Gay Marriage Thoughts

The SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) is weighing in on gay marriage and determining the Constitutionality.  The reading of the tea leaves indicate that SCOTUS will overturn DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act).  Then again, I thought the Supreme Court would overturn Obamacare, so you never know.

But popular opinion is rapidly swinging in favor of gay marriage.  Especially among the young.  This is a good thing, IMHO- I have several friends who are gay, and I want them to be happy as I am in my marriage.  

I can think of several tangents, though:

1)  I never, never understood why Social Conservatives were against gay marriage.   It seems to me they should have been leading the charge for gay marriage.  Long term committed relationships are healthy and should be ENCOURAGED. 

2)  I'm still confused by the political points on this one.  Barack Obama ran against gay marriage in 2008.  The fact that he changed his opinion is nice, but he was still several years behind Dick Cheney, Ted Olson, Colin Powell, etc. 

Ah, hell- I disagree with the President on just about everything else.  Might as well give him credit on one of the few things I do agree with him on :)

3)  In every couple, there is one person who wants to get married more than the other.  Right now, look at every gay couple you know- one of them is thinking, "Damn- there goes that excuse."  

4)  Should the Supreme Court support gay marriage in all 50 states, there's going to be a floodgates of marriages.  I'm a good capitalist, and thinking "How can I profit from this?".  It may be time to start investing in florists and bakeries before the deluge.

5)  Is it rude to ask all of my friends who are gay "Are you getting married yet?  Are you getting married yet?  When?  When?  When?"  Sure, it's rude- but it is a consequence of having the right to marry :)

Judging Commercials

I watch far too much TV... which means I watch far too many commercials. So much so that I tend to tune them out. And since the point of commercials is to convince you to spend money on their product, that means that a vast majority of commercials fail in their mission.

To me, a great commercial should do three things:

1. Be memorable
2. Be positive towards them
3. Associate the commercial with the product

Far too many commercials fail in the third task. For instance, watch the commercial below:

Then wait 30 minutes...  Go ahead, I'll stay here...

Now, that commercial hits (1) and (2)- it's memorable, it's funny, you like it.

But do you remember what product they are pitching? Hell, do you remember what COMPANY they are pitching?

Maybe you do. But I'll bet most people won't. They'll remember the funny Viking commercials ("The spiked heels are WORKING!"), but forget that those Vikings are selling Spark Cards and working for Capitol One. 

Then there are commercials that stick with you, but for all the wrong reasons:

OK- most people remember these commercials, and most people can associate them with Apple.

But for a large part of the audience- myself included- they found 'Apple' to be smug, and had much more empathy to 'PC'. The result was a backlash- I'll bet Microsoft LOVED these commercials.

In my mind, the best commercials out there today are:

Memorable, funny, clever, associated with the product- I don't even drink beer and I've tried Dos Equis. Very successful.

But, to my mind, the greatest commercial of all time- even 40+ years later...

... hell, I'll hold off the video and just say one thing.

"Hey Mikey! He Likes It!"

Everyone who took part in that commercial should get a royalty check from Kellogg's until the end of time.

Diary of a Mighty Writer...

You can blame Isaac Asimov for this one...

Back in junior high, I went through a phase where I read a ton of Asimov- the Foundation Series, the Robot Trilogy, the Black Widow Books... Asimov wasn't just a fine science fiction writer- he was a great storyteller.  He could write a short story that was interesting, amusing, and thoughtful.

I've started re-reading Asimov, and it spurred the interest to start writing short stories of my own.  And on the internet, you can find a place to showcase anything.

So here is my first sci-fi short story.  Enjoy.  

 

Which Franchise Should win First- NHL

I'm not a hockey fan, but wanted to leave this in to be a completionist.

Which Franchise Should win First- NBA

It's still amazing that literally HALF of the NBA Titles have been won by two franchises (Celtics and Lakers). The history of the NBA has been centered around those two franchises, with one period of domination by Michael Jordan. In 2013, there is a good chance that neither the Celtics nor Lakers will make the playoffs- which just seems so out of play. We're used to seeing one or the other team always dominate.

Which Franchise should win first- NFL

Only four franchises (Texans, Browns, Lions, Jaguars) have not made the Super Bowl. And if you included the AFL or pre-Super Bowl NFL, many of these franchises would be off the list. But modern fans only start counting from the Super Bowl.

Which franchise should win first- MLB

In baseball, all of the franchises since 1901 have won at least one championship. The oldest franchises that have been shut out started in 1962 (The Astros and Rangers).

A special shout to the Florida Marlins, who have already won two titles in a very short lifespan. And by "shout out", I mean "Go to hell". I'm still bitter about 1997, thank you very much.