By CLAY MERCER

My hate mail has been somewhat ‘broad spectrum’ lately, ranging from calling me an anti-Semite (for mentioning Bernie Sanders in the same sentence as ‘Hitler’ and ‘The Jewish People) to being racist (because I only did one piece on Black History and dismissed Kanye and Jayzee).
If you felt the same way about those two columns, you might want to skip ahead to Dear Abby and the Horoscopes now because today ain’t gonna be much different.  The good news is that I’m going to skip around a little bit today.  How else will people be able to accuse me of being ADD?
Let me talk about The Oscars.  Some talented, and many untalented, black actors and actresses boycotted the Oscar awards show claiming a lack of diversity in the nominees.  Now, I’m just a simple writer but my impression was that actors and actresses were nominated for their talent, not just because they were black.
I thought the BET Awards existed to make sure black people got acting awards regardless of talent.  How many white people were nominated in that lineup?
Chris Rock, a black comedian, hosted the Oscar awards and used the opportunity to complain about the lack of diversity.  I know that because I watched him do it.  In fact, during the short time I watched the Oscars, I saw more black people on stage than white people.
The next thing you know, people will be dismissing Leo DiCapprio’s Oscar by saying, “That don’t count because he didn’t have to beat a black person to win it.”
The other thing that caught my eye about the Oscars was the woman on the team that won the special effects Oscar didn’t exactly fit the Hollywood glamour and glitz image.  Not only was she on the heavy side, it looked to me like she didn’t have all her teeth.  You’d think that any woman who even thought she might be on stage at the Oscars would at least put her teeth in.
Which brings up the next subject: the big girl who’s going to be on the cover of the next Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.  Her name is Ashley Graham and, granting that it takes a little more material to cover her important parts, she does appear to be in really good shape.
Cheryl Tiegs sounded off about how ‘unhealthy’ it is for Ashley to be that big, but I chalked that up to the fact that Cheryl isn’t in the limelight any more.  Aside from walking from one end of the runway and back without falling, I don’t think Cheryl had a lot of talent.
In fact, she may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer since, the year she appeared in the crochet bathing suit, she was unaware that you could see straight through the thing. Or so she said later.  This puts her right up there with Kate Upton who said, regarding body paint, “I really thought it was awesome the way they did that until I realized that I was naked.”
Finally, today is February 29th, Sadie Hawkins Day, the day it is acceptable for women to ask a man to marry them.  At least, it is in Dogpatch, U.S.A.  I’m not sure if that’s the law of the land, so to speak.
It does prove, yet again, how wise the Founding Fathers were when they set up our government.  They put presidential elections in leap years so the politicians would have an extra day to sling mud at one another.  I know the candidates appreciate that.
See y’all next week.