Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
World's Largest
Tuesday
May 16, 2006
"I just knew too much
Does that make me crazy?"
-Gnarls Barkley "Crazy"
An unofficial name has the Universities of Florida and Georgia in a tizzy. The title "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" for the annual Florida vs. Georgia game in Jacksonville is now under attack by both schools, which are asking people (via the commissioner of the SEC) to stop using the phrase for the annual gridiron showdown.
Have things really degenerated to this level of insanity where you can't refer to a fun weekend as a cocktail party? What in the hell is going on in this country?!? The schools went so far as to contact CBS, ESPN and Lincoln Financial Media (formerly JP Sports; language manipulation happens on many levels) to ask them to not use the name in their coverage of the event.
|  | Florida vs. Georgia: What's in a name?
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First they banned the Beer Barrel in the Tennessee/Kentucky rivalry... then they tried to change a non-official reference to the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party... what is next? I'm almost scared to ask that question.
I suppose it could be worse, like in India, where there are people pushing hard for the banning of The Da Vinci Code. There are some there who are holding a hunger strike in protest of it. Insanity! It's a work of fiction! Think of all the atrocities, all the legitimate causes that you could get angry about... and you pick protesting a movie? How about: don't go see it if you don't like it? Always remember, as Oscar Wilde wrote, "Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."
If you're going to ban it, maybe it should be for the acting: it received some really bad reviews coming out of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Too bad, since the book was outstanding.
An update to the 5/11/2006 commentary, as both BellSouth and Verizon have denied turning over phone records to the National Security Agency (as reported last week by USA Today.) It had been alleged at the time I wrote the commentary that BellSouth was, in fact, guilty of such unwarranted action. BellSouth is my current phone and internet service provider, and Verizon was my provider during my time in Florida, which makes this something of great interest to me.
I saw the video for the song Crazy by Gnarls Barkley on MTV at my brother Matt's place this past weekend in Nashville. It's on YouTube, but I'm afraid to put it on here, lest the RIAA/MPAA secret police haul me away in the middle of the night. The video is pretty cool, though, with an ink blot sort of effect. I've been enjoying the song for awhile, ever since I first heard it on Sirius earlier this year. Gnarls Barkley is the duo of world-renouned DJ Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo, aka Cee-Lo Green, who I saw open for Ludacris in concert in March 2003. Funny how things work out.
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