May 26, 2012

Hot Topics

CBS: 'Troubling Signs' For Obama, Like Bush in '92, But President 'Cannot Control' Economy
On and On It Goes: Networks Cover 'Predator Priests' As They Stay Silent on Catholic Liberty Lawsuits
NBC's Williams Touts L.A. Banning Plastic Bags As Effort to Keep Them 'Out of the Natural World'
Bozell, Carlson Note Media's Silence on Obama Supporter's Bribe to Hush Rev. Wright
Very Annoyed Matthews Rips ‘Horse’s Ass Right-Wingers’ Who Cite ‘Thrill Up My Leg,’ Calls C-SPAN Host a ‘Jackass’
CNN Asks Tony Perkins 'Why Do Homosexuals Bother You So Much?'
Reuters's Freeland: 'Anorexic' Americans Think Tax Bite Too Heavy When In Fact It's Dangerously Thin
Soledad O'Brien Spins Romney's Words on Bain, Suggests He's Dodging the Questions

'Bubbles' Brzezinski: SATs Were Not My Strong Suit

By Mark Finkelstein | September 20, 2007 | 06:56

Change font size: A | A

Regular readers of this space know that MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski is one of our favorites, serving up heaps of grist for our mill with her regular injections of liberal opinion into her newsreading on "Morning Joe," as here.

We'd been searching for an apt nickname for Brzezinski, and as of this morning, Mika herself has supplied one. Meet "Bubbles" Brzezinski. Mika was reading headlines from the morning's crop of newspapers, when she came across an item from the Boston Globe.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Boston Globe: "Many colleges ignore SAT writing test." I find this very interesting because SATs were not my strong suit. I probably would never have been allowed to go to college if it was based on just my SAT scores. But apparently hundreds of universities, including several top schools, are ignoring or paying little heed to students' scores on the writing section of the SAT in admissions. I never had a writing section, just bubbles.

View video here.

The witty Willie Geist [that's his hand in the screencap giving Mika a sympathetic squeeze], sitting in for the ailing Joe Scarborough [to whose discomfiture we certainly hope our item of Tuesday didn't contribute] added a bit of ageist insult to injury.

WILLIE GEIST: By the time I came around, we had writing.

BRZEZINSKI: Really?

GEIST: Yeah.

BRZEZINSKI: Are you that much younger?

GEIST: Just kidding.

BRZEZINSKI: Thanks a lot, Willie!

In all seriousness, credit Mika for her self-deprecating candor. How many among us would bare this kind of detail?

Mika Brzezinski: henceforth and forevermore, "Bubbles."

Aside: Mika graduated from Williams, one of the most highly-selective colleges in the country. According to this college admissions website, only 18.8% of applicants are admitted, and even students toward the bottom of the student body average 670 on their SATs. So if, as Mika mentioned, she "probably would never have been allowed to go to college if it was based on just my SAT scores," how did she win admission to Williams?