A semi-regular attempt to address some of life’s minutiae that might otherwise be overlooked…..
I keep seeing people repost this diatribe on social media about being fully vaccinated and not knowing “what’s in it” just like they didn’t know what was in the vaccines they took as kids, the secret recipe of KFC chicken, various medications, or assorted personal hygiene products, and the whole thing is asinine. It completely misses the point, and also includes outright lies. At the end it notes that the proud poster is vaccinated because:
- “I want to do something other than just staying locked in my home”. Well, you know what, if you’ve been locked in your house the past two years that’s largely your fault. Most folks with common sense & critical thinking skills resumed a fairly normal routine awhile ago, with certain obvious precautions & limitations. COVID is a thing. It’s undeniable, and it has altered our lives…perhaps forever. But let’s simmer down on the histrionics. If you want to go out & live a little there’s not a whole lot that’s totally stopping you.
- “I want to travel & hug people without fear”. First of all, turn off the TV. Stop letting the news media scare you. Secondly, if you face restrictions of any kind blame the businesses & government entities needlessly imposing those rules.
- “To not die from Covid-19”. I personally know multiple people who were fully vaccinated & boostered and still died 🤷🏻♂️.
- “To hug my loved ones”. No one is stopping you from doing that. The only roadblock you face is your own irrational fear.
- “To not have to do tests to go to a restaurant, etc.” Vaccine mandates are stupid, and more people are figuring that out every day. I personally refuse to support any business that imposes such restrictions. This isn’t Nazi Germany.
- “To live my life”. Let me say it a little louder – No. One. Is. Stopping. You. And to the extent that you are facing roadblocks to the usual freedoms, those will not go away even if COVID were to be eradicated. This whole situation hasn’t been about our health & well-being for awhile. The powers-that-be now have a clear understanding of just how easily the masses can be controlled by fear & manipulation, and it’s our fault for letting that happen. Do you honestly believe they will ever give up that control??
- “For Covid-19 to be an old memory”. That’s not going to happen. It’s here to stay. There will always be spikes & new variants. Maybe one day the talking heads will become bored by it all, but that isn’t going to be anytime soon.
- “To protect us”. That “vaccine” isn’t protecting jack squat. Its main benefit is the false sense of security provided to those who happily submit. That’s fine if it helps you sleep at night.
All of the (legit) vaccines we received as children…mumps, polio, measles, et al…are mentioned, saying that the poster’s parents “trusted the science”, and as a result they’ve never suffered thru or transmitted any of those maladies. It fails to mention that the COVID “vaccine” doesn’t prevent a person from getting or spreading COVID!! For God’s sake people…think before you post!! I’ve lost a lot of respect for those who I believed to be reasonably intelligent folks that I now realize are gullible sheep.
My experience with dating apps:
- She’s gorgeous & has her shit together. She’s WAY out of my league.
- Okay, she’s kind of cute. Her profile reads like a list of ransom demands though, and I’m vaguely frightened 👀.
- Gives off a chill vibe?? Check. Attractive?? Check. Seems like someone I’d be interested in getting to know?? Check. It’s too bad she lives 100+ miles away 😕.
- Super hot. Lots of cleavage. Double entendres galore. Probably a dude. Or a cop 👮🏻♂️.
- Oh, cool…finally, a woman in my local area!! She’s three decades my senior, has a cigarette hanging from her mouth, & sounds like she might be mentally ill. Vaguely reminiscent of Abe Vigoda with notes of Rosie O’Donnell & a hint of Phyllis from The Office 😬.
