May 23, 2019

Sweet? Funny? Sad? Scary?


I checked her age. She's only 62. So... I guess it's not as scary as it looked. It made me think of something the comedian Bob Goldthwait said about the TV show "Life with Lucy," which came out in 1986: "I'm getting really worried about Lucy." It was funny laughing at Lucy's physical comedy in the 1950s and 60s, but in 1986, she was 75, and she was trying to show that she still had what it takes, but we could see she was old, and we were moved not so much to laugh as to feel protective and hope she wouldn't  get hurt.



But Lisa Murkowski is 62. She can still put on a show that she's a kid at heart and up for physical hijinks... can't she? But maybe she hasn't heard that a lot of people find those motorized street scooters annoying, and a lot of people are getting hurt, including the young and youngish.

53 comments:

rhhardin said...

Somebody reporting on seeing Princess Di in a restaurant, and she'd inadvertantly had the legs of her chair on top of the bottom of her coat, struggled trying to get up.

"I didn't know Princess Di did physical comedy"

David Begley said...

Ann:

You’re still a kid at heart. You’re wide open curiosity at the world is the same.

rhhardin said...

She's after the tits and ass demographic.

gilbar said...

i know this old lawyer that still bikes all over (i think she has an electric bike, too).
But, she's a redhead (like Lucy), and we all know they're different from normal humans :)

Ann Althouse said...

I'm older than Lisa but younger than Lucy.

Birkel said...

Alaskans had a chance to do the right thing when Murkowski lost the primary.

They blew it.

Will Cate said...

Well, good for the Senator... a little fresh air, sunshine. Those scooters are a nuisance, though. We recently vacationed in San Antonio, and the scooters strewn about the downtown sidewalks are more like an obstacle course than a "green city service"

Sally327 said...

Why would that be a birthday present to one's self? It's riding down a paved street on a scooter. It's not wild or daring or anything, really, except kind of dull and so it fits Murkowski, who is also kind of dull.

Maybe it's the AOC effect, all these oldsters trying to be young and edgy, trying to seem with it (which using that phrase probably shows I'm not).

MayBee said...

The only bad thing was the "whoooo!", which was definitely an older person's "Whoooo!". She would say, "I yelled my whoo"

Laslo Spatula said...

My recollection is that Bob Goldthwait's "Shakes the Clown" was a great alcoholic-clown movie, as long as you turned it off once Robin Williams shows up as a mime.

It also has Florence Henderson waking up from a night with Shakes, her face smeared with second-hand clown make-up. That scene might've worked with Lucy, too, but Florence always had a bit of sexual frisson beneath her Brady shag -- though perhaps not as much as Shirley Jones in 'The Partridge Family'.

I am Laslo.

Fernandinande said...

Sweet? Funny? Sad? Scary?

Publicity. Hey, lookit me!

Curious George said...

Watch the video on loop. See how many "Wooooooo!s" you can get through before putting a bullet in your brain.

wwww said...

She doesn't look 60. She looks like she's having fun. How dangerous are scooters? Lots of stuff is potentially dangerous. Horseback riding, bicycle riding, ice-skating. I suppose one shouldn't do any of it if one is prone to falls.

tcrosse said...

She has to dree her weird.

MikeR said...

All right, now I'm angry. These scooters have BIG SIGNS on them: No one is allowed to ride them without a helmet. So you can't sue them, right?
They go as fast as a speeding bicycle.
I've seen dozens of people riding them in downtown Baltimore, and not one ever wore a helmet.
Maybe the Senator is setting them up for a class-action lawsuit.

rehajm said...

So was the present to herself the ride on the scooter or the scooter?

As a birthday present to himself George Bush jumped out of airplanes...

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I detest this woman.

Hagar said...

Lisa Murkowski is the D.C. representative for the family business empire back home in Alaska.

Michael said...

MayBee at 6:47 nails it. That is the saddest whoo ever. Truly cringe making.

Unknown said...

Another egomaniac. I'm sure George Washington would have done the same.

Unknown said...

And where's the helmet!

tim maguire said...

I'm not bothered by the danger to her of riding a scooter. It looks like fun. I am, however, bothered by motorized scooters. They are too fast for the side walk and too slow for the street. There is no appropriate place to ride them outside the skate park.

Some Seppo said...

Scooters are also rampant here in Nashville. I think that they should be considered "litter" and confiscated when strewn about yards, sidewalks, and streets. Let "Bird" and any other scooter company provide "corrals" for them and if found outside a corral any citizen can photograph it, deliver it to a City "litter bin" and make the scooter company pay the impoundment fee and split it with the citizen.

If businesses want to provide corrals then the scooters aren't "litter".

These things have GPS so "fake" impoundments can be challenged by the scooter company.

Otto said...

It is almost comical to see the reaction of a 67 year old boomer seeing the shadow of reality. But true to her 60s creds she just can't let go of the mantra that youth, youth, youth rules the day. You old bastards are a hazard on the sidewalks and are killing our young. Just a repeat of the old bastards sending our boys to die in Vietnam.

mockturtle said...

Juneau streets are not the best for that sort of ride. My sister bought a motorbike when she was in her late 50's and had a spill requiring a trip to the ER where they had to remove countless gravel fragments from her face. She says there are still a few in there that they missed. She is still beautiful, however, at 65.

