# Commit Cultural Heresy: No Cow Too Sacred. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2008, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359 "2008-03-31T09:36:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/201 "2008-04-02T12:14:35Z")
[QUOTE=Governor Quinn] Problem is, they aren’t any good at that, either. **fessie** : Does which version of _Gone With The Wind_ matter? They’re both bad, and in more-or-less the same ways. [/QUOTE] **fessie** , I’d like to help you out here, but I just don’t know what to say to a person who not only thinks GWTW sucks, but doesn’t see much difference between the book and the movie. **Governor Quinn** , I splutter incoherently at you! ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/202 "2008-04-02T12:24:33Z")
Family Guy=Not funny. Its nothing but 30 minutes of pop culture references which would be funny if there were only like 3 episodes ever made, but a long running series. Nope. After watching a few DVD’s of it I got tired of it by the 3rd epidsode. by the fourth I was ready to burn the disks. The Doors…the most boring band ever. they should play their songs for imsomniacs. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/203 "2008-04-02T12:32:26Z")
[QUOTE=Nzinga, Seated] You know, I’m not a bit surprised? I mean, the way I was raised…you did not refer to someone like Ms. Parks as a bitch. Oh, no. But you can give eachother knowing glances and whisper, “That ol’ lady is so _mean_! Just _evil_.” Most of the old black ladies that we respected and revered so much in our communities were just plain mean. And no one dared disrespect them, no matter how tempted. So, yeah, I totally buy that she was mean as hell. [/QUOTE] you grew up in a nieghborhood like that as well, huh? Me too. Here is what i REALLY resented…the mean old ladies would be, well, mean old ladies. (and yeah, there were mean old men too.) But every sunday I was forced to go to Sunday school and church with where they’d pretend to be nice old ladies and nice old men. but the resto of the week they were mean, bitter old people. they’d refer to me as that "troublemaking \*\*\*\*son boy"even though I’d never actually been in trouble as a kid. Hypocrites. Thats one of the reasons I stopped going to church as soon as I was old enough to openly defy my parents. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/204 "2008-04-02T13:09:12Z")
[QUOTE=Jolly Roger] you grew up in a nieghborhood like that as well, huh? Me too. Here is what i REALLY resented…the mean old ladies would be, well, mean old ladies. (and yeah, there were mean old men too.) But every sunday I was forced to go to Sunday school and church with where they’d pretend to be nice old ladies and nice old men. but the resto of the week they were mean, bitter old people. they’d refer to me as that "troublemaking \*\*\*\*son boy"even though I’d never actually been in trouble as a kid. Hypocrites. Thats one of the reasons I stopped going to church as soon as I was old enough to openly defy my parents. [/QUOTE] Oops. mispelled neighborhood. sorry. Can I jump on the tatto hater bandwagon? Because I think they’re incredibly stupid. Same with body piercing. If you’re a member of some tribe or enclave of ninjas or special ops commando unit, yeah, I can see it(though i still think its stupid)…because it means something at least. If you’re just some schmoe that wants a tattoo because it looks “cool” you’re an idiot. It doesn’t mean anything! its just ink! I especially hate the chinese characters people get. I’ve yet to meet a chinese person or a person that speaks and/or reads chinese with one. Why would you have something permanently written on your body that you can’t even fucking read? For all you know it says “I am a jelly donut”. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/205 "2008-04-02T13:48:48Z")
[QUOTE=Jolly Roger] its just ink! [/QUOTE] This part I agree with. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/206 "2008-04-02T14:01:39Z")
[QUOTE=Jolly Roger] you grew up in a nieghborhood like that as well, huh? Me too. Here is what i REALLY resented…the mean old ladies would be, well, mean old ladies. (and yeah, there were mean old men too.) But every sunday I was forced to go to Sunday school and church with where they’d pretend to be nice old ladies and nice old men. but the resto of the week they were mean, bitter old people. they’d refer to me as that "troublemaking \*\*\*\*son boy"even though I’d never actually been in trouble as a kid. Hypocrites. Thats one of the reasons I stopped going to church as soon as I was old enough to openly defy my parents. [/QUOTE] Are we the same person? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/207 "2008-04-02T14:19:27Z")
[QUOTE=Jolly Roger] Oops. mispelled neighborhood. sorry. Can I jump on the tatto hater bandwagon? Because I think they’re incredibly stupid. Same with body piercing. If you’re a member of some tribe or enclave of ninjas or special ops commando unit, yeah, I can see it(though i still think its stupid)…because it means something at least.\ [/QUOTE] I suppose you could argue that all the tattooed folk are members of a tribe/enclave - people who like to jump on bandwagons. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/208 "2008-04-02T14:25:52Z")