#IGiveUp
So, Academy Award nominations have been announced. First, The Sammys are still way cooler than The Oscars. Second, I won’t be watching…haven’t seen the show in years. Bunch of pretentious windbags besmirching what should be one of the highlights of their professional lives by spewing ignorant, out of touch, woke garbage, and rarely do the movies that interest me & the ones that critics adore intersect. Having said all of that, I do have a few opinions. The only Best Picture nominee I’ve seen is King Richard, which won the Sammy Award for Favorite Movie. I might eventually check out the updated West Side Story, but didn’t see it on the big screen. It blows my freakin’ mind that Kristen Stewart has been nominated for an Oscar. Seriously…she has the disposition of lukewarm tap water. Never in a million years did I ever think such a succubus of charisma could possibly win an Academy Award. On the flip side is Will Smith, who has always had charm & personality to spare. Though it weirds me out a bit that The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has gone from gettin’ jiggy wit it to being nominated for an Oscar I hope he wins. Not only is he someone I’ve actually heard of, but his performance in King Richard is truly excellent. I’m kind of surprised that Ben Affleck didn’t get a Best Supporting Actor nod for The Tender Bar. The movie isn’t that great but his performance seemed award worthy. I’ve seen some comments opining that the latest Spider-Man flick should’ve been nominated for Best Picture, but come on now…we all know that’s not how Hollywood rolls. God forbid they recognize a good film that Joe Sixpack actually enjoyed.
Full disclosure…I’ve never listened to Joe Rogan’s podcast, but recent events have piqued my interest and I might have to give it a whirl. 25 years ago who could’ve predicted that (with the exception of the late great Phil Hartman) Rogan would be the NewsRadio alumnus that’d have the biggest (pop) cultural impact?? One could have made bank on that prop bet.
Thoughts on relationships…
Ladies, some unsolicited advice: no guy is going to invest much effort in a woman who seems to hate men. I’m as jaded as anyone, but at some point cynicism becomes really unattractive, so perhaps you might want to consider toning it down. This is when the “unfollow” button comes in handy. Sometimes people are going thru some stuff, and I understand that, but it doesn’t mean I want to go thru it with you. I no longer want to be “a good guy”, “like a brother”, or a “cool friend”. What’s in it for me?? I’m not going to let someone unload all their drama, seeking validation, counsel, or a sympathetic ear, then later that night some other guy with washboard abs & deep pockets gets to see her naked & drill her like an oil field. That’s called being used, and it’s not okay. It has become tedious. I have one sister…that’s all I need or want. If the dude with cool tatts & a big schlong isn’t also willing or capable of meeting your emotional needs then perhaps you need to reevaluate your situation. This drive thru is closed.
I’ve always believed in God’s perfect timing, and have to say that with everything that has occurred recently in the world in general and The Manoverse specifically I am thankful for the distraction and the opportunity for a bit of levity. A platform like this can be many things…informative, entertaining, provocative, cathartic…for the reader as well as yours truly. Some folks paint. Others play music. Those blessed with a healthy metabolism pour out their sweat at the gym. I write. Throughout the near decade of The Manofesto’s existence I have endeavored to strike a balance between profound & frivolous, but oftentimes feel unsuccessful in that mission. For the next few days we’re going to skew toward fun because I think we could all use some of that right now. If you haven’t read the intro please 
Northwest is populated by geniuses. The one exception?? Single father Jack Carter, who is chosen to be the sheriff of Eureka. But, though his IQ is just average, Sheriff Carter uses good old-fashioned horse sense to figure out the bizarre calamities that tend to befall the town on an unnervingly regular basis. Eureka lasted for five seasons from 2006-12, and I must admit that I lost track of it in the final year or two. It was a show just a little ahead of its time, as I could see it being pretty successful nowadays if it aired on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon. Sheriff Carter stands out because a) he is a regular guy amongst all of the eccentricity surrounding him, & b) despite lacking the intellect of the others he exhibits more warmth, personality, pragmatism, & sincerity than most of the brainiacs, making him relatable to viewers.
