “What hole, I don’t see any hole . . . ?”
Each year since then I’ve put that same tree up and interestingly enough I’ve yet to ever put it up in the same place twice. Yup, that’s right, every Christmas since 2003 I have lived somewhere different. It kind of blows my mind. The tree’s actually held up pretty well considering it’s been dragged around by four sets of movers in the last four years! It’s gotten a bit more bent each time and I’ve yet to manage to get it to not lean ever so slightly whenever I put it up. But I think this year might be it for the poor thing. This last move really did a number on it; not only was it bent worse than I’ve ever seen it but some of the branches actually haven broken off.
Still, it’s better than nothing and it certainly looks pretty all decked out in holiday festoonery!
1. My father is quite particular about his tree decorating, he has to have tons of lights, but only the inside of the tree can blink. I actually find it incredibly soothing like the tree is twinkling (and honestly, when the entire tree goes on and off it makes me nauseous).
Testing, Testing. . . .
Wordbook doesn’t seem to be working, but I’ve tweaked a few things and wanted to quickly see if that fixed anything. Apologies for the spam.
EDIT: Yay, seems to be fixed now. Carry on with your day. :-)
Hello Dolly!
Howdy there good readers!
It has come to my attention that there’s been much talk and photograph taking of a certain canine. I’m hardly pleased. We all know that I’m the prettiest black Labrador retriever there is and of course that should mean that many a picture should be taken and shared of me. But the human with whom I used to work with has always been a might slow on the uptake, so I’ve busied my paws with scanning a bunch of photos for you to behold and uploaded them for you to gaze upon and adore.
Please, spare the applause and praise, it was hardly a chore and it really had to be done. Can’t be letting some new guide dog with hardly a year under her harness be usurping all the bandwidth on the Internet. I do apologize that the quality of some of these images isn’t nearly at the level with which to showcase my beauty given they are, uhm, well we don’t need to speak of age now. But none of us are as young as we used to be, right?
Anyway, do enjoy. I must run, there are crumbs to patrol in the kitchen and I want to get them before I drag Keith outside for my evening constitutional.
“All the dog treats are belong to me!”
Apparently I have been especially good because my very generous partner went out and bought all these wonderful toys and treats! She was mumbling something about “Christmas” and “postage” but I’m not really up on all that human lingo. I hope eating all this doesn’t give me a stomach ache, though.
I claim these treats in the name of me . . . and I’m not sharing either!