What We Talked About On Vacation: How Close Is Too Close?

From: Tom Scocca To: Choire Sicha Subject: Um... From the NYT Mag ARTICLE with those pics: "When the mayor came for a post-Katrina visit, Ranatza had the students draw their wishes for the city. They do not lack for colored crayons, yet they rendered New Orleans in sepulchral black and white." From: Choire Sicha To: Tom Scocca Subject: Autoresponse: Out of the Office Hello there, I'm on vacation this week. There may be a 12-hour lag in my email response time. Or not. In any event, I'm off work until August 30 or something, whatever next Wednesday is, and I look forward to emailing with you. Please create a great day for yourself. From: Choire Sicha To: Tom Scocca Subject: RE: Um... oh my god SHUT UP. i couldn't even read that ponderous essay. and i'm a pretentious whore! From: Tom Scocca To: Choire Sicha Subject: RE: Autoresponse: Out of the Office Suck it! And then react to this, please. Key quote: "a crash was implied but not shown. Instead, the skit cut to O'Brien stranded on an island resembling the one in "Lost."" To: Tom Scocca From: Choire Sicha Subject: RE: RE: Autoresponse: Out of the Office Everything is tasteless now, and the only time that tastelessness registers is when little timely coincidences happen. A crash spoof is tasteless "just hours after"—as per the WaPo's most strident paragraph—some idiot goes down a runway that's half as short as it needs to be for a jet plane to take off. Two days later—still tasteless? A week later? At any point in time there will be someone horrified to see a video joke of a plane crash regarding a silly television show about a plane crash. I watched the first part of the Conan video and it's doofy—the plane gets all jostly and he climbs into the luggage compartment. The end. It was already edited for taste. Are they pulling Snakes on a Plane from all Kentucky theaters? What about theaters in Ohio and West Virginia? On the principle of "too soon": How close is too close? And why is it okay for visual media to trumpet our anxieties only when we think we have nothing real to be anxious about? Don't you think someone is fucking some 8-year-old while an episode of Law and Order:SVU is playing in the apartment next door?