The Human Sacrifice Network

During arguments at the United States Supreme Court on October 6, 2009, Justice Antonin Scalia posed the question of whether a Human Sacrifice Channel would be permissible. That got me to thinking.

Maybe we could see something like this.

[It has been called to my attention that I neglected to include a disclaimer such as "This is a work of fiction. Any resemblence to any person or place is purely coincidental." Believe me: These people are all phony. The whole idea of a Human Sacrifice Channel is phony. This was written more for its sick humor value than as something to provide any enlightenment, but if you see just a glimpse of some strange truth comes through, I guess that it is all right. RS]

The camera is closing in on television news set. Behind desks are Kirk Kuddly, a blond, tanned, thirty-something man and Missy Mark, also thirty-something, similarly tanned and complected. They are the hosts of Human Sacrifices Network’s “Big Sacrifice of the Week” program. Both are wearing light blue blazers with an HSC logo on the front pocket.

KIRK: Good evening, and welcome to Sacrifice of the Week. We have something special for you this week, don’t we, Missy.

MISSY: Absolutely, Kirk. This week we are going to New Orleans for the Michael Brown hurricane avoidance sacrifice, our country’s annual American sacrifice to the hurricane gods.

KIRK: Yes, and this will be the first year that the Michael Brown Sacrifice has been back in New Orleans after spending the last dozen years in Miami. The citizens of New Orleans invested plenty in building this new Ronald Trumpet Sacritorium to replace the Superdome which the priests and priestesses had declared unfit because of its roof and, besides, was beginning to show its age and did not provide the improved sight lines and luxury boxes that the new Ronald Trumpet Plaza Sacritorium provides. Participants have been going absolutely gaga over the locker room and other accommodations, which are state of the art.

MISSY: Yes, the new retractable dome at the Ronald Trumpet Sacritorium allows for maximum comfort for observers to be out of the weather while assuring that the sacrifices will be able to go directly to the gods without a roof blocking the way.

KIRK: We will be back in a little bit with interviews with some of the aspiring sacrifices, a talk with our HSN analysts, Bob Coast and Gust Rants and Opal Windey talking to some of the crowd at the Ronald Trumpet Sacritorium as we approach this big event, but first some important messages.

[The scene changes to a bedroom. A man and a woman are laying in bed, talking. Their bodies are under the covers.]

WOMAN: Damn it, honey. You really need to see that doctor about that.

MAN: I don’t have a problem. I really don’t. It’s just that I am having too much pressure now, at work, here, everywhere. It won’t happen again. Just give me a day or two.

WOMAN: It has been every day for the last six weeks and we really need to be closer. You need to see the doctor about that erectile dysfunction. He can give you something.

MAN: But, its sooo embarrassing to talk about that kind of thing.

WOMAN: Maybe so, but it's sooo frustrating to be with somebody who has it. You really owe it to me to give it a chance and see the doctor. And remember: if the problem continues you might not be allowed to be sacrificed when your time comes. And that would be REALLY embarrassing.

[The picture dims. A female announcer is heard.]

ANNOUNCER: It’s really not that hard, guys. Especially not when you consider the alternatives. If you are having this problem, visit your doctor and ask him or her whether a prescription of Vialgro would help you. For many men, it brings them back to life.

[Singers sing jingle: “Let it grow. Get Vi-al-gro. Vi-al-gro. Your in-te-rest will show.” (repeated)]

[Kirk and Missy reappear on screen.]

KIRK: Before we go back inside the Ronald Trumpet Sacritorium, let’s go outside of it where there seems to be a protest going on. Wanda Williams is there. What’s happening, Wanda?

[Screen is split and Wanda Williams, a tall, athletic looking black woman, also thirty-something and wearing a light blue blazer with the HSN logo appears.]

WANDA: Well, these are picketers from an organization, a new one I never heard of before, called Preserve Traditional Sacrifice, or PST I guess is the acronym they are using. They are opposed to the recent vote to allow gay and lesbian priests and priestesses officiate at sacrifices. They say that they think any American chosen for sacrifice should be entitled to know that his or her sacrifice will be conducted in accordance with traditional American family values. This is Emmy Lou. She’s one of the group.

[A short, sixty-something white woman with her gray hair in a bun comes on the screen. She is overly made up and her lipstick looks garishly purple on high-definition television. Kirk and Missy disappear.]

WANDA: What has your group so excited today, Emmy Lou? They haven’t even named today’s offerings yet?

EMMY LOU: You can call me Mrs. Schaffer, ma’am. We are concerned that so many of our country’s traditions are being assaulted these days, that there seems to be a great conspiracy to abandon marriage and family and the right to raise our own children. They took prayer out of our schools and put Darwin in and they are taking away our guns and telling us that we have to be friends with the Muslims and Buddhists and gays and Japs and blacks. [pause] No offense intended, Wanda.

