Unfinished Business: Spuddy Buddy and more

So in these last few shows, I've pulled out a lot of "unfinished" pieces -- things we recorded or started recording but either didn't finish or get to use. You've been exposed to some of them now: The Militant Grammarian, Male Privilege, and the forgettable Little Spuddy piece.

Little Spuddy is nothing more than Idaho's anthropomorphised potato mascot, Spuddy Buddy. There was some trade mission to Mexico a few years ago that included Butch Otter, Larry Craig, and some other of our fine dignitaries, as well as some guy in a Spuddy Buddy costume. Apparently he was stopped at the Mexican border and not allowed to enter Mexico. Oh, the outrage that ensued. [good photos here] Here's a typically Idahoan and rather racist press release from the Idaho Potato Commission itself. Our Little Spuddy piece was completely unscripted and improvised, but based on these events. There was also the gawdawful National Potato Board song we were going to spoof, but didn't record that. At the time, the Mr Potato Head people had not gotten involved but have since adopted it as their own.

The Militant Grammarian was the first in what would be a series on Linguistic Imperialism. There are mistakes made all the time with idiomatic expressions (not to mention individual words), and this is the nature of language in its spoken manifestation. But we wanted to get at some tangential things going on in speaker's heads that influence the outcome of their utterances. In the Militant Grammarian that got produced, we didn't dig too deep, but managed to make a relaxed connection between black English and cultural appropriation by using the example "jibe with it" or "it doesn't jibe." Originally a sailing term, it got into vernacular use when people wanted to say "something's not quite right" ("that doesn't jibe"). Only recently, we keep hearing people say "that doesn't jive" -- and that, if you take it literally, means something totally different. Think jive turkey or jive talking.

Anyway, listen to the piece for the whole story. You can download shows 55 and on from our Show Guide page or podcast 'em.

Male Privilege and Feminism

I came across Barry Deutsch's Male Privilege Checklist about a year and a half ago and got the Sagebrush men to read it. I was hoping to do something fancier with it but for some reason it kept getting pushed aside. It's simply a list (by no means exhaustive) of things men take for granted. He based it on an essay by Peggy McIntosh entitled White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, which of course deals with many things white people take for granted because they don't have to go through the same problems as people of color.

It's not accusatory, just enlightening -- and something, IMO, Idahoans in particular need to hear more of. I've never heard more outrageous attitudes and outright misinterpretation of feminism than in Idaho, not even counting all the Limbaugh parroting about "feminazism." In fact, it's such a stifling environment when it comes to equality of any kind that some of the worst offenders are women themselves. I guess that's internalized sexism; I mean, who wants to be labeled a -- you know, I won't even write it because I don't want to perpetuate that crap or risk putting a seed into someone's head who may not be familiar with what I'm getting at.

Feminists come is many varieties and schools of philosophy, but what it all boils down to is wanting to be treated fairly and equally, in terms of respect, in terms of power, income, expectations, standards, and all the unwritten rules that dictate what is okay for a woman to be or do. This is the same for race or class, or men, for that matter, or anyone who falls into one of those "in between" areas.

So why is it so offensive to adopt a belief system that demands equality for all? That is my question.