My pal Clint opines...

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Currently in Boston, his first real trip to the Northeast - and viscerally feeling the after-ripples of 9/11 in that city:

McClint: i got a question for ya...
McClint: why are people rushing to remove any and all images of the WTC from printed materials and TV shows etc since Sept 11?
JPennant: I guess not to date the show, and as a sign of respect
McClint: Are the Superman movies removed from circulation because Christopher Reeve can't walk anymore?
McClint: it just seems odd to me
JPennant: you should take a $20 bus ride to NY and see it
JPennant: very different up close
JPennant: you'd get a sense as to why
McClint: i dont deny the horror and emptyness in the hearts of americans but why remove all signs of it? I'd think you'd want the images to live on since the towers themselves were taken away
JPennant: i hear ya
McClint: when a loved one dies, do you remove all pictures of that person? no. you keep 'em around and maybe put up more
JPennant: hmm
McClint: as for a TV show being "dated" i can understand that but even that is pretty shallow
JPennant: why did it occur to you?
McClint: just seeing all the stuff around here relating to Sept 11. i'd venture to bet that Boston has a huge guilt complex over the whole thing since 2 flights originated here
McClint: and then I saw an old rerun of Friends and in one of the segue shots was the WTC lit up at night.
JPennant: ah yes
McClint: but it was an OLD episode.. like first season.
McClint: and i remembered that lots of NY-based tv shows rushed to change their location shots and opening credit sequences changed to cut out all images of it
JPennant: yup
JPennant: you know, I think a big reason is that to take em out would cause less furor than leaving them in.
McClint: eh i guess
McClint: and i guess you can't have plot lines revolving around what happened when you have pictures of it in the opening of the show
McClint: I havent been watchin much TV lately but i did notice Law & Order cops have black bands on their badges
JPennant: yeah, they do
JPennant: for their dead brothers
JPennant: and the sets have flags placed discreetly around
McClint: of course South Park had a good Bin Laden episode :-)
JPennant: hoho.. i should try to download that. :-D
McClint: i think Boston Public covered it or at least alluded to it
McClint: did you see that south park?
JPennant: nah. i dont watch tv.
McClint: it came out within a month or 2 after the attacks. then there was an episode that started off complaining about how shitty the airlines got afterwards and how they got govt bailouts but still gave shitty service etc
JPennant: heh. i like that
McClint: i gotta give it to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, they are VERY timely. they even had an Elian Gonzalez episode within a week after them taking him away in the raid
JPennant: heh. Long as they dont ask "What would Brian Boitano do?"
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On reading of my secret wish to be a gravel-ly voiced, fiddle playing country rock star..

McClint: HAHAHAHAHA..
McClint: whisky-soaked and playing a fiddle? I cant see you as that.
JPennant: No? :-)
McClint: heheh. no.

Damn. :-)