The Obamas, not keeping up with the Kardashians... (Read the story)

Why is Obama laughing whole heartedly? (Read the story)


I read in the news that a 41-year-old Colorado woman, Cyndy Snider, started an online petition asking the TV network E! to drop the reality show "Keeping Up with The Kardashians." This stirred my emotions. The Kardashians' reality show is a controversial issue for me and maybe for most Armenians. On one hand, I like the exposure the show gives to Armenians. On the other hand, I agree that it is mindless, and emphasizes vanity and maybe even vulgarity.  But then aren't most of today's shows mindless? 

Today Kim Kardashian is one of the most popular celebrities and the very best known Armenian in the United States or maybe in the whole world. I personally love the fact that Kim and her sisters flaunt their Armenian heritage. We Armenians, whom William Saroyan once called "a group of unimportant people," get a lot of free press through the Kardashians. As the saying goes: "There's no such thing as bad publicity." 

Didn't Marilyn Monroe make a name for herself just as Kim Kardashian is doing now?  Hasn't Monroe's legacy lasted until today? In Chicago, they just erected a 26-foot giant sculpture of her in the famous pose from "The Seven Year Itch." 

A month ago when President Obama was a guest of Jay Leno on NBC's The Tonight Show, the Kardashians were one topic of their conversation.  It was very amusing to see that the President dodged Jay Leno's question about whether the President's daughters watched "Keeping Up with The Kardashians." Finally he admitted that he'd never seen it, but the girls may have watched it without his knowledge.  It was one of the cutest conversations I remember seeing on Leno's show.  

THE LOVE RIDE and Jay Leno's inappropriate comment...

This morning when I opened our local newspaper, the Glendale News Press, there was a picture of Comedian Jay Leno on the front page, leading the pack of bikers in the "Love Ride" that benefits the autism research.  The Love Ride is an event that puts Glendale on the map and brings National attention to our hometown. The benefit ride started 28 years ago by Oliver Shokou, the owner of Harley Davidson dealership in Glendale.  Every year Jay Leno has been the Grand Marshal and usually before the start of the ride he cracks a few joke.

I was bummed when I noticed the title of the article read, "Leno joke preceded fatal collision." The article continued: “Moments before two Love Ride participants were killed Sunday in a freeway traffic collision, the event’s grand marshal, “The Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, told a crowd of bikers that he wanted to see “somebody go down.” My heart melted.

After Johnny Carson passed the baton to Jay Leno for "The Tonight Show," I've been a loyal fan of Jay and watching the program has been the only pastime I get on TV. I regard Jay Leno as a tactful person and enjoy watching his show. But his offensive remarks asking the ride participants to drive recklessly and that he wanted to see "somebody go down," made me very unhappy. It is ironical that over the years, during the ride, no accident had happened and just an hour after Leno made his remarks for the opening of the Love Ride a rider and his passenger got killed.  Here is what Leno said:

"Every year, they say, ‘Drive safe’. I’m gonna say, ‘Don’t drive safe’. I wanna see somebody go down. So it’ll be fun. I want it to be in front or behind me and see a whole row of bikes go down. Get drunk, fall off the road. We’ve all become too damn polite… We haven’t had one incident." I just cannot figure out why he made such an inappropriate comment. Don't know what Leno was thinking. Actually, he must NOT have been thinking.