How I Get Off Track: This Just Happened

Started watching that miniseries about the Kennedys, called “The Kennedys“, on Netflix.

Get nine minutes into the first episode and the focus turns to Papa Joe Kennedy, played by Tom Wilkinson.

Conduct a Wikipedia search for Joe Kennedy Sr. Start reading a list of all his kids, including Rose Kennedy, who I learn was subjected to a lobotomy at age 23.

Begin Wikipedia-ing Rose Kennedy and why in the hell she had to be lobotomized. The reasons are quite unclear, as different contemporaries of the Kennedy’s describe her somewhere between manic depressive or having severe mental disabilities.

BUT — somewhere in the assessment of Rose Kennedy I read that she could do arithmetic, specifically, multiply 436 by 12. And that requires at least an IQ of 90.

This leads me to question whether I still know how to multiply by hand.

I frantically grab a piece of paper and start trying to multiply 436 by 12. Succeeded.

Decided I was hungry after all my great multiplication achievement.

Never restarted the miniseries.

Introducing Crazy Distractions on the Internet Discovered by Reeve

Back in my halcyon days of youth, I enjoyed starting a random blog series every now and again. Like “Snippet from Stiles,” in which I’d quote my then-boyfriend Matty out of context. Or “Impact Players,” a Q & A with a behind-the-scenes person in Texas politics who actually did a lot of heavy lifting. Since I haven’t really grown up, it’s time to start another random series. We’ll call it, “Crazy Distractions on the Internet Discovered by Reeve.”

He's keeping an eye on the internets for you, the people.

Reeve is my pal from Austin. Our connection dates to 2009, when I issued a call across the Texas Senate press table for someone to go eat with me at two in the afternoon. Reeve immediately said yes, and our friendship was born over bad tacos at an El Chilito that closed down and reopened briefly, only to close down again. I later discovered that Reeve enjoys a free meal even more than I do, which is pretty impressive.

Reeve is also about five years younger than me and therefore hip. So I count on Reeve to use his slacking off time at work to discover viral videos, music or any other assorted nonsense that he will then share with me. This has gone on for awhile now. I would not know about the three-year-old who wants to be governor of New Jersey without him. More importantly, I wouldn’t know about the internet sensation that is Rebecca Black’s “Friday” without Reeve, so our connection is both a blessing and a curse.

Since Reeve is pretty consistent in sharing his internet distractions with me, I will start sharing them with you, in the form of our new series. Says Reeve of this idea, “”I cannot fathom why Elise thinks this is worthwhile.”

This week’s distractions:

Stephen Colbert sings Rebecca Black’s Friday for charity, which Reeve calls “epic.”

An oldie but a goodie, featuring a wide array of artists singing “Perfect Day”

And since this is the inaugural post in our series, Reeve suggests you watch what he calls “the greatest YouTube video of all time,” in which this guy, Guy, is there for a job interview and they accidentally bring him on as an expert after some Apple lawsuit so he has no idea what’s going on but he soldiers through.