Yeah, that sketch made me pretty uncomfortable, since it didn't seem to be drawing on anything I'm aware of about his character or reputation so much as the pure fact of his blindness.

EXACTLY. I read some article where "SNL always picks on politicians blah blah blah" and I'm just... um... were you at that party with Meara? 'Cause that's just not on.

And there is SO much in his character and reputation. The coke, the cheating... and if you MUST have fun with his blindness here's one for you: Sucker memorizes EVERYTHING. Every speech he gives. Every set of "notes" he has for a meeting. Mock him being Super Blind Guy with no need of mere eyesight.

That's what made me so mad, actually. That man works HARD to do shit (and do it well) that most people take for granted. He would N E V E R hold a chart upside-down.

It was supposed to be a touch base meeting. 30-40 minutes. It started a 1:30. It's now approching 4! And Edge network wasn't working for a bit. I've had maybe 90 seconds of actual contribution to the meeting. Shoot. Me. Now. Please?!?

"No. And I also don't like pathetic little ploys to get out of taking responsibility for one's own words.

Anne is me.

I've also used, "Whoa. When I've heard people say stuff like that before they meant it. I sure hope you don't." And then showed them my back.

I try to avoid giving mean/insecure people what they want by taking stuff that isn't true personally.

The tool I use with my clients is 'purple spots'. If an insane person ran up and told you you had purple spots you probably wouldn't take it very seriously.

How is it any different when it is someone you know?

To use a phrase I first learned here...Ass 'em in the ear.

One of my Stepmonster's recent mass forwards included a joke, a classic really, with the punch line "I call them by their LAST names."

My Sister FLIPPED. (I, um, don't really READ her SPAM). I dared my Sister to write back "Last time I heard that racist, classist, sexist joke I fell off my dinosaur."

She did.

Reply all.

That kid is so hardcore.

Now, "I'm a blind man who loves cocaine who was suddenly appointed governor. My life is an actual plot from a Richard Pryor movie." was actually funny.

The rest of that sketch was skip forward from the hall. That line? Was actually funny.

I have achieved more layers than should be humanly possible and am going Out For A Walk, Bitches.

Out For A Walk

Oooh, that was a good choice because a strange man followed me home with wine. The dudes at Trader Joe's are just adorable.

I hadn't seen SNL, but when I got into my office on Monday, my officemate asked me if Patterson was particularly known for incompetence. He didn't know much about Patterson other than the really basic info, and had figured that, if SNL was doing a sketch like that, it must be because Patterson had been doing some particularly clueless stuff lately. But nope, SNL was just going for the easy joke.

When I taught 8th graders I'd say "It's only a joke if both people laugh." I have found that often works on adults too.

SO tired. Will someone come walk my dog?

That privilege essay, along with my ongoing annoyance at Annoying Officemate (who manages to find some way to mention to me that he has Jewish friends at least once a week -- seriously, I could deal with this stuff when I was at Tulane and a lot of the other people in my dorm were from relatively Jewless areas. But he's from just outside San Francisco), kind of reminded me of an incident when I was in high school. I was heading out the door to an Academic Decathlon competition. My mom noticed that I was wearing a Star of David necklace, and told me that she didn't think that was a good idea, because two of the events (interview and speech) involved someone looking at me and judging me. I said that was nuts. She repeated that she just didn't think it was a good idea, because, "You never know, even OK people might have some subconscious things." I said that one of my teammates was wearing a cross necklace, and she said, "You know that's not the same thing."

I wore it. But then, before stepping into the interview and speech rooms, I had a weird moment of panicky "What if?" and tucked the necklace under my shirt.