in during the first season and sticks around, living in a van in the family’s driveway. Cody is a hippy dippy valley boy that no one seems to get, but he’s too oblivious to understand that. He is portrayed by Sasha Mitchell, who had previously played Duffy’s nephew…James Ewing…on Dallas. Though he may be quite versatile as an actor Mitchell was quietly booted from the show in its 4th season after being accused of domestic abuse (the charges were later dropped). As a show Step by Step was an amusing yet bland offering typical of the kind of kid-friendly sitcoms ABC churned out in the 90’s (Full House being the most famous example), and was meant to mark big TV comebacks for Duffy & Somers. However, it was Cody Lambert that stood out from the pack.
old animated sitcom The Simpsons, so you won’t be seeing Bart or Homer on this list. It’s been so long ago that I don’t even recall why High School Me never became interested in that show. However, its success gave rise to similar programs, one of which is this late 90’s program that lasted for an impressive 13 seasons (full disclosure…my interest faded about halfway thru that run for some reason). Hank Hill is the patriarch of a middle class Texas family and the assistant manager of a propane store. I like Hank because he’s just a regular guy, an old-fashioned conservative with a strict moral code who is befuddled by the craziness that surrounds him. Unlike so many sitcom Dads he isn’t a total fool with a wandering eye and poor parenting skills. He’s not buff & sexy, but his wife loves him anyway. Hank Hill is exactly the kind of citizen in “flyover country” that the socio-intellectual elites in certain cultural epicenters like to ridicule, but as Jimmy Stewart once said, such folks “do most of the working and paying and living and dying” in this country, and occasionally it’s nice to see pop culture acknowledge that fact.
on Nantucket, a small island that is part of Massachusetts and is where that girl in all the dirty jokes hails from. One of the employees at Sandpiper Air is airplane mechanic Lowell. He is a dimwitted sad sack, especially after he discovered his wife cheating on him & his houseboat got sank, but he usually has the best one-liners. When the actor decided to leave the show during its 7th season Lowell is forced into witness protection after seeing a mob hit, a plot that only skillful sitcom writers could make funny.
(taken from a real life canyon between Los Angeles & Malibu), she’s got a hippie/New Age vibe that I’d find irritating in reality but works really well in a sitcom, & is the kind of girl that stays true to herself and doesn’t back down from a challenge. JK Rowling got the inspiration for Harry Potter in 1990 and published the first book in 1995. Boy Meets World premiered in 1993. Hermione Granger reminds me more than a little of Topanga Lawrence. It does make one wonder…..
our culture that Urkel was ever a thing. But he was a thing, and I cannot in good conscience ignore it. Family Matters was supposed to be a spinoff of Perfect Strangers centering on the Winslow family…elevator operator Harriet, policeman Carl, Harriet’s sister & nephew, Carl’s elderly mother, and Carl & Harriet’s two kids Eddie & Laura. But during Season 1 nerdy next door neighbor Urkel popped over for a visit and the rest is history. The show lasted for nine seasons, but the truth is that without the inexplicable popularity of Urkel it probably wouldn’t have made it half as long.
charms. Writer Carrie Bradshaw is the centerpiece & narrator. She’s a somewhat vain fashionista, but can also be sensitive & thoughtful. Samantha Jones is an oversexed & outspoken PR executive. I definitely wouldn’t call her a role model for women, but I guess her confidence could be considered…inspirational. Charlotte York is a perky yet timid WASP who works at an art gallery. She’s much less shallow & jaded than her pals and eventually finds happiness with her Jewish divorce attorney. Miranda Hobbes is an uptight & cynical lawyer. She has an on again/off again relationship with a nerdy bartender named Steve, with whom she shares a child. There was a brief moment in time, at the height of the show’s popularity, when I felt like there were too many women watching this show and trying to emulate these four characters, with the issue being that they are a) so far away from reality it’s laughable, & b) not really the kind of people that anyone should ever model themselves after. Having said that, their influence cannot be denied and I can understand why they might be considered pop culture feminist icons.
whose portrayal of a conceited blowhard news anchor is hilarious. Despite his arrogance Bill isn’t nearly as intelligent as he’d like people to believe, and he oftentimes treats his colleagues dismissively though he seems to think of them as close pals. Hartman’s tragic death in 1998 was also a fatal blow to NewsRadio, which had to fill the gap in the cast with Jon Lovitz in the fifth season, which…not surprisingly…was its last.
