Shandling: Weathermen Never Say 'Sorry'

Garry Shandling was interviewed on Tavis Smiley Tuesday night, an exchange that nearly had me laughing on the floor. Of course, it's impossible to synopsize a 30-minute interview with someone as creative (and, therefore, as tangentially impaired) as Shandling, especially when the interviewer is as adept as Smiley (who's so skilled at heading off the boring tangents and letting the promising ones run themselves out).

One of my favorite comments was a criticism of the lack of accountability among both Los Angeles weather forecasters and the administration of former US President G. W. Bush.

Although the weather bit is not part of the clip above, it is in the transcript and also available online in audio form at this link. Here's the gist of it from the transcript:

... You have Bush saying, "Mission accomplished," as he's landing on an aircraft carrier in a camouflage suit. It's a cartoon. I'm sorry; I actually get upset with hypocrisy like that. I don't even like when the weather man on TV gets the temperatures wrong and he doesn't the next day say, "Sorry." (Laughter)

Because I'm prepared for whatever he says. They don't take responsibility.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

First I've Heard Anything Like This ... Ever

A US president who admits a mistake, takes personal responsibility for it, and emphasizes why the appearance of impropriety is a serious matter ...

Good God! This is better than last night's dream about biting into a gold coin as Padma Lakshmi spoon-fed me Colcannon on a bed of wild Irish roses.

Don't you dare wake me!

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Did Costco Scanners Save Me?

I had a nice talk with Los Angeles Times Daily Dish reporter/blogger Mary MacVean today about the robo call I received a couple weeks ago from Costco about the peanut butter recall and some energy bars I purchased.

From the LA Times Daily Dish:

One Costco customer who got an automated call was T.J. Sullivan, a writer and blogger (who has been published in The Times). He said he bought some energy bars about five months ago for his car earthquake kit and didn't think about them when he heard about the recalls.

So he was grateful for Costco's calls. But he also said he has worried about all the information that's collected. What if, he said, Costco is someday owned by a healthcare provider who bases its premiums or coverage on the amount of alcohol or cheese or dairy he buys?

"I am concerned about how it could be misused one day, but in this instance it's a good thing," he said.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

What I'm Listening To ...

Satin Sheets
By Willis Alan Ramsey (Cover by Shawn Colvin)

I wish I was a millionaire
Play rock music and grow long hair
Tell ya boys
I'd buy a new Rolls-Royce

Pretty women callin' me
Give ‘em all the third degree
Give ‘em satin sheets
And keep ‘em off the streets

Hallelujah! What's it to ya
Praise the Lord, and pass the mescaline
Praise Jehovah
He'll come over
As soon as you see me boogie-woogie across the silver screen

Hang ‘em high, hang ‘em low
Put ‘em in the ceilings wherever I go
And they'd swing all the night
From the rafter light

Hallelujah! We'll sock it to ya,
You got your coffee and me I got my Spanish tea
Praise Jehovah,
Maybe he'll come over
As soon as you see me playing my calliope

I wish I was a millionaire
Play rock music and grow long hair
Tell ya boys
I'd buy a new Rolls-Royce

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Budget-Cuts Humor Falls Short

Maybe this isn't a good time for cryptic tagline jokes like the one that appeared at the end of a Super Bowl story in Monday's Los Angeles Times:

(Editor's note: This review has been ended because of cutbacks. We wish the writer success in his future endeavors.)

Apparently, as explained at LA Observed, it references a gag in a Bud-Light commercial that aired during the game, and is mentioned at the end of the story.

Some readers, however, might have assumed otherwise after the massive staff cuts that the newspaper has endured, including the recent elimination of the local-news section.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Beverly Hills Values Down Nearly $1 Mil

— Photo by TJ Sullivan —

Homeowners on the Westside have started to lose some of the tremendous values they've built up during the past 10 years, according to a story in Monday's Los Angeles Times.

Anecdotally, I've noticed many Westside properties sitting on the market since the start of fall, most of them condos, and some despite price reductions of more than 20 percent from when they first listed.

The report in the Times says the latest data indicates values dropped 26 to 30 percent in the last few months of 2008.

From the story:

The median price of a single-family home in Beverly Hills was $2.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, down from $3 million in the second quarter, according to data prepared for The Times by research firm MDA DataQuick. Pacific Palisades closed the year with a median price of $2.2 million, down from a high of $2.6 million during the second quarter, and Santa Monica's median was $1.6 million, down from $2.1 million last winter.

Even among the merely well-off in Culver City, prices have come down, to $647,500, 17% below the peak. In ZIP Code 90035, just south of Beverly Hills, the median sale price had been more than $1 million for most of 2007 but fell in the fourth quarter of 2008 to $800,000.

Some of the quotes from the real estate industry in the story would be funny if the subject matter wasn't so sad. Many Los Angeles real estate agents long considered much of the Westside immune to economic downturns and would dismiss anyone who suggested otherwise as simply ill-informed. Now, however, they're connecting the dots, or dominoes, as one tier of the market affects the one after that, and the one after that, and ...

It's bad news all around.

— TJ Sullivan in LA