snarky

Maureen "Mo" Dowd is a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial columnist for the New York Times. I don't tend to read her columns; she has been described as a "snarky" liberal, with which I have no problem (snarky? I guess if you give wide media coverage to Paris Hilton and Mittel-Amerika puts Oprah Winfrey in charge of the reading list, expressions like this creep into the language), but Mo's writing strikes me as if she is unaware that American literature existed before 1966. Nevertheless, her description of a Get Motivated! seminar is interesting:

"The second time the beach ball hit me on the head, I started feeling motivated.

"Not to become an instant millionaire with the help of Jesus and some cheesy business evangelists. Rather, I felt motivated to flee the 9-hour, $9.95 Get Motivated! seminar at the Verizon Center, which had devolved into a faux beach party with DJs playing ’80s music and audience members tossing around plastic beach balls and dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Van Halen’s “Jump.”

"But I stayed in the church of capitalism, determined to hear what wisdom headliners Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Dan Rather, Steve Forbes and Terry Bradshaw would dispense."

This is the Get Motivated website:

http://www.getmotivated.com/

"The GET MOTIVATED Seminar is an action-packed, fun-filled, explosive, exciting, inspiring, skill-building business event that is world famous for its mega-watt superstar speakers and spectacular stage production. This blockbuster one-day seminar will give you proven strategies to sharpen your business skills, ignite your motivation, accelerate your effectiveness and increase your income!

"Only the BEST of the BEST appear on our stage! Dazzling pyrotechnics, live music and stunning special effects set the stage for our superstar speakers who deliver riveting presentations packed with cutting-edge skills for success.

"The GET MOTIVATED Seminar will give you and your team the latest and greatest information in the arenas of time management, leadership, goal achievement, sales training, negotiation, finances, investing, relationships, health, spiritual success, business strategies, motivation, communication skills and much more!"

Has the American educational system produced a generation of people who would be hard pressed to compete with sponges and coral?

What if you just want to take a shit and watch teevee?