Porn biz gets jump on 2016 presidential race with lesbian parody of Hillary Clinton

The pornography industry has a long tradition of parodying political figures. It particularly likes to make fun of family values-preaching politicians by portraying them as lustful adulterers.
The U.S. presidential election every four years usually brings a fresh batch of porn parodies.
President Barack Obama has been portrayed in five porn parodies since taking office, most recently with “White House Orgy” earlier this year.
But former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, holds the record for most porn parodies of a politician. She’s been knocked in 10 porn parodies to date.
Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are tied for third after Obama, with four porn parodies each.
Filly Films has kicked off the 2016 presidential election race with a lesbian porn parody about Hillary Clinton, the former first lady turned senator turned secretary of state. She’s widely expected to run for the Democratic nomination for president, following the footsteps of her husband, Bill.
The porn flick is called “Between the Headlines,” which stars Nina Hartley as Hillary. In the movie, Hillary gets caught in a lesbian tryst with First Lady Michelle Obama, played by Lotus Lain. A synopsis of the movie says it also contains portrayals of Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
What next? A Chris Christie porn parody? Please, no.

Seeking Sugar Babies – Candy, not a mistress

A few weeks ago I had a craving for Sugar Babies, the caramel candy not some college student mistress.
I checked for the candy beans at 7-Eleven, Walgreen’s, Giant, Safeway and even a candy specialty store at the mall. But it was not available.
Maybe it had been discontinued, I thought.
I checked online and it was still available from third-party vendors, so I ordered a box. (The candy arrived today and is delicious as I remember.)
I had trouble locating the candy on the Internet at first. A Google search for “sugar babies” turns up a full page of listings for sexy young women seeking rich men to dote on them. Sugar Babies candy is the seventh listing. (See screenshot below.)

It’s entirely possible that the public has lost its taste for Sugar Babies. It’s also possible that it got crowded off the candy shelves at grocery and convenience stores by candy from bigger companies like Mars, Hershey and Nestle.
Sugar Babies are made by Chicago-based Tootsie Roll Industries, which ranks No. 29 on the list of the world’s biggest candy companies, according to Candy Industry Magazine. (Mars is No. 1. Nestle is No. 4 and Hershey is No. 5.)
Tootsie Roll’s 2013 annual report discusses the competitive pressures it faces as a midsize candy company.
In a letter to shareholders, Melvin Gordon, chairman and chief executive officer, and Ellen Gordon, president and chief operating officer, said the company faces “intense competition in our industry.”
“Retailers are highly selective as to the products they carry, and consumers can choose from a broad array of appealing products,” they said. “The market is also fluid, as pack sizes, product presentations and assortments evolve to meet changing preferences in the trade and among consumers.”
I can only hope that consumers rediscover the incredible flavor of the candy-coated milk caramels known as Sugar Babies.

Related links:

Sugar Babies review on Candy Blog.

Sugar Babies (candy) entry on Wikipedia.

Daughter of Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes a win for eugenics

People love it when attractive celebrities breed. Call it eugenics light.
The Nazis gave eugenics a bad name with their fixation on creating an Aryan master race and by using genocide to kill off people they considered undesirable.
People today may be against eugenics but they sure love it when good-looking movie stars and other celebrities pair up and have kids. It’s a waste of good genes when a hot actress breeds with some ugly dude.
I last wrote on the subject of celebrity eugenics in January 2009 after Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had twins, which are their second and third biological children.
Last month, Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes had a daughter, Esmeralda Amada, and Aston Kutcher and Mila Kunis also had a daughter, Wyatt Isabelle. They were the first children for both couples.
Soon, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively will have their first baby together.
On the dating front, amateur eugenicists are watching the courtship of Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello, hoping the two gorgeous human beings will have a child together.

Photo: Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling. (See articles at E Online and the Daily Mail.)

New Yorker magazine obsessed with portraying people glued to their mobile devices

The New Yorker magazine is known for its great cover art. But this year, it’s repeatedly hit the same theme of showing people fixated on their smartphone and tablet screens.
The first time it was insightful, making a commentary about life in an always connected society.
But the publishers have experienced the law of diminishing returns on this theme. We get it – people are addicted to their phones. Now move on.
Included with this article are covers from New Yorker issues dated Jan. 6, May 5, July 7 & 14, and Aug. 4.

