The Grouchy Editor

I tried to watch a baseball game and wound up feeling like Michael Douglas in 1993’s Falling Down, in which his working-stiff character no longer recognizes his own country. In my case, I no longer recognized America’s pastime.

Not only were the “fans” in the stands ridiculous-looking cardboard cutouts, but for some reason the announcers were speaking Spanish. All of that on top of Major League Baseball’s decision to get all political and … well, maybe it’s time I moved to a tiny cabin in the mountains of Wyoming. Michael Douglas could relate.

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I watched a video last night that posed a familiar question: “Why do most Hollywood movies suck?” The answer was also familiar: Hollywood is first and foremost a business, and so the stories we get are all market-tested to ensure studios get the most bang for their (big) bucks.

Intelligent, dialogue- and character-driven narratives don’t translate well overseas, and so we have a glut of special-effects-heavy comic-book movies that play well in China. Quality stories have been exiled to the land of cheap indies and to streaming TV.

OK, but I have another question: Why are so many of the “good” shows such downers? In the past, Hollywood routinely cranked out product that was smart and – gasp! – uplifting. Not so much anymore. Today, even the comedies are cynical and snark-filled, even mean-spirited.

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I’ve been watching The Twelve on Netflix. It’s a drama from Belgium about a jury charged with determining the guilt or innocence of a woman accused of two murders. It’s not bad, but it’s a bit bloated; I began to grow impatient with all of the subplots by about episode 7. Just resolve the mystery already, I’m thinking.

But I hope we can all agree that actress Charlotte De Bruyne looks mighty fine — front and back (below).

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Speaking of ass, it had been awhile since Fox News entertained us with a sex scandal. But last week we learned that Ed Henry, of all people, got canned for sexual shenanigans with a co-worker named Jennifer Eckhart (above). Apparently, Eckhart wound up handcuffed to a bed while naughty Ed did all sorts of things to her. She claims this bedroom play was non-consensual.

Until this scandal, Ed was pitched to the public as the ultimate nice guy, a dutiful sibling who selflessly gave part of his liver to his sister, who was in need of a transplant.

What a swell guy — or so I thought. Then I learned that Ed also ran into trouble in 2016 when he got involved with a Las Vegas stripper.

Sounds like Ed might have given away the wrong organ.

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I need to do a better job of monitoring the porn-star world. Someone named Mia Khalifa was in the news this week, but I had never heard of her. Apparently, she is upset that her porn background is hurting her goal of transitioning to mainstream acting work, while men face no such stigma.

Mia is also warning young women to stay away from the porn industry, which she says is toxic. Below, Lebanese-American Mia in one of her porn shoots.

She looks like she’s having a miserable time, doesn’t she?

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© 2010-2024 grouchyeditor.com (text only)

Five years ago, I was a news junkie whose typical daily diet looked something like this:

I am still a news junkie, but today my daily diet looks more like this:

So, what happened to me? As the great political pundit Roseanne Barr famously explained to Jimmy Kimmel: “I’m still the same; you all moved.” Gradually, inexorably, my preferred news sources went off the far-left deep end.

I don’t know if Trump Derangement Syndrome was the cause of this leftward lurch, or if it was simply inevitable, but I can no longer stomach former favorites like Rachel Maddow and the HuffPost.

Tucker Carlson, Tim Pool, and conservative Web sites have their biases, of course, and I don’t always agree with them. And it’s hard to overlook the clown-like excesses of the New York Post (see above).

But they are not insane (see below).

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We hear a lot about the culture war between big cities (predominately liberal) and rural America (Trump country). But I suspect the real battle will be between big cities and the suburbs.

It’s one thing when Antifa occupies downtown Seattle, but what happens when they try to torch a suburban Applebee’s?

© 2010-2024 grouchyeditor.com (text only)

We are in the midst of a computer swap.

And so, please forgive us for this week’s lack of content and enjoy this picture of a goat.

© 2010-2024 grouchyeditor.com (text only)

Cancel culture is clearly Anthony Fremont (above) wishing people into the cornfield in that old episode of The Twilight Zone.

The far left reminds me of nothing so much as spoiled children terrorizing the adults. Do as we say or you will be destroyed.

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It’s the Fourth of July and all hell might break loose tonight and I’m tired of all the squabbling and fighting and I refuse to do it today so I’m just not going to say anything other than my brief observation above about the “woke” crowd and cancel culture and all of that crap so instead I’m just going to spend the day watching old Columbo episodes.

Besides, this computer is dying and it’s an effing pain in the ass to work on this site.

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Yes, I realize that King and Rowling both come from humble beginnings. But the problem with both of them, in my humble opinion, is that they’ve spent most of their adult lives in little rooms staring at computer screens.

Or, in King’s case, a typewriter.

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I dunno. Kind of looks to me like the chick is trying to escape.

© 2010-2024 grouchyeditor.com (text only)