Things I Don’t Like About Television, Episode 21: Taking Sides

This is an entirely new subject I added while restarting this series and so much needs to be said. Since this is about television, I can thankfully limit my complaints somewhat. What I have to say may make this the most controversial post in the series to date.

Now, before we begin, I’m not necessarily saying that stars shouldn’t be involved in politics or disputes. On one hand, I don’t have much of a problem with opinionated stars when I agree with them — or they’re generally right. I also don’t have a problem with someone who is very thoughtful in their response, even if I disagree with their opinion. What I do have a problem with is when that person is clearly wrong, misinformed, acts like a bully, and inserts themselves in other people’s fights.

There should be rules where news outlets, shows, and entire networks are concerned. While shows in particular can have an overriding message, it takes away from it when the writers take sides politically and in regards to personal beefs. This is doubly true for news outlets and networks, which work best when they are more or less neutral.

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How I Came Up with My Username (WAW)

What does this image have to do with anything? I used it on YouTube once. And I would rather this be the top image.

For my second entry for Write Anything Wednesday, I have decided to share a story. This was inspired by vinneve, who asked me the question days ago.

About 7 years ago, I was thinking of a name to use for a DeviantArt account — when it was still written as deviantART — and possibly for YouTube. I wanted the name to be something unique and something that I wouldn’t mind using year after year.

Just how did I come up with Shmaltz and Menudo, though? I combined two terms that were “out there” in terms of daily usage — in my life and mainstream America. I first heard of the term “schmaltzy” when a film critic was basically panning the movie “Pay It Forward.” I had to look that up. The term “Menudo” was only familiar to me because of the now-defunct Puerto-Rican “boy band” that allowed Ricky Martin to jump into show business. I looked up both terms (for schmaltz and Menudo) before finally settling on this name.

Well, as you can see, I never used that name for DeviantArt and it took me awhile to use it for YouTube. Why is that? Snap decisions in regard to the former site and technicalities on the latter.