When others chimed in that Costolo seemed not to be taking the issue seriously, he suddenly became solemn: "I *think* I have an acute understanding of the topic & host of related issues," he wrote.
But the mood became solemn when the discussion turned to the significance of a dark cat lying on a dark floor, a Christmas tree trimmed in gold and a deranged woman with flowing hair running on a secluded beach.
And they've done so in ways that straight news programs cannot: speaking truth to power in blunt, sometimes profane language, while using satire and playful looniness to ensure that their political analysis never becomes solemn or pretentious.
With the in-house experts having ruled in favor of Obama once again, the personalities on-air became solemn and bemoaned the defeat of the "classy" and "not Wall Street person" Romney, while images of celebratory Obama fans danced alongside them.
He noted that if a regular person won the lottery, he might roll around on the floor, kicking his legs up with glee, but when bankers won their arbitrary lottery, they instead became solemn, pompous, overwhelmed with their own importance and stateliness.
But instead of wisely simply accepting his offer, the mood of the naive, formerly flirtaceous Rhinemaidens suddenly becomes solemn: they warn Siegfreid he will be killed that very day unless he delivers the ring to them.
"Still, he and his writers have energetically tackled the big issues of the day... in ways that straight news programs cannot: speaking truth to power in blunt, sometimes profane language, while using satire and playful looniness to ensure that their political analysis never becomes solemn or pretentious".
Despite the turgid prose, the wooden dialogue, and the fact that the apes exhibit more complexity than the humans, the Tarzan novels have become a solemn cultural fixation.
And Father's Day, a holiday about which I had once felt vaguely cynical -- a boring American holiday that I could ignore -- has slowly become a solemn day for loving and remembering the man I respectfully call "Baba".
