Propeller Week In Review: December 21, 2007 — Dec 21st 2007

By James Marcus

DENNIS THE MENACE?

Although he's previously had a low profile here at Propeller, it was Dennis Kucinich who claimed the spotlight this week. But it wasn't his presidential campaign that got all the attention, strictly speaking--it was his ongoing effort to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Not all Propeller members were convinced. Some, like grandpawh, expressed real distaste for the former Boy Mayor of Cleveland: "He's just a camera hound like some others I could name." Another, rufus red, came to the candidate's defense: "Obviously, you have a prejudice against shorter men and you must not have listened to a word he has said because you don't even quote him." A related story, "Spurned by major newspapers, Dem Congressman takes 'impeach Cheney' appeal to Web," bagged 130 votes and 387 comments. This post was about Rep. Robert Wexler's online impeachment campaign, and sparked a fierce debate about the reliability of the mainstream press. Spadecaller argued that "the real news is rapidly disappearing." Locky12 fired back on a satirical note: "You'll find reports about the relevance of impeachment of this administration right next to the article about unicorns which is just below the article about centaurs." But at least one member, jordan11, found fault on both sides of the aisle, dismissing the Democrats but also putting a question to his fellow Republicans: "What about us? Why do we continue to accept the use of our air waves for propaganda?"

JAGGED LITTLE PILLS

The steroid scandal also made a big splash here. "Baseball drug abuse list is huge," with 179 votes and 74 comments, prompted a debate about whether earlier baseball titans--for example, Babe Ruth--had been artificially enhancing their abilities. Teech blew the lid off that rumor. The Sultan of Swat, he insisted, "did it on 6 to 8 bottles of beer and 10 hot dogs! Followed, allegedly, by several boxes of Cracker Jacks." Then came a related dispute about whether players with such skeletons in the closet should be eligible for the Hall of Fame. BronxBomber denied that character was truly an issue: "There are people in the HOF that I wouldn't invite to a Boy Scout Jamboree." But AtheismIsReality quoted chapter and verse from a clause on the HOF ballot, which states that "character, integrity, sportsmanship and contributions to the game" are part of the package. And amesburyroad urged zero tolerance for what he called "cheaters, frauds, snakes, [and] jocks." (Bonus points for being all four at once!)

A MATTER OF TASTE

"A Fifth Taste Joins Salty, Sweet, Sour and Bitter," with 183 votes and 60 comments, was about unami--a Japanese word that translates (more or less) as "mouth feel." Evidently ketchup has unami to burn, because that was the focus of a fairly mouth-watering conversation. "I used to add a secret ingredient to my homemade spaghetti sauce (a splash of ketchup) and now I know why everybody loved it," said AlphaGnosis, who also posted the story. One member, fizzleboink2, had some issues with those three slippery syllables: "Why did they pick such a clumsy word?" On the other hand, sumptuousdigs (evidently a resident of William Penn's green country town) saw some real fusion possibilities: "In some Philly neighborhoods it's mixed with cheesesteak to get that distinctive Yomama flavor." And cosmogenium got the ball rolling with what should be a regular tsunami of unami jokes (say that ten times fast): "Umami's so hot, she make me drool!" I guess we'll stop right there.

AND DON'T OVERLOOK....

With 244 votes and 229 comments, "Lawmakers vote to hold Bolten and Rove in contempt" was among our top stories for the week. RickytheGriff thought that a contempt citation was far too kind a treatment for these Bush stalwarts. He recommended a more rigorous procedure, which began this way: "You take both Bolten and Rove and you stuff 'em into two Civil War era cannons, right? Then you roll those cannons about five feet in front of a large brick wall..." At least one member, injest, took the opposite tack, predicting that "this so-called scandal will go nowhere." VMan, however, detected a whiff of stonewalling: "If there's nothing to hide, why don't they just show up and talk?" Elsewhere, Propeller members were talking about Mike Huckabee, synthetic DNA, and the death penalty. A story about painting your nails earned a surprising 141 votes, and this confession from socialpyramid: "I used to paint my nails in college (I'm a dude). It was fun." (You're the man!) There were alarming posts about PTSD and our dwindling food supply. And finally, the Propeller crew tipped its hat to the holiday season by voting up this latest version of "Adam Sandler's Happy Hanukkah Song!" The YoutTube video generated 160 votes and 46 comments, including this observation from CactusAnnie: "Those little dreidels were adorable." On that note, Propeller wishes you all a pleasant holiday and a happy New Year and (if you're so inclined) a celebratory gin-and-tonica. But only if you're good.

Tags: propeller, week in review, wir

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