As IF Times

link How Al Gore Offered Keith Olbermann a Job – The Hollywood Reporter.

A stretch of credibility already.  It says in the article that:

“…Current averaged 18,000 homes in primetime for fourth quarter 2010, lower than any other network measured by Nielsen…”

Current TV is the network founded by the inventor of the Internet,  Al, we’re all gonna die, Gore.  The curious statistic of 18,000 viewers can possibly be attributed to:

a) a computer glitch which added two too many zeroes to the count

b) tv’s left on when people have died

c) the handful of zealots in San Francisco who think continents will be submerged on any upcoming day that ends in a ‘y’

d) the Gore family owning 17,946 tv’s.

It really is a tribute to America that the Nobel prize winner still commands an audience, no matter how nominal, even when his entire life’s work has been soundly discredited.  Except of course the Internet thing.   That may still have legs.   The whole Global warming kabuki reminds me of the scene in the classic 1983 movie, Trading Places, starring Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy.  In one of the final scenes, the evil Duke brothers are begging and pleading with people to come back to the trading pits after being ruined by bad trades.  

So now, Keith Olbermann is being added to the lineup in order to bolster ratings.  That would be like making the cast of The Golden Girls put on miniskirts to attract viewers.  Mr. Olbermann is touted as once the cornerstone of ESPN sports, a claim that is as laughable as saying the TV series Baywatch was popular because of David Hasselhoff.  I’m not sure how much you could pay Olbermann given that he’s used to multi million dollar paychecks from MSNBC, which is under new management.  MSNBC of course stood for, Mainstream News By Coercion, or Mainly Silly News Bashing Conservatives.   If current TV has only 18,000 (claimed) viewers, what is the revenue model that would allow them to pay Olbermann more than free sandwiches and Starbucks to offer his talents?  It’s possible that he’s doing it gratis in order to have a soapbox for his insightful soliloquies.

In any case, he will have found his kindred spirit at Current TV with Al Gore since no one listens to him anymore.  But if the Gore clan sells any of the TV sets in their 900,000 square foot home, ratings will crater.

link Justin Bieber: Selena Gomez Is “Amazing!” – Healthy Lifestyle – UsMagazine.com.

There it is again.  That default word for describing everything in western society.  Amazing.  The dictionary.com  definition for amazing is:

–verb (used with object) 1. to overwhelm with surprise or sudden wonder; astonish greatly.

So for example, if you were standing next to someone and he pulled a chainsaw out of his ears, that would be considered amazing.  It’s unlikely Ms. Gomez performed such an amusing trick, so I wonder what it was that inspired such awe from Mr. Bieber.  Perhaps she was able to conjure up all manner of remarkable tricks.  For all we know, maybe she is able to apparate spontaneously like Jeannie from the old I Dream of Jeannie TV show.  That would in fact be amazing.  If her name was Grace, that would also be legitimate because there is a song which has already established that.

It is more likely that he was just using the word as everyone else in pop society does these days, incorrectly.  No doubt, Ms. Gomez is charming and reasonably attractive.  I’m not sure that would qualify as amazing, unless of course, Justin had very low expectations.  Not that long ago, the au courant word was ‘awesome’, as in awesome duudde!  Though also possessed of  hyperbole, awesome is a better adjective than amazing in describing superior events or objects. 

How does one have an amazing meal?  Did the food just appear from nowhere? Did it just leap onto the forks by itself?  I’m reasonably sure that people use the word because every one else uses it, not because they really understand what the adjective means.  We often hear that people’s vacations were amazing…how could that be?  No wonder then, that people attempting to learn the English language are so confused when confronted with modern speech.  English is the most dynamic language in the world and we’ve seen plenty of words hijacked over the years to mean things which are totally removed from the original definitions. In the 60’s it was ‘cool’ and ‘hip’.  In the ’80’s it was ‘radical’ or ‘rad’ for short.  But for some reason, the use of the word ‘amazing’ to describe all things pleasurable grates on me like sand in a swimsuit.  If people learned to use words properly, that would be amazing.