So I was watching a lot of Newsworld earlier this week – what with all the political intrigue and my ongoing hope that my children would see me gazing with keen interest at that ad for the walk-in bathtub and think, hey, Father’s Day – and I’ve come to the conclusion that two things ought to be said. So I’m oughting to say them.
1. This is Don Newman’s final week on the brooooadcast but his network has done only slightly more than the sum of jack and squat to mark the occasion. Instead of counting down to Don’s farewell, hyping his role and achievements as an institution in Canadian political life and celebrating his 340-year career as a talented broadcaster, probing interviewer and a ruthless murderer of time (“And still we wait to go live to the National Press Theatre in Ottawa… Ottawa being the capital of Canada, a G-7 nation located in the northern portion of North America, one of seven continents forged from Pangaea…”)… instead of doing all that, Newsworld kept airing until yesterday the same old regular “The Spin Stops Here” promo for Don’s show. Stay classy, Newsworld.
2. I get the premise of your commercial for car insurance, Grey Power. You know the one: the one where the guy says something like: “You don’t drive like her. Why pay the same insurance as her?” – the “her” in this case being a woman portrayed as an aggressive, foul-mouthed boob of a motorist who is a danger to herself and all in her vicinity on the roads… EXCEPT that if you watch the commercial closely, here’s what happens during the first depiction of her so-called unreasonable road ragery: She pulls up behind another motorist at a stop sign. The other motorist – the one in front of her –stays motionless. The woman yells at the motorist to get a bloody move on already. Still, the car ahead does not drive on. Frustrated, the woman pulls around the motorist at the Stop sign and speeds away. Dear Grey Power: I WOULD DO THIS. Most of us would do this. Even people over 50 would do this. It’s a Stop sign, not an Intermission sign or the Hypnotoad.
