Trending Topics

We here at The Daily Dandy are nothing if not trendy. So today we offer you a minuscule sampling of the topics that we are all talking about:

• #1 Trending Topic on Facebook: "Orange Is The New Black" show writer Lauren Morelli divorces her husband after two years of marriage and reveals that she is dating Samira Wiley, who plays Poussey, a lesbian inmate on the hit show. WOW, this is one hell of a story. Morelli says she realized her first day on the set that indeed, she may be gay and living a life somewhat parallel with the show's lead character, Piper. Months into a new marriage to a man, Morelli finds through the show's story lines that everything she thought to be true about herself now may be wrong. She has since worked through her feelings and came out publicly as gay. 

• #1 Trending Topic on Twitter: "Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez Get Cozy In Las Vegas." This is most unbelievable to me. Of all the things that are going on around the world, Twitter followers want to talk about Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez. Really? The Twitterverse seems far more concerned about the fact that Justin and Selena are back together and that Selena was photographed wearing a bikini.  I'm embarrassed for us all. 

• #1 Trending Topic On Google: "Miss America" The story here is that for the third year in a row New York has been crowned the Miss America winner. 23 year-old Kira Kazantsev's platform was Domestic Violence (how timely) and her talent portion was a rendition of Pharell's "Happy" accompanied by a plastic red Solo cup. Looks like pageants are big business in this part of the world. 

• #1 Trending Topic On ABC.com: "NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell criticized on airplane banners, TV broadcasts." It wasn't any given Sunday for Roger Goodell yesterday. His leadership was questioned by pre-game commentators and banners flew on airplanes over 3 stadiums bearing the message #Goodellmustgo. Goodell will most likey go-due to his dishonest bungling of the Ray Rice debacle. While I don't believe everyone has all the answers on how to handle a messy situation right away, I think lying about how you handled it is worse. 

And some quick hits (most requested) according to Google Trends for the month of August:

Actors: Robin Williams (#2 Arianna Grande)

Authors: William Shakespeare (#2 Martin Luther King, Jr)

Cocktails: Martini (#2 Bloody Mary)

Colleges: Pennsylvania State University (#2 University of Southern California) 

Dog Breed: Bulldog (#2 Pit bull)

Foods: Pizza (#2 Chicken)

Government Bodies: US Senate (#2 FBI)

Movies: Guardians of the Galaxy (#2 Frozen)

Musical artists: Niki Manaj (#2 Beyonce)

Politicians: Barack Obama (#2 John F. Kennedy)

Songs: Happy Birthday to You (#2 Shake it Off)

Sports Teams: Dallas Cowboys (#2 Manchester United FC)

TV Shows: Keeping Up With the Kardashians (#2 Dr. Who)

US Senators: Rick Perry (#2 Arnold Schwarzenegger)

I Was Just Thinking...Lessons Learned This Week

• Monday's still suck. After all these years you'd think they would get better but nope,  they still suck. Friday's are the reward for getting through the Monday and all the other days but Sunday is my most favorite...I just wish the prospect of Monday didn't ruin the last part of Sunday. 

• People can only make you feel inferior if you let them...thank you Eleanor Roosevelt.

• Just because you are family, it doesn't give you the right to judge. A smear campaign is just not the way to go. Adults can be far more immature than adolescents. They play dirtier pool too!

• Is passive/aggressive the best way to approach terrorism?

• Never lie..especially when it comes to business/money. The truth always comes out. 

• A gossip website can literally shape/expose the moral fiber of professional sports. TMZ.com , in 2014 alone, has exposed 2 game changing professional sports scandals in which the moral fortitude of both the NBA and the NFL has been called into question. The topics of Racism and Domestic Violence were brought to our attention as a result and the country entered into a discussion about why we just won't stand for any of it.  That's incredible power. 

• And this last bit are two tweets that were funny regarding the discussion of the Ray Rice debacle.Both were published in the Inside Track in the Boston Herald in the past two days. Make no mistake, Domestic violence is no laughing matter, Let these serve as more of a commentary on the power of TMZ.com.

