In the news last week, President Obama announced plans to send 30,000 U.S. troops into Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. It’s interesting to me that he can on the one hand decry the troop surge in Iraq and then turn around and endorse essentially the same thing in Afghanistan. The more I watch and read about this situation, the more I don’t like it. More troops in Afghanistan puts more pressure on Pakistan, and America already has a public relations problem there. I don’t think we need more terrorists mobilizing in a country that has nuclear explosives. Speaking of PR …
Stateside, the big news last week was a scandal surrounding golf celebrity Tiger Woods. First, I heard that Tiger had been in a car accident and was “seriously” injured. Then, I heard he’d been almost immediately released from the hospital, and I thought, “o.k., it couldn’t have been all that serious.” Afterwards, I heard about a National Enquirer story alleging that Woods had cheated on his wife, and the plot thickened. The alleged mistress denied having an affair with Woods, but then out came Jaimee Grubb (appropriately named?), who claimed SHE had had a two and one half year fling with Tiger. That revelation prompted a public apology from Woods for his various “indiscretions”. Of course, there was rampant speculation about the car crash near his home in Orlando. Did he have a big fight with his wife Elin Nordegren over the infidelity, prompting him to storm off in his Caddy SUV and crash into a fire hydrant? Did Elin smash out the back window of his vehicle to save him or bash his head in with his own golf clubs? Who cares? Well, I do; I live and breathe to find out how rich and famous people sabotage their good fortune. Tiger should have followed the teachings of Dave Letterman and nipped the whole thing at the bud. Letterman was a master at disarming a potential public relations nightmare when he immediately confessed to his wrongdoings and publicly apologized for all the people he’d hurt. All Tiger had to do was bite the bullet, and say “Yes, I was a hound dog, yes, I cheated on my wife, and yes, we had a fight over it. Now the story is metastasizing. Other women are coming forward with allegations that Tiger slept with them. There was a big debate on CNN yesterday about whether the private lives of celebrities is any of our business (the same CNN that basically paid the bills for years by covering the O.J. trial). It probably isn’t, but we as a society (read I) have an insatiable appetite for reports of human failure. Tiger bogeyed big time when he attacked the press. Sorry, bad press is an unfortunate by-product of celebrity. Once the scandal is revealed, lick your wounds, lay low until the dust settles, then work on damage control. Eventually, the hyenas will move on to the next carcass. It’s amazing what people will forget given enough time. Do you think anyone besides Ken Starr is still talking about Bill Clinton’s oral adventure?
In anticipation of the horrible winters we had in the past two years, we bought a snow blower for the house in Katrine. Based on recommendations of local residents, we purchased one with a 27” cut. We had a pretty good dumping last Friday, and it seems to do the trick. Of course, we have a guy to plow as well, but the snow blower is insurance. According to my nephew the weatherman, it should be a milder winter than were the past two, but I’m shell-shocked. Final note , I was in Wal-Mart the other day and noticed they now sell an IPod Touch with 64 gigabytes of memory. Great gift idea for the holidays, but does anyone really have 6000 record albums they listen to regularly? Hey, it beats a salad shooter. Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Stateside, the big news last week was a scandal surrounding golf celebrity Tiger Woods. First, I heard that Tiger had been in a car accident and was “seriously” injured. Then, I heard he’d been almost immediately released from the hospital, and I thought, “o.k., it couldn’t have been all that serious.” Afterwards, I heard about a National Enquirer story alleging that Woods had cheated on his wife, and the plot thickened. The alleged mistress denied having an affair with Woods, but then out came Jaimee Grubb (appropriately named?), who claimed SHE had had a two and one half year fling with Tiger. That revelation prompted a public apology from Woods for his various “indiscretions”. Of course, there was rampant speculation about the car crash near his home in Orlando. Did he have a big fight with his wife Elin Nordegren over the infidelity, prompting him to storm off in his Caddy SUV and crash into a fire hydrant? Did Elin smash out the back window of his vehicle to save him or bash his head in with his own golf clubs? Who cares? Well, I do; I live and breathe to find out how rich and famous people sabotage their good fortune. Tiger should have followed the teachings of Dave Letterman and nipped the whole thing at the bud. Letterman was a master at disarming a potential public relations nightmare when he immediately confessed to his wrongdoings and publicly apologized for all the people he’d hurt. All Tiger had to do was bite the bullet, and say “Yes, I was a hound dog, yes, I cheated on my wife, and yes, we had a fight over it. Now the story is metastasizing. Other women are coming forward with allegations that Tiger slept with them. There was a big debate on CNN yesterday about whether the private lives of celebrities is any of our business (the same CNN that basically paid the bills for years by covering the O.J. trial). It probably isn’t, but we as a society (read I) have an insatiable appetite for reports of human failure. Tiger bogeyed big time when he attacked the press. Sorry, bad press is an unfortunate by-product of celebrity. Once the scandal is revealed, lick your wounds, lay low until the dust settles, then work on damage control. Eventually, the hyenas will move on to the next carcass. It’s amazing what people will forget given enough time. Do you think anyone besides Ken Starr is still talking about Bill Clinton’s oral adventure?
In anticipation of the horrible winters we had in the past two years, we bought a snow blower for the house in Katrine. Based on recommendations of local residents, we purchased one with a 27” cut. We had a pretty good dumping last Friday, and it seems to do the trick. Of course, we have a guy to plow as well, but the snow blower is insurance. According to my nephew the weatherman, it should be a milder winter than were the past two, but I’m shell-shocked. Final note , I was in Wal-Mart the other day and noticed they now sell an IPod Touch with 64 gigabytes of memory. Great gift idea for the holidays, but does anyone really have 6000 record albums they listen to regularly? Hey, it beats a salad shooter. Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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