_Basic Instinct_ - a movie that can’t be saved by scenes of Sharon Stone making out with hot women is a bad movie. _Brokeback Mountain_ - over two hours trying to make me feel sorry for a couple of cheating bastards. The stuff that made Jim Carrey famous. He was decent in _The Majestic_, good in _Man on the Moon_ and _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_, and great in _Truman Show_, so basically give him a part with an inch of depth and he’ll show you that he really can act. But _The Mask_, _Dumb and Dumber_ and _Ace Ventura_ are all unmitigated crap. For a reverse sacred cow: Keanu Reeves is a good actor. There are a lot of parts that just aren’t for him, but he was good in _Much Ado About Nothing_, _Constantine_ and especially _A Scanner Darkly_. ---
**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/209 "2008-04-02T14:32:58Z")
Boy, am I glad that [Johnathan Lee Riches](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=462062) is not a member. For me, NASCAR. Making a couple of hours of left hand turns in an automobile is not exciting to me, nor do I consider the drivers athletes, or even really anything but ordinary people. Do Nascar fans set up chairs on the side of a freeway and cheer for their favorite cars as they go by? Because to me, that would be about the same. Perhaps worse, I’ve heard several devout fans express greatest interest in the almost sure-fire promise of crashes. Crashes!? That’s morbid. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/210 "2008-04-02T17:00:59Z")
Kurt Cobain is gone and I am very happy. Now if we could only lose Eddie Vedder and Scott Weiland, I’d have a trifecta! ---
**Author:** ![chris156](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/db5fbb/32.png) [@chris156](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chris156)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/211 "2008-04-02T17:45:33Z")
_Arrested Development_ is not funny. I don’t even know which parts are _supposed_ to be funny. It’s just a badly written soap opera. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/212 "2008-04-02T18:42:15Z")
I haven’t read through the entire thread, so I’m probably going to repeat stuff already mentioned, but: I’m also in on televised sports. That’s why they have sports channels now - keep that shit off the major networks! Tolkein - the entire LOTR trilogy has one of the most obvious and well-worn basic plots in history. I don’t get the love people have for this hack shit (ditto for Star Wars). Is David Letterman still a sacred cow? The guy hasn’t been funny for 25 years now. Same with Jay Leno, but I don’t think anybody claims he is anyway. M_A_S_H_ sucked ass. It was boring, unfunny, and preachy. I’m talking about the TV show. I thought Schindler’s List was overwrought melodrama. It was manipulative when it didn’t need to be. The English Patient was the most snore-inducing pile of ass I’ve ever seen. Forrest Gump was idiotic. I’ll also agree on Led Zeppelin. They sound very muddy, they’d go off on endless tedious jams (especially live), and every single member is unjustly overrated as a musician. I never thought Pavement was anything more than a mediocre band. I think Ronald Reagan was the worst president of the past century after the current one. ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/213 "2008-04-02T18:54:25Z")
Rock concerts. Horrible acoustics made worse by insisting that this show will be louder than the last. It takes half the song to figure out it’s actually one of your favorites because of the muddy wall of head-splitting sound. And as a reward, you get to be deaf for two days afterward. The horrendous listening experience is worst for rock shows, but the value of live music for me is pretty low regardless of the genre. It’s expensive and not very satifying. It’s too loud, so I guess I must be too old. Fine dining. The more you pay for, the less you get. I’ve never failed to be disappointed by a meal that cost $50 or more per person. There’s always a bunch of weird, pretentious, bizarre-for-the-sake-of-being-bizarre ingredients. I get dragged to these types of places all the time on business travel. “It’s the best restaurant in the city,” they say. But really, I just want to go to the shack on the edge of town with the awesome barbecue. I’ll spend a fourth as much, and leave ten times happier. I loathe foodies in general. I like things that are actually good, and that doesn’t usually include things that are just expensive for expensive’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![Grossbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba8739/32.png) [@Grossbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grossbottom)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/214 "2008-04-02T18:54:51Z")
