So I was pondering the rash of recent celebrity deaths and I thought, "There might even be more I don't know about!" so I decided to check Wikipedia and of course there is a list. So. That's good, and depressing.

twitter-losophy

ghah, all the famous people on twitter are freaking me out. and they all follow each other! it's like animals in the wilderness, you have to follow one back to its den and there are half a dozen more. i almost wish i could have twitter "channels" to keep separate from one another the three categories of people on twitter:

1. people i know, or know on the internet, but with my approximate level of famousness, such as my boyfriend (@forsoothed), my friend Internet Matt (@tederick), etc.
2. people who are kind of internet-famous, but who normal people have never heard of. some of these people are actually famous FOR twitter, which is weird, like a recursive kind of fame. you can tell who they are because they have 6,000 followers but their bio says, like, "blogger/stay-at-home-dad."
3. famous-famous people, who even normal people have heard of, you know, like @Oprah.

Maybe this is just me, letting my totally class-conscious hangups show through, but i kind of don't want to read James's updates right next to Ellen DeGeneres'. It makes it seem like these people are all part of a vast network, like, "People Jocelyn knows/is interested in," when in fact they have nothing to do with each other and are not, in fact, equally interesting to me. (By which I mean that James's updates are MORE interesting because he might, at any moment, mention me and how awesome I am and how I made the yummiest chowder and make the cutest sounds/concentrating-y face when i am playing super mario bros., whereas Ellen, funny and charming as she is, never mentions me. EVER.)

i guess you could argue that this is just the democratizing power of the internet. but i don't see it that way. it's almost like the famous people do not deserve to take over twitter; they already get to constantly express themselves publicly, in much more widely-acknowledged ways. You know, like the many interviews where they explain how they're so spiritual, and they feel like acting is really a process, or they love reading chick lit it's totally their secret shame, or (this is my favourite) they were such geeks in high school, or whatever. get off twitter! just say this stuff on tv like you usually do!

in spite of what i said about the famous people (you know, in the previous paragraph), @Timbaland's entries are hilarious. and @neilgaiman's are amazing, not to mention amazingly frequent, although he's a writer so he kind of straddles the line between category 2 and category 3. same with @hodgman. i mean, it's not like i'm going to unfollow them. i'll read their updates obsessively on my ipod on stolen wifi. but i'll continue to be freaked out.

In which I grow nostalgic for a time before I was born

I am watching season 2 of The Muppet Show right now and it consistently blows my mind. The pace of writing and production must have been absolutely frenetic, and the writing is so consistently funny and weird and cheezy, it's awesome. The episode with Rudolph Nureyev is pure gold:

I think this is from the good old days of television, when celebrities were actually expected to have talents, rather than just to appear on talk shows and talk about their opinions on natural childbirth, or macrobiotic eating, or whatever. I mean, I know Nureyev is a dancer, but still: NOBODY can tap-dance anymore. Every celebrity guest on The Muppet Show can sing and/or dance and/or act, or make balloon animals, or at least smile good-naturedly while the Muppets make puns. At no point do they get to talk about themselves, which is how it should be. They don't make famous people like they used to, apparently.

From the same episode: "Baby It's Cold Outside" with Miss Piggy; Swine Lake.

Whoa, did you guys know that Danica McKellar, who played Winnie on The Wonder Years, grew up to become a mathematician, and helped to prove a theorem in mathematical physics? She's on the nominee list for Wired's sexiest geek contest this year along with actress Felicia Day. Oh, and Joss Whedon. I can't vote because I'm too torn up by my divergent loyalties.

I love The Wonder Years.
*off to check if there are Wonder Years DVDs on Amazon*

Wow, my list of things I am happy about just got longer. Like, only 1 item longer, but still, it's a significant one item. Aside from that overheard in the office site, which I linked to yesterday, there are a bunch of others, including celebrity wit! Now, you may be saying, "Jocelyn, these people are interviewed all the time. They are under constant surveillance. Every time they say one stupid thing, the press has a field day. It's exploitative and immature and unfair." And to that, I reply:

"I make Jessica Simpson look like a rock scientist." -Tara Reid

"I would rather die than let my kid eat Cup-a-Soup." -Gwyneth Paltrow

Any questions?

Also: overheard at the beach, overheard in New York, overheard everywhere

love like a sunburn

These men's magazine lists, written by female celebrities, infuriate me. You know what I'm talking about: "This month in Maxim: A supermodel writes a list! Because she is not smart enough to write a whole article!" I am sorry, but just because you have starred in a sitcom, EVEN IF IT RAN FOR 10 YEARS LONGER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE, that does not qualify you to speak on behalf of all women. Especially when your attempts to clarify gender differences are based on the same tired cliches that these types of lists have been based on since, oh, 1952. I'm sorry, but "men don't listen" and "women like to shop" don't cut it anymore. Get with the program, MSN!