Getting One Out of Three Right We’re in Minnesota, so here’s the weather forecast: the rest of April: cold; May: cold; June: cold; July: somehow hot as hell. Back to y’all.” –Saturday Night Live; cold open (April 10, 2021). As a Minnesota native and long-time Twin Cities resident, I can attest to the “perpetually cold”...Read More
Channeling Emily Litella (and Gilda Radner) For obvious reasons, humor is in short supply right now. Which is precisely why it’s so important. If Gilda Radner were still around — and it’s hard to believe it’s been 31(!) years since she was — I know exactly how she’d update her classic SNL bit: righteously indignant-but-befuddled...Read More
Hey! Comedy Central Writers! It it weren’t politically incorrect — and potentially all too true, depending on how events unfold — I might point out that “Crimea” lends itself to some interesting word play, ala Gilda Radner opining on “saving Soviet Jewelry” or the Supreme Court ruling on “the deaf penalty” (as befuddled character Emily Litella,...Read More
I don’t know what Barack Obama, Senate Republicans, or Sarah Palin are saying about the situation in Libya. But I know what Emily Litella, Gilda Radner’s character on Saturday Night Live, would be saying: “What’s all the fuss about a Libyan vacuum? I didn’t even know Libyans made a vacuum — I thought the Chinese made...Read More
First, the Trial Balloons What is all this fuss I hear about the Supreme Court decision on a “deaf” penalty? It’s terrible! Deaf people have enough problems as it is! –Befuddled spinster Emily Litella, one of Gilda Radner’s several characters on the original Saturday Night Live. Emily Litella comes to mind as the murmuring about...Read More
Betting On Its Own Lawsuit?? Best line (to date) about the SEC’s fraud case against Goldman Sachs is this nugget from “The Weekend Update” segment on Saturday Night Live: Goldman Sachs was accused Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission of fraudulently selling mortgage-backed securities to its customers. If convicted, the firm stands to make...Read More
