News You Can Bruise for 2008 January 4

From that we go way, way downmarket to misleading TV gadget ads, including an early one from 1985. Sumana and I have always loved the actors who feign cartoonish incompetence at everyday tasks so as to make the product advertised look more useful. I never know the intended register of those scenes. Do the rubes who buy the gadgets see the incompetence scenes as mere Seinfeld-esque exaggerations of real everyday problems?

Anyway, that reminded us of the Rototron Cornbobber, so we had to watch that again. Rick Lax, who wrote and co-starred in the infomercial, now has a law school weblog. You, sir, are a mouthful!