So, this weekend is the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure here in Indy. The commercials the local TeeWee station has been running crack me up, despite the seriousness of the cause, because among the montage of scenes from previous events there is one clip of a bunch of earnest-looking women who shout "We're protesting breast cancer!" at the camera as they go past. I always shout at the TeeWee "We're also protesting mosquitoes, gravity, green, and the number '5'!" I mean, you know that the Protest Culture has gone out of whack when people think you can "protest" the very existence of a concrete object, such as a cancer cell. Maybe Congress will pass a law.
This morning, however, I was left speechless and bereft of parody. They were interviewing one of the muckety-mucks of the weekend's activities, and she was under a full head of steam, speaking in such perfect PoMo Bureaucratese that I was about to blurt out "...and don't forget that breast cancer is everybody's problem. It can affect men, too!" but before I could say it she did, leaving me staring at the televisor doing my freshly-caught-trout impersonation.
It gets harder to be surreal every day.
Just when I think I've seen it all at the library, someone comes along and surprises me. I like it a lot - one of the best parts of the job, really.
ReplyDeleteThey say some of the silliest things in those Race For The Cure commercials.
ReplyDeleteI recall an ad they ran endlessly a year or so ago where they had some teary-eyed woman who was complaining, "Nobody ever asked me if it was time for Mom to die. I feel like I've had a say in it now."
Say what?
Nobody consulted me on my parents dying, either. That's kinda the way it works, y'know?
parody: it's the new reality...
ReplyDeletejtc
Have to say, I'd normally assume that getting a say in when your parents die involves a certain malevolent intent and, the rest of us hope, a courtroom appearance.
ReplyDeleteDeath is the way the Universe reminds us of our place in It.
ReplyDeleteDo I wish my dad was still with us? Sure. But I don't waste my time arguing the point with higher Authority.
Ductal adenocarcinoma of the male breast is a real entity. It has a much worse prognosis than cancer in the female breast, as detection is much later, and the detection equipment is normed for use on women. The 5-year survival rate ranges from 30-85 percent, depending on when it was caught. There is a significant percentage of male breast cancer patients who carry the BCRA1 and BCRA2 genes; those families have strong histories of breast and ovarian cancer in the female line.
ReplyDeletew-t-c,
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't what was said, it was how it was said.
"...speaking in such perfect PoMo Bureaucratese..."Jeezis. That one, I'm sooooo stealing!
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to remember the name of the famous author who, when asked why he was retiring, stated that he couldn't make stuff up to compete with what was going on in real life.
ReplyDeleteRichard Roundtree (Shaft) has of breast cancer. Double mastectomy.
ReplyDeleteI do agree, protests and protestors have gone full-goose bozo in many areas. Except those protesting against high taxes and big .gov.
Regards,
Rabbit.
At the risk of repeating what Rabbit and William the Coroner said, my maternal grandfather had breast cancer at one point. Male breast cancer does exist, just not at the same frequency it does in women.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I wasn't aware that you could protest cancer. I wonder if I could protest finals, then. Hmmm...
Some years ago, I saw, in a weekly NYC paper, a parody ad:
ReplyDeleteIt was full page ad for a rally to "Help Stamp Out Tragedy". . quite funny and got the point across. . . my wife and I refer to it all the time when we see the stuff that Tam is pointing out. .
The Fudgie Ghost
word verification: "urate"
"Well, Clyde, urate, them oriental women sure can't drive too good. . "
Maybe they're reading your blog and think Tamarasnarkisms are actually instructions...
ReplyDeleteI DID have a say in when my dam went off. Not adispositive say, or it would have been years earlier when she sprained that ankle playing golf.
ReplyDeleteBut still very satisfying to help move things along.
On topic, the AIDS/HIV people are the worst about this- as though a cure for an illness was just a matter of saving up enough money.
As in, "it's President Reagan's fault, because he didn't devote enough money toward developing a cure".
SW- Tralatis- the heartbreaking condition of being unable to sing little random note strings. Find a cure!
I had surgery for uterine cancer the week before Breast Cancer Awareness Week 2007. I never felt so ignored in all my life. Where's my frigging ribbon?! And they say that having cancer makes you "brave" -- I can tell you that it doesn't. How you react to the diagnosis is what makes you brave. I'm all for raising awareness, but it's taken on a cult-like momentum and I fear other, more serious diseases are getting lost in its wake.
ReplyDeleteWhat never seems to be said is that more men are diagnosed each year with prostate cancer than women with breast cancer. The mortality for breast cancer is in fact higher, though. Still way more funding goes to breast cancer research than prostate cancer research.
ReplyDeleteNot that either one is a whole lot of fun.
Wait, wait---you're protesting green? Or just the AlGore definition of it?
ReplyDeleteWV: moinestr: monster from Noo Joizey?