Pop Culture and pathology

Earlier this month, WTKK morning radio host K.C. O'Dea and his producer, Ross Hayes, were trading on-air quips inspired by a news story about drugs found in Disney character figurines. I only heard part of their exchange, but callers to the show got in on the conversation, which continued into a segment with Bloomberg Business reporter Patrice Sikora, who has proven before that she's a good sport when talking with K.C. and Ross.

I've reconstructed what I heard from memory and contemporaneous notes.

[Caller]: I can't believe you guys went right past a discussion about which Disney characters are most likely to be meth-heads. My money's on the Seven Dwarfs. C'mon, they're there with a babe in the woods and nothing's happening? They're meth-heads!

K.C.: But one of the dwarfs is named 'Sleepy,' sir.

[Caller]: Sure, but there's Dopey, too.

K.C.: Fair point. But I'm thinking Abu is a better bet. Abu, the monkey from Aladdin. And there was one other character I was thinking of: Pete. I mean, the dude sees dragons!

Then Patrice Sikora called in for her business news segment, and K.C. brought her up to speed on the "controversy." She had an opinion:

"I'm thinking Tinkerbelle. But Captain Hook's Number Two guy, Smee? If anybody had a reason to do drugs, he did!"

Opposing views of the United Nations

I have an original essay over at WoW Magazine explaining why I think that John Bolton's criticisms of the United Nations make more sense than U.N. defenders do, even though one of those defenders is my friend, Felix.