Lee's Live Expletive

Lee Corso

Yesterday morning, during ESPN's College Gameday show, while joking around, reporter Lee Corso used a curse word. He used the f-word. 


You know, the one that ends in K. 


And of course, half an hour later, into the first quarter of the Michigan-Nebraska game, ESPN aired an apology from Corso saying, "Earlier today on College Gameday, while picking the SMU-Houston game, I got a bit excited and used an expletive that I shouldn't have used". 


Swear words have always been taboo in American society, but sometimes I think the public puts too much meaning on them. It's just a word. And I bet most, if not all, viewers that day had probably heard the f-word before. 


In fact, it seems that everytime a cuss word gets uttered on live TV, there is a huge uproar. Viewers complain and a video of the event turns viral on Youtube. But why do people care so much? I understand how parents do not want their children to be exposed to that kind of profanity, but if the parents actually ever took their children to a college football game, I can promise them, their children will hear the f-word many more times than once. Hopefully as parents, your instilling good enough judgement into your kids for them to know which words are and aren't acceptable. One cuss word they hear on ESPN College Gameday is not going to taint them as human beings. 


All in all, I just do not understand why live reporters especially always have to use perfect language. Can you imagine how hard it is to be perfect and make no mistakes while hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, are watching. 


Now, I'm not condoning the use of cuss words on TV, and I'm not saying that it's okay for reporters to use them all the time. But once in a while, that's fine. I'm sure you wouldn't want so many strangers criticizing you when you make one mistake. So to everyone that's criticizing the **** out of Corso, please cool down. 


Yours Truly,
Chrisanthy S


A full article on Corso's f-bomb can be found HERE.

An Ignorant Generation

Last night, my friends and I treated ourselves to a dinner at Flat Top Grill. Overall, we had a great time. It was great food, great atmosphere, and great company. Though, one part of the night really ticked me off. It was while we were waiting to be seated. There was a lull in conversation, so I brought up the Penn State scandal. To my astonishment, none of my friends knew what the Penn State scandal was. Perhaps the biggest scandal of college football, and not one out of the five of them had ever even heard of it. 


This caused me to start wondering about how many other American teens are unaware of current events. My research led me to a study done by Harvard regarding how many American teenagers pay attention to the news. The study states that some "28% of Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 said they pay almost no attention to daily news, and 32% said they pay only casual attention to one news source a day". 

This statistic genuinely alarmed me. In my point of view, one needs to be educated in current events in order to be a functioning member of society, even if one is only a teenager. So, I began to question why such a low number of teenagers read the news. The only teenagers I knew for a fact didn't read the news  were these five friends from Flat Top. After talking to them, I realized that the news is just not a priority for them. Their lives are too much wrapped up in homework, after school activities, college searching, work, friends, family, facebook, and sleep to pay attention to the news. 


But really, I don't think the news is that difficult to keep up with. If a teenager just takes 20-30 minutes out of everyday to focus on current events, they will most likely have a good basic knowledge of current world happenings. 


The study also states that: "Among people age 18-30, 48% said they pay attention to daily news, and only 23% of older Americans said they largely ignore news." So luckily, eventually in life, the news does become a priority for most. Teenagers will mature into functioning members of society after all. 


Nonetheless, on Monday, I will begin schooling my friends on current events during our fifth period lunch whether they like it or not. 


If you want to learn more about the Harvard study click HERE.

Guilty Humor

This past Wednesday, my level nineteen American Studies class embarked on a marvelous fieldtrip into the depths of downtown Chicago. This journey included a visit to the Smart Museum of Art, the Osaka Japanese garden, and a viewing of the Chicago-based play, Clybourne Park.

The plays plot begins in 1959 with a white couple moving out of their home in the predominately white Clybourne Park neighborhood of Chicago and a black family subsequently moving in. The idea of having black neighbors bothered and upset many of the white couple's white neighbors. The play then flash forwards to present day, now-predominately black Clybourne Park neighborhood at a meeting of neighbors pertaining building codes. The topic of race gets brought up at the meeting and it does not end pretty causing division between the neighbors.

