Missing The Mark

I could maintain a whole other blog, updated several times daily, devoted to the errors, stupid mistakes, and general stupidity to be found each and every week in Columbus, Ohio's so-called "alternative" newspaper (that word should most likely be in quote marks as well) The Other Paper. Yes, coming soon to an Internet near you: TheOtherPaperIsFullOfCrap.com. Watch for it.

This week's example of how just about everyone associated with this rag is out of touch with reality as you and I know it comes from the Alternaflicks column by Teena (two e's, isn't that sooo cute) Parker which leads off with an item about the annual 24 Hour Science Fiction Marathon, which is taking place at the brand spanking new Drexel Gateway Theater even as I type this.

The item begins thusly:

"'Space: the final frontier....' If you know which television show those words came from, then we probably don't have to remind you that the Drexel's annual Science Fiction Film Festival kicks off this weekend."

In keeping with TOP's grand journalistic tradition of mocking those they percieve as less cool than themselves, which, given their unusually, and wholly unjustified, high opinion of themselves, is just about everyone, this lead tries to paint anyone who'd be interested in the marathon as a hopeless Sci-Fi geek, but kind of misses the mark. Parker might have made her snarky little point better if she'd picked a more obscure quote, perhaps something from one of the films actually being shown this weekend. (Though, it, of course, goes without saying that she, since she writes for TOP, is far too cool to have seen any of them, or to take the time to research them.) Furthermore, given its immense mainstream success and tremendous impact on American popular culture, it does not mean you are a geek if you recognize the first four words from the opening narration of Star Trek. It simply means that you've been alive and living in the United States of America sometime during the past four decades and have been even vaguely aware of your surroundings, instead of living with your head stuck up your own butt like most of TOP's writers.

I said the only reason I even pick this thing up is for Tom, the Dancing Bug--but that's available on-line, isn't it?