Friday, March 1, 2013

Oscar's bad boy, Girl Scout cookies, and other things

What started as a favor for a friend has gotten reality TV moppet Alana Thompson, aka "Honey Boo Boo", in trouble with the Girl Scouts.

The 7-year old Ms. Thompson isn't a Girl Scout herself, but, perhaps on the advice of her mother, June Shannon, used her Facebook page to help a friend sell some cookies, complete with price list. The Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia weren't digging, feeling that with "Honey Boo Boo"'s picture beside the price list, plus contact info for Alana's 700,000+ online fans, some folks might be misled into thinking "Honey" was selling the cookies herself.

Now, while it's normally a neighborly, noble gesture to help a friend in need----and that's certainly what Alana had in mind, methinks----the Girl Scouts feel it's more appropriate to employ the old fashioned door-to-door method. Where they have a problem is that the cookies in the Georgia area are being sold to other parts of the country. I'm not quite sure if Alana or June understands that Girl Scout cookies aren't like sports cards or DVD's that can be traded online. If the cookies are earmarked for a specific portion of the country, they're to be sold in that particular region only.

I get that "Honey"'s detractors will have a field day, since they think she's using her sudden fame to help move a few cookies. Well, that would've been all well and good if she actually joined the Scouts.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) knew what they were getting when they signed Family Guy creator-star Seth MacFarlane to host this year's Academy Awards. Sure enough, most of the post-show buzz surrounded MacFarlane's R-rated comedy antics, including a show-opening number that celebrated how a lot of actresses have gone topless in some films. The real surprise is that the most likely voice of dissent, the Parents Television Council, hasn't weighed in on this publicly as yet. MacFarlane has taken himself out of consideration for a return gig, knowing he was competing against himself in the ratings in the first place, and perhaps knowing the backlash that was coming. Whomever green-lighted the decision to hire MacFarlane for this gig gets a Dunce Cap Award for being so dumb as to almost irretrievably damage the prestige and tradition of the Oscars.

And we have some Weasel ears to hand out, closer to home. It started when some Saratoga High students made some derogatory remarks toward Shenendehowa student Bailey Wind, still recovering from an accident 3 months ago that claimed the life of her boyfriend, Chris Stewart, and another student, Deanna Rivers. For all of the work that Shen & Shaker students have done to raise funds for the victims' families, it all unraveled at a Section II hockey playoff between Shen & Saratoga one week ago. Bottles were being thrown from both sides of the rink, according to published reports, and students at both schools have been disciplined. What I don't get is why Ms. Wind had to be subjected to such needless, mindless taunting---I wouldn't call it bullying, in this case---nearly three months after the accident. Tragedies take much longer to get over emotionally than most injuries. While students at both Shen & Saratoga are getting the Weasel ears for the bottle throwing war, the Saratoga cretins who used social media to taunt Bailey Wind are getting Dunce Caps as a result, because let's suppose one or more of these kids has to go through the same thing down the road. The first thing they'll hear is, what goes around, comes around. Otherwise known as karmic justice.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

Trust me, very few Girl Scouts go door to door these days - too dangerous and time consuming.

Most scouts sell their wares in front of supermarkets or restaurant parking lots. An ambitious 10 yr old twisted my arm so hard I bought three boxes of Peanut Butter Patties and two Thin Mints last week!

I understand the money having to remain in a particular area where the cookies are sold, but if the cookies are shipped to another state, the money still goes to the girl who is in charge of selling them, so I think it's OK. If I had a celebrity contact (and the internet) like Honey Boo Boo, I'd certainly use it to my advantage. The kid will likely get a merit badge for promotions or something!

I caught clips of MacFarlane's opening and I thought it was OK. Not everyone gets Capt. Kirk to improve his monologues! It could have been a lot more vulgar but suprisingly it wasn't. After all, Hollywood set itself up by catering to the lowest common denominator and MacFarland was just poking fun at that. For once it was nice seeing some actors on stage dancing around and earning their keep!

Remember, Snow White & Rob Lowe? THAT was a debacle!


As for Saratoga HS students, they should have known better. Taunting a girl who was not only injured but lost two friends as a result of the same accident should be a lesson in civility and compassion.

hobbyfan said...

I get what you're saying. One of my co-workers was selling the cookies for his grandkid the last few weeks, and delivered the goodies earlier this week. Shoot, I used to do some sales work in fundraising as a kid, selling for Stanley Home Products, and having Mama help out at her job. Together, we made a pretty good amount of money, which was turned in on time at school.

Hollywood's been catering to the LCD for a while. How else to explain the rise in reality TV?