Hitch your wagon to his star, Mr. Star!

Kudos, with big sparkling knobs on, to Vinay Menon for one of the very few classy bits of writing I've seen in the Toronto Star--bar the odd Richard Gwyn column--for nigh on two years. His fodder? The concept for this season's run of Survivor: apparently something along the lines of a race riot. Highlights from the piece include:

Describing an interview between Harry Smith and Jeff Probst on CBS's The Early Show:

"I have to tell you when I woke up early this morning and I started reading through this stuff I was stunned and, quite frankly, I was dismayed," said Smith, still visibly stunned and dismayed.

Following the observation that the obvious reason why Survivor suffers a lack of diversity is because 80% of the applicants are white, Menon writes:

So if you want more diversity on Survivor, get the minorities on side. What's that, Pedro, your family fled a wartorn country to build a new life in America? Perfect. We'd like you to spend 30 days on this remote, bug-infested island where your starvation and daily humiliations will tickle millions of viewers.

And, regarding the possibility of politically inexpedient missteps on the show:

Sure, the more egregious stuff will be easy to avoid. I mean, don't expect to see a reward challenge that has White Tribe playing basketball against Black Tribe for a bucket of fried chicken. And don't expect to see Asian Tribe vie for immunity in a calculus contest.

Something tells me a sense of humour like this will see Mr. Menon into a bit of soup, given the Star's largely irony-deficient readership. Still, I'm rather hopeful that he'll be made Editor-in- Chief.