Eye on Soaps' Pop Life

Popular culture, or pop culture: (literally: "the culture of the people") consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. Such elements are perpetuated through that society's vernacular language or an established lingua franca. It comprises the daily interactions, needs and desires and cultural 'moments' that make up the everyday lives of the mainstream. It can include any number of practices, including those pertaining to cooking, clothing, consumption, mass media and the many facets of entertainment such as sports and literature. Popular culture often contrasts with a more exclusive, even elitist "high culture."

Sept 20, 2007

I gottta tell ya, I missed writing this column, so I am going to go to a very abbreviated version...

Straight Out of National Enquirer

...or so it would sound, except that this one is true. Last Monday, a giant meteorite crashed to Earth in a small village in Peru near the border of Bolivia and almost immediately afterward, regional authorities reported that people were getting sick. Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a strange odor in the air according to the local health department official, Jorge Lopez.

Seven policemen who went to investigate the case also became ill and had to be hospitalized and given oxygen. The meteorite left a 100 foot wide, 20 foot deep crater and boiling water was coming out of it.

Yeah, I'd move

Happy Birthday to the World's Oldest Man

The world's oldest man turned 112 on Tuesday. He celebrated with a healthy Japanese breakfast of rice, miso soup and seaweed and says he wants to live forever.

Tomoji Tanabe was declared the world's oldest man since January this year and currently lives with his son and family in Japan's southern prefecture of Miyazaki.

He keeps a diary and reads the newspaper every day.

"I want to live indefinitely. I don't want to die," Kyodo News reported him saying.

Tanabe attributes his long life to avoiding alcohol.

Japan has the largest number of people over 100 years old in the world. The number of Japanese aged at least 100 years old is expected to top 30,000 by the end of September according to the Japanese health ministryt.

The Japanese people's renowned longevity is often attributed to eating the country's traditional healthy food, despite the hectic lifestyle many lead in the big cities.

Since Japan also has one of the lowest birthrates in the world, some fear a future demographic crisis as a smaller group of working class people emerges to support a huge population of elderly people.

I'd rather die than eat rice, miso soup and seaweed anyway.

At Least Ange Can Sleep Well

Tiffany Pollard, also known as "New York" from VH1's "I Love New York" was asked to offer names of stars with whom she would NOT have sex. There weren't many, but surprisingly, she quickly put heart-throb, Brad Pitt on the list, declaring him "too girly."

She did, however, rate Flava Flav as a "9.5" and says she would not hesitate to crawl back into the sack with him.

Barry Has No View

Barry Manilow, one of MY favorite singers/songwriters who got the plastic surgery that makes the young girls cry and the whole world scream, evidently had quite a miscommunication with the folks at "The View." Evidently, he thinks he fired them and they think that they fired him.

The problem stems from his friendship with Rosie O'Donnell and his ultra-liberal views which do not cozy up nicely to the very conservative opinions of Elisabeth Hasselbeck, one of the "View" ladies. While promoting his new album, Barry told "The View" that he'd do the show, but not if EH interviewed him. He was fine with Joy, Barbara or Whoopi, but not Elizabeth. "The View" refused to accommodate his wish and he did not appear on the show. Rose posted the following message from Barry on her site:

"I wanted to let you know that I will no longer be on The View tomorrow as scheduled. I had made a request that I be interviewed by Joy, Barbara or Whoopi, but not Elisabeth Hasselback [sic]. Unfortunately, the show was not willing to accommodate this simple request so I bowed out. It's really too bad because I've always been a big supporter of the show, but I cannot compromise my beliefs. The good news is that I will be on a whole slew of other shows promoting the new album so I hope you can catch me on those."

"The View" says that they are the ones who canceled the appearance, claiming they would not allow Manilow to dictate who would and would not interview him, not liking the precedent that would set.

I just want the album ("Greatest Songs of the Seventies")

Now for those Pictures of the Week!

Debra Messing sure is a... mess