I'd the great pleasure last night of giving the first in the fall "6-pack" of talks at a local "Theology on Tap." (If you don't know, it's an evangelization program in which you get young "seekers" to sit in dark, smoky bars and drink beer while they listen to Catholic apologists speak and answer their questions.) About 150 young people, and the most fun was the Q & A afterwards. I liked the quality of the questions and the fun of the give and take. You can't judge your own performance, but it seemed to go well. I flubbed one question because it took me by surprise. Someone asked, as a happily married person, what advice do I have for singles? I blanked. Then I finally said, "Date more," since I have the impression that many singles really don't date at all. Which was lame. Though it probably made all the lovely, longing, date-less girls in the room happy. Anyway, speaking at a downtown bar was the occasion for riding the Subway instead of the Minivan, which brings me to the first of three "random scenes."
- Almost all the ads in the Metro cars are PSAs about manners. "We don't want to know what you're having for dinner (please use cell phones quietly)." "If you don't eat on our trains, we won't sit on your kitchen table." Etc.
- I usually tune in Laura Ingraham for a few minutes as I put away the breakfast mess, and Rush for a few minutes as I get the kids' lunch ready. What kind of audiences do these two beacons of conservatism have? This morning, I tuned in just in time for a Trojans ad which began warning of the dangers of STDs and concluding with the moral, "Use a condom. Every time." Are the sponsors aware that Laura Ingraham is a chastity promoting, anti-contraceptive convert to Catholicism? And doesn't the claim that condoms will provide universal protection from all kinds of STDs seem like a class action suit waiting to happen?
- And what's with the DNA paternity-testing-by-mail ads that are running on both Ingraham and Limbaugh? "Time was, you could trust that a child was yours. . . ."
Are people in other markets hearing these ads, too, she wonders?
