Author? Author?

So, I'm totally loving Ugly Betty. It's got heart. It's got funny. It's got pizzazz. What it doesn?t have is a character who's a writer. I mean, I don't think there's been one character on the show so far who writes for a living. (Yes, I know that Salma Hayek's character had written a couple of books, but within the plotline of the show she was an editor-in-chief, so that doesn't count.)

And this is a show about a magazine!

A show about a magazine on which there's a character who's a receptionist, and a character who's a seamstress, and a character who's an accountant, but not one writer, for chissakes.

I mean, I know that writers aren't, as a species, sleek and glamorous creatures. I'm aware that we're not fashion models, but come on, we've got to have more TVQ than the accountants.

Otherwise, it's really quite a good show.

Hillary vs Obama, Prius vs Civic

Can somebody please tell me when the prospect of having a black president became cooler than that of having a woman president? I mean, I understand that Obama, personally, is a much cooler, spontaneous, infinitely more inspiring figure than Hillary, who always seems so studious and measured and carefully plotted. And I get that Obama seems anti-establishment, while Clinton is the ultimate insider. But buried somewhere inside the tone of our common conversation is the idea that having a black president is satisfyingly radical and different, whereas having a woman president already seems a tad passé. Well, Jesus Christ, since when? I mean, did somebody fundamentally reorder society, finally balancing out the power differential between women and men, and forget to send me the memo? Is it just that Civil Rights has always been cooler than feminism? So that, even now, calling someone a feminist has dreary, bluestocking implications, whereas calling someone, I don’t know, a Civil Rights Crusader seems dashing and heroic.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, having a black president, any black president, would be enormous—really symbolically powerful. A tremendous step towards culturally redressing our nation’s history of slavery and apartheid. But guys, the idea of a woman president is nothing to sneeze at.

Not to mention that this whole line of thought, about a black or woman president, has a sort of gross, lefty-boutique shopping ring to it. Like we’re choosing between Hybrid cars, or bottled water, or something. We should, of course, be looking for the finest candidate for the job. It’s just that Obama and Hillary are the only interesting candidates for the job.