The play gravitated on the topic of racism in Chicago and how it's changed (or perhaps not changed at all) from fifty years back to present day.

Division Between Neighbors in Clybourne Park

To symbolize racism fifty years ago, certain white characters bluntly expressed their concerns of a black family moving into their neighborhood.
To display racism in present day, there was a number of racist jokes that got thrown around. Jaw dropping, incredibly offensive, sometimes disturbing racist jokes. Racist jokes that I do not feel comfortable quoting on my school blog. But all in all, these jokes were quite funny.

I've always been taught that racist jokes are not to be laughed at. Not only because they are hurtful to the ethnicity of the joke, but also because you never know who is watching you laugh at something that offends them. In the incredibly liberal area where I live, you DO NOT want to be known as a racist and talk travels quick. But the thing that amazed me the most about the racist jokes in Clybourne Park was that everybody laughed at them. Well maybe not every single person in the audience, but it sure seemed like it.  But why are racist jokes okay to laugh at when watching a play and not okay to laugh at in real life?

I've developed a few theories to try to explain this phenomenon:

1. It was dark in the theater and everyone was fixated on the play, not you. So no one would ever know whether or not you laughed at these jokes.
2. You heard the majority of the audience, black and white and everything in-between, laughing at the jokes, so it was okay, because everyone was doing it.
3. The play is a form of entertainment and they had plenty of jokes not pertaining to race, so you knew it was also a comedy and the jokes were intended to be laughed at.

I know these theories can be seen as ridiculous, but they are my best speculations at this point. If anyone else has any other theories I would very much like to hear them, because this was quite an experience for me and any insight would be appreciated. 

An End

During 6th period on Friday, my phone started going off. It was my New York Times app informing me that Obama is to pull out all the troops in Iraq by the end of the year. This means that we as a country will be able to say that the war in Iraq is over. A war we've been in for 8 years now is going to finally be over.

Iraq

Being opposed to the war in Iraq, I thought this to be great news. When I received that notification 6th period, I even thought to myself, "Wow, I'm going to remember this moment for the rest of my life as the moment I heard the war was over". I was genuinely excited. Yet, no one else knew. I waited for the day to progress for there to be some sort of commotion and nothing happened. No one ever mentioned it. In fact, I still find myself informing people today about this news and its been almost five days now since it has been announced.

So many Americans don't know yet! When World War II was over, there was people dancing in the streets for crying out loud. It just seems that this time around, no one cares that the war is ending.

Now,  I understand that World War II had much more US casualties than the Iraqi war, but that does not make the Iraqi war insignificant! I'm not completely sure what kind of reaction I should expect from people when I tell them that the war is definitively over, but I want SOME reaction. Perhaps I just have not brought it up with the right people, but shouldn't everyone care? We are all Americans and it affects us all. 

The Fun Theory

In all honesty, some basic human responsibilities are dull. No one looks forward to recycling bottles, watering their plants, picking up their dog's poop, etc. This mixed with laziness is why our oceans are now poisoned by plastic, why house plants die of thirst, and why nice shoes are ruined by stepping in doggy poop. 

But what if these tasks were fun to do? 

The Fun Theory is an idea, created by Volkswagon, and it basically states that through fun, you can improve people's behavior for the better. Volkswagon not only applies this theory while designing new cars, but they also set up an international competition based on this theory. The winner was selected by a panel of Swedish experts in environmental issues and behavioral science. His name is Kevin Richardson and for his idea, he won 2,500 euros. A video of his idea and its application to real life can be seen here:  

After spending about an hour on the website for The Fun Theory (thefuntheory.com), looking at all the cool ideas, I have concluded that it is INGENIUS. And many of these ideas could legitimately benefit society. My favorite theory being that you can get more people to use the stairs instead of the escalator by making it fun to walk up the stairs. People in Stockholm did this by transforming a staircase, next to an escalator, into a giant piano. 66% more people chose the stairs instead of the escalator that day. The video of this theory can be seen HERE.     

