Something Shiny

Now, I’ve got nothing against white guys, heck, I’m one myself, but seeing the ad for the late night line up with Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Falon, and Carson Daly, I said to myself, dang, that’s a lotta white guys.

The news desks are a little unbalanced as well. Let’s take a look at a totally biased list I put together to prove my point…

	Jay Leno, formerly the Tonight Show host, moving to a prime time slot shortly.
	Conan O’Brian, previously the Late Night show host is moving into Leno’s spot on the Tonight Show.
	Jimmy Fallon took over Conan’s old spot on the Late Night.
	Carson Daly is more interesting to me as the inspiration for Earl’s karma fascination in “My Name is Earl” than his time on MTV or his current gig on Last Call.
	Going back a bit… remember Johnny Carson…
	… and his side-kick, Ed McMahon
	Carson and McMahon took over the Tonight Show From Jack Parr.
	And speaking of Ed McMahon, anyone remember Conan’s original sidekick, Andy Richter? He’s back as Ed McMahon 2.0 when Conan takes over the Tonight Show.
	The face of news may have a better tan than the late night talk show hosts, but lots of white dudes there too. Brian Williams: Nightly News guy who took over from…
	Tom Brokaw, the previous Nightly News guy
	David Brinkley was the previous previous white dude along with…
	John Chancellor, the co-previous-previous white nightly news dude
	Chet Huntly was kinda the first Nightly News guy, depending on how you look at it, but regardless of how far you wanna go back here, all white dudes…
	Undoubtedly the most diverse… cast(?) is the Today Show, but even they have their Matt Lauer
	Then there’s the Meet the Press guy, David Gregory, who took over for…
	…Tim Russert, the previous Meet the Press host. It still puzzles me that anyone was surprised when the very obviously unfit guy had health issues and died.

This concludes my incomplete list of randomly observed white dudes, past and present, that make up the face of NBC.

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I finally had to give up on Kelly Link‘s Stranger Things Happen. The stories in Pretty Little Monsters were… well, they had something happen. Stranger Things Happen seemed to be more a stream of consciousnesses sorta thing. Like streams were combined into “stories.” Anyway, I gave up two stories from the end of the collection.

So, after reading Tim Dorsey‘s Nuclear Jellyfish I picked up J.B. Stanley’s Fit to Die. I had picked up Chile con Corpses on a whim at the library (I’m a sucker for clever titles and shiny covers). The characters were pretty flat and the plot wasn’t particularly clever, but it wasn’t bad either.

More interesting than the plot was the diet story sub-story. Ok, interesting isn’t quite acurate. Connecting perhaps? Much like fiscal responsibilty, diets aren’t exactly the focus of positive media attention. Aside from NBC‘s The Biggest Loser (which is more social manipulation than useful information), TV, books, movies, don’t ever really touch on the pain in the ass which is weight loss and weight maintenance.

The fact that J.B. Stanley includes some of the actual issues around weight loss/management as a tertiary topic makes the characters a bit more real and is positive reinforcement for my own goals.

Since Chili con Corpses I’ve read Carbs & Cadavers, and am currently in the middle of Fit to Die. Ms. Stanley has one more book in the Supper Club Mystery series, Stiffs and Swine, as well as some other books outside the series.

So, in conclusion, the Supper Club Mystery series is a collection of solid, although not outstanding, mysteries. The real draw here is for those whose weight doesn’t manage itself. You can be the 6th member of the characters’ supper club and get enjoy the benefits of their support structure, even if it is only fictional.

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