Tuesday, January 04, 2005

What A Difference An "E" Makes 

Surely there's nothing funny about the growing Asian post-tsunami crisis. Happily, though our international population was home on break during the past few weeks, all students under our collective care are healthy and accounted for. Unhappily, their privilege and safety only underscores a growing death toll that is estimated to exceed 150,000.

Nonetheless, the pop culture mind can't help but snigger when the Boston Globe's top headline reads Ex-presidents to lead aid effort. Am I the only one picturing X-President Bush, Sr. swooping down from the skies to deliver bad puns and sandwiches to all? Doesn't anyone at the Globe watch Saturday Night Live? Damn one of us, anyway, for inadvertently trivializing the worst natural disaster in a lifetime. If nothing else, it's a good reminder that cultural context always counts.

[Update 2:23 pm: X-presidents pic removed out of respect. Those interested in seeing the possibly-Smigel-authorized comic cover image will find it here.]

posted by boyhowdy | 1:51 PM |

Comments:
Post a Comment
coming soon
now listening
tinyblog
archives
about
links
blogs
quotes