MamaPop™

A Double Serving of Serving Done Right!

Plagiarism is infuriating, especially for writers who spend hour upon hour honing each word, each sentence, to fit just so.  It makes sense, but it turns out it's equally as infuriating for comedians who have been plagiarized, as the recent Patton Oswalt incident illustrates.  And because Oswalt is a comedian and hilarious even when he's not on stage, he calls out his hacker publicly and with a lesson to the young plagiarist: if you're not funny to begin with, stealing won't help.

The 20 Worst Parenting Fails: Uhhh FAIL! Doesn't Even Begin To Cover These

I'm sure we all have moments where we fear we've made some mistakes and bad choices as parents. But WOW, I think it's pretty safe to say NOTHING you've done has anything on these people.

Is Lily Allen Fleeing the Scene?

Lily Allen, the über-cute British songstress of such well-known songs as "Smile" and "Fuck You", has declared that she is not going to record a third album and has no plans to tour again in the near future.

To this a wail a hearty NOOOOOOOOOOO!

I love me some Lily Allen. I love that her sweet voice belies the punch of her lyrics. I love that her British accent still comes through when she sings. I love her sometimes whimsical sense of style. Not so secretly, I like to dream that she and I meet up for pints with sides of mushy peas and jaw about the racket that is selling creative products. Lily and I duck out for a smoke, and she laughs at the impotence warning on my Canadian cigarettes package. Of course, she finds none of this creepy. Imagination is a wonderful thing.

Here's traumatic news Allen allegedly wrote on her weblog about her decision:

What Fox—And Other Networks—Can Learn From 'Glee'

Yesterday, Fox announced that its new musical/comedy show, Glee, has been given the go-ahead for a full 22-episode season. While this has definite implications for my future as a recapper, it says far more about the success of Fox's marketing campaign for the show, which began with a post-American Idol airing of the pilot and led to a five-month, buzz-generating viral marketing campaign that took full advantage of the popularity of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

So why did Fox give Glee such a fantastic running start rather than a show like, say, Dollhouse, which had a built-in following of Whedonites to help a similar campaign go viral? Furthermore, why doesn't Fox give similar promotional backing to other new and returning shows in its lineup? This is pure speculation, but I'm willing to bet it has a lot to do with the Big Fours' simultaneous fear and dismissal of web entertainment and the internet in general, and its out-of-touch perception that only tweens and teens are actually paying any attention to the internet. 

Unleashing My Mad Men Excitement Here

You all know about Google Reader, right? It's a handy way to compile all of the sites that you read in one spot, via the sites' RSS feeds. I'm completely obsessed with mine, especially since Google keeps adding new and amazing features to it. One of my favorite features is the ability to share interesting items with people in your Gmail contacts. Your shared items are also compiled on their own webpage. Here's mine.

With the premiere of the third season of Mad Men right around the corner, more and more items are popping up about the show...and I've been sharing all of them with my Gmail contacts because I. JUST. CAN'T. WAIT. FOR. AUGUST. 16TH. DRAPER DRAPER DRAPER JOAN BOBBY SALLY GIRDLES ADVERTISING OH MY GOD I NEED SOME SCOTCH AND SOME LUCKY STRIKES AND SOME SAMMITCHES FROM THE DELI.

Ugliest Tattoos: In Case the State of the World Has You Feeling Schadenfreude-Deficient

Let's face it: things right now are...not great. The situation in Iran gets more and more intense every day. The economy is still utter poo. Psychos are out in full force and heavily armed. Personally, I often find myself feeling pretty crappy about being a member of the human race. And sometimes, when I'm that kind of mood, I just really need somebody to look down on. I'm not saying it's good or healthy, but sometimes I just need help getting out of bed with the knowledge that I'm not the biggest idiot around.

Enter Ugliest Tattoos.

I Am Drinking the Infinite Summer Kool-Aid

Move over Oprah's Book Club. Make way for Infinite Summer.

Okay, so I have posted before about my love for the works of the late David Foster Wallace before. If you don't feel like reading my sappy and likely written-while-drunk tribute, let's just say he's pretty much the wind beneath my wings and all that stuff, only we never met under a pier in Atlantic City or, like, at all, and he didn't die of cancer, but rather hung himself last summer and shattered my heart into a million pieces. Despite bearing no relation to Barbara Hershey's character from Beaches, Dave Wallace's work did compel me to want to be a writer, so you can either thank him or curse him for that.

Aaaanyway. While I have already read his magnum opus Infinite Jest three times, some people on Twitter have given me a reason to go four #4. The impetus is a phenomenon called Infinite Summer, and it's getting to be kind of a big deal. Wanna play? Well, then here's what you do.

Gossip, Ghostwriters, Handwriting Experts & Microsoft Paint Spooge Dots

...oh my!

A long time ago, I will cop to a pretty bad Perez Hilton habit. It was never a habit I was proud of. I think I'd be more likely to frame a certificate for completing a how-to course at the local meth lab. The site is ugly, cruel, stupid -- both the commentary and the commenters will suck entire IQ points out of your brain and into your USB port (FACT!) -- and it's mostly an endless rehash of news one can easily get anywhere else...but lemme hit refresh onnnnnne last time before walking away OMG LOOK WHAT BRITNEY IS UP TO NOW. DAMN GIRL GET YO'SELF TOGETHA!

Finally, one day, I stopped going to the site. Cold turkey. It felt good. Probably something akin to one of those master cleanse detox things that people get all fucking smug about. 

Do Fake TV Couples Need Wedding Registries?

So Derek and Meredith on Grey's Anatomy are getting married.  Cue the May sweeps advertisers and the large scale television promo spots.  And the wedding website.  And gift registry. 

Gift registry?  Granted, it goes to charities like The American Academy of Neurology Foundation, the American Skin Association, and the Alzheimer’s Association — all charities that have a connection to Grey’s story lines.  But these are not real people. 

I find the whole thing odd.

Feels Like the First Time: Reliving Your Cultural Watershed Moments

The AV Club has another fantastic and thought-provoking, loosely list-based article that asks its writers and readers to list "Things we want to experience again for the first time."