* Anyone else tired of the numbing use of “fiscal cliff?” That was, by the way, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s coinage. Anyone else wish that part of a Fed chairman’s charge is to never–especially when testifying before Congress–hand deliver a made-for-media-and-market-overkill metaphor. The hucksters and analysts on CNBC even have a Fiscal Cliff Countdown, showing Days, Hours, Minutes and Seconds as if it were the Mayan apocalypse and doom instead of Washington gridlock and sequestration.
* The New York Post has been running ads in the Tampa Tribune. The current one features a reproduction of a recent front page showing Paula Broadwell next to the quintessential tab headline: “Love Bytes.” Could have been worse. Mercifully, the Post didn’t replicate the obscenity that was their front page the day they showed the man on the subway tracks above the “Doomed” headline. Abominable that they ran it; loathsome that there’s a market for such a ghastly photo; disgusting that they’re still in business–and advertising it down here.
* Speaking of that tragic subway-tracks death, many news outlets, including AOL, carried the follow-up headline: “Homeless Man Arrested In Subway Death.” Why not your basic “Suspect Arrested… ” headline? Is “Homeless” somehow pertinent? Implicitly exculpatory?
* Tickets are now on sale for Mike Tyson: “Undisputed Truth,” the live-on-stage performance that is coming to Ruth Eckerd Hall in April. It’s directed by Spike Lee.
One question: Why?
* I know I must be in the minority, because “Skyfall” is a box office hit. But the longer the James Bond series goes, the more I miss Sean Connery. There’s a difference between brand and cliché–although Roger Moore, I’ll concede, certainly looked the debonair, leading-man part. Daniel Craig, however, doesn’t. And more special effects and gimmicks doesn’t compensate. It just makes the latest Bond iteration more like every other action movie today. Arguably, we have more than enough.