Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Palin on Bendable Straws

It has become trope in noising around inside celebrities' private lives to come up with some innocuous but inglorious private weakness that can make us all chuckle with amused contempt. News Flash: Sarah Palin demands bendable straws.

I won't defend much about Palin but I will defend the bendable straws. Okay, har de har, but two things. One is, they probably have functional utility. She's a speaker, she's on the platform, she needs to keep her gullet smooth. I have no first-hand experience with this kind of life, but for want of a nail a battle was lost and, I suspect, some speeches go sour for lack of a bendable straw.

And two, so what if they are not practical? Who among us does not have a small private passion that does absolutely no harm to anybody, but would look somehow silly on the big screen. Isn't that what the right to privacy is supposed to be about--to let us preserve those secrets, harmless and not even shameful in themselves, about which we just don't want to tell anybody.

I do join up, though, with those who say she'll never get elected to public office--probably not even be a candidate--again. As they say, she's making too much money and having too much fun. And divas do not do well on the campaign trail. Yes, I'm looking at you, Elizabeth.

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