Journey, Boston, Chicago and other criminally overlooked artists that deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Earlier this month, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced 15 nominees for possible induction in 2015. The list includes such big names as Lou Reed, Sting, Green Day, and Nine Inch Nails.
As usual they skipped over a lot of my favorites. This year, however, the hall nominated the Smiths, who are on my list. The last time I published my personal list of overlooked artists who deserve to be in the Rock Hall was April 2013. Since then, one artist off that list, KISS, was inducted. 
What follows is an updated list of rock music artists I’d like to see inducted. After each artist, I’ve included their first year of eligibility for the hall.

1. Steve Miller Band (1993)
2. Chicago (1994)
3. Yes (1994)
4. Journey (2000)
5. Boston (2001)
6. Cheap Trick (2002)
7. Eddie Money (2002)
8. The Cars (2003)
9. The Cure (2003)
10. Joy Division (2003)
11. Siouxsie & the Banshees (2003)
12. Def Leppard (2004)
13. The Motels (2004)
14. Pat Benatar (2004)
15. The Psychedelic Furs (2004)
16. The Go-Go’s (2005)
17. INXS (2005)
18. Depeche Mode (2006)
19. Duran Duran (2006)
20. New Order (2006)
21. The Smiths (2008)
22. Bon Jovi (2008)
23. Concrete Blonde (2011)

For more information about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, check out the official website, as well as Future Rock Legends.

Photo: Cover of Journey’s 1978 album “Infinity,” which includes the hit singles “Wheel in the Sky” and “Lights.” 

Yahoo errors continue, but web portal spruces up its oops page

Last month, I posted two articles featuring screenshots of all the errors I was experiencing on Yahoo webpages.
Today was a really bad day for Yahoo. I couldn’t get into Yahoo Mail for much of it. But at least they’ve got a spiffy new error page. See “We’re sorry” image up top.
I also got the message “We’re experiencing technical difficulties.”

And the familiar spinning progress wheel of frustration when emails won’t load.

Yahoo Mail isn’t the only Yahoo property with frequent problems. I got the message below when I clicked on a Yahoo Finance news headline recently. It says “Sorry, bad request.”
No, the request wasn’t bad, but Yahoo’s response was.

See also:

Long-time Yahoo user sick of website’s buggy services (Sept. 3, 2014)

More Yahoo error messages: A portfolio of fail (Sept. 13, 2014)

Remembering Sherpa the cat

Our Himalayan cat Sherpa died this morning. He was 13½ years old.
He had been suffering from kidney disease, which apparently is common with Himalayans.
We adopted him from a breeder in Southern California when we lived there. He moved with us to Chicago, Connecticut and eventually D.C.
He was a beautiful cat with pale blue eyes and long cottony soft fur with subtle tiger stripes. Technically he was a seal lynx point Himalayan. He was born May 28, 2001, in Torrance, Calif., to father PC Dreambear and mother Azure-Puff.
He was my home office companion, a gentle family pet and a good mouser.
He liked to be pampered with a nice brushing and to drink fresh water from the bathtub faucet. He was pretty independent and didn’t much like being held. But he liked lying around with us in the living room, rec room, bedrooms, etc.
He liked the outdoors, but mostly from the comfort of the backyard screen porch or the front step. In his later years, he never strayed outside the yard and kept close to the house.
When he was young, I often had to search for him in the neighbors’ yards at night.
He was a sweet cat and will be missed.
He was preceded in death by his aunt, Leah. She died on July 23, 2007, in Wilmette, Ill.

Photo: Sherpa in Vienna, Va., in March 2013. 

TV Guide magazine living on borrowed time

Every year I buy the Fall Preview issue of TV Guide magazine. And every year, the magazine gets harder and harder to find.
This year, I had to buy a copy of the issue on eBay. The magazine is not available in grocery stores and drug stores like it used to be. In the recent past, I’ve found it at Barnes & Noble bookstores, but those are getting scarce too.
The Sept. 15-21 issue of TV Guide is 94 pages and the coverage of the fall TV season seems light. By contrast, the Sept. 19-26 issue of Entertainment Weekly on the fall TV season is 140 pages and feels much more comprehensive.
Entertainment Weekly has long since taken the torch from TV Guide for fall preview issues.
I have every TV Guide fall preview issue since 1974 (41 issues in all). I wonder how long TV Guide has got left, especially as TV viewers continue to shift away from the broadcast networks, first to cable TV and now to over-the-top TV services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
As of June 30, TV Guide magazine, owned by private equity firm OpenGate Capital, had a circulation of 1.91 million. That’s down from 2.68 million in 2009. It still has a lot of readers, most of whom are home subscribers, but it’s been on a steady decline.