Sure, it was fun to watch that angry lump of uncooked cookie dough Newt Gingrich get covered in glitter at a Minneapolis book signing.
And to see Tim "What's-His-Name" Pawlenty treated to a glitter-pink shower at the Moscone Center last week.
And even to catch Michele Bachmann's disappointing near-miss in Minnesota over the weekend. Seriously, in this case the protester doesn't so much glitterbomb Bachmann as she does salt her like a diabetic's grilled chicken -- so gently you wouldn't even notice.
But all that pales compared with the single greatest moment in filmed shaming of antigay public figures.
In 1977 Anita Bryant took a pie. A pop-gospel singer who participated in antigay campaigns across the country, Bryant had recently led the drive in Dade County, Florida, to repeal legislation prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals. (She called her effort "Save Our Children," of course.)
Voters repealed the law, and soon, during an appearance in Des Moines, Bryant got hit with something worse than glitter.
"At least it's a fruit pie," she cracks, managing to be horrible and unsympathetic even on the verge of tears. If ever there was a time for glitter, it's then: when the face of the shamed public figure is sticky with cream.
Pied-and-glittered could be the new tar-and-feathered!
A few years ago I discovered evidence of just how hated Anita Bryant was. (And then I wrote it up in a Studies in Crap column for The Village Voice.) At a thrift store in Kansas City, I found a copy of Bryant's LP Abide with Me.
This was scrawled on the back.
We, uh, make no claims for the veracity of these statements.
Hey, you could do worse than following @studiesincrap or @ExhibitionistSF on the Twitter thing.
