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The ABCs of Surviving an Active Shooter Event

Well, we’ve sunk to the following new low arriving in a school email from university administrative powers –with a standard pre-warning that this is informational only, and not based on a current threat — with an active link to a NYPD Shield Safety Pamphlet included for good measure:

NYPD says: Avoid. Barricade. Confront. (ABC)

DHS says: Run. Hide. Fight.

The words are different, but the three actions are essentially the same:

1. Get out and get away, as quietly and quickly as possible, leaving your belongings behind.  Run. Avoid.

2. If you can’t flee, lock or barricade the doors, silence your cell phone and hide.  Hide. Barricade.

3. If all else fails, and only as a last resort, attack the shooter with whatever makeshift weapons you can find (scissors, portable fire extinguishers, chairs, etc.) to disarm and disable.  Fight. Confront.

Of course, call 911 to report the attack as soon as it is safe for you to do so.

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How Bristol Palin Ruined Dancing with the Stars and Why Nicki Minaj Tanked American Idol

Reality Television bores me now, but what really angers me is when television shows pretend to be honest contests when they’re really all a pre-determined setup from the get-go, just as we have indelibly learned this week with Bristol Palin’s horrible — but she’s staying! — routine on Dancing with the Stars; as well as Nicki Minaj’s fake meltdown with Mariah Carey on American Idol… which hasn’t even officially aired yet!

Websites like Vote for the Worst tend to take credit for contestants like Bristol Palin beating the odds and staying when it is really all about contractual agreements set in stone before the first dance begins:

They said it was impossible… She’s by far the worst dancer; She’s has the personality of a rock; She’s as likeable as the plague. But it doesn’t matter as VFTW and The Tea Party have done it once again as not only was Bristol safe, she wasn’t even in jeopardy! Meanwhile, VFTW and Bristol knocked off Joey Fatone, who even as the worst dancer in N’Sync can dance circles around Bristol.

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The Glass House is Epic Awfulness

I am a big fan of the Big Brother reality show.  ABC-TV, using castoff Big Brother producers, aired their copycat show last night called — “The Glass House” — and it is an awful and pale program in comparison with the original inspiration.

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The Pan Am Review

As a child, I occasionally went with my parents on vacation and we would, when the price was right, use as an airline Pan Am. I distinctly remember thinking it was a shame that it went out of business in 1991 after the harsh loss of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. It therefore came as a surprise to me when ABC announced that they were making a television show about flight attendants (formerly called stewardesses) and their experiences working for Pan Am Worldwide in the early 1960’s.

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U.S. Steel and The Theatre Guild

There was a Golden Decade in American television between the years 1952-1963 when live theatre performances were aired live on the young ABC Television network.  The show was called — ”The United States Steel Hour” — and it was produced by The Theatre Guild, and we’ve never had such a perfect blending of live performance for a national audience.

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Marlee Matlin Dancing Deaf with the Stars

Marlee Matlin — a gorgeous and talented 43-year-old Deaf actress and Academy Award winner — made her debut last night on Dancing with the Stars, but few people realize the magnitude and the magnificence of her accomplishment.

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Carrie Ann Inaba

I hope I never hear the name “Carrie Ann Inaba” spoken in a fake British accent, or any other accent for that matter, again for as long as I live. I was going to post my outrage over the sham show, Dancing with the Stars, last week when Joey McIntyre was wrongly thrown off the television program, but I held my fingers until the final decision came down last night.

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