Ginny cleans up on Penn & Teller

Predictably, TV hosts Penn & Teller skewered Ginny Foster Thursday on their “Showtime” TV series, which uses an expletive for a title. Ginny is the Spokane Valley woman who crusades against foul language. For their profanity special Thursday, P&T interviewed Ginny and two others. P&T’s shtick is to debunk flimflam. In Ginny’s case, they distorted her use of the expression “santa vaca!” (holy cow) and “swear to Buddha” to claim she was intolerant because she’d insulted the religions of India and the Far East. But you knew going in that the Dynamic Duo for Dirty Words wasn’t going to play fair. In an earlier New York Times interview, Pennhead Jillette called Ginny a “hypocritical prig” on “a silly power trip.” Make that a savvy “hypocritical prig.” Thanks to publicity from this paper and P&T, Ginny’s www.hush-up.com site is getting scores of hits (320,000 Thursday night) and her anti-cussing T-shirts are selling at Zanies and Boo Radley’s. Before, you could only get them on the Web and at Christian Life Books. Sez Ginny of the P&T root canal: “I’m just happy for the exposure.” Cha-ching.

Seasoned Citizen

For 40 lousy cents, I lost my status as a middle-ager at Hayden’s KFC Sunday, Aug. 8 – at age 54. I was paying my bill when I noticed the young counter clerk had given me my first senior discount. How old do you have to be to get a senior discount? I asked. She replied: “50.” I was going to ask her to guess how old I was. But I could tell she was bored by speaking to someone her father’s age. Her eyes had glazed over like Little Orphan Annie’s. I’d better get used to that look now that I’m officially over the hill.

Disarmed

At Riverfront Park for that Michael W. Smith/MercyMe Christian concert, I was surprised when concessionaires removed the caps before dispensing soft drinks and bottles of water. Seems the park doesn’t want anyone getting hurt by a flying full bottle. You never can tell when Evangelicals are going to turn on one another … Yeah, I was there when singer Smith surprised the audience by inviting Jim “The Passion of the Christ” Caviezel onto the stage. Jim looks way better in person than he did at the end of the movie.

Poet’s Corner

“The grains of sand upon this beach/In total must four trillion reach/And every single grain you see/Belongs exclusively to me” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Sanders Beach”).

Huckleberries

Note to Sandpoint Mayor Ray Miller – next time you officiate at a wedding at a Farragut State Park gazebo, with rain spilling down and the wind howling, turn your mike on so guests can hear, too … After he played the voice of “Audrey II” in “Little Shop of Horrors,” ex-Lake City High grad Steve Booth was met backstage by actor John Travolta, who said: “You’re going to make it big, kid” … Bumpersnicker (on a Plymouth on Appleway): “I wish I was Barbie, that brat gets everything she wants” … At the I-90 readerboard near Huetter, S-R courier Mollie Boman was surprised to read the instruction: “Buckle your belt.” What? Wondered Mollie. “Are they afraid someone’s going to flash them?” … A little farther east, the historic Bible Book Nook readerboard had nothing more than one lone “H” on its entire surface. Dunno if the “H” stood for Heaven or Hell or Help Wanted. But I do know that good help is hard to find … Wonder if that ambulance and firetruck pulling out of the Fairwinds Retirement home the other day was part of what the outside sign advertises as “Five Star Fun.”

Parting Shot

In his skit, “CSI: Idaho,” Jeff “You May Be A Redneck If …” Foxworthy sez the Gem State is “where the forensic detectives are stumped because everyone’s DNA is the same and nobody has any teeth.” That, of course, is absurd. I know entire families in Boundary County with full sets of teeth – among them.