Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

I love The Daily Show but it does seem to be getting a little out of control lately. I also wish Jon Stewart would tone it down just a tiny bit. Sometimes he's like a caricature of himself.

But it's true that at times I wish he would be a little more biting with the guests he has on. Hey, they apparently clamored to get on your show. If they get crucified it's their own fault. I say go for it.

Listen, I'm a registered Democrat, but sometimes I have to wonder what the hell they are thinking. Case in point, here is a ridiculous email I got from the campaign last night:

From: Kerry-Edwards Campaign Manager democraticparty@democrats.org
To: Jennifer Martinelli jennifermartinelli@mac.com
Date: Mon Aug 30, 2004 09:16:13 PM EDT
Subject: Double your contribution -- don't yield an inch

We are less than 36 hours away from the Democratic Party's end of the month fundraising deadline. This deadline comes right as the Republican convention begins to heat up. As a campaign, we beat George Bush and his big money contributors five months in a row, and last week you raised more than one million dollars in one day for the Democratic Party -- now it's time to help the Democratic National Committee beat the Republican National Committee by contributing today.

And it continues in the same vein. I think maybe they should spend a little bit of time and effort tailoring their emails just a tad. For example, I haven't given them a cent, so doubling my contribution of zero isn't going to be especially helpful to them. I just think if someone is going to donate money to the campaign they already have and an email like this isn't going to help. But I guess things like this must work or else they wouldn't do it. I just can't believe that anybody would get a letter or email like this and say, "Wow, I really need to write them a check!" It's so silly.

But don't worry, John Kerry, I'll still vote for you.

This is a bizarre article if you ask me. It mostly just talks about how Laura Bush is apparnetly obsessively clean and never swears except for shock value. Apparently this is tantamount to GW's success in politics.

Oh my God, this is easily the silliest thing I've read in a very long time. This is my favorite, a quote from a little boy explaining why he's a Yankees fan:

"I like how they always win and they have good players.".

I love it.

This is interesting. I think it's good that he said something. To disagree with the president in an election year he must really feel like he needed to. However, I fail to understand how his daughter is working for the Bush-Cheney campaign (I know he's her father, but still) when stupid Bush is trying to put through a horribly discriminative amendment to the constitution.

Actually, I have big problems with all the candidates on this issue. I don't know why they have to appease middle-of-the-road and conservatives by saying things like "I don't support gay marriage but we should just leave it up to the states." Kerry, you support gay marriage just fine. Stop being a whimp. I know this is going to sound really dumb but I always think of this scene from the movie The American President where Michael J. Fox's character is calling senators or members of congress trying to get them to support an important vote for the president, and they are being whimps about doing what they actually want to do. He screams into the phone at someone, "Vote your conscience you chicken-shit lame-ass!" I think someone needs to be making more of these kinds of calls to our representatives.

Really. I think this might be the scariest grossest thing ever. We were talking at work about how Rebecca killed some gross bugs and were trying to decide if they were centipedes or not when we found some images on google, this being on of the most horrifying. (The bugs she killed were centipedes, so she was very brave.)

UPDATE 2006/03/16: As someone so eloquently put it, the worst thing is watching it.

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."

• Maya Angelou

Would you believe I have nothing to wear? Well, it's not precisely true but I'm getting there. A lot of my clothes are on their last legs, some don't fit (too big!), and some are just not good. Ask Rob Reed. So I need some new things. But I don't have a lot of money to blow on clothes, so you good folks out there can feel free to send me some gifts. I know you will ask, "What can we get you, Jenn?" so here are some things...

Read the rest

Like, for instance, the stupid British woman in Starbucks this morning acting amazed by the fact that the bathroom key was kept on a large metal basket. This is of course so no one accidentally leaves it behind in the bathroom or puts it in their pocket and leaves with it. She asked repeatedly if it was a "Boston tradition". What a moron. Then the Starbucks employee politely explained to her what the point was... after which she commented loudly and rudely to her friend, "And they say independence was good." I assume meaning that America is awful either because there is a basket attached to the key or because the bathroom needs to be locked at all. First of all, go back to your country bitch. Secondly, in my experience in Europe you have to PAY FOR the bathroom, so just keeping it locked seems like an OK compromise. Anyway, she was very stupid.

Now, there are three of the loudest girls I have ever heard sitting behind us talking and laughing at a nearly deafening level about how "you guys are so crazy!" and when they first got a TV in their room in high school and about making out with boys. It's horrible. Do people have no barometer to tell them what is appropriate around them? Do they see that everyone else in here is either silently reading or using a computer or else quietly talking? Awful.

I need a real superhero. Not a useless one who fights crime, I need one who fights the real injustices of the world like all these idiots.

Seriously. I'm not necessarily perfect on first run-through but I quadruple check things and apparently the majority of the world, both online and in print, doesn't even check once.

Amid many typos and other errors in an article about Kerry and the DNC on boston.com, the Globe had a little snafu at the end of their article. Please notice the ending text which seems to be someone's notes to self for changes in the article or something:

"...Born to parents who labored in the mills of his native South Carolina, Edwards became a self-made millionaire after two decades as one of the country's most successful trial lawyers.

(LEADS with 11 grafs to UPDATE Kerry remarks to welcoming crowd, color from boat ride, correct spelling of Rassmann ...; picks up 16th graf pvs: Kerry is ...; EDITS to tighten.) "

Now someone doesn't notice that? Did anyone read it through? Did anyone look at it before posting it? I just can't stand things like this. I really think I should have been an editor. Maybe I still should be. Too bad I have no official training but I'd find more mistakes than actual editors seem to judging from what I see every day around me.