Disqus - Latest Comments for podcastmama

Re: Look to Iowa's Future, Not Its Past: A Response to Bloom - Bernard Sherman - Politics - The Atlantic

podcastmama — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:59:27 -0000

Thank you for publishing this rebuttal. Mr. Sherman's portrait much more closely resembles the Iowa where I live than that one-dimensional mono cultural state depicted in Prof. Bloom's mean-spirited and far-fetched article.

Re: Tell Your Y2K Story –Ten Years Later

podcastmama — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:01:18 -0000

Gosh, I hadn't thought about Y2K for awhile. My husband and I spent the last several months of that year trying to soothe anxious small business owners who thought the sky was about to fall. We cheerfully backed up hard drives, helpfully reset BIOS, looked for possible vulnerabilities, calmly held clients' hands and reassured them that their data was safe.

And when January 1, 2000 came and went without calamity, there seemed to be both a collective sigh of relief and a grumble of disappointment that Y2K disaster didn't strike [someone else, of course].

What is it about predictions of doom, whether at the hands of terrorism, or influenza, or your computer's internal clock, that sparks mass panic and hysteria?

And when our vigilance or careful preparations help us dodge that catastrophe, why do people seem to feel disappointed, and then disgruntled that they were so worried, and nothing happened?

Interesting things to think about on a cold winter's night.

Re: ATE ALL MY FOOD

podcastmama — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:27:01 -0000

Yay, Liana! I'm thinking of you, and am glad to hear this upbeat update. It's a great way to start my weekend.

Re: Music Videos: smaller, more creative

podcastmama — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:39:52 -0000

in the old days, if we saw a creative video from an unknown new band we'd often go out and buy the entire album. The ones that told a story (even a dumb one) in 3 minutes were great.

Yeah, it helped if the music was pretty decent, but often we wouldn't watch to the end of the video unless it was interesting to watch. Remember The Polecats? A Ha? Nik Kershaw? They were one hit wonders whose videos moved us to go buy a whole record album.

Wonder what teens and twentysomethings will remember in their dotage as the most outstanding videos of their youth.

Re: I like my sex (and scifi) with mystery! (Scripting News)

podcastmama — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:54:07 -0000

Worst series finale ever: "The Prisoner." I know Prisoner afficionados will disagree, but that last episode was like a bad drug trip. Lots of freaky and disjointed plot elements, no real resolution of the big questions of the series, skinny guys in top hats singing "Dem Bones" (?!? wtf?!)

It so disappointed viewers at the time, the network was inundated with furious calls and letters. I'm not sure that Patrick McGoohan, the series' creator and star (and writer of the infamous series finale) ever lived it down.

Not that that makes me love Number Six any less, though. :-) Just sayin.'

Re: rizzn's personal blog: Om Malik Launches a Podcast

podcastmama — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:51:59 -0000

Isn't it funny that Om hadn't done a podcast of his own before now? Anyhow, I was glad to see that he's jumped in. It was an interesting podcast, and I'm looking forward to subsequent ones.

Glad to see you're still around. Looking forward to reading about what you're up to, too.

Re: Why I'm Blue

podcastmama — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:44:50 -0000

Congratulations! I am excited for you, and for Ford to be getting into social media. Can't wait to hear the details of what you'll be doing.

Re: Scenes from Iowa

podcastmama — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:24:58 -0000

Thank you for getting Jim's photo out to the world for us while we were at the rally! What a wonderful thing social media is, that I can say something on Twitter, you'll click through to my husband's Flickr stream, and share it to fellow political geeks all within the space of five minutes.

Feeling all warm and fuzzy about our interconnected world and its prospects for the future, but that may just be the happy glow of having been part of history in the making tonight -- Thanks again,

Elisabeth (@podcastmama)