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the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Robert Christgau and Danyel Smith

the breakfast table
entries
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from: Danyel Smith

Good News, Bad News, and Restaurant Fistfights

Posted Thursday, June 24, 1999, at 3:14 PM ET

I can't believe the Knicks lost last night. And I can't even lie and say I looked at the papers today. Also: Methinks Carola is correct. Sigh. And your response is so nice, Bob. Glad to know I can have a moment around you, even if cyberspace is the well-worn dining room. The Foxy thing while we're on it, was bananas. No one trains you for that kind of shit. I don't like to break the details down, but one thing that I learned from she and I's tense conversation is that people of many races and classes think that because you are "black," you are somehow automatically prepared to fistfight in a restaurant. They think that because you are in "hip-hop," violence is "expected" and that one "deals with it." Nonsense. Shortsightedness. Narrow. Lame.

OK, papers:

USA Today: Not really mad at Billy Blanks for taking Tae-Bo on the road. My friend W.W. lost 10 pounds in a pretty short amount of time on his program. LIZ SMITH: boring today except for the Jenny Jones thing ... girl's mom commits suicide after being on the JJ show ... What is the deal? Are the people on her show just more unstable? Or do we just not hear about the behind-the-scenes mayhem at, say, The Ricki Lake Show. For my money, I'd rather watch anything Bill Kurtis hosts on A&E. He is a comfort and a joy. And I like the way he uses the words "American Justice," like he made them up. Also, in the Post: "Vaccine Could End Cervical Cancer." Please let that be true. And in the Times: Blind People With Eye Damage May Someday Use Chips To See." Again: Please let that be true. And murder's up 6 percent in Brooklyn and Manhattan. I remember in Oakland, maybe it was '91, the papers were counting the murders, it was a big deal that we'd had more than 100. Then to 101, 102. Then a girl was kidnapped from the BART (subway) station, driven to an ATM, forced to get money out, told to "Run!" and was then shot in the back and killed. Just thinking about that girl makes me mad and sad. It's why the "gun control" arguments are, as I said, earlier in the week, moot. If she would have had a gun, what would she have done? And how were the two guys not going to have a gun?

Daily News: Howard Stern's ratings are way down. Thank God. "Rush & Molloy": Jay-Z and Damon Dash in the Hamptons. Oh, boy. Vibe: still closing September. Danyel: Happy to be 34.

until later,
Danyel

the breakfast table
entries
123456789101112131415
from: Danyel Smith

Good News, Bad News, and Restaurant Fistfights

Posted Thursday, June 24, 1999, at 3:14 PM ET
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Robert Christgau is a senior editor and chief music critic of the Village Voice. His essay collection, Grown Up All Wrong (click here to buy the book), was published in 1998. Danyel Smith is the editor in chief of Vibe.
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