News You Can Misuse: February 9, 2009

First today, some things you can really not use...

Carrie Fisher was the special guest on last week's episode of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. She was promoting her new best-selling book, Wishful Drinking - that is, when she wasn't being hilarious. (If you haven't visited her blog, you have my permission to stop reading and go here.) Anyway, host Peter Sagal asked her to reveal something about Sir Alec Guinness that she hadn't written about. She replied, "Alec Guinness once gave Mark Hamill 20 pounds to go away." She also mentioned that during the famous gold bikini scene, the clothing would not adhere to her body. So while she was sprawled across Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett was standing behind her and "could see all the way to Florida." I love Carrie Fisher. (Ask her about when Cary Grant called her - not once, but twice - to tell her not to use LSD.)

This morning as I wrote at at breakfast, I had VH-1 Classic on in the background. The familiar "Oh-ay-oh-ay" of the Miami Sound Machine's "Rhythm is Gonna Get You" started, and I looked up to watch the video. Oh, Lord, the 80s. But what caught my attention was that several band members were wearing t-shirts with "MSM" in large letters on the front. And all my brain kept saying was, "mainstream media? mainstream media? that makes no sense."

Finally, if this doesn't make you smile, then you are dead inside.

And now, the news...

Badgered over human rights. University of Wisconsin-Madison News:

The University of Wisconsin-Madison will end its business relationship with Russell Athletic at the expiration of its current licensing agreement in March....

In late 2008, the university's Labor Licensing Policy Committee (LLPC) recommended that the university end its relationship with the firm after questions arose over the decision to close one of the company's factories, Jerzees de Honduras in Choloma, Honduras.

Human and workers' rights groups have alleged that the closure took place as a result of union-organizing activity, and they cite additional claims that the factory management repeatedly sought to suppress freedoms of association there....

"We are a university that wants to do the best for workers making products bearing our name," says Dawn Crim, special assistant to the chancellor for community relations and liaison to the LLPC. "The company has not met our expectations."

I know that Madison is a hippy-dippy place (Hi Rachel! Hi Neal!). So it is rewarding to see that the university is responding to claims of human rights violations and unfair labor practices. But I think there is more to this story than meets the eye.

Athletics is big business. The NCAA and its member institutions have generally been impervious to what is best for the student, in all cases choosing what is best for the cash. And in this case, Russell products only netted $39,514 for the university in 2007-2008. Even in these hard times, that's chump change for a flagship institution.

A prediction and an expectation: first, look for UW-Madison to replace Russell with a more prominent athletic label such as Nike. And don't expect Nike's human rights record to get in the way of the almighty dollar. And second, shouldn't UW-Madison, and all its departments and employees, stop doing business with Wal-Mart? Wal-Mart's outrageous human rights and labor records are well documented, and certainly worse than Russell's.

D-O-U-C-H-E. USA Today:

Sports are often made for TV. And TV is made for advertisers.

So it shouldn't surprise — especially as all sports are scrambling to find new places to hang "for sale" signs given the current economy — that the NBA's first H-O-R-S-E contest won't use those letters.

As that contest joins dunking and three-point shooting contests as part of TNT's NBA All-Star Weekend coverage, the as-yet unnamed three contestants — who'll be overseen by an NBA ref — will play G-E-I-C-O. As in the insurance company that will be the event's unavoidable sponsor. (Suggestion: The winner then takes on the famous ad lizard to really drive home the brand awareness.)

Really? SRSLY? I already have significant issues with the overlogofication of sports. We're fashion police in professional tennis when it comes to the small number and size of logos we will allow. And in NASCAR, with every single thing covered in logos all the time, how come there have to be commercial breaks? MLS Soccer can broadcast for 45 minutes without interruption - why can't NASCAR?

FanHouse takes this down better than I could:

Look, I understand that the economy stinks that everything needs to be sponsored (this is why Sportscenter has the Coors Light Cold Hard Facts Sponsored by GMC, of course) but at least keep the integrity of the game intact and let it be TNT's HORSE presented by GEICO. Then, instead of selling all our souls, just have a commercial every 12 seconds (fit it in between the Closer, perhaps?) where the gecko and the pile of money with eyes play G-E-I-C-O against each other.

It would have the same effect really, and no one would feel dirty.

A picture is worth a thousand jobs...or more. Daily Kos:


We have a long way to go.

Who, Mii? Engadget:

The sketch artist at the Kanagawa, Japan police department must've been on vaca last week -- local authorities there decided to use this shady-looking Mii to try and catch a man suspected of a hit and run. Crude, yet effective -- although something tells us a man with no arms who can still swing a tennis racket might just stand out on his own.

Are there really enough option in the Mii creator to render an adequate "sketch"? My Mii looks like hell - maybe it's time for me to engage in a crime spree in Kanagawa.

Did you know...that the Pointer Sisters recorded the music for "Pinball Number Count" for Sesame Street in 1972?



You can thank me for having that in your head for the rest of the day.