Melissa McCarthy's Weltanschauung

“You dress like you’re grocery shopping at a CVS,” Michelle Darnell (Melissa McCarthy) remarks to her assistant, Claire (Kristen Bell), a single mother who is about to go out on a date in The Boss. On a the Richter scale of laughs it’s about a #3, but it also is a peculiar little line since it has the appearance of an in- joke. The viewer knows what she’s talking since ostensibly he or she has, in fact, stooped to buying groceries at the CVS, Walgreen’s or even the dreaded Duane Reade. There are a couple of tony words worthy of comment in the movie. "Hangry" is a mutt created by angry and hungry and “vajunification” is an apparent neologism, but also brings to mind reunification which is what happened when the Berlin Wall came down. In poli sci when countries that have formerly been balkanized are brought back together, it’s called “irredentism.” But McCarthy who's given a script credit doesn’t go that far. The Boss lowers the bar for what is considered comic, not in terms of vulgarity. No one can beat the Farelly Brothers when it comes to that, but in terms of insipidness. But what’s interesting about the movie like her earlier  Identity Thief is the creation of the comic persona, which, one has a hunch, is a kind of cri de coeur. Both characters are suffering from a bad case of sour grapes (in the wake of being orphaned as children), having turned their disaffection from humanity into a profession. If the CVS quip makes you feel at home, you probably have also met Melissa McCarthy or the characters she plays before, the kind of person who failing to be good or attractive or both becomes good at being horribly bad, even repulsive in every way. Bridesmaids is probably one of the great comedies of all time. But watch out what you want for you might get it. McCarthy’s earlier success has obviously given her carte blanche to create a brand, and the brand is that of the fat girl who shows or tells all and makes you vomit. Waxing is so ubiquitous that it now appears like vapor emitted by serial killers in the London axe murder movies and sure enough there was the obligatory scene of McCarthy with her legs spread removing unwanted pubic hair while spraying herself with a self tanner. "It’s all good" says M.C. Hammer. We might not be able to say the reverse about The Boss, which bears an odd kinship with The Apprentice, but almost.

Three No Trump Will Never Be the Same

photo: digitizedchaos

“Three no trump” is a common and popular bid in bridge, but it has not been the same since Donald Trump's improbable presidential campaign got off the ground. Forget about his other Republican rivals, he's according to polls already putting Hilary Clinton, whose election many thought was a shoe in, on the defensive. A flash in the pan could turn out to be one of the great upsets in both political and military history. Think of the Russians defeating Napoleon in 1812.  But getting back to “trump.” It's an interestinng word since as a verb, according to Merriam-Webster, it means "to get the better of" and there is also “trumped-up,” which according to Merriam-Webster means “fraudulently concocted." All of the meanings including that used in bridge would seem to apply to the character of the presidential pretender who by sheer force of will gets the better of his adversaries with often trumped-up bologna that they at the same time don’t have the hot wind to trump. One of the ways that Trump gets power is in laying his stamp everywhere. He is like a male dog whose pee defines his territory. You have Trump Hotel Rio de Janeiro (opening in 2016), the Trump Rink in Central Park and Trump Entertainment Resorts in Atlantic City. His name even appears on properties he hasn’t developed like the Trump International Golf Club in Puerto Rico (“How Donald Trump cashes in even when his name-brand properties fail,” The Washington Post, 7/23/15) As the star of The Apprentice he would not be the first actor to be a president. That’s Ronald Reagan’s claim to fame, but it’s what firmly put Trump in the mythology making business.  In fact, the whole campaign could have qualified as an episode of The Apprentice and maybe constitute the script of a new reality show entitled Donald Trump’s West Wing. If Trump gets elected The White House will likely be renamed, Trump White House like the Fifth Avenue landmark, Trump Tower. Surely Mr. Trump will feel no qualms about exploiting the presidency for all its worth and he’ll undoubtedly have the energy to do it, even as he reviews the specs for his proposed wall between Mexico and the United States. The question is will the author of The Art of the Deal be able to finagle naming rights, if he continues to insist on Mexico paying the freight.