Sometimes I am astounded by how stupid everyday normal people can be. I mean really. Yesterday an article on CNN.com appeared entitled "Microwave zaps germs on sponges, study finds." The article outlined an experiment in which microwaving a kitchen sponge dipped in sewage killed the bacteria and how in every day life, microwaving your kitchen sponges on high heat for 2 minutes would sterilize them. Great, I thought! I usually put them in the dishwasher, but if microwaving them is better, then I will do that.

Well apparently lots of people decided to try it right away. No one wants a germy sponge. So today on CNN.com appeared another article entitled "Microwave experiments cause sponge disasters." Apparently the average American ignoramus can't figure out that you had better wet the sponge before microwaving it. Here is a quote from a respondant:

"Just wanted you to know that your article on microwaving sponges and scrubbers aroused my interest. However, when I put my sponge/scrubber into the microwave, it caught fire, smoked up the house, ruined my microwave, and pissed me off," one correspondent wrote in an e-mail to Reuters." (I think the best part is the 'pissed me off' part, hee hee.)

So now CNN has put out this caution:

"The university issued the following advisory: "To guard against the risk of fire, people who wish to sterilize their sponges at home must ensure the sponge is completely wet. Two minutes of microwaving is sufficient for most sterilization. Sponges should also have no metallic content. Last, people should be careful when removing the sponge from the microwave as it will be hot."

Notice how they tagged the 'careful sponge will be hot' warning on the end of this. They must have figured the same geniuses who microwaved a dry sponge (Paris Hilton) would not realize that said sponge might be hot.

Geez...why are people so dumb?

Here are links to the articles in case anyone wants to read them.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/01/22/germs.sponges.reut/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/01/24/germs.sponges.reut/index.html

Dady Insurance Commercial

Ok, so here is the commercial I was in. I have to warn you, it is me looking my most dufus. Yes, dufus. Of course we were supposed to look like dufuses (dufi?) but really, I'm just very good at looking like a dufus. And why didn't anyone tell me my ear was sticking out like that? It only added to the dufus factor, I guess, and that was what they were looking for.
Apparently this commercial was all over News 8 Austin this week. And since most of us were iced in and glued to the weather on TV, lots of people saw this. I have been ribbed unmercifully by several surprised people who exclaimed "Oh look, it's Marsha being a dufus!" Ok, so maybe they didn't say that.
Ah, fame. It's so fleeting. Are these my 15 minutes? I hope not...

I have had a couple of great events happen in the last week. It is really nice to have something positive to blog about!

First, I filmed a commercial yesterday! I got a call last week to appear in a Dady Insurance spot. They are a local Georgetown company and they called the Palace looking for a couple of actors, and I was one of the lucky ones. The commercial was a "one size does not fit all" theme. There were four of us in it -husband, wife and two kids. We all wore similar business suits that didn't fit. I was swimming in mine, as were the kids, and my friend Ron wore a ridiculously small suit. And we all acted as if nothing was wrong. Then they shot us at the Dady Insurance office seated across from the kindly salesman who was taking great care of us.

I had a really good time. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't do well, cause my film experience is limited to the Industrial they shot at St. David's 8 years ago and working an on-camera phone bank for KLRU. But I shouldn't have worried. I am savvy enough to know not to look at the camera and to be aware of the camera at the same time. Plus it was mostly action, I had only one line - "Goodbye dear" - not something easily messed up. Ron and I got a kick out of the fact that when we got there they said "Oh, the talent is here." We laughed good and hard at that one. We are stage actors, we aren't used to being treated with such respect. Ha Ha.

After we finished shooting, the producer said to email him and he would get us copies of the spot and to include a headshot and resume. He said he will consider us for future projects. Time Warner produced the commercial, and they do so for a lot of regional businesses apparently. Cool! I would love to do more. It was fun and I think I did well, at least they had very little to say to me other than "on this take, do it the same way." So I will probably send the spot and a resume to a local agency, see if anyone else wants to give me a shot. Could be fun.

This commercial will air on CNN, and ESPN 1 and 2. I guess they are going for a male head-of-household type demographic. Course in my house, insurance and similar decisions are mostly mine. David and I discuss things, but it usually end with him saying "Whatever you think is fine." He doesn't mind at all not having to worry about researching such things. I am the bill payer in my house. Sorry Dady insurance, unless you show the spot during ice skating, I probably won't get your message.

The second cool thing to happen this week began with my friend Lynn requesting to use one of my monologues in her audition for the Scottish Rite Children's Theatre company auditions. I figured since it is children's shows, she should do The Glass Slipper - my piece written from the glass slipper's point of view about the terrible time she had being tried on so many feet. Lynn must have done a good job with it, because she got a callback. And the company manager wanted my contact information. She contacted me for a copy of the monologue because she liked it so much, and she asked me to write the script for their Robin Hood show that goes up this Spring! And it just so happens that they have already contracted my soul sister, Andrea' to direct Robin Hood. How cool is that? I've already sent over a preliminary plot sketch broken into scenes and I am beginning work on the script itself. I have written many monologues, but this will be my first play. And to already have an intent to produce it is simply amazing!

I feel very lucky today. I have never won a raffle. Never won a door prize. In fact I may be the only woman in history to attend a Bridal Extravaganza and not win a single thing. I don't even bother with the lottery. I always say that I don't have that kind of luck. But I don't feel sorry for myself because I know that I am lucky in other ways. This week is an example of that.

I am so mad right now I could spit. Really. Just reading on CNN about John Roberts, our Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, devoting his year-end report to the "constitutional crisis" that is the "grievously unfair" salaries of Federal Judges.

"Roberts said the judiciary will not properly serve its constitutional role if it is restricted to people so wealthy that they can afford to be indifferent to the level of judicial compensation, or to people for whom the judicial salary represents a pay increase."

What do they make, you ask? "Federal district court judges are paid $165,200 annually; appeals court judges make $175,100; associate justices of the Supreme Court earn $203,000; the chief justice gets $212,100."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/01/01/judges.pay.ap/index.html

Wow. I wonder how they ever manage to live on such a pittance. How hard it must be for them to pay the bills, the pool boy, and the nanny.

I wonder how Judge Roberts would manage to feed and clothe his family, say on $60k a year. Which is a lot more than the US median income of less than $45k. Wonder how he would feel if he were living just one good illness away from losing everything, like us in the shrinking middle class.

It is disgusting and scary as hell. I am beginning to realize that no one is looking out for us, the middle class - heh, who am I kidding, on the 1 and 1/4 income David and I now live on we are now lower middle class. And I am happy to be, if that means my child doesn't go to daycare 50 hours a week.

And did you get the implication that people that make less than 200K are not fit to be judges? Right here - "or people for whom the judicial salary represents a pay increase." Did you get that part?

Is this you, my terribly fair and moral friend? Is this you that makes your measly $80k a year and would be unfit to judge the righteousness and constitutionality of our laws? Because this is nearly everyone I know and I believe that nearly everyone I know would make a better federal judge than John Roberts and his like. Son of a bitch, this makes me mad.

And most people will not notice or care, and we will continue becoming a dying breed - and we may or may not do as well as our parents financially. And what does this say for our children?

Sigh. I'm tired. Reading the news wears me out.