for 25 May 2000. Updated every WEEKDAY.
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Hit & Run Did Aaron Spelling create Beverly Hills 90210? Maybe not. Or rather, maybe about as much as Norman Lear created All In The Family. What? Okay, for the television non-obsessed, All In The Family was based on an English sitcom. (So was Three's Company, for that matter.) And 90210 was allegedly based on Canadian teen drama Degrassi Junior High/Degrassi High. Here's a quote: "As an aside, one Degrassi website said 90210 was largely based on the Canadian classic. The author claimed Fox Television courted the makers of Degrassi for sometime, but when Fox discovered it couldnât tamper with the showâs hard-edged formula, the company decided to make their own teen drama instead. In other words, we can thank Degrassi for Brenda, Brandon, et al." Oh, and 60 Minutes is a ripoff of This Hour Has Seven Days. Blame Canada, Michael K <michael.k@iname.com> Thanks for your input, Mr. K. It's always heartening to see Canadians making patriotic defenses of their nation's rich cultural heritage, which includes, but is certainly not limited to, many fine hours of broadcast television. Canada will never die as long as you and other attentive viewers honor her achievements. Sucksters  Dear Suckmeisters, Was that conversation real?? It was really funny, but I find it hard to believe that someone would actually put up with an idiot like that Dunne guy. I mean it was pretty obvious that Dunne was pulling the guy's leg. But I guess stranger things have happened. Sayf Al-Deen H. Connary <sconnary@enterasys.com> Well, Sayf, we consider Barney Dunne a valuable addition to the Suck team. It's a fact checker's job to be methodical. Sucksters You ask why, "if Pope John Paul II knew he was going to be shot" ... why did he "expose himself to his assassin". How could he do otherwise? The leader of his pack did the same thing. I've heard that in the movie "Gandhi", Ben Kingsley did likewise. In literature, we have the example of Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse 5. In your own little way, every day you offer up yourselves to hordes of snipers for reasons most cannot comprehend. The million moms got my Kalishnikov, so I'm taking aim with my ASR-33. Ned Kittlitz <kittlitz@world.std.com> You've got a good point. We didn't mean that the Pope had actually, you know, exposed himself to his assassin. But then, the two of them did have this closed-door forgiveness session, so you never know. Sucksters Subject: At the risk of sounding picky... I know you guys hate crack-addled Canucks (guilty, at least of being addled and Canadian), but while I DID get the joke about Sierra/Sergio Leone (I hope I'm not being charitable in assuming it was a joke), I just thought I'd mention that while Sergio Leone was Italian, the spaghetti westerns were actually filmed in Spain. But who really gives a crap, right? Harry Heatherington somewhere in the great white north... If you look carefully, you'll see that Mr. Mihelic correctly identified Spain as the shooting location of Sergio Leone's pictures. It takes a pretty attentive reader to be a Suck fact noodge! Sucksters That is the Tom Green Show Its not the Barney Dunne Show Barney's a stupid schmoe fact checkers should really know Rick McClinton <McClinton_Rick@tmac.com> Duly noted. Sucksters I took this snippet from todays suck (5.18.2000). It's most of the way down tucked in with the tom green comments. And how will all this hold up against San Francisco's "Fat Ordinance"? What ordinance is that? Did you make it up or is it real? Please explain. Thanks Jodie La Honta <Jlahonta@employeeservice.com> This is a reference to an incident a few years ago, when a local gym offered billboards making fun of obesity, and various tubs of guts around the city complained. It's possible that one of the busybodies on our board of supervisors proposed an ordinance banning jokes about fat people, but to our knowledge no such law now exists, and in this case, as in many others, we were stretching for a joke. Sucksters Filler You, I don't want to marry you anymore!! Why can't you just accept that and move on? You are joking about not having a bong, right? Ci$co <fvelasqu@ball.com> Oh my god. It really doesn't reflect very well on you, that you could be so cavalier about what we had together. Your decisions, apparently made quite casually, negatively and irreparably impacted my current reality and my future. Yet you refuse to take responsibility for the tragic circumstances that you created. How is it possible that I was so totally deluded about your ability to make a lifetime commitment? And then, to add insult to injury, you have to push the envelope and make a joke about something that you bought for me for my birthday! You know how I treasured that bong, yet you blithely absconded with it when the caca hit the GE Oscillating Room Unit! You dog. I've lost all respect for you. I'd wish you harm if I didn't know, deep down, that you'll pay the price for your neglect more than you can possibly know right now. Well, you're young. Good luck out there, buddy. You're gonna need it. Polly Dear Polly - I have started getting the strangest sensation that you and Terry Colon the cartoonist might be close. Perhaps lovers, or even the same exact person. Or both. Am I hallucinating? Or just sucking between the lines? Best, Steve Rapaport <steve@petabit.com> Terry and I are not lovers, nor are we the same person. I wish we were the same person so I could sit around drawing pictures of stuff the way he does. However I'm sure he's very clear on the fact that he'd rather not be the same person as me. See how lopsided this stuff is? Love bites, man. Try not to suck between the lines from now on. Polly Hi Polly, In a recent Fish response, you said: "You want encouragement and sincerity, check out a copy of InStyle magazine. They'll even tell you what brand of lipstick Heather Locklear wore on last week's cover!" Actually, Brill's Content did an article a while ago on fashion magazines, and noted that the makeup credits for the cover models are rotated through the magazine's major advertisers, and are not really what the models had on. One quote from a magazine insider said [something to the effect of] "There's no way that [makeup] was within 50 feet of the shoot." As for Shaq, this is the first year since he left the Magic that I've been rooting for him, and that's only because I want to see Penny Hardaway go down in flames. Back to the bong, Mike Mustaine <mustaine@earthlink.net> (No relation to Dave, although my cousin says I look a little like him) No — say it ain't so! I've got a crate full of Amber Twilight eye shadow that says I do have the power to look just like Sarah Michelle Gellar! This is America! Money buys everything, and don't you forget it! Look what money did for the Lakers, for one thing! So there! Polly Hardaway Polly, The latest Filler episodes have been...how shall we say...less than enjoyable. What happened to the whiny, bitter girly girl of yore? Less mostly transparent faux self-criticism as a front for obsessive narcissism and more Mr. Flinchy! Twenty-something males are the cause of and solution to all a masochistic-gal- suffering-from- low-self-esteem- and-some-form-of- chronic-dysphoria's problems. This is all ye know and all ye need to know. Lady Carlisle Girly girl?!! How long have you been reading Filler? Whiny and bitter yes, but girly girls are a horse of a different color. Besides, obsessive narcissism is the foundation on which this church was built. Twenty-something males are merely the spittoon in which we mistakenly bless ourselves upon exiting. Furthermore, what's the cure to low self-esteem and chronic dysphoria? Again, obsessive narcissism! But I don't need to tell you that, Lady Carlisle. With a signature like that, I trust you've got plenty of extra narcissism in the ice box saved up in case of natural disaster or unforeseen break-up. Do you really think I'd pretend to criticize myself just for your benefit? All self-criticism is 100% real — and absolutely necessary to keep that overconfidence in check. Mix some self-criticism in with your narcissism and see for yourself. Tasty, no? Anyway, masochism is sooo early-twenties. I think it's time you watered your plants and read a good book. Self-congratulatorily, but supportively, yours, Polly |
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![[Tim Cavanaugh]](/fish/staff/images/tim.gif)
![[Phillip Bailey]](/fish/staff/images/phil.gif){kind=small}