JAORE said...

Tiny wheels = greater chance of wreck. But it's her face/limbs/skin.

If it is an attempt to be more electable, count me out - even if I was an Alaskan.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"Scooter Lib" aka RINO

wild chicken said...

She'll crash, realize what's at stake and that'll be the end of it.

I took up inline skating in my 50s but thought better of it and stopped. I could take only a few more falls...and I'm tall so golly it was a long way down.

Still ride my bike though.

gilbar said...

deliver it to a City "litter bin" and make the scooter company pay the impoundment fee and split it with the citizen.

If i parked my cycle on the sidewalk, it'd be ticketed, towed, and impounded; Would cost me about $100 to get back: EACH TIME.
How large were the bribes given to city council members that made them ignore this cash cow?

Marty Keller said...

Sigh. The self-beclowning of America continues apace. I can't wrap my mind around the shallowness of thought that presumes anyone other than her grandkids would have the slightest interest in this utterly mundane self-indulgence. The invention of the selfie (and its myriad of progenies) will rank as one of civilization's worst Trojan horses.

AZ Bob said...

If it is an attempt to be more electable, count me out - even if I was an Alaskan.

Murkowski's stunt reminds me of Elizabeth Warren awkwardly taking a slug of beer in the middle of a live Instagram. Her husband's brief cameo looks staged.

Beto doubles down with live videos of a hair cut and teeth cleaning.

Pandering to voters? These are acts of narcissism.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

@AZ Bob

it would be nice to get a compilation video of all the Dems doing
"stuff that the unter-mensch do".
"Pandermonium !!"

Me said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mark O said...

"Hey Mom. Look. She's just like us."

Michael K said...

Those scooters are dangerous. My daughter, who is in her 30s, took a tumble last summer and had to cancel out on attending a family wedding in Oregon. She didn't want anyone to see her face. Fortunately, no fractures.

She is also athletic and a frequent surfer.

J. Farmer said...

Ending is the worst..."that's awesome." It was the saddest awesome I'd ever heard.

Known Unknown said...

She should be careful. This could happen.

tommyesq said...

Elderly D Senator rides scooter through the Capital, shouting "Woooo!" Gets off scooter and immediately criticizes Trump for not being sufficiently "Presidential."

Michael Fitzgerald said...

There's never a jihadi Muslim driving a stolen truck around when you need one.

Rick.T. said...

As noted above, these scooters are a plague in Nashville. Not only a nuisance but a danger to both the rider and pedestrians when they go down the sidewalks at full speed. Somebody died this last week. The Asian carp of traffic!

Yancey Ward said...

How dangerous are scooters?

On a good, clean, consistently smooth surface, probably pretty safe for anyone under the age of 30 without osteoporosis. However, anything with small wheels is in danger of overturning on surfaces with small imperfections and debris. I am guessing that if the Senator insists on continuing to ride that, she will fall off within a year and break something.

Terry di Tufo said...

Not exactly athletic but she does look stiff and nervous doing it. I doubt we will see much of this .

Hey Skipper said...

@Birkel: Alaskans had a chance to do the right thing when Murkowski lost the primary.

They blew it.


I used to live in Anchorage. I went to a Murkowski "townhall". She's a lizard, and not in a good way.

And that was before she voted against Kavanaugh.

Jay Vogt said...

I'm 62 and I've ridden them a time or two. They're fun enough an and I really never felt very much in peril. That said, they are annoying as hell. I can't believe that they will survive as an industry. While I was riding them, I was very much aware that I was detested universally by pedestrians, bikers, bladers and drivers. Rare to get all of them to agree on anything.

Anthony said...

I think it's sweet. Awful senator, but I don't bemoan her a little fun.

readering said...

Must say, she looks damn good for 62, except maybe on that scooter.

Jim at said...

How dangerous are scooters?

The scooters themselves aren't dangerous. Many of the idiots who ride them are. To other people.

narciso said...

she looks like an ogre, but she is the toast of the Alaskan top men, we know how she behaved in the the Cavanaugh hearings,

Kansas Scout said...

I rode one in downtown Denver recently, for 3 hrs. I'm 68. Twice I nearly hit the sidewalk but frantic stepping and thrashing saved me but it's too dangerous for me to repeat. I did enjoy it. They actually can be stable unless you hit uneven sidewalk and gaps.

wildswan said...

Maybe there could be pre-debate event in which candidates do a stunt - Ride a skateboard, chug beer (not an inept swallow), ride a scooter, dance. Sort of like Hunger Games for the elite. Those who have been in combat, (not posted far out to sea) would be exempt. It could be a fun TV event and it might perform a winnowing function.

cacimbo said...

A while back you noted how AOC is showing her fellow Dems how to do twitter. Murkowski obviously did not learn the lesson. If she was home and in jeans it would have had a more natural feel. This was so phony - just awful.

cacimbo said...

Lucille Ball died in 1989.Seeing her face versus the faces of today's 75 year old Hollywood crowd- gotta say anti-aging procedures have come a long way.

Phil 314 said...

I've ridden Birds many time. A good way to go short distances in San Diego. Not good on hills. The ebikes are better