WANDA [almost snorting]: Well, offense was intended and taken. And it is Ms. Williams to you. Well, thank you for your comment. Back to you, Missy and Kirk.

[Kirk and Missy are back on screen. Wanda disappears.]

KIRK: Well, I guess we know where she stands. Well, Missy, the pundits are suggesting that the frontrunners this year are Jessica Mills, Tiffany Skorczeski, Bobbi Jo Johnson, Adam Everson, and the perennial candidate, Pretty Jean from California. What is your take on this?

MISSY: Well, most of the experts seem to give Bobbi Jo the best chance. She’s young from the Arkansas Ozarks and has been the runner up at several of the big sacrifices already. They won’t sacrifice Adam. They haven’t chosen a man for any major sacrifice in almost twenty years. The President asked that the men be saved for sacrifice in the war on terrorism in the Mid East and most sacrifice organizations have gone along. And as an advocate for all in our society to have equal opportunities, the lack of consideration being given to African American women in recent years does offend me and Jessica Mills is only being listed as a contender for the show and tokenism, that they don’t really intend to choose a black woman. Everybody already knows too much about Pretty Jean since she spouted off on gay marriage in front of national cameras and got kicked out of that California sacrifice.

KIRK: And that was under orders of Mr. Ronald Trumpet himself who owned that sacrifice. He forgave her once but she would not shut up.

MISSY: That’s right. A lot of people think the gods should only get our best and do not feel that Pretty Jean is one of them.

KIRK: So is Tiffany Skorczeski your pick?

MISSY: It seems to be that way. Of course, there are other contenders and sometimes they give us a surprise.

KIRK: Well, the Ronald Trumpet Sacritorium is starting to fill up. We can see that the lines to go through security are starting to back up a bit. But I understand that Rick Stanley has Pretty Jean standing by. Let’s go to him.

[Kirk and Missy disappear and the screen goes to a room under the Ronald Trumpet Sacritorium where Rick Stanley, a tall dark-haired man who looks like he is sixty trying to pass for forty is preparing to interview a blonde woman of medium height.]

RICK: We’re here with Pretty Jean who probably needs no more introduction. Pretty Jean is here trying to compete to be this year’s sacrifice to the hurricane gods. Tell me, Pretty Jean, what do you think your chances are this time? You’ve been so close so many times.

PRETTY JEAN: Well, Rick, I’m a known quantity and I have so much to offer. And my agent has been doing some research and we have found out that some of the girls here have implants. I have passed all my steroid tests and I don’t need no implants. The priestess won’t have any silicone getting in her way when she has to get her knife out and get down to business. It’s just me.

[Pretty Jean suddenly pulls her shirt up and reveals two natural breasts. The camera quickly pulls away and the technicians immediately work to make sure that they block the picture being sent during the delay period.]

RICK: Hey! Watch that, Pretty Jean. This is a family station. We could be in a lot of trouble if our technical people didn’t catch that in time. We can’t show those assets of yours to the public.

PRETTY JEAN: I’m sorry, Rick. I guess I’m just too involved and too concerned. I’ve come so close too many times and I think it is time people recognized me for the assets I have. And I hear that Rachel Clinton is going to do the sacrifice and I am an admirer of hers. And I know that she is heterosexual and would be a good choice to do the honors.

RICK: Yes, they’re bringing Rachel from her usual post at the Cotton Mather Sacritorium in Ipswitch, Massachusetts to preside over the honors today. Well, we’ll be going back to Kirk and Missy.

[The screen reverts to Kirk and Missy.]

MISSY: She sure cannot get over that homophobia, can she? But she does seem really anxious this time, almost as if this is to be her last try. She almost made us lose our license, but the enthusiasm and anxiety behind that gesture both showed.

KIRK: Yes, and what she showed us as natural looked just as good as some of the enhanced ones I’ve seen. Well, we’re just about to the interviews. Let’s take this commercial break first.

[Kirk and Missy disappear. Several scenes of groups of twenty- and thirty-something people playing volleyball, surfing, playing pick-up basketball, and playing tennis appear, mixed in with scenes of them lifting a light, foamy beverage from large clear mugs. Bottles which had contained Stiller beer are displayed, the logos clearly evident. There is music in the background The music fades and an announcer is heard.]

MALE VOICE: Yes, when you live with gusto, real gusto, you just want Stiller beer with you. Stiller beer goes so well with all your good times.

SECOND MALE VOICE, speaking quickly: Stiller beer is for people of legal age only. Please drink responsibly.

[Kirk and Missy reappear.]

KIRK: The question period is about to begin. We go now to the main stage at the Ronald Trumpet Sacritorium.

