Pretty stupid, if you ask me. But why insulting? It's not like you
did anything dumb. They're the idiots.

I really can't stand commercials, particularly from an auditory
standpoint. The visuals are annoying, but I can always look away.
Sometimes I find them amusing without the sound, as in the one I
watched for the allergy meds. This is the main reason I don't listen
to the radio, except in my car, where the buttons are close at hand
to change the station when a commercial comes on. I just have a very
strong "chalk on a blackboard", grating sensation from the sound of
95% of commercials. I swear they raise my blood pressure.

Joyce

Yes, how strange for people who don't know we sing and dance around
the Safeway and Piggly Wiggly all the time. ;)  I just did my dance of
worship around the FoodTown this morning. ;)

Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh

Make Levees, Not War

This is the type of thing that makes me laugh hysterically. Comedies that
make use of this kind of perspective are just so funny to me. I love the
idea of an outsider with no concept of my culture, coming here and seeing
something very bizarre, and thinking that it's normal or typical, and trying
to make sense of it in a serious way, as though one could possibly make
sense of something so weird.

A friend of mine came to the US with her family when she was 11. She barely
knew English, but she definitely knew more than her grandmother, because
she was in school. One afternoon, they were watching a horror movie on TV
together. My friend was struggling to follow the story, but the grandmother
had no clue. Suddenly, the movie broke for commercials. This family had
come from the Soviet Union, where there were no commercials, so they had never
seen this before and had no concept of shows or movies being interrupted
to sell products. This ad was for a local carpet store called "Carpeteria",
which was loud and full of music and fast-cut images. Her grandmother asked,
"What's going on now?" My friend (in all seriousness): "I think the evil
creatures have taken over the world."

The thing is, my friend tells this story to illustrate the pain and confusion
of immigration. But, while that point is not lost on me, I find this story
just completely hysterical. Not as in, "Look at the stupid foreigners, aren't
they hilarious?", but as in, "How bizarre our culture is, to have Carpeteria
appear in the middle of a horror movie - how could someone outside our culture
ever make any sense of it?"

Joyce