WORD PLAY
“Beijing, Olympics: It's two weeks of competition to see which country has the best pharmacist,” David Letterman monologue, CBS' “Late Show With David Letterman.”
“It humanizes the numbers we see in the news,” comedian Kathy Griffin, getting serious after visiting those in the military undergoing rehab at Washington, D.C.'s Walter Reed Army Medical Center where she performed, Bravo's “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.”
“That was obviously wrong we apologize for that,” anchor Kathleen Bade, forced once again to explain a production mishap, the struggling “Fox 5 News at 10.”
“A sister gotta keep one eye open,” African-American contestant Terri, not happy when someone took the fabric she was going to use for a dress off a table, Bravo's “Project Runway.”
WRITE TURNS
From Ruben Paquian, Chula Vista: I'd like to congratulate the courage of the Fox 5 leadership (“Disaster 'News,' ” Outtakes, Aug. 11). It's not every day that a high-dollar TV station allows broadcasting interns to run its daily news programs. To think that these interns were seniors in high school just last year and, yet, they're running the show. So they have “a few” missteps, and the graphics are handmade by art students at the local Parks and Recreation summer art program. These interns are getting the much-needed experience that in a decade or so will come to fruition. Let's not be so hard on these kids (“Write Turns,” Outtakes, Aug. 18). They're getting the experience, and the station is saving tons of money in payroll.
From Joan Fuller, Fairmount Park: One thing I really dislike about all TV news is that I can read the morning paper and then watch the news and they report it all back to me. And I dislike the incessant giggling. What's so funny? Most of the giggling is about their own inside jokes that the viewer doesn't get anyway, and if they could see us switch the channel they wouldn't be laughing so hard.
From Amy Morris, Tierrasanta: Can you please explain to me why you included the last item in “Word Play” (“Technically I'm not Jewish ”) in your column (Outtakes, Aug. 4), and why you found it amusing?
Either I'm missing something, or you were just demonstrating ignorance about traditional and modern Jewish customs. The quote from Hunter Parrish (of Showtime's “Weeds”) is a simple statement of fact about his status within Judaism.
Traditionally, Jewishness has always been inherited only from one's mother. If she's Jewish, then you are, regardless of whether or not your father is. If your mother isn't Jewish, then you aren't, unless you officially convert.
However, the Reform movement decided 25 years ago to accept patrilineal as well as matrilineal descent, i.e. to accept a person as Jewish if either parent was, provided that person was raised with a Jewish identity.
I don't know if Hunter Parrish is really Jewish or not, and I don't much care, never having heard of him before now. But there's nothing at all odd about what he said.
