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Wednesday into Thursday

Slate.com’s Seth Stevenson has the latest “Ad Report” to comment on (drum roll, please) – those Budweiser v. Miller ads. You know, the Miller ads have this dorky spokesman who’s running for president of beers against the Budweiser Clydesdale spokeshorse. Apparently, Budweiser got all mad and so unleashed their spokesreptilians and the spokesdonkey to say that Miller can’t be president of beers because it’s owned by a South African company. Stevenson notes:

This assumes, of course, that beer-president campaigns use electoral guidelines akin to those of standard, non-beer, U.S. presidential campaigns, and that corporate parentage determines beer-citizenship status. But I’m OK with that assumption—electoral beer law is hazy on the matter, and the beer constitution offers no clear answers.

Yeah, I’d have to wonder about that darn beer constitution. Is it even written? Do we have to be strict constructionists, or can we read it in a more interpretive manner? Will Scalia and Stevens have a field day over this? (do they even drink beer?) Stevenson gave the Budweiser ads a low grade; I have no particular opinion myself, although it’s interesting to see the lizards again and the cute donkey is still cute. And, yeah, I’m still wondering about the beer constitution. (I’m not a beer drinker, by the way; you can make your own assessment about this stuff).

Oh, and looky here – Hotmail’s jumping on the bandwagon to give e-mail account holders more bytes. Whoa….

This is the article we’ve been talking about at work and so on – “Fear in the Workplace: The Bullying Boss.” Consider the descriptions of the bosses, and see if it applies to your boss; research on the schoolyard bully may now help find ways to deal with the workplace (the adults’ version of the schoolyard soap opera madness).

A book on… Brooklyn. Cool. The article brings discuss this crime stories anthology by Brooklyn authors, “Brooklyn Noir,” with all of Brooklyn’s diversity.

I’ve caught some of the new Tavis Smiley talk show on PBS, and thought it is interesting. Smiley’s a good interviewer, making conversation with his guests. Nice to see a person of color in this role (Smiley’s West coast, so it’s a different perspective in interesting ways from the usual Charlie Rose mode). I’ll corroborate the view of Daily News’ columnist E.R. Shipp :

For so many years, blacks, Latinos and other journalists who form a minority within the profession have demanded greater access and a greater appreciation for a diversity of voices. [….]

In Smiley, who is something of an empowerment guru among blacks, PBS can attempt to build a new audience that is younger and more diverse in race, ethnicity and even geographical grounding (Smiley’s shows emanate from Los Angeles).

He does what too little of talk radio or television does these days: conducts civil conversations with a broad spectrum of politicians, newsmakers, performers and writers in a forum where one first has to declare one’s political alliances. He’s comfortable with conservatives, liberals and the undeclared; with the profound and the profane, with elder statesmen and the hip-hop nation. With such stratification in the country, he provides one place that helps promote dialogues that might not otherwise take place before audiences who might not otherwise think they have anything in common.

Since January, his guests have ranged from Bill .Cosby to Newt Gingrich to Gore Vidal to Alice Randall, a black novelist who has written hit country songs for singers such as Trisha Yearwood. He can discuss Iraq with Richard Holbrooke, the veteran diplomat who advises John Kerry, but also with the nonpolitical comedian Paul Rodriguez. He has also featured the producer of a documentary on Al Jazeera along with one of its leading journalists. He raises questions about why “Baadasssss,” Mario van Peebles’ homage to the groundbreaking 1971 film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” made by his father, Melvin Van Peebles, has received so little publicity and why so little attention was paid to the end of the Showtime series “Soul Food,” which had a five-year run depicting the complex layers of life in an African-American family.

I’m all for anything that expands the national dialogue and promotes, in more than a figurative sense, East meeting West. [….]

As I write this, Smiley’s interviewing with a Brooklyn ex-mob informant (after he finished interviewing Democratic Party consultant Donna Brazile). Uh huh. Nice going. Thumbs up for being different.

Enjoy the rest of the week….

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