Thursday, March 28, 2013

Iowa Swabian Hall

One thing we learned about Stephen last night is that he is not afraid of the media. In fact, he even invited media scrutiny about him. Now let's hope the media does its job.

Unfortunately for America, Bill O'Reilly has flip-flopped on the issue of marriage equality.That's okay, in fact, I applaud him for being able to pay attention to the issues and thus realize that the tide is turning and then get in step with the rest of America. What is disturbing to Stephen is not so much this current opinion of Papa Bear's. It's that Papa Bear is not able to gracefully allow other people to go through the same soul-searching and come to the same conclusion that he did by flip-flopping.

You of course know that TV cannot survive just on its own merits. There needs to be monetary support, typically in the form of sponsors and therefore commercials. One of last night's sponsors of The Colbert Report was Cadillac. Typically when Stephen mentions that a sponsor is a sponsor, he tries to work that sponsor into the show. I found myself being elated, then deflated, then excited, then disappointed for various reasons. About all he did was mention the name Cadillac. Surely I'm not the only person that expected Stephen to say to the audience members, "You get a new Cadillac and you get a new Cadillac. Everybody gets a new Cadillac." Nope. He just told the audience members to go buy one. Sigh.

For those of you out there that "Like" things and people, it is possible to learn a whole lot about your personality from those "Facebook Likes." It is possible to predict with up to 95% accuracy things such as your age, your religion, your political views, etc. Scientists set up an app and did testing and compared it to "Likes." They found out that homosexual males liked Kathy Griffin, Adam Lambert and Wicked The Musical. Okay, now here's the really important thing. Researchers found that High IQ corresponds to liking Mozart, Science, and The Colbert Report. (!) Therefore, if you like Stephen's show, you are smart. (And I can only assume if you are reading this that you like Stephen's show and therefore you are certainly smart. Congratulations.) The study also reveals that these people like Curly Fries. (Stephen threw in a quick reference to the sponsor by saying, "Curly Fries are the Cadillac of Fries.")

Sometimes you just can't avoid controversy. Case in point: Tennessee's State Capitol. Currently there are some renovations being done and some are concerned that there is a new sink that is a Muslim foot bath. This threw some people into a panic. Bill Ketron one of those worried individuals. He demanded answers and he got answers. That sink is a Mop Sink. Stephen demonstrated why we might still need to be worried. But what bothers me is that Bill Ketron doesn't even know what a mop sink is. I'm not a janitor and I know what it is. I can only conclude that he has never in his life mopped a floor.

Last night's interview was one of the more unusual interviews. (Wow, even while I just wrote that I realized than many of the interviews end up being one of the more unusual interviews. Oh, well.) The interview was conducted in "The Cadillac Interview Part of My Studio" but not before Stephen ran out of the studio, took a Cadillac for a spin on the streets, actually street, of New York and then ran in again. The guest was Carl Edgar Blake II, Iowa Pig Farmer. He was dressed appropriately in that he had on coveralls and a John Deere green t-shirt. He was a robust man. But he wasn't always a pig farmer. Originally, he was a computer nerd. He wrote code. But then that work dried up.

His claim to fame is that he created a super pig. That's right, the Iowa Swabian Hall. Carl Edgar Blake is winning all kinds of praise with his work of creating this master race of pigs. Stephen had a beef with his pork because he is literally breeding Commie pigs. Carl then gave the technical explanation and reason for his work. He also explained some of his complaints which Stephen dismissed as a marinade. (You say potato, I say potato.)

This is all very interesting, but then the show ramped up into Super Cute Status when two of the cutest little pigs were brought out for the two men to hold. So cute, so very cute. Stephen held Hamlet and Carl held Little Smoky.

Last night was the only time I can remember that after Stephen said "Good Night," the audience said, "Awwww." Baby pigs are so cute.

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