Comments on: Sugar Water: Promise Some Peace, Win a Prize!

By: rwcass

rwcass — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:24:05 +0000

On the moon? Because that's where I'd like to send your spam comments.

By: Chris Brown

Chris Brown — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:28:40 +0000

I wish I was there…

By: rwcass

rwcass — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:37:24 +0000

Wait, what are you saying? That NASA's going out of business? You heard it first right here, folks! What a scoop!

Maybe the explosion was so tiny because the rocket landed in a sand trap on the Alan Shepard Memorial Golf Course. Mission Control, anybody could've told you that was a terrible shot.

By: rwcass

rwcass — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:33:31 +0000

Thanks for reading, Kate, and thanks for clearing up the Twitter mention, because at first I wasn't sure if I'd upset you with something I'd written. It wouldn't have been the end of the world, of course, but I do aim to amuse people here, not irritate them.

I'll have to look for that Hertzberg piece.

Until Obama stops sending troops to the moon, though, I won't be able to call him "the peace president." I'm sorry, but I have to take a stand on this.

By: rwcass

rwcass — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:22:57 +0000

Jon, this all comes down to ratings. Though I've never seen the Nobel awards ceremony on TV -- I only watch Nick at Nite -- I've heard the ratings were on a rapid decline into the beginning of this decade. The show's producers needed some star power. They hired Hugh Jackman to host, which helped, but the winner needed to be BIG. Hence Jimmy Carter, like you said. (Don't deny that that's EXACTLY what you said.) Then the ratings decline continued even further with these no-name losers (and by "losers," I mean winners, of course):

2003: Shirin Ebadi
2004: Wangari Maathai
2005: International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei
2006: Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank

Who?! America, realizing it was getting drowsy, changed the channel to see if Simon Cowell was being bitchy again. (And you know he was, girlfriend!)

Last year the Nobel committee chose another life-of-the-party kind of guy (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laurea...), which led to another disastrous ratings performance.

It was clear they needed to go all out this year, and so they did.

By: rwcass

rwcass — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:04:45 +0000

College kids, do you hear that? Make an ObamaApp and the president may just invite you over for a Bud Light.

By: guest

guest — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:40:21 +0000

Nice tie-in, tie-up, Robert! Do you think NASA is trying to go out with a bang or destroy those footprints Armstrong left a while back?

By: guest

guest — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:39:12 +0000

Absolutely! The proof is that you can “Ken Burns” your personal slide shows on IPhoto. If Obama was that important, they'd skip the Nobel and make an ObamaApp for the IPhone.

By: Kate

Kate — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:30:50 +0000

Oh, also, I didn't mean my Twitter thumbs up to be sarcastic. I meant it.
If this does bring Obama to bring more peace to the world, has he has said he considers it “a call to action”, then good. I don't mind the pressure put on him by this – he needs it. End the wars already. Destroy the nukes. etc. etc. etc…

By: Kate

Kate — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:27:30 +0000

Nice way to use Twitter as a reference, Robert Cass.
Just read The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg's little piece on the situation.
No Twitter there, but also expressed the general surprise and confusion everyone seems to be feeling, including Obama himself.