Nick and I spent a lot of time talking about Jason Whitlock’s “Explanation” yesterday. Well, we talked around it more than talked about it, considering neither of us actually listened to the three hour tour. Bethlehem Shoals of Free Darko and Fanhouse did, in fact, look into the sun last Friday afternoon. He lived to tell about it.

We talk about the particulars of Whitlock’s comments, vacillating from poignant media commentary to rampantly-mongering gossip. Shoals called it, for lack of a better term, schizophrenic. We also discuss the “fallout” (if there is any) and what this means for the newspaper industry (if anything.) I also manage to soap box about people who leave newspapers lamenting the death of the industry.

We also have a rather advanced plug of Shoals’ new book, coming out in October.

CULTURE POP:

Nick and I manage to talk about Tiger Woods, Mad Men and the Ground Zero Mosque all in one conversation. At some point, maybe, I’ll put my thoughts about the latter in print, but you can hear everything I have to say on the show.

As for Tiger, as mentioned yesterday he’s officially entered Don Draper mode of life. As for Don Draper, I hope his wife falls off a cliff. Is it not a little creepy, though, that the writers have twice associated a ten year old girl with sexual acts – through questionable editing a few weeks ago and now through an actual storyline?

Oh, so how does the Ground Zero Mosque, that’s not at Ground Zero and not a mosque, fit in? Well, Nick brings up the storyline of Roger Sterling’s issues with the Japanese well after WWII, which is way too similar to what’s going on right now in New York. Clearly a coincidence on timing as the Mad Men episodes have surely been planned a while ago, but still amazingly apropos political and social commentary.