[The screen switches to a podium inside the sacritorium. Before anybody can happen, there is a quick switch to a news studio.]

NEWSCASTER: We break into this program to tell you that due to military reversals in Afghanistan that the president has called for a mass sacrifice of men for Tuesday. We will have more details later. Back to you, Kirk and Missy.

[Kirk and Missy reappear.]

MISSY: And we’ll be showing that here on HSC. Those always are crowd pleasers.

KIRK: We will return to the Ronald Trumpet Sacritorium where host Samuel Sewell is interviewing Brittany Lance, the former teen singing idol who is trying a comeback, this time as a sacrifice.

BRITTANY LANCE: . . . so I think the world will be a lot better if we can all get over these things and I hope my sacrifice will bring a good year to New Orleans and Florida and East Carolina and Albuquerque and Spokane and all of the other areas which get hurricanes.

SAM: Thank you, Brittany. And now . . .

MISSY: Opal Windey is with Peggy Sue Nelson right now. Let’s go to her.

[Screen shifts to Opal and Brittany.]

OPAL: How do you think it went, Brittany.

PEGGY SUE: [while chewing gum]: I don’t think I’ve ever been in front of so many people before. I hope it did not unnerve me too much. But I think it was pretty cool.

OPAL: You performed in front of big crowds when you were singing with the Kooltoans.

BRITTANY: Yeah, but that was a long time ago and it was something different. And I was usually so stoned that I didn’t notice it all that much.

OPAL: And now that you are clean, you think you are an acceptable candidate for sacrifice, right?

BRITTANY [popping her gum]: That’s right, Opal.


This is the end of part one. I am not certain that there will be a second part, but I do find the idea of human sacrifice as a part of show business [and civic life] interesting. RS

A weekend to note for various reasons

The Minnesota Twins spent so much time and effort to convince us and our politicians convincing us that the Humphreydome is an unfit place to play pseudobaseball that all the hoopla surrounding their leaving the place does not seem to be fitting.

But this weekend it appears that the metropolitan area will be hosting an unusually large amount of sporting activities and the Dome will be in the middle. Friday night, the Twins will be hyping their leaving the Dome by beginning their final [scheduled, regular season] series while high school football games go on elsewhere. Saturday, coterminous with the small college football games, the Golden[?] Gopher football team will make a futile [and likely unsuccessful] attempt to reclaim Paul Bunyon’s Ax at the still-new South Dakota Bank stadium and a bit later the Twins will again enter the aforementioned Humphreydome to continue to get people to pay to say good-bye to something which never should have been welcomed in the first place.

After several thousand people participate or observe the annual celebration of the victory of self-indulgence over piety Sunday morning, the Twins .will return to the Humphreydome to close out the season. [Although at this writing it is not a definite certainty that Sunday will indeed be the last pseudobaseball game the Twins play there.]

After all that celebration and hoopla, the place will be reverted to something it does a lot better and become a football studio.

The fact that the Packers will be coming in and that Bert Favre is now on the Wilf payroll has received way too much hype and does not seem worth mentioning except that perhaps thanks to that and the Twins hyping leaving the place they said they should never have gone to in the first place, the festival of self-indulgence [which began the same year that Calvin moved his team inside] has received perhaps its lowest level of fanfare and hoopla ever. Unfortunately, it won’t be enough to kill it.

Cf: http://ccmusings.blogspot.com/2007/10/self-absorption-over-piety.html

R.I.P. Guiding Light

I don’t watch the soap operas, but I know that they have been around since before television. I could not name a single character on The Guiding Light nor could I tell you where the show is set.

But I note that it is going off the air this week after more than seventy years on radio and television.

When I was a child sometimes my brother and I would be at our grandmother’s house for a morning or a day. We enjoyed our time with our grandmother, but we learned that the hour between eleven o’clock and noon was time for her “programs,” four fifteen-minute serials. One of those was The Guiding Light. My grandmother could not see well, but she sat near the television and watched all four and then took care of lunch.

I may have some sense of missing something when the show goes, although not enough to watch it disappear. I don’t even know who shows it here or when. I guess it is probably a mixture of the sentiment felt whenever old things get cashiered just for being old added to a sentiment of missing my grandmother, even though she has been gone for forty years.

It may be a reflection of one’s own aging, but you feel regret when an old friend is no longer, but sometimes, although you may not feel actual regret, you get a small twinge when anything old goes.

Leno in prime time

Jay Leno’s new show began on NBC last night. There has been a lot of ballyhoo about the network’s decision to have one hour each weeknight given to the same program. Nobody has done so for as long as anybody cares to remember. Fox doesn’t even try to program that 9 o'clock hour.