"Ray Rice's punishment should fit his crime. I say we lock him in the elevator with Solange Knowles and give him a taste of his own medicine."-Bette Midler, @BetteMidler

"I'm going to assume that every elevator I get on now is just a big photo booth."-Bart Hubbuch, @HubbuchNYC

Happy Friday bloggers...and please do behave this weekend. Someone might be watching. 

It's A Mad, Mad, World

I was just thinking about this Jerry Springer world we live in. Maybe Jerry had it right when at the end of each episode he gave his Final Thought on the madness of human nature. Jerry certainly made plenty of money on other people's madness, so I guess his Final Thought was his chance to try to explain away bad behavior.

Case in point: Solange, Beyonce and Jay-Z in the elevator. If you haven't seen it the video, leaked to TMZ, you can find it here. Personally I feel that this was a horrifying breach of privacy on every front. In the name of proper journalism, I share the link, but I don't really endorse it. Like Kelly Ripa said this morning, "Good Lord, that is our house every Thanksgiving." Yes. Almost all of us can admit to one or several moments of craziness like the elevator incident and it lucky for us that we don't have to have it play out in the national media.

Families fight. It's a fact and now we know that celebrity families fight. Celebrities are just like us, except they can be assured that their privacy is not guaranteed and that would seem to be a double edged sword. What about the insane fall out from the Donald Sterling debacle? While it's true that the man is more certain than not a racist, the taped conversation (coincidentally leaked to TMZ also) while unbelievable- is almost unfair because he was supposedly taped without his knowledge. On the contrary, the comments he made to Anderson Cooper of CNN in response to the public outcry tell us quite a bit about Mr. Sterling the person, and that day he had full knowledge that he was being taped. The Cooper incident confirms his small mindedness and unapologetic manner, but his ignorance does not make it OK to lure someone into a potentially damaging situation for personal gain.

Yet the fallout leaves us fascinated. We wonder why Solange went all "Jean-Claude Van Damme" on Jay-Z and it's precisely that which sells magazines, gets us web site hits and keeps us coming back for more. Fair or not, the tapes are out there and they are real and nothing can change that. Why should we even have privacy laws when they can do nothing to protect someone from the likes of a TMZ.com? The fact that TMZ will pay handsomely for video, audio or any other incredible display of bad behavior puts all of us in jeopardy. Even everyday people who have no celebrity can fall victim to the world seeing them, warts and all, on an "America's Funniest Home Videos", YouTube or Vine. The possibility of going viral today is all too real.

It's truly a mad mad world....and try as I might I can't explain it away. I guess it's just my Final Though on that subject.

Fade To Black

• He will always be remembered as Tony Soprano. With yesterday's news of the passing of actor James Gandolfini in Rome, Italy (how fitting) at the young age of 51, it's as if Tony Soprano got whacked. And now we will never know what really happened after that "fade to black" moment at the end of the series finale of "The Sopranos". It seems so tragic that the actor's life was cut so short. Somehow, Tony Soprano had more to do. In a way, he was every man's Tony Soprano. 

• Strange goings on here involving New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. Police found the body of a 27 year old Dorchester man who was shot in a car less than a mile from Aaron Hernandez's North Attleboro home. The car the man was found in was rented to the Patriot's tight end Hernandez. Police later spent hours searching the Hernandez home. He has not been named a suspect in the ongoing investigation...yet. Discuss...

• I'm exhausted from staying up watching all the Bruin's overtime games! We lost a tough one last night, but the B's comeback to put the game into overtime showed heart and courage and skill!! I'm enjoying every minute of it and I predict a cup VICTORY!!

