The First Q & A

Q: Is Antonio Banderas the voice of the Nasonex Bee?

A: Yes, yes he is.

Kennedy

I was born in February 1977, almost 14 years after John Kennedy was assassinated and 9 years after his brother Bobby met the same fate. I doubt my parents are even old enough to remember where they were when JFK was shot. I wonder then, why I still manage to get choked up at the old news footage of the assassinations, the funerals, and all of it. You'd think, by not having my own personal remembrances of those events, and by the shear amount of times I've seen the footage, that it wouldn't affect me. I should be desensitized to it. Besides the general tragedy of it all, it just shouldn't affect me like it does. But it does. Every time. I always get that lump in my throat and make a little squeak, trying to hold back the emotion.

I guess it must have something to do with the mystique and the legend of it all, right? For all of my life, the fascination with the Kennedy family has been there, and it's made them our Royal family, for lack of a better term. We care about them.

When we all mourned the death of JFK Jr. in 1999, I was 22. I remember it vividly. Saturday morning, sitting in the living room on NW 34th St, by myself. I cried. And of course, when you think of JFK Jr., you think of that image of a little child, saluting his father's casket as it passed, so many years ago. And that's what chokes me up, to this day. That old footage, from a time when change might have really mattered. I wonder where we'd be now, if it had all happened differently.

A few months ago, I watched a documentary on the Kennedy family, on OETA. It was so interesting. There's so much about the family that I didn't know. Before watching this 2 hour show, I knew about the tragedy and a little about the family secrets. Rosemary's story, for example, is very sad. The competition between the siblings was so intense when they were growing up. I read a while ago, that some believe Rosemary was actually a normal child, who basically just broke from the pressure of not being at the high level that her siblings were at, intellectually. The theory is that in a "regular/normal" family, she wouldn't have had any mental issues at all. It's an interesting, though disturbing, thought.

That same documentary also shed a lot of light on who JFK really was. You always think of him as The Good Guy. But he was so shrewd. Of course, in his position, he had to be. But it was shocking to hear just how cunning he was. He seemed so underhanded in a lot of ways. It was unsettling to think about. But why was it unsettling? He's long since dead and has no more influence, good or bad. However, hearing something that makes him seem so much less than perfect, is sort of like hearing that your Grandma spent a night in jail when she was 16. You have to remind yourself that she wasn't always the person you knew. And JFK definitely wasn't always the person that you hear about now. The dead are almost always saints, especially when surrounded by so much tragedy.

Now, with the death of Ted Kennedy on Wednesday, it's sort of the end of it all, isn't it? Do we care about the rest of them? Of course, we care because they are human beings, but do we still care, because they are Kennedys? I don't think so, honestly. I think it's all over. That legend is officially dead and will soon be buried.

Will it matter? Will this nation be any different now that our Royal family is gone? Time will tell.

As a side note, I also wonder how Mary Jo Kopechne's family feels today? I'm sure for them, the mystique a lot of us feel, was dead a long time ago.

Thirty Mile Zone

So, Keith has been going in to work really early in the mornings, this Summer. That means that I have to find something to watch on early-morning TV. Thankfully, Cheaters comes on at 5am and then TMZ at 5:30am. I've never watched TMZ before, but I find it oddly entertaining that early in the day. Of course, by the afternoon, I'm sickened with myself for having enjoyed it so much.

It's a strange show, and I really sort of can't stand that Harvey guy. He just seems like such a know-it-all. But he also really seems like a HUGE geek, so who knows... he might be kinda fun to know in real life. I sort of doubt it though. I do wish they had some little bios or something (on the show... I'm not going to search this shit down online) on the people who are featured. I don't mean the celebrities that the paparazzi follow around; I mean the people who intro the little pap bits on the show. By the way, how do I get a job at TMZ? I want to know, because I want to work there and stalk that pretty blonde boy. He seems dumb, and he also seems to hate fat chicks, but man... he sure is pretty.

Ok, moving on... here's a list of things that TMZ thinks are important:

#1: K-Fed's fat now. Who cares? TMZ does. So does Yahoo!, actually. Apparently it's big news. No pun intended. The headline on Yahoo! was actually, "Kevin Federline's weight gain shocks fans!" Really? Why? Also, Fans?

#2: Michael Jackson is dead and his doctor is the one who killed him. I will give it to TMZ that they were the first ones to officially report him as being dead. I just think it's kind of sad that THAT is something to be proud of in this day and age. At this point, I could care less. The media and the Jackson family are why this is still news. I have a feeling that the majority of the rest of the population wishes it would just go away. I feel sorry for his kids, but I feel sorry for all the kids in the world who lost their fathers today. I'm sure it sucks beyond belief, but maybe something good will come out of it. Maybe they will have some semblance of a regular life now.

#3: American Idol's "Glitter Girl" was killed in a hit and run. It's pretty awful that this poor girl's 2 "famous" moments came because she was possibly drunk. I do feel for her mother, but I mostly just feel bad that this is big news.

#4: Jon and Kate + 8... enough said. I do find it pretty funny that Harvey rolls his eyes every time something about them comes up, yet they are featured in every single episode of the show.

To wrap this up, I might bitch and moan about how awful this celebrity crap is, but I eat it up just like the rest of the world does. Now I'll just sit patiently and wait for that Octomom show to start.

P.S. I forgot to shout-out my THANKS to TMZ for getting that damn "put sunglasses on your dog's butt; it'll make people say wut" song stuck in my head for the past 5 days. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it. Ugh.