Follow-Up Fact
Just as an FYI, a few people were concerned about the "Pimp My Life" entry. I thought it was a rather clever adaptation of "Pimp My Ride," but alas, not everyone agreed.
Well, I was just online at Oprah's website (I know, I know, it took me a while to decide that I was even going to WRITE slash ADMIT that, but whatever. I sacrifice my dignity for the greater good, I suppose) and on Oprah's site, there's this link to "Upgrade Your Life." Now, look, wouldn't you be more enticed to click "Pimp My Life," than "Upgrade Your Life"? For one, as I've learned as a middle school teacher, it's important to put the audience in the first-person to make it more urget and relatable. "My" already beats out "Your." And really, there's no contest between "Pimp" and "Upgrade." "Upgrade" sounds so technical, and "Pimp" is just full of life and energy and fun. Most important, and so Oprah-like, "Upgrade" implies that YOU are doing the work; you, in fact, are doing the upgrading. "Pimp" is more of a command. It's demanding someone do it for you. I vote a definitive yes for my version over Oprah's. I seriously think I beat her at something. That's gotta be worth something.
I considered this and wrote the following feedback letter to Oprah's minions at Oprah.com:
Dear Oprahs minions,
While perusing your website, I saw that you have a tab entitled "Upgrade Your Life." There's probably someone being paid a lot of money to come up with ways for people to upgrade their lives, but the truth is, you really should have titled it "Pimp My Life" and paid someone to just combine everything that Oprah's already got going on: Nate Berkus's house stuff, the financial woman's financial tips, and whichever therapist-of-the-month Oprah about whose theories Oprah is pontificating. You could basically show all of these people pimping other people's lives. Now, you might say, "But then this is not upgrading the reader's life," and you would be right. But let's face it: the reader won't upgrade his or her (okay, her) life anyway, because your tips will really only help people who have the resources of Nate or those other people I mentioned. Or, you'll just show a bunch of examples of someone's upgraded life (but those examples secretly have the resources of Nate and company) and the person will believe that these changes are done with the things they, too, have, but that's not true. So, they'll fail, and then they'll wish that their lives could have just been upgraded as easily as it seemed to be. This brings me to my real point, that you should have titled it "Pimp My Life," which is my concept, because it asks someone to do the work for you. It recognizes that you probably won't be able to upgrade your life without help of the people who have the resources in the first place. Sure, it's a little wishful thinking, and sure, it's not doing the work yourself, but when it comes down to it, it's hipper and more fun and it's also about as realistic as thinking someone's going to write down and follow all those stupid upgrade tips you have anyway. Please pass my ideas onto Op.
Love,
ESC
PS If you go with the "Pimp My Life" suggestion, I'd like monetary compensation or an invitation to Oprah's Favorite Things show, where she comes closest to pimping everyone's life by giving away thousands of dollars of stuff. Thanks.
Well, I was just online at Oprah's website (I know, I know, it took me a while to decide that I was even going to WRITE slash ADMIT that, but whatever. I sacrifice my dignity for the greater good, I suppose) and on Oprah's site, there's this link to "Upgrade Your Life." Now, look, wouldn't you be more enticed to click "Pimp My Life," than "Upgrade Your Life"? For one, as I've learned as a middle school teacher, it's important to put the audience in the first-person to make it more urget and relatable. "My" already beats out "Your." And really, there's no contest between "Pimp" and "Upgrade." "Upgrade" sounds so technical, and "Pimp" is just full of life and energy and fun. Most important, and so Oprah-like, "Upgrade" implies that YOU are doing the work; you, in fact, are doing the upgrading. "Pimp" is more of a command. It's demanding someone do it for you. I vote a definitive yes for my version over Oprah's. I seriously think I beat her at something. That's gotta be worth something.
I considered this and wrote the following feedback letter to Oprah's minions at Oprah.com:
Dear Oprahs minions,
While perusing your website, I saw that you have a tab entitled "Upgrade Your Life." There's probably someone being paid a lot of money to come up with ways for people to upgrade their lives, but the truth is, you really should have titled it "Pimp My Life" and paid someone to just combine everything that Oprah's already got going on: Nate Berkus's house stuff, the financial woman's financial tips, and whichever therapist-of-the-month Oprah about whose theories Oprah is pontificating. You could basically show all of these people pimping other people's lives. Now, you might say, "But then this is not upgrading the reader's life," and you would be right. But let's face it: the reader won't upgrade his or her (okay, her) life anyway, because your tips will really only help people who have the resources of Nate or those other people I mentioned. Or, you'll just show a bunch of examples of someone's upgraded life (but those examples secretly have the resources of Nate and company) and the person will believe that these changes are done with the things they, too, have, but that's not true. So, they'll fail, and then they'll wish that their lives could have just been upgraded as easily as it seemed to be. This brings me to my real point, that you should have titled it "Pimp My Life," which is my concept, because it asks someone to do the work for you. It recognizes that you probably won't be able to upgrade your life without help of the people who have the resources in the first place. Sure, it's a little wishful thinking, and sure, it's not doing the work yourself, but when it comes down to it, it's hipper and more fun and it's also about as realistic as thinking someone's going to write down and follow all those stupid upgrade tips you have anyway. Please pass my ideas onto Op.
Love,
ESC
PS If you go with the "Pimp My Life" suggestion, I'd like monetary compensation or an invitation to Oprah's Favorite Things show, where she comes closest to pimping everyone's life by giving away thousands of dollars of stuff. Thanks.
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