• "Kimye" baby, spawn of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian still has no name! Or no name that we know of yet. Which is HA-LARIOUS! This whole "we need privacy please" thing is just not working for them. The Kardashian's would have an enema on TV if it meant lots of dollar$$$ and now Kimmy has decided that she and Kanye's baby are going into hiding? I can't say I blame her. This is the way it should be. All I'm saying is the machine that is Kardashian will put pressure on Kimmy to have baby in the spotlight more often, causing Kanye to back away from Kimmy even more than he already has, leaving Kimmy alone as a single mom.  AND I also predict that "Donda" will appear somewhere in baby Kimye's name. (Donda was Kanye's mom's name. She passed during a routine cosmetic procedure in 2007)

Please, discuss amongst yourselves..

Good Guys Don't Always Finish Last

I'm a sucker for a love story.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively pulled off a top secret wedding last night, in Mt Pleasant, SC, leaving the voracious celebrity paparazzi collectively scratching their heads. I love it when the good guys win one. Sources report that Florence of Florence + the Mechanics performed at the reception at Boone Hall Plantation and only friends and family of the couple were in attendance.  

Haha! Take that Harvey Levin and the boys at TMZ!

People magazine allegedly broke the story, which probably means that the couple, Lively, 25 and Reynolds, 35, more than likely gave them the exclusive on the pics which I'm sure will be coming to a newsstand near you shortly.

Here's hoping Reynolds and Lively are the longest married and happiest couple in Hollywood. I think they deserve it. Reynolds dodged a bulllet when he married Scarlett Johnasson in 2008 and she dumped him and divorced in 2010. Of course she lived to deeply regret it. How will she ever forgive herself?

I think he made out much better in the deal. Don't you?

Good Grief America

So the other day, the cable guy came to my house to update my cable boxes. While he was there he checked the DVR service by recording a random program. When I checked later, I noticed that he had recorded the new afternoon program from Good Morning America called, "Good Afternoon America". I was psyched because I was curious about it so I sat down to watch it.


 Being a loyal GMA viewer, this new program, featuring Lara Spencer and Josh Elliot, I thought would be a younger, hipper, extension of the Good Morning America format I have become accustomed to. Boy was I disappointed! 


 I couldn't believe what I watched. To put it bluntly: it was stupid TV. It was all about fluff. Jammed with celebrity gossip, segments about flirting at work, hair tips for frizzy hair and celebrity interviews and even a game called "Marry, Ditch, Kill." which everyone knows is just a PG rated version of the "Marry, F*ck, Kill" game. It was ridiculous. 


Now I know what you are thinking.You're thinking that someone like me would love this new format, right? Wrong. I like a bit of fluff sprinkled in with my news and smart interviews, but this? This is embarrassing. Lara Spencer navigates the fluff quite beautifully, which speaks more to her professionalism than her ease with the subject matter, but poor Josh Elliot. I think even he knows that this is borderline silly. He looks like a fish out of water. 


Is this what ABC thinks women at home want to watch? Do they think the average American stay at home woman is dumb? Or do they want to make her that way? Because this is quite literally the dumbing down of America.

Meanwhile, Over At the Hen House

Overheard at my water cooler yesterday.

• What did Sandra Bullock expect? He was married to a PORN star?


• Who the hell does Kate Gosselin think she is?


• All I have heard for three days is the incessant drone of the FOX news channel. I'm beginning to think Bill O'Riley is sexy.


• Navy blue and black is the new black.


• The guacamole is the good fat. The six hundred chips you ate with it are the bad fats.


• How could your a*s look fat in those skinny jeans?


• What am I making for dinner tonite? Reservations. hahahaha!


• Tolani scarves are the must have accessory of the spring. "They are all so gorgeous, how can I choose just one." Serious...


• Is this "March Madness" thing a reference to the big winter clearance sale at Bloomingdales?


• Do men curse more than women?


• The Kevyn Aucoin mascara is the BEST EVER! (the item is sold out, but I have it and I'll ship it!! Contact me at candy@thecandybaratww.com )


• Let's meet after work for a few Margarita's and our own brand of March Madness! Hell yes, look out!