Yes: good reality TV

I love Project Runway. Somebody somewhere said that it's amazing what a bunch of people with actual brains will do for the quality of a reality TV show, and it is SO true. The designers on "Runway" are articulate, snappy, creative, *skilled*--I love to watch them cutting and pinning and sewing--and I personally think they stalk the runway WAY better than those awkward stick figures they use for models. (In the Nicky Hilton episode, the designers staged a "walk-off" among themselves that was the epitome of Attitude-with-a-capital-A.) Of course, most of the designers are dancing with anorexia themselves. The hollows in Daniel Vosovic's cheeks are big enough to house small animals.

I don't know where this show has been all my life. How did I live without it? The brilliant designers! The (IMHO) incredibly stupid and baffling judges! (I haven't agreed with them yet, except when Diane and Marla were out.) TIM GUNN!! ("Make it work. Carry on.") Santino *imitating* Tim Gunn!! ("'Make it work. Carry on.'") Tim Gunn busting Santino for imitating him!!! It does Not. Get. Better. Than this.

So, since Robert Parry has convincingly demonstrated that the United States has, in practice, become an autocracy (see #2 of the Maureen Farrell articles Rob linked to below, and click on the last of the links), and the battle is therefore lost, I say we should all relax and watch "Project Runway," secure in the knowledge that, though fascists come and go, fabulous and intelligent men have always been with us to make our lives beautiful. (Speaking of which, I've got a whole essay in my head about the largely unsung artistic partnerships between gay men and their women--Ashton and Fonteyn, Minnelli and Garland, etc--that have made such a mark on the 20th century.)