Too dirty? Not dirty enough?

I've heard a zillion complaints about Steve Harvey's Family Feud getting too dirty. So now I have to listen to complaints about another game show being too clean.

The show is the new Canadian version of Match Game. A pundit in the great white north seems to think the show is too tame by modern standards, whatever those standards are. From what I've seen on YouTube, the show does seem a little bland. But that's only because the panelists aren't enormously funny, either dirty funny or clean funny.

The show isn't terrible. It's pleasant enough and doesn't send you scampering away from the screen. What humor there is, is mildly off-color but hardly obnoxious.

The linked article complains that no panelist makes a particularly noteworthy impression. A fair enough gripe, I guess, though Sean Cullen does his best to grab attention. The article does offer a compliment for the host's wardrobe. At least Darrin Rose is dressed for success.

Alpha Mail: what is there to flame?

Anonymous appears to want to take exception to the notion of short hair on women being man-repellant:

Sometimes this whole manosphere thing cracks me up. You love to prattle on about how you're all taking the red pill and wising up to the evils of modern women, because there are *NO GOOD WOMEN LEFT* and then you start having a discussion about women with short hair and it descends into mud-slinging about unattractive lesbians and the losers who settle for them (or at least it did the last time you touched on this) and then you wonder why there are *ONLY WITCHES* left and you're better off a MGTOW.

I'll only say this once 'cos I know I'm only going to get flamed. I have no intention of getting into a dialog with you all about how I must be fat (my BMI is just fine, thank you) or whatever. Here's my story.

I had short hair throughout my teens and early twenties. I didn't realise it at the time but my hair cutting off was *ALWAYS* preceded by being treated particularly shamefully by men. And now you all assume I'm talking about being being pumped and dumped because I'm a slut. I was a virgin until 25 because I was reading the same guide to relationships as Tina Fey. My teens and early twenties were one long story of being two-timed, stood up and somehow managing to date men that seemed ashamed to be seen out with me. It was hideous. You're now thinking I must be ugly and very unpleasant personality-wise. The truth is I'm clever and good at STEM. Years spent in laboratories studying physics, chemistry and computing meant I interacted with lots of men, but you know how STEM guys are. I'm shy too. I went on *TWO* whole dates during college (for the record those were mostly long hair years). I heard later that lots of guys on my course thought I was cute but clearly way out of their league.

When I finally met my husband I had short hair and I'd basically given up on dating. You could call me a WGTOW. He didn't mind my hair or my pricklyness towards dating because he liked me personally. And I liked being with him so I stopped cutting off my hair and it was long in time for the wedding.

I don't see why there is any reason to flame this woman.  Nor do I see any contradiction between her experience and what I have posted concerning the man-repelling aspect of short hair on women.

First, note that she didn't cut her hair off to attract men, but as an emotional response to "being treated particularly shamefully by men".  In other words, she was trying to repell them.  It sounds as if the man-repellant worked even better than I've been asserting, because she only went on two dates during college and those few men who did go out with her were ashamed to be seen with her and her ugly masculine hairstyle, which only underlined her STEMmish lack of femininity.

Second, note that she did eventually find a man who didn't mind her "pricklyness" (lack of feminine submissiveness) or short hair (lack of feminine physical attributes), which tells us that she is probably married to a gamma or low delta who must feel that he hit the jackpot to find himself married to a clever, well-educated woman who is even willing to modify her appearance in order to appear more feminine for him.  The fact that she was willing to grow out her hair for him is a positive sign for the two of them, as it means she is no longer in man-repellant mode; her own masculine tendencies and apparent lack of desire for male attention may mean that she is one of those women who are well-suited for men lacking social and sexual dominance.

Or, perhaps she's just found herself a sigma whose anti-hierarchical quirks happen to align with her attributes, which can also be a good sign for a lasting relationship.  Either way, I see her tale as fundamentally underlining my point, not contradicting it.

NB: Charlize Theron and Haile Berry are often brought up as examples proving that short hair is attractive to men.  They are indubitably attractive women, whether their hair is short or long.  But given that both women have serious and much-publicized issues with men, I wonder if they might not also be poster girls for the idea that short hair is man repellant to which women with certain psychological problems subconsciously resort.

Darkness and Now Redemption

Folks have been complaining that last month (December has 2012) was one of the worst in memory.  Dark, wet, and dark again.   But was this our imagination?   Let us cast light on this darkness!

Let's begin by examining a plot of cumulative solar radiation on my department's roof since the beginning of December through the end of the month (the numbers on the bottom are the number of hours into the month).  This is a measure of the total solar radiation you could have soaked up at any point in the month.  The black line is for December 2012  and red is normal (past 13 year average).  For the first few days we were getting normal sun, but then we started falling behind more and more. Yes my friends it was darker much than normal.

But we can go further.   December 2012 is tied for darkest December with December 2007. So December 2012 was as bad as we have seen during this century!  That is enough to give nearly anyone a bad case of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and turn on their interior floodlights.

But there bright, lustrous` news..today January 1 is virtually clear over much of western Washington and Oregon.   Don't believe me?  Look outside or check out the latest image from my department's web cam looking towards Mt. Rainier.

Some of you near the water have some fog right now, but most of that will burn off. Only those in the fog/stratus laden basin of eastern Washington will be denied the sun's face.

The visible satellite picture Tuesday morning shows a cloudy eastern Washington and east-slope valleys.  Clear skies over the crest, western slopes, and most of the lowlands.  Only in the Chehalis and Willamette Valleys and the Strait can you see some shallow fog

 Believe it or not, tomorrow (Wed) will be sunny too.

A good way to start the New Year.  And a happy new year to all of you!

