Adjusting to Unreality

"What haunts Ashley Dupre isn't the image of Eliot Spitzer in his black socks -- it's the look on his wife's face as he announced he was resigning as governor."

Arianna Huffington isn't getting a rave review from TV Guide after filling in for MSNBC's Rachel Maddow:

"The Huffington Post-mistress was a stiff, awkward slave to the TelePrompTer. Even with her first guest, Bill Maher -- an old friend of Huffington, whose TV-pundit star rose when she was a loose, funny panelist on his show Politically Incorrect (remember her 'Strange Bedfellows' segments with future would-be Senator Al Franken?) -- she came across as a slightly befuddled robot."

Finally, just when I thought every possible aspect of the incoming president and first lady had been thoroughly picked over comes this Salon piece by Erin Aubry Kaplan:

"What really thrills me, what really feels liberating in a very personal way, is the official new prominence of Michelle Obama. Barack's better half not only has stature but is statuesque. She has corruscating intelligence, beauty, style and -- drumroll, please -- a butt. (Yes, you read that right: I'm going to talk about the first lady's butt.) . . .

"I noted her business suits and the fact she hardly ever wore pants (unlike Hillary). As I gradually relaxed, as Michelle strode onto more stages and people started focusing on her clothes and presence instead of her patriotism, it dawned on me -- good God, she has a butt! 'Obama's baby (mama) got back,' wrote one feminist blogger. 'OMG, her butt is humongous!' went a typical comment on one African-American online forum, and while it isn't humongous, per se, it is a solid, round, black, class-A boo-tay. Try as Michelle might to cover it with those Mamie Eisenhower skirts and sheath dresses meant to reassure mainstream voters, the butt would not be denied . . .

"Michelle's body was sending a different message: To hell with biracialism! Compromise, bipartisanship? Don't think so. Here was one clear signifier of blackness that couldn't be tamed, muted or otherwise made invisible."

There's more on this woefully underreported topic.