Bizarreness - oh, and post 800 for Sudiegirl!!!

First, the bad.

According to THIS article... Prince is coming under scrutiny for this display. Why? Because some folks have dirty minds, I guess.

The official opinion (if there is one) is that the silhouette is phallic in nature. However, the censors apparently didn't catch it. Isn't it interesting that this complaint is publicized about three days after the Super Bowl? Hmm.

Secondly, if Prince's intent was to create a phallic image, let's just say said image looks a bit too pointy for my taste. Also, let's just say that the phallic image looks like it does double duty, and that don't fly here at Rancho Sudiegirl Nope nope nope.

You know, you can't win for losing in this game...but at least we didn't see a breast of any kind. We had the tambourine player's nasty, too-tight-to-be-attractive outfit, which I considered much more offensive to my sensibilities, but no complaints about that, NOOOOO. Just the guitar and player silhouette.

So that's the first gripe of today.

The second item? It's definitely bizarre. I'm not saying it won't work...I'm just saying it's weird as hell.

For those of you who are fans of Broadway musicals, The Producers is being staged in Las Vegas. It's a great show...don't get me wrong...but this casting choice makes me giggle. Hell, they just might be able to pull it off.

Five words...David Hasselhoff as Roger DeBris.

Refresher - Roger DeBris is the cross-dressing Broadway producer hired by the two male leads of "The Producers" to direct the worst musical ever written. (See picture below.)

Don't get me wrong...I think handsome men are funny to watch in comic roles because they usually have no problem making fun of themselves. Hell...look at Cary Grant. He was one handsome dude and some of his best roles were comic ones. Same with Hugh Grant, Clark Gable, Paul Newman and even Robert Redford on occasion.

Plus, Hasselhoff can sing and has a great music fan base in Germany. (Note to self...do not listen to radio stations in Germany.)

However, I can't help but giggle. I really can't. The man who got his big break talking to a car is now going to wear a dress that makes him look like the Chrysler Building.

Let's just hope he knows how to "keep it gay, keep it gay, keep it gay..."


Finally, the "sad" part of today's post.

The picture to the left is one I have dubbed "before and after love" in my files. It's a picture of Lisa Marie Nowak, the "disgraced astronaut" from recent headlines.

She made the news by attempting to kidnap/murder a woman she felt was her romantic rival for a man's affection.

To encapsulate the whole situation, Ms. Nowak was (per one article):

charged Tuesday with attempted first-degree murder, attempted kidnapping and three other crimes stemming from what police described as a love triangle involving a fellow astronaut. She was released on bail but ordered to stay away from the other woman and wear a monitoring device.

Wow. This woman's career was incredible - she was a Navy pilot and flew on the space shuttle Discovery. Her husband worked for Mission Control, so they shared the same career interests in different ways. They had children (twin girls and a young teenage son) and a life together outside of work.

But according to the article...things started falling apart.

In November, a neighbor reported hearing the sounds of dishes being thrown inside Nowak's Houston-area home, and the police came. And weeks ago, Nowak and her husband separated after 19 years.

Many colleagues and friends of hers were stunned by the news. One such person: Jon Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who lost his wife, astronaut Laurel Clark, in the Columbia disaster in 2003. He even stated in the article that psychological testing/standards should be much more stringent than before. To quote:

"They don't have to have any evaluation before or after a mission, and it is only when something catastrophic happens does this ever even come to light," he said.

Apparently, Ms. Nowak had planned this...she had the tools to at least seriously injure her rival (Colleen Shipman). The subject of her obsession, one William Oefelein, was also an astronaut like Ms. Shipman and Ms. Nowak. Oefelein and Nowak were in astronaut training together.

The jist of Nowak's description regarding their friendship? More than friends, but less than romance. (Rancho Sudiegirl's analysis team calls this behavior "FWB" for "friends with benefits".)

The letter found in her car (along with the various accessories to subdue Ms. Shipman) suggests otherwise. Apparently, she was gone on this guy and went to the extremes to stay on his radar, which included eliminating competition.

I could crack jokes about the whole thing.

But then I look at it this way...haven't we ALL gone through or been the subject of said strangeness? I know I can plead guilty to both. I'm not proud of it, but it's a part of my biography that I hate. I can't erase it.

I must say, however, that I have NEVER gone to such lengths, and I hope I never will. It costs too much for my own self and anyone else.

Look at the two pictures again...to the left is a woman who appears bright, happy, and thrilled to have a career like this. Then look at the right. That's a woman who is haunted, angry, sad, drained. That's a woman whose obsessive love for another man took her to the depths of human behavior. It's hard to believe that both of those pictures are of the same woman as opposed to two separate women.

Wow.

Not much to say after that, is there? Another blogger (my buddy Merujo) has written about this topic too...click here to read her take on the subject.

In the meantime, just enjoy the day as best you can after that heavy part of the post.