For falling-off-the-chair-laughing news items, this one on Chris Rock

deserves, well, some kind of award.

I am not such a fool as to offer an opinion on the content of Rock’s

remarks. Celebrity-hood (-dom, whatever) is practically the state religion

of the modern West, and I am not about to blaspheme in public. And there

are so many different kinds of political incorrectness in play here, you

could get whiplash.

Rock’s idea that ALL awards for any kind of art are bogus, however, deserves

thought. Whether or not a certain thing is art, and if so, whether it is

GOOD art, is, probably, a thing that only posterity can judge.

Have I ever watched the Oscars? Depends what you mean. All the way

through? No. I’ve seen bits and pieces, sometimes 5 minutes or more,

before fidgeting set in. It never occurred to me that the fidgets were

anything to do with my, or their, sexual orientation, though. I am just a

bit allergic to showbiz self-congratulation, that’s all. These people do a

pretty good job of entertaining us, but hey, they are darn well paid for it.

To expect us to be INTERESTED in them seems to me an expectation too far.

(I except Zhang Ziyi from these remarks.)