I got a note from my grandmother yesterday warning me about a dangerous new sport called spunkball. Fortunately, I was able to tell her that that there was no such thing that gangs of zombie-like kids werent roaming the back-roads of America with gasoline-soaked rags and firecrackers, looking for carloads of senior citizens to immolate. Unfortunately, however, I cant tell my grandmother that theres no such think as surface lubing. While I dont know that its necessarily a trend sweeping across the nation, it does appear that theres at least one guy looking to popularize the unusual form of terrorism Apparently he was last seen lubing every available surface of a Motel 6 guest room in Florida. According to the local news, Police found 14 empty Vaseline containers and numerous pornographic magazines in the room’s trash can.
While were on the subject of slippery characters, did you happen to see the completely fucking freaky preemption of Colin Powell on Meet the Press this last Sunday? It appears as though one of his Bush administration handlers (a woman identified only as Emily) decided that Tim Russert had gone too far in his line of questioning and just reached out and pushed the camera so that it was no longer on Powell, who was being interviewed at a remote location. Heres the exchange as it was broadcast on network TV. (Russert has since said that its the first time that anything like this has happened in his 13 years at Meet the Press.)
RUSSERT: Finally, Mr. Secretary, in February of 2003, you placed your enormous personal credibility before the United Nations and laid out a case against Saddam Hussein citing…
(You can see it, but the camera suddenly swivels at this point from Powell to a tree I believe it was a palm tree.)
POWELL: Not off.
EMILY: No. They can’t use it. They’re editing it. They
POWELL: He’s still asking me questions. Tim.
EMILY: He was not…
POWELL: Tim, I’m sorry, I lost you.
RUSSERT: I’m right here, Mr. Secretary. I would hope they would put you back on camera. I don’t know who did that.
POWELL: We really…
RUSSERT: I think that was one of your staff, Mr. Secretary. I don’t think that’s appropriate.
POWELL: Emily, get out of the way.
EMILY: OK.
POWELL: Bring the camera back, please. I think we’re back on, Tim. Go ahead with your last question.
