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The Breakroom: Atlanta Gets The Super Bowl, Jane Bond, Hangover Remedy
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The Breakroom gang joins guest host Adam Ragusea to weigh in on the week's news. The panel includes Robbie Medwed (Atlanta-based LGBT educator and activist), Tomika Depriest (marketing and communications strategist), Jeff Breedlove (communications director, DeKalb County commissioner Nancy Jester), and Charles Richardson (editorial page editor, the Telegraph in Macon).
BREAKROOM TOPICS:
1) The NFL announced this week that the Super Bowl will come to Atlanta in 2019. Most people probably had one of two reactions to the news. Either you thought how cool it will be for Georgia to host the big game, or you heard the sound of a traffic nightmare in your head. It’s been nearly 20 years since the last time the city hosted it. Atlanta Falcons team owner Arthur Blank was a major part of the city’s successful Super Bowl bid. He spoke with the press after the announcement, and said other cities should take notice of how Atlanta won the 2019 bid.
2) Congress has banned two words from being used in future federal legislation. Those words are "Negro" and "Oriental." President Obama signed the bill this week on the basis that those terms are outdated and offensive. It also amends a couple federal laws from the ‘70s that define “minorities” with those terms.
3) The secret agent 007 has been brought to life by some of Hollywood's biggest stars like Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig, and Sean Connery. Everyone who has played Bond has been a dude, but when asked recently whether she’d like to play a “Bond girl” actress Priyanka Chopra said, “Eff that, I wanna BE Bond.” Gillian Anderson also hinted she’d want the role when she tweeted a mocked-up poster of herself as 007. Is it time for a female James Bond? Who would you cast in the role?
4) Most people know actor Elijah Wood for playing Frodo Baggins, hero of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. He got his start in Hollywood at a young age. Here he is opposite Macaulay Culkin in the 1993 film, "The Good Son."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-h2glY0jyg
Hollywood can be brutal for some child stars. Elijah Wood recently talked about the problem of child actors falling victim to abuse in an interview with the Sunday Times in the U.K. He later clarified in a Tweet that he has no first-hand experience of that, but it is something another former child star openly discussed. Corey Feldman spoke about his own experiences with abuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwXA7HZ2fps
The entertainment industry is one of the few businesses where kids under 14 are allowed to work at all in this country. Is it possible to really protect them in that environment?
5) Another Hollywood star who’s felt violated is Uma Thurman. Thurman was doing a charity auction. Italian Fiat heir Lapo Elkann marched up to her, visibly inebriated and gave Thurman a big open-mouth kiss. A representative for the actress says the kiss was “opportunism at its worst,” and that “she is very unhappy that this happened to her and feels violated." Is this sexual harassment, or is Uma Thurman overreacting?
6) Students at Yale University have submitted a petition for their school to abolish the Major English Poets major. The students also want the pre-1800/1900 lit requirements to include literature related to gender, race, sexuality, ableism, and ethnicity… and also, oh yeah, some writers who weren’t white guys. Should Yale dump Chaucer, Pope and T.S. Eliot to make room for other authors?
7) Let’s take a trip to a galaxy far, far away. Okay, not that far, but about 50 miles from Atlanta lies the small town of Newborn in Newton County. Justin Marling spent the night in jail there after he walked outside dressed up as a Star Wars Stormtrooper. Marling was doing this to raise money for charity, but apparently, this raised a few alarms. Marling was wearing traditional imperial armor and holding a toy blaster when he was stopped by police. He was arrested for reckless conduct and wearing a mask. Georgia law says masks aren’t allowed unless it's for a holiday or a function. Marling told WMAZ television that he’s been stopped before. Does the punishment fit the crime?
8) A convenience store chain in South Korea has launched an ice cream bar that they say can help fight hangovers. The grapefruit-flavored dessert contains less than a percent of oriental raisin tree fruit juice. It’s a traditional hangover remedy listed in a Korean medicine book from the 17th Century. How do you recover after a night of hard drinking?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeXPp1w6ySQ
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