Dave Eggers has been milking his indie media celebrite for about eight years too long. The book was decent, that’s all. And that’s all he’s fucking done. Before he got hit with a van, Stephen King could tell a damn fine story. U2 in general and Bono in specific needs to shut the fuck up and never speak again. And the music hasn’t been good since Rattle and Hum, except for “One”. Daniel Day Lewis. Overrated and can’t choose his roles for shit. Viggo Mortsensen is a terrible actor. Ridley Scott can’t direct dialogue to save his life. Darren Aronofsky is a pretentious tit. Alton Brown has gone from being a condescending sarcastic cool guy to a condescending bitchy little twat who needs a stiff backhand upside the head. Anthony Bourdain is 10 minutes ago and way overexposed. Tony, take two years off, seriously. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/215 "2008-04-02T18:59:55Z")
The Academy Awards are crap. In fact, all entertainment awards, and their accompanying award shows, are crap. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/216 "2008-04-02T19:09:18Z")
I have never laughed at anything done or said by _Howard Stern_, or anything related to his show. _Jar Jar Binks_ was not the worst thing to happen to Star Wars. He was not even that annoying of a a character. And beer sucks. All beer. Every brand, every flavor. It all tastes like piss. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/217 "2008-04-02T19:19:11Z")
**James Marsters** - Spike on “Buffy” - over-rated actor, not all that hot. Passable at best. Ditto for **John Barrowman** - Capt. Jack on “Doctor Who” & “Torchwood.” (Slightly more interesting than Marsters, but still a big ‘meh’ nonetheless.) ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/218 "2008-04-02T19:21:14Z")
I’m not exactly sure what you call this genre of jazz, but after being subjected to it piped into my workplace for hours on end without relief, I _really_ hate it. It goes like this: phrase, blast of brass, phrase, blast of brass, phrase, cover your ears, _ **brass blast!** _ (repeat). Beloved artists that embrace this horrid style include Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin (and the whole damn Rat Pack) and …Louis Armstrong. Hate. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/219 "2008-04-02T19:27:36Z")
Two equal and opposite sacred cows: a) gay literature, music, and film b) gay people who make literature, music, and film and loudly trumpet how it isn’t gay Listen, we have a kaleidoscope of cultures and life histories, not to mention people who are, literally, dying to see themselves and their stories reflected in culture. That does NOT mean that it’s sufficient to write/paint/film whatever tedious crap you came up with as long as you stick a gay person in it. I read the most appallingly bad book, a gay mystery novel, some time ago. The mystery was reasonably competent, but it was apparently themed on food and travel (besides teh gay) so the writer felt the need to drop in an excruciatingly detailed description of whatever yuppie crap the characters ate or, worse, drank; and whenever the character went anywhere, he felt the need to insert what amounted to a Wikipedia entry about the place into the description or, more appallingly still, the dialogue. (“Oh, the plane’s landing! Where are we?” “We’re refueling in the Cape Verde Islands. They’re an archipelago off the coast of West Africa, formerly a Portuguese colony. Did you know their capital is Praia and their primary export is bottle caps?” and on and on and _on_.) Not to mention the fact that the characters were excruciatingly dull, unreflective, and disconnected from reality, every inch of their ridiculously toned bodies. (I’m not sure what’s worse: when characters have perfect bodies apparently simply as a condition of existence, or because they work out continually _and we have to hear about it._) I’ve never been so unpreposessed by a literary work. And this shit got a _Lambda Literary Award!!_ What the hell is wrong with us? By contrast, however, I think it’s pathetic when people trumpet how their art isn’t gay. How is that any different than when a person trumpets that s/he isn’t gay? There’s little I find more frustrating than when a work with an obvious gay sensibility is _lauded_ by saying “This isn’t a gay story, it’s a human story.” Oh, so we’re not human? If this is a queer book or a queer movie, that somehow makes it inferior and blinkered? Because heterosexuality is universal, but a queer sensibility can only be touched by queers, lest it explode. Alison Bechdel, creator of _Dykes to Watch Out For_, was once asked why she didn’t write for a mainstream audience. She said, “I thought I was.” If I can sit through fucking _Die Hard_, Rocko there can watch _Edge of Seventeen_ or read _The Heart Laid Bare_ without his dick falling off, thank you. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359/220 "2008-04-02T19:33:45Z")
The sound (in the most literal sense) Rock and Roll had in the late 60’s early 70’s is unappealing to me. I don’t really know why but it is a reasonably distinct time frame. I like a lot of 50’s music and a lot of stuff past about '76 by there is a lost decade in there. This includes (but is not limited to): The Doors Led Zeppelin Pink Floyd Rolling Stones (I like a lot of their stuff and by recent I mean last 25 years) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commit-cultural-heresy-no-cow-too-sacred/443359.md?page=12)