“Trivial” Pursuits

For your Friday amusement and musings:

Celebutante Lindsay Lohan is asking former Vice President Al Gore to shift his attentions from cleaning up the environment to helping her clean up her act.

Rumor has it that Angelina Jolie, who has always marched to a different drummer, plans to wed Brad Pitt in Africa, to the beat of tribal music. Her agent denies it, however, saying the story’s “all made up.”

First Lady Laura Bush made a grand entrance at the White House holiday reception this week, wearing the same holiday-red, $8,500 Oscar de la Renta outfit as three of her invited guests. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Britney Spears delivered a holiday message to her fans via her website, explaining away her, um, overexposure and thanking God for Victoria’s Secret.

Yesterday, the man who once crowed that he read three Shakespeares gave a nod to the Iraq Study Group report. President Bush assured the assembled press corps, “To show you how important this one is, I read it.”  The world is now watching Bush take his high-stakes, performance-based comprehension quiz.

‘Tis the season for miracles, so be sure you make time in your weekend teevee-watching schedule to see this.

George W. S. Trow, cultural critic and author of “Within the Context of No Context,” has died. The Los Angeles Times called his seminal work “a scathing analysis of contemporary American culture…heavy with yearning for a bygone social order, when adults were adults and trivia were actually viewed as trivial.” The line’s been blurred, hasn’t it, between what’s trivial and what’s significant.

24 Comments

  1. Oooh, lots of little tidbits of info. I hate to admit it, but the one that really caught my attention was the Angelina/Brad thing. I know everybody hates them, but I love them.

    Gorgeous and giving, what more could you want.

  2. Ugh. I can’t tolerate ANY of those people anymore. Bravo for you for taking the time, and having the patience to collect the tidbits for everyone’s entertainment. Did you yawn much? No doubt you didn’t, dear girl. You’re the most even woman I know. A great example to us all. I’m afraid I would have ignored all of them.

  3. Ugh. I can’t tolerate ANY of those people anymore. Bravo for you for taking the time, and having the patience to collect the tidbits for everyone’s entertainment. Did you yawn much? No doubt you didn’t, dear girl. You’re the most even woman I know. A great example to us all. I’m afraid I would have ignored all of them.

    • Ha ha ha! It’s amazing what attracts — and repels — our attention, isn’t it? The way I figure it, there’s something in this for everyone. Like ’em or hate ’em, love ’em or leave ’em, they’re enterttaining…though actually, the last item has an indictment of cultural trivia altogether. 🙂

  4. thank you!

    In the midst of a trying day at work, I sneaked onto LJ and smiled the whole time I read your trivia. I LOVED it. I opened my office door again, went down the hall, and spread some cheer to some very tired researchers.
    Thank you!

    • Re: thank you!

      Oh, I’m so glad! And…I’m curious about what attracted the attention of those tired researchers. Heh.

      I’m thinking I might make this trivia piece (with updates, of course) a regular Friday post. What do you think?

      • Re: thank you!

        I love the idea of a trivia piece for Fridays. I’m a creature of habit (girly drinks every Friday, same corner of the couch, etc.).

        And what attracted the attention of the tired researchers? Well, keeping in mind that most are from out of the country, and they’re cloistered academics, it was limited on what celebrities I could use…but I wanted to get people to go to our Department’s Holiday Party and insisited that Paris and Brittany will be there since they’re now hanging out together. The image (and absurdity) of Paris being at our little medical hoe-down made a lot of people smile and agree to go. 🙂

      • Re: thank you!

        I love the idea of a trivia piece for Fridays. I’m a creature of habit (girly drinks every Friday, same corner of the couch, etc.).

        And what attracted the attention of the tired researchers? Well, keeping in mind that most are from out of the country, and they’re cloistered academics, it was limited on what celebrities I could use…but I wanted to get people to go to our Department’s Holiday Party and insisited that Paris and Brittany will be there since they’re now hanging out together. The image (and absurdity) of Paris being at our little medical hoe-down made a lot of people smile and agree to go. 🙂

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