HoHoHo

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Tinseltime

“I think the problem with people like this is that they are so stupid that they have no idea how stupid they are. 

“You see, if you’re very, very stupid, how can you possibly realize that you’re very, very stupid? You’d have to be relatively intelligent to realize how stupid you are. 

“There’s a wonderful bit of research by a guy called David Dunning at Cornell, who’s a friend of mine, I’m proud to say, who’s pointed out that in order to know how good you are at something requires exactly the same skills as it does to be good at that thing in the first place. Which means that if you’re absolutely no good at something at all, then you lack exactly the skills that you need to know that you’re absolutely no good at it. 

“And this explains not just Hollywood, but almost the entirety of Fox News.”

—John Cleese, citizen-philosopher and minister of Silly Walks, “John Cleese on Stupidity,” YouTube, 2014 (Thanks to alert WORDsters Barry Kort, Ann Berry and many others who apparently monitor stupid issues.)

• Editorial Comment: There are so many applications of this wisdom on stupidity that it’s hard to know where to start.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

After Yesterday’s Rain, Arcata, California







Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to [email protected]. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
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8 Million Stories

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Finding the Flower

“[A]verage Americans are suspicious of how their tax dollars are being spent and observe Washington insiders operating at ever-greater levels of power and secrecy. The irony is that policy journalism in Washington is thriving. It’s just not being written for you, and you’re probably never going to read it.” 

—John Heltman, trade-press journalist, “Why the Public Can’t Read the Press,” The Atlantic, 2015 

“The New York Times editorial…it ought to be in the dictionary under ‘O,’ for ‘out of touch,'” - See more at: https://www.thewrap.com/ted-cruz-new-york-times-front-page-gun-editorial/#sthash.sGTUXyV1.dpuf

“The New York Times editorial…it ought to be in the dictionary under ‘O,’ for ‘out of touch,'” - See more at: https://www.thewrap.com/ted-cruz-new-york-times-front-page-gun-editorial/#sthash.sGTUXyV1.dpuf

“The New York Times editorial…it ought to be in the dictionary under ‘O,’ for ‘out of touch,'” - See more at: https://www.thewrap.com/ted-cruz-new-york-times-front-page-gun-editorial/#sthash.sGTUXyV1.dpuf

• Editorial Comment: Our tax dollars at work.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

The Buoys of Christmas



 








Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to [email protected]. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.