Reading Journal #2

For this week's readings I focused not only on what seemed true and what didn't but what I was really interested in and what I liked about it. The first article I read was from the Wonkette, "Michelle Obama Plays Fancy Tennis Sport For Obese Children". At first I was kind of offended by the heavy use of sarcasm and jabs at Michelle Obama but after closer inspection I realized that there was actually some truth inside the article. When i read the line "shoving things like fitness and exercise down the throats of America’s children" I was taken aback but by the end of the article I kind of agreed with the author. It's great the Michelle Obama wants to try and transform the amount of fitness and healthy decisions today's children are making but when you see what exactly her tactics are, it does feel like a shoving. The author seemed to really call her out when she was speaking about her love of tennis and how it "is a great sport because even if you live in a poor neighborhood, without tennis courts, you can learn to play the sport once you graduate from law school." This says to me that the author, and probably many others felt a condescending tone from her and the inclusion of law school. What is she really promoting here?

Although the Wonkette is known as "The D.C. Gossip" and they try to be sarcastic and funny in the way they report things, I found it really interesting that the article had more truth in it than I originally perceived and how much I agreed with it. Another article that I read that I found kind of untrue but more just really strange was from the life section of Salon.com, "Want a taste of Ben & Jerry's Schweddy Balls?". The article discusses the new ice cream flavor that is named after a Saturday Night Live sketch. The flavor has been quite the hot topic and I was a little disturbed by the quotes included that to me made them sound almost unreal. One of the actors from the sketch is Alec Baldwin and according to Salon "Baldwin told Time that he's delighted to see "Ben & Jerry's and Schweddy... while Gasteyer admitted, "As a person and a performer, I am a sucker for holiday balls." Just grab the Balls while you can -- Ben & Jerry's is only rolling the flavor out through the holidays.

I'm sorry but doesn't that seem completely absurd in a professional publication? The blatant sexual innuendo is ridiculous that it's so hard to actually think of it as serious. Maybe that was the point of the article, to kind of jab at the blatancy of it all but it didn't seem that way. From the way it was written Salon.com almost seemed to be agreeing with and liking the idea of the flavor that as they said themselves, "could be redubbed Funky Jockeys". I think one of the reasons why I couldn't really be convinced by the article was that the only sources used were either SNL alum Ana Gasteyer, Ben & Jerry's, or Alec Baldwin. I really would have liked to have heard from someone NOT so clearly biased and in favor of the flavor or just someone not so heavily involved with it.