Egad. The Discovery Channel had one of those awful call-in polls selecting the “100 Greatest Americans,” and Kevin Drum and his commenters go off on it. I’m not gonna bother (it’s being scorned quite well without me piling on), but if you want to be astonished/amused/disturbed, go look at it. Some of the more egregious choices: from Hollywood: Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, and Tom Hanks; from politics: both Bushes, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani and Barack Obama; from sports: Pat Tillman and Brett Favre.
It’s nearly as awful for its omissions as it is for its inclusions. No Frank Lloyd Wright, no William Faulkner, no Dreiser, dos Passos, Harriett Beecher Stowe. No Louis Armstrong, no Duke Ellington, no Coltrane or Miles Davis.
Oy.
I Hate Call-in Polls
I like Brett Favre, but one of the 100 Greatest American? I think not….
Frank McCourt for greatest American
Many pundits in the blogosphere have been chiming in on who they think ought to be added to the list of the 100 greatest Americans (reproduced at Professor Bainbridge’s blog). Professor Bainbridge has a list of additions heavy on
Ya know, ever since I saw Tom Cruise in “Magnolia” playing a misogynist, I think he is a phony and he scares me….I think that part was really him, and he played himself so well…
Laura Bush and Donald Trump are on the list? It doesn’t take much to be great these days. Just money, I guess.
Celebrity-drenched culture we’ve got here.