More controversy!

Not twelve hours into the new year, I've got my first controversy. A poster on the GSN board doesn't like my comment on a published news story about the second biggest Wheel of Fortune win...

Other poster: Basically you just confirmed that you indeed did NOT report it first, but instead attempted to post an unconfirmed spoiler earlier in the day on the same day BEFORE the episode aired. Nobody likes a spoiler. Buzzerblog REPORTED it first. The word "reported" means shared the information AFTER it happened.

If anybody thinks I care about such word-splitting over "reported"...well, let's just say that's not correct. And I never claimed to have reported anything first. The local news site did that, not me and not Buzzerblog. The "rumor" at the site was obviously well-confirmed by a source who was at the taping (one of the contestants). The news story also turned out to be completely accurate.

And I didn't spoil a thing. Anybody who searched on Google News for Wheel of Fortune - not exactly a difficult thing to do - saw the local news item. It was even mentioned on Buy a Vowel. So forget the phony indignation over "spoiling." If I get an embargoed press release from a show in my inbox, I will respect the embargo. But there is no reason to ignore a published, well-sourced and accurate news story that is easily found by anybody looking for game show news.

By the way, I search Google News everyday for game show items. I'll continue to comment on what I find. One other thing: these kinds of stories about big wins almost always leak. Often the show does the leaking itself in an attempt to goose the numbers for the upcoming episode. So the faux indignation over "spoiling" really is kind of funny.

Ten easy comments

Hello, 2013! The previous post mentioned bloggers who uncork top ten lists at the end of the year. One of those guys is Alex Davis at BuzzerBlog. He asked his readers to pick the top ten new game shows of the year. The picks and my lazy reactions to each of them:

#1 Let's Ask America. Okay survey show. Cheap as hell. Got good enough numbers to please penny-pinching Scripps execs. They replaced the much better Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune on their stations with this low-rent Skype project.

#2 The Exit List. Brit show. Don't know much about it.

#3 Pyramid. My personal fave of the new shows. But it was so much like the Dick Clark version that viewers yawned. The format is still rock-solid but needs a few tweaks to make it work again with the Nielsen Company.

#4 Figure It Out. The literally slimy I've Got a Secret for kids returned to Nick. Not a bad revival if you're into kid shows.

#5 Blockbusters. Brit show. Don't know much about this particular version. Heard that it had the same problem as Pyramid. Too slavishly imitative of the old version.

#6 The Bank Job. Brit show. Don't know much about it.

#7 Breakaway. Brit show. Don't know much about it.

#8 Hip Hop Squares. Deserves a higher place on the list, I think. The contestants were kind of clueless and the hip hoppers were drunk as skunks. My kind of show.

#9 Match Game. Canadian show and predictably cheap. Pretty close to the original and the panel was more or less bearable.

#10 American Bible Challenge. Deserves a much higher place on the list but wasn't going to get it from Alex's bunch. A really quirky and innovative idea paid off huge for GSN.

Do: Fate of the Flying Temple

There is big news from Evil Hat's Fate Kickstarter! The latest stretch goals include a new Do game built from the newly streamlined Fate Accelerated system. This is great news gamers out there who loved Do's Avatar-meets-Little-Prince setting, but wanted a more character-focused style of play. This is also great news for the legions of Fate fans who haven't yet had a chance to explore the worlds of Do.

In Do: Fate of the Flying Temple, the Flying Temple has mysteriously drifted away from its home in the center of the sky. It's up to the Pilgrims to explore the worlds of Do to uncover the mystery. Along the way, they must raise a young dragon left behind after the temple's disappearance.

Pairing that approachable rule set with a family-friendly setting like Do feels like a perfect fit! If you want fresh new Do, go back the Kickstarter now and tell your friends!

Alpha Mail: short hair is man repellant

It's hard to know how the case against short hair on women can be made more conclusively than by women who are considering cutting off their hair specifically in order to reduce their attractiveness and feminine appeal to men.  I noticed this comment was recently added to an old post on women's hair.

Personally, I have seriously considered cutting my hair off (as in really short-pixie cut) precisely because, like some before me have said, it lowers or even completely wipes away "attractiveness". One thing is for sure: it is practically IMPOSSIBLE to objectify a short-haired woman(unless she has a freakishly sexy, hour-glass figure,and shows it off, like Marilyn Monroe did) . Short hair basically makes your face, your features stand out and forces people to look you in the eyes, treat you as a person.

As a person.  Not as a woman, not as a sexual being, just as a desexed, gender-neutral thing.  If you're a woman, you may want to keep in mind that what you're considering because you think it will be "cute" is the same thing that other women do when they intentionally want to AVOID ATTRACTING MEN.  If that comment isn't convincing, consider this one:

As a hairdresser, I am horrified at the comments & judgements that you men & women alike are passing off to women who choose to wear their hair short. But as a heterosexual, 20 yr old, 5'3, 230 lb woman who prefers short pixie style hair for myself, I pity those so ignorant enough to not take personal preferences & personal opinions into consideration.

If you genuinely don't want to be viewed as an attractive sex object, but prefer to be seen as an androgynous creature of no sexual interest to normal, masculine men, then by all means, chop it off.  Put on another 100 pounds while you're at it; even if you have a beautiful face and a nice body, the combination of the short hair and weight gain should suffice to do the trick.  But if reducing your attractiveness to the opposite sex isn't your objective, then you may want to reconsider the pixie cut that your slightly less attractive girlfriends keep saying would look so cute on you.

Conversely, if you happen to wish to attract men, you may want to consider trying what women who depend upon their attractiveness to men to make a living do and see how stripper hair works for you.