Critics seem to be panning the show. I admit that I was not especially impressed. I liked the old show, and this was like the Tonight Show with the desk gone and the sequence moved a bout, but I guess I was looking for something with more splash for a grand opening. However, considering how much money Leno made for NBC with the Tonight Show even after he found out he was going to be tossed into the Burbank landfill, it certainly seems in order that NBC give him time to develop something that works. Besides, it seems quite likely that whether the critics like the product or not that it may be a money maker. Overhead is lower for that type of program than it is for the blood and/or guts and/or tears programming that usually inhabits that hour. Networks worry about appealing to too many people past prime demographic age and/or little disposable income, i.e., people like me, but that is the demographic which is most likely to take its entertainment from broadcast television.

I think he could have done better by scratching Kanye West after the incident Sunday evening. That would have showed an attempt to not reward offensiveness, but Leno has never pretended that he is in the running for sainthood, so I don’t know that there is anything surprising that he did not.

Anyhow, it could be interesting late prime time entertainment for quite a while.

Bad advertising:

The Golden Gopher football team are opening the season with a game in the un-air-conditioned Carrier Dome in Syracuse.

Mother’s maiden name

I recently read of Sephardic Jews being discriminated against by Ashkenazim at a school by asking for [among other things] an applicant’s mother’s maiden name” on the application form.

Invidious distinction and discrimination are nothing new, folks.

We see this question frequently. It has been [and often still is] on web registrations, bank forms, job applications, and a lot of other things.

Exactly where it came from has been subject to speculation. I remember reading a few decades ago that it was devised by Boston Brahmins so that they would not find themselves hiring Irish or allowing them into their neighborhoods or clubs or whatever. A person might have what seems like a seemingly respectable English name such as “Cabot” or “Saltonstall” but you never knew whether there might not be an “O’Brien” hiding in the family tree. Later, it seems that the question helped people of Northern and Western European stock make sure that there was not a “Jaworski,” “Stephanopoulos,” “Antonelli,” or “Habib” in there.

Whatever the origin, the question does seem to have been used for that effect for many decades. [Old timers might recall it being used in a “Route 66” episode for that purpose when the heroes ran into an American “patriot” who was decrying the number of outisders [non-WASP people] infiltrating the true America.] As national origin started to become grounds on which discrimination could no longer be based and enforcement started, managers and creditors and clubmasters and others still had stacks of forms and wanted to keep using them, so they invented other rationale for having the question.

“Security” was given as one reason. This was, they said, to make sure that John Jacob Smith whose mother was named Jones was not confused with John Jacob Smith whose mother was named Johnson.

I have known the mother’s maiden name of many people, some of whom I have never met. [Quick quiz: What were the mothers’ maiden names of Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Richard Milhous Nixon, or George Herbert Walker Bush? It should not take a lot of guessing. And I never met any of them.]

I know the maiden names of the mothers of many people I grew up with because I knew their extended families [or at least enough about them] to figure it out and I have picked up more as I have gone along. After all, it really is not secret. And, since unfortunately, there are many cases of people trying to steal identities of people in their immediate or extended family that information serves as no protection whatever.

I have seen some suggestions on how to confound the people asking. Spell it backwards, use a grandmother’s instead, just make one up. None of these seems really secure, either because somebody else could still find it or you might forget it yourself.

A simpler suggestion: IF WE JUST QUIT ASKING THE QUESTION, WE WOULDN’T NEED ANY ANSWERS. AND IF WE ALL LEFT THE ANSWER SPACE BLANK, MAYBE WE COULD SCREW UP THE WHOLE SYSTEM.

I understand that there are probably times/places where the question may serve a valid purpose, such in official government vital statistics places.

I would be interested in hearing anybody else’s history with this question.

Notes on No. 756 plus two years

Two years ago today Barry Bonds hit home run number 756.

Has it only been two years? It seems that both the game and society have moved so much past him so quickly.

Selig and the MLB honchos made good money on the home run derbies of the late 20^th and early 21^st century and then became so righteous as more news of steroids and perhaps juiced balls became more common.

Now the writers who used the stories to keep baseball in the news and beat writers and commentators employed will arrange to keep him away from Cooperstown forever (or at least a long time).

While some of these people want to put Pete Rose there, a man who bet on a team he was managing, they get so outraged about a man who cheated only in order to improve performance. They even seem to keep putting pressure on the Commissioner’s office to re-admit Rose even though it is Cooperstown’s rule, not MLB’s rule which keeps Rose out.

They will probably win on the Rose matter sooner or later.

And maybe the relative quiet with which Bonds and number 756 have disappeared from our consciousness is a good sign that his feat was ephemeral and had only of momentary significance derived from his perceived, non-sanctioned (at least officially) use of steroids is really in order.