I saw Alex Trebek hosting Jeopardy from USC’s campus but I did not recognize the building he was in. It was an old building I had never seen … hmm, that means I haven’t been on USC's campus since they gave me a degree in 1980! All those women who received free candy bars from me when I was working on a campus snack truck are now pushing 50 years of age! They’re probably not even gorgeous anymore, just incredibly beautiful and glamorous.
If this were Jeopardy, the categories might be:
-- ARE YOU RIGHT-BRAINED?
-- ARE YOU BACK-BRAINED?
-- IS YOUR CONSCIENCE UNDER-USED?
I’ll save the answers for later. Maybe you can answer another question for me, such as, what’s the matter with college kids today? Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every way?
How are today’s kids different? Listen to what scientists are saying:
“If you ever sense teenagers are not taking your feelings into account, it's probably because they're just incapable of doing so ….”
In other words, when you ask your teenagers if they are ignorant or apathetic, their real answer is, “I don’t care.”
Scientists add, “The area of the brain associated with higher-level thinking, empathy, and guilt is under-used by teenagers, according to a new study. When considering an action, the teenage medial prefrontal cortex, located in front of the brain, doesn't get as much action as adults.”
For those of you looking for a name to go with a quote, I offer the following:
"Thinking strategies change with age," said Sarah-Jayne Blakemore of the University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. "As you get older you use more or less the same brain network to make decisions about your actions as you did when you were a teenager, but the crucial difference is that the distribution of that brain activity shifts from the back of the brain (when you are a teenager) to the front (when you are an adult)."
Producers are much like teenagers. I once read that a prodco (Hollywood lingo) responded to queries from licensed agents. So my agent, who was signatory to the Writers’ Guild, sent them a query … which they refused to read because they only responded to agents well known to them!
So, having an established agent isn’t good enough. Producers have to know the particular agent well or they won’t read any query letters.
Let’s see. How can my agent (if I have one) get him or herself well-known to the executive producer? Hmmm. How about if he or she invites him or her to a party and offers him/her a he/she? Or maybe they could offer cash, drugs, power and revenge -- which Jim Morrison would call just a normal night out in L.A. Remember, don’t get into your convertible Mercedes Benz and head for the Viper Room, Snake Pit or Scorpion Lounge before 11 pm. It’s considered un-cool.
My answers to the questions above:
-- ARE YOU RIGHT-BRAINED? Yup.
-- ARE YOU BACK-BRAINED? Not anymore.
-- IS YOUR CONSCIENCE UNDER-USED? To quote Harry Chapin: “Although my brain is still a virgin, the rest of me is well-done.”
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