Chai's Analysis

A True Sign of Love

Yesterday night, my dad and I hunkered down on the couch to watch "The Office." My dad has never been the television person, except when it comes to "Cheers," "Seinfeld", or the 10 o'clock news on KTVU. (Sidenote: Probably the earliest memory I have of television is one of Dennis Richmond, the KTVU anchor for the past thirty years. Yes, even before the Smurfs, I remember Dennis. He's like my long lost grandfather.)

All week, my dad has asked me with a tinge of excitement in his voice, "Is the it on tonight? The Office?" So, why The Office? Yesterday, the show was on Diwali, portrayed as the Hindu festival of lights (although, I will let you know that after going to the Sikh exhibit at the Smithsonian Natural History museum, I learned that Sikhs also practice Diwali). Written by Mindy Kaling, the actor who plays Kelly Kapoor, the episode was funny, played on various stereotypes (of course!), and a bit all over the place. I'm not a television critic; hell, I rarely watch the boob tube. However, I missed the first two minutes of the show, and I feel those two minutes would have helped me understand the rest of the 24 minutes.

What was more amazing than the actual episode were the proposition commercials. Each commercial was trying to be "real" so they used "real" people to get their position across. One commerical had an African American doctor not supporting the proposition dealing with cigarette taxes (although this site doesn't have the ad I saw last night, it has other scary ads). Another commercial was a firefighter who didn't support another proposition. Another was a teacher who said something about another proposition. And finally, the other was one of good ol' Bill Clinton who was putting faith in Californian's to change the course of America's dependence on foreign oil (watch a segment of the ad here). For the first time, I felt bad for California voters. They are pummelled with television and radio ads. Their phone rings off the hook with recorded messages. The local and national media writes in support of a proposition or urges you not to vote for it. It plain sucks.

My dad, an true immigrant voter (read: he takes voting very seriously), asked me, as genuinely as he could, "Chai, would you mind doing the research on these various propositions? The numbers are starting to drive me crazy." I started laughing. He then went on this one mintue rant (quite short for a person in his position) about how not only is there is state wide propositions, there are local measures with all these letters and that confuses him. "So, please, for your mom and I, do a summary of the propositions and recommendation. We will vote according to your recommendation."

Quelle power! Quelle amour! I get to assert which propositions two individuals should vote for. Wow. If this ain't love, I truly don't know what is. Hey, and maybe this will be my stepping stone to becoming a policy consultant?

The research is due on Monday. Who said unemployment means no work?

posted by Chai at 12:29 PM