Common Sense, Dancing

Before I ever opened an account on WordPress.com, before I ever dreamed of this crazy thing called “blogging,” I read Jen Lancaster‘s blog, Jennsylvania. She is a published memoirst (is that the noun?) and I’ve loved her long time.

In addition to being irreverent and self-deprecating and a walking, talking representation of all that is still good about Lacoste shirts, Tretorn canvas sneakers, and madras plaid shorts, Jen always puts forth insightful comments about what it means to be a writer, about what is involved in the business side of writing, and she often cuts through the BS surrounding the Publishing World.

So I stand corrected. My teeth gnashing of the other day (soft/sweet cheeses, was it only yesterday?!) about Snooki’s book deal, and how I believed it meant I should stock up on water and canned goods, seems to have been ill-conceived. Jen has a marvelous post today about what Snooki’s budding career *really* means: who will [probably] write it, what it means for literacy, what it means for publishing.

Jen makes, as usual, a well thought out, reasoned point.

I shall reverse my earlier opinion about Snooki and her book deal. However, I will state here and now — in a direct shot to the spirit of Banned Book Week, which I never thought I’d repudiate — that no one who shares my last name will neither purchase nor read said book. [I’d be thrilled if no one watched that crummy show, but I think that ship has sailed.]

In honor of the memory of my Grandmother, whose Mass is tomorrow, I will steadfastly declare that elegance and class matter. And I can’t believe this book will endorse either. So neither will I endorse it.

But note to Simon and Schuster: I know at least two writers who’ve got novels ready to go. They need an agent and a little TLC. Not to be confused with SPF or T&A.

OMG. I can’t stand it. Sorry for the Valley Girl-esque opening (is it still Valley Girl? If you use the initials?) She’s done it again. That HotMess who made the NY Times a couple of weeks ago is back opening her pie hole and saying stupid stuff. Have you seen this? Go — read it and come back. Quick.        So. Are you as amazed at her stupidity as I am? And are you, as I am, so jaded as to be almost without capacity to be as fully snarky as necessary to even write about her? And are you, as I am, wondering why I’m even wasting key strokes writing about her?

“I’m too pretty to be in jail. I’m a good person. I’m not a criminal and I will never go back there,” the “Jersey Shore” star said.

And,

“I don’t know why people take it so seriously,” the 22-year-old said. “I had a couple cocktails, and they just put me in a drunk tank to sober me up,” because “I was on the beach,” Snooki explained. ” It happens to the best of us, you know?”

Hmmmm. I do, in fact, consider myself to be “the best of us” and I don’t recall seeing Snooki at the monthly meetings, and nor have I ever found myself in the “drunk tank” after spending the day at the Jersey Shore. I would remember both of those things, and quite clearly too. Call it one of my peculiar foibles, but I work hard to avoid public drunkenness, the drunk tank, and police involvement in my expression of good times and good livin’. I’m just odd like that. And seeing as I’ve just come home from a week at the beach (albeit NC, not NJ) without any sort of criminal record or public drunkenness (not undertaken, and therefore not caught), I must again refute the suggestion that the best of us will have such a problem. (Actually, I believe it’s in the Best of Us charter, that public drunkenness — and your subsequent arrest — get you thrown out and your dues are not refunded.)

As for the “too pretty” assertion….again I say, fish in a barrel. She sets herself up for this, for crying out loud. Did she not read the NYT description of herself? Honestly, someone get her a copy of the paper. Or a mirror. HotMess.

UPDATE! Another Einstein from the Jersey Shore cast was arrested yesterday, on a couple of outstanding warrants. (The saddest thing — for me — is that the warrants were “unspecified” but rumored to be about unpaid parking tickets and there was no stupid statement about the best of us, or whatever. Rats.)