more lewd, harsh, & cynical vibe. Even as a teenager I understood this transformation and didn’t particularly care for it, so I never became a fan of the show. However, thru the prism of time and after running across video clips here & there the past few years I have to give credit where credit is due…Al Bundy is pretty hysterical. A terrible husband?? Yes. An awful father?? Sure. A bad employee?? Obviously. Al certainly is no role model, but I get why fans of the show think he was really funny. If you see a dysfunctional family or poor parent on TV today they owe it all to Married with Children. Perhaps that’s not the most positive legacy…but it’s something.
specifics now. At any rate, during that time I watched a lot of TV and discovered Becker, which had aired on CBS for six seasons from 1998-2004. I always enjoyed Ted Danson on Cheers, so I’m not sure how I missed his big television comeback, but atleast it was there for me in syndication a few years later. The titular character is a doctor who runs a small practice in The Bronx. Dr. Becker is a grumpy malcontent who is easily annoyed by just about everyone & everything, but underneath his constant state of irritability he’s a good guy who does whatever he can to help his patients & his friends. I’m not sure I’d actually get along with someone like Dr. Becker since he leans left and seems to be an atheist or atleast agnostic, but I’m all in on his bewilderment at the craziness & stupidity one seems to run across all too often nowadays.
stereotypical mother-in-law, as her entire purpose on the show seems to be to disapprove of her daughter’s marriage to a mortal and make lame attempts to break up Samantha & Darrin (who she constantly insults & always calls Derwood). Of course her schemes hilariously backfire.
have stepped inside the squared circle in my lifetime, we need to recognize the owner & CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. Vince McMahon bought the WWF from his father in 1982 and was known to most “marks” simply as a TV commentator. But in 1997 he inserted himself into storylines as a “heel”, basically portraying a larger-than-life version of the kind of evil boss that we’ve all had at one time or another. In the past two decades he’s been booed & cheered, gotten in the ring and mixed it up with wrestlers twice his size & half his age, and even battled his own family. These days wrestling fans often question Vince McMahon’s behind the scenes decisions, but Mr. McMahon can still get a good pop from the crowd, especially since his appearances are much more sporadic than they once were.
had settled on being “just friends”. She’s no shrinking violet, routinely standing up to the guys and literally pushing them around. We all know women like Elaine. They’re quite feminine & not tomboys by any means, but they just seem to mesh better with men and don’t really have many gal pals. Elaine is self-confident, brash, intelligent, & just as neurotic as her friends. Much like Jerry she is shallow and difficult to please, meaning she bounces in & out of relationships looking for something she’ll probably never find. She is educated and somewhat professionally successful, though she does have multiple jobs over the course of nine years. I’m not sure I would call Elaine a role model, but she was a welcome addition to the Seinfeld wolfpack and gave us many hilarious moments.
businessman who at one time was a lawyer. He enjoys fencing, smoking cigars, throwing knives, crashing toy trains, & being romantic with his wife. What many may not get about the family is that they are not monsters or any kind of supernatural beings…they are a human family who just happens to be really weird, and the fact that Gomez is supposed to be the normal one is hysterically funny. The TV show was on in syndication a lot in my childhood, and two rather entertaining feature films were produced in the early 1990’s.
even like rap “music” but almost thirty years later I can still bust out the Fresh Prince theme. Secondly there is Will’s erudite & pompous cousin Carlton, who takes the uptight preppy stereotype to a whole new level. He’s such a nerd that as a high schooler he listens to Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, & Michael Bolton. To be honest that makes him rather cool in my eyes because I celebrate those guys’ entire catalogues, but I get the joke. We cannot escape the fact that even into the 1990’s black families tended to be portrayed a certain way in pop culture, and the Banks family…especially Carlton…turned those pre-conceived notions upside down. Carlton’s most enduring legacy is his love for 60’s pop crooner Tom Jones. Anytime Jones’ 1965 hit It’s Not Unusual comes on he breaks out into a hysterical dance that came to be known as The Carlton, and anyone who was ever a Fresh Prince fan can probably imitate it.