I just have one problem with The Fun Theory though; When did it start having to be fun for people to do the right thing? In many of videos I have watched on the website they provide you with statistics about how the particular theory of the video actually changed human behavior. The difference between the numbers before The Fun Theory was applied, and after The Fun Theory was applied are astonishing. 

Nowadays, we live in a world where we constantly are entertained from our phones, our tvs, and our computers. Especially in America where in 2009, the percent of people who didn't use internet at their homes was at a low 31.3% (US Census Bureau). And since 2009 it seems logical that, that percentage has only decreased. 

These forms of constant entertainment make our duties to be a responsible human being seem boring and unappealing, which is why they're not getting done. I wish we lived in a world where most people didn't have to be amused to throw out their trash into a garbage bin instead of on the ground. But, until then, The Fun Theory is a nice solution. 

Your thoughts?

-Chrisanthy S

Incarcerated Ink

This past week in American Studies, we've been discussing civil rights at length. Me being a somewhat free spirited teenager residing in the North Shore (a very liberal area), I found myself being on the left side of all the civil liberties we put up for debate. But, I must admit, about a week ago I didn't think much of the first amendment. Honestly, I think I took it for granted.

Juan Pablo Pino

As mostly everyone knows, a good number of countries do not share nearly as many rights as we do. One country in particular has been in the news frequently lately for a completely absurd arrest. The country of Saudi Arabia recently arrested famous Columbian soccer player, Juan Pablo Pino, for wearing a sleeveless shirt in a mall. This shirt showed off Pino's numerous religious tattoos and so mall-goers complained to the Saudi police and had Pino arrested. In Saudi Arabia, it is against the law to not have your tattoos covered. Luckily, Pino was released the same day after expressing "deep sorrow." 


Saudi Arabia has also recently banned women from driving. If you needed any more evidence to help you understand the extremely limited amount of civil rights Saudi Arabia gives its citizens, this is it.


The thing that struck me the most about this story, was the panic I imagined Pino felt. Saudi Arabian police are definitely not the friendliest of people, perhaps they are even the scariest of people.


One could not even fathom this arrest occurring in America. Especially since tattoos are becoming increasingly popular here. Now, the right to have things like tattoos and body piercings seems to me like a right we take for granted. After hearing this story, I can sincerely say, I truly feel thankful to live in such a just nation. 


-Chrisanthy S


If you want more information on Pino, an article can be found HERE.

Mary Bach's Own 2 Cents

If a store charged you 2 cents more than the listed price would you say something? And what if they offered you a refund, would you still be mad? Mary Bach found herself in this situation at a Walmart store in Delmont, Pennsylvania. Mary bought a 98 cent sausage and Walmart charged her a full dollar for it. Her solution to the situation? Sue Walmart. She sued Walmart over the 2 cent overpricing even after they apologized and gave her a refund.

Mary Bach

My initial reaction to this news story was that Mary Bach was being completely ridiculous. 2 cents was not worth the time and money of a lawsuit. I also did not consider her a consumer activist like most news articles had been referring to her as.

As I dug deeper into my research of Mary Bach, I learned that this was her 5th lawsuit against Walmart. And all five lawsuits have been for the same problem.

Perhaps Mary Bach does feel strongly about consumer rights, and since Walmart has made this mistake (perhaps not even a mistake) so many times, they deserve to be penalized. Walmart is not known to be the most honest or fair company and maybe they need people like Mary Bach to set them straight.

But on the other hand, seeing as this is Mary Bach's 5th lawsuit against them, could this be a source of income for her? Walmart makes a small mistake, and since she is a consumer, she's allowed to cash in.

In America nowadays we see a fair share of stupid lawsuits, and I think that's why my initial reaction to Mary Bach's story was so negative. Just another person trying to make easy money is how I saw it. Now that I've had time to mull it over, I still find myself to be a little iffy on my opinion of Mary Bach. If you're really passionate about a cause, is it okay to make money off of it?

Please feel free to put in your own "2 cents".

-Chrisanthy S

A link to a news article about Mary Bach can be found HERE.