On Being Product

Both [Dina Lohan and Denise Richards] have failed to make smash hits of their Sunday-night reality shows for the same reason their show-business careers never soared: talent alone isn’t necessary for success, but the people who do become stars, be it in movies, on television or just in the celebrity fast lane, are the ones who go all out to compensate for their lack of ability. It’s a little like the card game hearts; if you can’t win, you have to shoot the moon and lose big.

. . .

These offerings from E! prove that it’s not enough for celebrities to be themselves; they have to make the best of their worst selves.

The Latest Candidates for an Image Makeover, Alessandra Stanley, New York Times, 14 June 2008

Sludge

Went to a diabetes food thing with my mother yesterday.  The presenter had little wit and a less than deep understanding of the issues, but she could work the slides and did care about her three participants.

The bad thing with diabetes is capillaries.  When blood has too much sugar, because the sugar isn’t metabolized into the cells, either because of low insulin or resistance to insulin, it gets gummed up in the capillaries.  The capillaries in the eyes, in the kidneys, in the peripherals, all that.

This morning Regis was talking about his visit to the dialysis center at Washington Hospital.   People who live with machines, people who wait for transplants, people who have challenges because they didn’t take care of themselves.

I understand the issue.  And I understand why the American Medical Association House Of Delegates yesterday passed a resolution in favor of financial support of transgender medicine.  Too many of us learn to deny too well, and that mental cost is paid over time in our bodies.

Like mine.