Not misunderstanding you at all, Blus4u. You make a good point.

Those commercials - those INCESSANT commercials - they annoy me, too! "Ask your doctor if (fill in the drug blank here) is right for you!" I'm intrigued by the wording, as well. That sounds like some PR-massaged and focus-tested sloganeering line to me. The wording in these ads always fascinates me, but then again, I've always got my radar on for these things and the way words and phrases are manipulated and sanitized and tested - in order to manipulate us the consumers. I'm even bothered a little bit by the term "consumers." Like we're not really people (oh yeah, I forgot - corporations are the people these days), we're just large open mouths looking to be fed and sated nonstop. One direction - just consuming. One giant flesh-covered intake valve. Wonder who it was - who originated the use of that word "consumer" the way we know it and use it today?

And the other word-game I find perplexing is what seems to be the tidying-up of ailments and physical conditions that you don't spell out. You nickname them instead. "Low-T," for example. Can't they just say "low testosterone" instead of trying to be so coy and cutesy?

I'm bothered about that same thing that bothers you, Blus4u. Just take a pill and it'll be all better. Anesthetize yourself and your problems will just melt away, America! Same for alcohol - it's sexy, edgy, macho, adventuresome, alluring, and hot. Followed in the next spot break by the friendly and sympathetic rehab clinic commercials of course. Buy-buy-buy! And your other incredibly valid point, too: meantime, they still want to string you up for smoking a little weed.

Welcome to DU, legcramp!

Good to have you with us! That sounds like a great one! Certainly up my alley! MAN did we EVER love Johnny Carson. He was must-see-TV at the end of every night. I remember when Ed McMahon did a promo saying it was "the late-night place to be!" I named my dorm room that when I was a freshman - in honor of the "Tonight Show."

"Top of the Morning" by Brian Stetler - about the "Today" show.

Talked about how Ann Curry was so badly treated, among other things.

Also, "Wonderful Tonight" by Pattie Boyd - subtitled "George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me." Holy Cannoli - how can you lose?!?

Rabid Beatles fan here, too, Grammy23!

Saw the Beatles twice, first in Las Vegas and the next year at the Hollywood Bowl. We were all screaming too loudly to hear ANYTHING they did, but it didn't matter. When we were in Vegas, we stayed at the same hotel they did (the Sahara), and were a few floors beneath theirs. We tried to get up to their floor in the elevator, and when the elevator doors opened, all you saw were security guards and crowds of screaming girls packed into the hallways. You couldn't even exit the elevator because of the security and the pressure of all the bodies coming at you. Just nuts! After the Beatles checked out, my friend who'd come with me, and I, went up to that same floor again and we COULD get out of the elevator and wander down the halls. And because we knew they smoked cigarettes, we went through every ashtray mounted along the wall in the hall and collected all the cigarette butts - just on the bare chance that one of them had touched "those" lips!

Criminy! What I did for Beatles... Pouring over every fan magazine and liner note of every album and every one of the "50 Intimate Pix" in such teenybopper magazines as Dig and Tiger Beat and 16. 16 Magazine had really clever covers as I recall. Always a collage with scene that had been produced by some graphic artist on staff, and photos of all the stars' heads had been cut out and positioned on the heads of the cartoony figures in it. So you'd have a scene of maybe a cabin by the lake and a dock with a boat tied to it and you'd see these little figures either fishing or climbing into the boat or in the water already or running down toward the dock. I remember that one well: it had Paul on the dock in action with a fishing rod, and it was drawn such that he had hooked the back of Jane Asher's shirt and was reeling her in. And I think Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits or George Harrison was depicted in the water already. GREAT stuff! Still remember the editor's name: Gloria Stavers. I remember wanting her job!

I remember at one point counting every Beatles photo I had and logging it all faithfully in a notebook. Those were the days...

Welcome to DU, AuntFester!!! I'm 60 and love your post!!!

Glad you're here! We can start laughing at ourselves more as we age. A girlfriend of mine, who's my age too, was joking that she has a couple of familiar "friend" hairs she has to keep plucking out of her chin now. She's named 'em - Spike, and Barb! For now, at least, I don't have the kind of saggy neck that forces me to hide every Thanksgiving, but...

I just freakin' LOVE this!!!!!

Welcome to DU, adavid!

Glad you're here. Whenever I see something about these bastards I just start immediately wondering "WHEN will it stop?" WHEN will these assholes finally - I dunno - either learn, or wise up, or shut up, or go away, or cease and desist, or some such. The sheer callous cold cruelty just blows my freakin' mind. How ANYONE could do this shit they do, or even threaten to do it, in ANY way capitalizing or usurping or otherwise pissing on someone's period of mourning, how they can then claim they're doing it in the name of Christ - it's just beyond me.

I hope they get theirs, BIGTIME, someday.

CountAllVotes - I'm so sorry to hear this. I'm so sorry you're hurting. This time of year

can be SO hard, especially for people in mourning. I think about all the families in Newtown - DAMN. Of course that had to happen on DECEMBER 14th.

NOBODY should be unhappy now - actually, let me rephrase that: Nobody DESERVES to be unhappy now. Just know that if you stick around here, you will find great sympathy and comfort. People here have mighty big shoulders and open hearts. When my mom died seven years ago (cancer was just about the only thing she didn't have by then) I posted here - and was literally OVERWHELMED by the love and care and compassion and sympathy that almost literally rained down on me. I'm glad you're posting about it. Especially here. You'll also find a lot of people who can empathize - having lost loved ones of their own to cancer, and many other causes as well. I can't tell you how much it meant to me - all these people I really didn't know, who were there, comforting me and sort of keeping vigil with me. I think it was Skittles who observed "someone's always here." Someone IS always here. Somebody's always awake. Somebody's always keeping the light on. You need not bear this alone, even as bad a year as this has been for you. DU will buoy you up.

Welcome to DU, Blus4u!

Glad you're here! Yes, truly - imagine the horror! Seems to me this is the best approach, too. Poor Big Pharma. No one should be allowed to profit from others' misery and misfortune. There's just something intrinsically wrong about that.