So, this happened. One commercial break during Sunday’s football game mostly included Christmas shopping ads, while the next commercial break was wall-to-wall political ads. That’s right. Christmas season has overlapped with election season. Since Christmas isn’t officially “holy” until Dec. 25, I’m going to declare this most unholy.
I get a lot of press releases from campaigns, especially those here in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District. They’d like me to spend the day before the election sharing links to their closing TV ad messages.
That’s not going to happen.
The midterm election of 2014 has been the most vapid, soulless, waste of resources passing for public discourse I’ve ever seen. I am comforted by the fact that, A) I am not working for one of the campaigns, and thus probably won’t get cancer from being a part of this. Excuse me. I meant Ebola. That’s the buzzword. And, B) I am young enough to still have time to embark upon the spiritual quest necessary to cleanse my soul of what I’ve seen before my likely expiration date.
That being said, two e-mails I got over the weekend did amuse me. After receiving several hundred bizarrely worded e-mails trying to get me to donate money to one of several candidates, I got one that actually made me laugh. It didn’t get me to give money, but it got me to share it here.
Former Saturday Night Live comedian Will Forte and actor Richard Dean Anderson, a Minnesota native who had a cabin on the Iron Range for many years, made a pitch for Sen. Al Franken on Saturday. Anderson is probably best known for his role as MacGyver, while Forte is known for his role as MacGruber, a spoof of MacGyver. The pair engaged in a lively back-and-forth that simultaneously parodies their famous roles and the very nature of political fundraising emails.
Seeing Richard Dean Anderson in his MacGyver gear again reminded me that when he had a cabin on a lake northwest of Virginia, Minnesota, Richard Dean Anderson and his family drove around in an sport utility vehicle that had “MCGVER” as a license plate. That’s owning it, baby!
Anyway, the thing was amusing. Maybe I’m just loopy from campaign exposure at this point. By the way, I’m not recommending you donate to this or any other campaign at this point. Keep your money. Please.
Meantime, Stewart Mills, the GOP challenger in Minnesota’s Eighth District race, earned an endorsement of his own: “Duck Dynasty’s” own Willie Robertson. Take a look:
This one isn’t funny, per se. It’s just an image I want all of us to see. Something to think about. Take from it whatever you will.
It all ends tomorrow. And while I do refer to this campaign as vacuous and soul-sucking, the election itself does matter — particularly for those of us in Northern Minnesota. Please make plans to vote on Tuesday.
Our family had a cabin on the same lake. We sure did keep our eyes peeled for a MacGyver sighting but alas, no luck. His cabin was on the opposite side of the lake and he either didn’t venture out on the lake to our side or he was so well disguised we didn’t know it was him.
We did have an older Finn neighbor next door that loved his saunas and would stroll down to the lake naked to cool off in the early evening daylight. We would have preferred seeing MacGyver fully clothed.
my family owns a cabin on lake 14 we have a small cabin about the fourth cabin well i know we have the third or fourth dock from were it goes to the river thing
my grandma was sleeping and my papa (grandpa) was on the dock with my cousin that was around five at the time. They were on the dock chatting feeding the ducks and my papa saw MacGyver pass by and waved him in. they chated for a few and MacGyver went off and when my grandma woke up she wasnt happy that my papa didnt wake her up.