Longtime readers of this blog know that in the blog’s early days–like, say, this time last year–I often had a field day mocking the Star editorial page’s “Thorns and Flowers” feature.
Well, I haven’t mocked “Thorns and Flowers” much lately, because after a while, making fun of something so pathetic starts to seem, well, pathetic in and of itself.
But I can’t help but note that “Thorns and Flowers” has completely freaking lost it: The Star has gone out on a limb the size of a thimble to give a thorn to the Easy Bake Oven—twice in the last four days, on the paper’s Web site Saturday and again today.
Oh. My. God. Let’s read, shall we?
A thorn to the Easy Bake oven and its parent company, Hasbro Inc., for needing to recall the beloved toy for the second time in less than a year.
The Associated Press reported in Friday’s Star that Hasbro recalled 985,000 of the toys in February and offered a free repair kit.
However, the company has received an additional 249 reports of children’s injuries since the first recall. The company wants all owners to exchange the ovens for a Hasbro product voucher.
While the company seems to be trying to address safety concerns, the oven has been around for 40 years. A rational person would think the safety kinks would have been worked out.
For more information, oven owners can call 1-800-601-8418 or go online to www.easybake.com or www.cpsc.gov.
The Star may make the argument that they ran this–twice!–in an effort to get the word out about the recall, lest children get hurt. But, lord, the Opinion page is not the place for this.
Real opinion pages take principled stands, run engaging columnists and try to shape a community. They don’t stutter about Easy Bake Ovens.
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2007.
I suppose you think that “opinion pages” and “editorials” are there only to advance the gay agenda and for surrendering to the enemy in our fight for freedom. But some of us think that America is pretty special, and if that means sometimes making the hard decision to inform people about the dangers of Easy Bake ovens, then we’re willing to take that risk. Keep in mind that the only reason you’re able to burn the flag in peace and security is because some people (real Americans) are making sure you don’t burn up in a defective Easy Bake oven!
Thorns and Flowers is the dumbest thing I’ve ever read, but what annoys me most about the Star is that the food editors can’t seem to understand that seafood is NOT a vegetarian choice. A THORN TO THEM.
I take offense at the title “Thorns and Flowers” because it’s so freaking unoriginal. In the 1970s and ’80s in Phoenix, the TV station KPHO-5 (home of Wallace & Ladmo) had a great movie critic and reporter named Bill Rocz. Bill’s last name is pronounced “Rose.” (Unfortunately he died of cancer over a decade ago.)
Bill Rocz can be seen — briefly — as the anchor on TV in the film “Raising Arizona.” He was a quality critic with a good personality, and one of the coolest parts of his shtick was that he gave good films one to four “roses” and bad films one to four “stinkweeds.”
The use of stinkweeds to denote something negative became a catch-phrase for a lot of Phoenicians. Eventually an alternative-music store opened in Mesa, and in honor of Bill Rocz the place was titled Stinkweeds. I’m not sure if it’s still in business but the owner, Kimber, was a babe who knew buttloads about good music.
With roses and stinkweeds such a part of Arizona kitschy culture, it is lame to title a regular column “thorns and flowers.” It’s not even clever — thorns? How about Saguaro pricks and Creosote blossoms?
As for the topic of Easy Bake Ovens, I agree that’s the hackiest editorial subject ever. What’s next, a tut-tut because a local restaurant gets a “B” on its inspection?
Though I do think Jimmy Boegle is a little hypocritical to make fun of their editorial page just a week or two after he went out of his way to complain about some dude writing an email to inquire if TW does book reviews…