Yesterday I took my car to the shop for some minor service. The TV was on in the waiting room, and much to my dismay, my attention kept being caught by the morning show instead of my immunology notes. I saw two things that appalled me, though for very different reasons.
First, they showed part of the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest. The winning entry was baked chicken with spinach stuffing. It sounded pretty good, until they described the recipe: it was based on a frozen waffle kit. The glaze for the chicken is based on the “maple” syrup, and the bread in the stuffing is chopped-up frozen waffles! I can’t imagine how anyone could have ever thought of doing that (though I suspect this abomination might have been the inspiration), and I flat-out refuse to believe that it tastes good.
After that, a commercial came on for Healthy Choice frozen dinners. The commercial shows a dad and his two kids. The little girl keeps saying “That’s not how Mom does it” as Dad vacuums the baby and clears clutter with a leaf blower. Finally he serves them all Healthy Choice dinners, and the girl thinks Mom would approve of that.
I really hate commercials that trade on the stereotype that dads are incompetent buffoons who babysit their kids, while moms are loving caretakers who always know best. Not so much because it’s offensive to men (though it certainly is offensive to imply that a large group of people are morons), but because it reinforces the ridiculous idea that women are caretakers whose job it is to take care of the house and kids, while men can’t be expected to take any responsibility for their own children. Sexism is still with us, folks.
(Of course, the idea that a frozen dinner would be the highlight of someone’s day is pretty goofy too.)
No wonder I never watch TV.
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:54 am
Heh, you definitely need to stay away from prime time sitcoms then. Your head would implode! :)
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:55 am
The other stereotype in sitcom/ads/movies that I find humorous is this: You always see the slovenly male with the beautiful wife. But never vice versa.
March 25th, 2006 at 1:02 am
My Y chromosome doesn’t seem to be doing its job the way it should. My guy sense didn’t notice that the tire on my car was low on air until it was nearly flat. Driving on the low tire was the death knell for the tread, too, which was getting low. Then I went to the tire shop for a new set of tires and managed to use a coupon for a free alignment ($70 value) — and it cost me only $90! Sort of. A true story.
March 28th, 2006 at 8:42 am
Take a look at The Haversian Canal http://nielsolson.us/Haversian/ March 20 post on study and medical education and tell me if this guy is maybe a little obsessed. It seems anyone smart enough to get into Annapolis should not have to study like this - or is he trying to graduate at the top of his class?
March 28th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
Well, I really have no idea. There are two things here. First, med schools seem to vary quite a bit in what you have to know - for example, we didn’t have to learn the structures of any sugars, or all the intermediates for the Krebs cycle. So I didn’t study that stuff at all. (Perhaps I’ll need to for the boards, but I feel confident that I won’t for my future clinical career.)
Second, everybody has their own study style. Personally I tend more toward the haphazard style, obviously. At the risk of making an offensive generalization, it doesn’t surprise me that a military person would tend more toward a regimented style. I don’t think you can look at somebody’s study habits and figure out how smart they are or how much they’re learning.