Parade of Ignorance

I know I'm the only one who still reads Parade magazine. So I assume I'm also the only one who notices the incredibly stupid questions that are occasionally selected in the Personality Parade column. Of course, almost all of the questions are inane -- that goes with the territory -- but these questions rise to a level of idiocy that almost has to be intentional an the part of the editors.

From a May 30 feature about Kristin Chenoweth, the Broadway musical star who made her mark with soaring vocal work as Glinda in Wicked. The initial question: "Some readers have asked if you did your own singing when you appeared recently on Glee."

To which Chenoweth was forced to give this answer: "Oh, wow. Well, I was trained in voice and I have a master's in it, so, yeah."

From April 11: "I've heard that First Lady Michelle Obama has 17 assistants who cost the public more than $1.5 million a year. I've also heard that Laura Bush had only one assistant. True? Answer: Not true. This subject has produced a lot of mail. In fact, Mrs. Obama has a staff of 24, with a total payroll in the vicinity of $1.5 million. Mrs. Bush had a staff of 25, at a similar cost to taxpayers. "While every First Lady approaches the job differently, the duties, obligations, and opportunities for the office of the First Lady have increased dramatically over the years," a highly placed White House source explains."

From May 23: "Wasn't there a TV show called V in the 1990s, also based on human-alien interactions? Is there a connect between it and the new V on ABC?"

From May 9: "With Pope Benedict XVI much in the news lately, I wonder: Has there ever been an American pope?"

Although I suppose the hardest thing to believe among all this is that Personality Parade still gets any questions at all, given that burbling fountain of information called the Internet.