“villain” in Hazzard County is Boss Hogg, the influential, wealthy, & corrupt county commissioner that pretty much owns & controls everything in town. He is greedy, with a voracious appetite for power, money, & food. He and Jesse Duke are former moonshiners & old frienemies. Boss is fixated with the idea of taking possession of the Duke farm, and equally as obsessed with putting Bo & Luke Duke in prison. In almost every episode Boss hatches some kind of shady scheme to put more money in his pockets, and if he can find a way to pin a crime on the Duke Boys in the process that’s fine too. Of course in Hazzard County even the bad guys aren’t truly evil, and despite Boss Hogg’s best efforts the good guys always win and we can’t really bring ourselves to hate him. There was a laughably bad Dukes of Hazzard feature film about a decade ago, and one of the many things they got wrong was casting Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg. Reynolds portrayed Boss as menacing & harsh…an actual bad guy, which missed the mark entirely.
how I became a fan. The main antagonist is Aunt Esther, sister of long dead Elizabeth and aunt to Lamont. One of the funniest running gags of the show is Aunt Esther’s contentious relationship with her brother-in-law Fred, as the two continuously trade insults. Aunt Esther is a hardcore, Bible thumping church lady, the kind that gives churchgoers a bad image as she is constantly calling others heathens. She & Fred verbally spar in every episode in which she appears, and whenever he is confrontational with her she comes back with “Watch it Sucka!!”, sometimes swinging her purse at him in the process.
normal human beings that happen to be really strange, The Munsters are actually monsters (obvious nods to Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, & Bride of Frankenstein), though they view themselves & live their lives as a typical middle class American family. The patriarch is Herman Munster, an archetypal sitcom Dad who is a good-natured, kindhearted, gentle, loveable goofball. He works at a funeral home (of course), has no concept of his own immense strength, & is clueless of the fact that he doesn’t physically look like a normal person. People routinely run screaming from Herman, frightened by his appearance, but he remains blissfully unaware that people are afraid of him.
future. However, we did have the pleasure of having (mostly) the same crew from week to week. Isaac is the bartender on the Pacific Princess, Doc is…obviously…the doctor, & Gopher is a yeoman purser. I spent a great deal of my childhood wondering exactly what in the heck a yeoman purser does, and eventually discovered that he is basically the ship’s treasurer. I’ve never been on a cruise, but I assume that the typical crew is much larger and that there are multiple bartenders, physicians, & business people among them, but for the purposes of The Love Boat this triumvirate worked really well. They interact with passengers, get involved with various storylines on a week to week basis, and are always good for a chuckle or two.
finds oil on his land and receives a $25 million fortune for it. His elderly mother-in-law Granny is a spitfire who fancies herself an expert in home remedies. Jed’s daughter Ellie Mae is a smokin’ hot tomboy who loves animals (i.e. critters). Jethro Bodine is the dimwitted, girl crazy son of Jed’s cousin who comes along when the family moves to California. The Beverly Hillbillies is a classic rags-to-riches fish-out-of-water story made all the more entertaining by these well written characters. Being from West Virginia I have always been a bit sensitive about how “hillbillies”, “rednecks”, & “hicks” are portrayed in the media, but I am oddly unoffended by The Clampetts.
Andy Griffith Show when Don Knotts left, but instead chose to star in My Mother the Car, which has to secure him a place in the Bad Career Move Hall of Fame. At any rate, more than two decades later he was cast as Luther, the scatterbrained defensive coordinator for the fictional Minnesota St. Screaming Eagles. I have serious doubts about Luther’s football prowess, but he is perfect as the standard loyal sidekick/best friend, and usually has the funniest moments.
Welcome back to 
The Manofesto 