Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“I remember lying on the carpet as a child, listening to Garrison Keillor’s nose-hairs whistle faintly as he regaled the country with stories of Americana, featuring fictional sponsors like Raw Bits, Powdermilk Biscuits, and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery. These were all mildly humorous, but the humor obscured a bitter irony: You were the sponsor, whether you liked it or not. Those days might soon be over. Censorship! they cry from the echo chambers of MSDNC. They’re killing Big Bird!, say the pundits frequently enough to make a drinking game out of it. But we know a brand like Big Bird is probably too big to fail, even in the absence of tax subsidies.” (07/22/25)