I was riding on the metro last week, about 7 PM, listening to the two young women in front of me. “He’s like a total monarchist,” one of them said. This was way over my head. Was this a new putdown? A riff on the less savory aspects of the Bush fils presidency, or at…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Humor at the New Yorker. No, I’m NOT kidding!
In the past, it’s true, I have on occasion made fun of the New Yorker, driven beyond endurance by its obsessive orotundity, but this squib by David Owen is pretty funny.
Justice Scalia, very big, very fat liar
In his already infamous dissent in Boumedienne v. Bush, Justice Scalia released a massive volley of palpable falsehoods, including this one: “At least 30 of those prisoners hitherto released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to the battlefield.” Nino has an obsession with “the battlefield.” His use of “returned” is intended to make us believe that…
Obsessive-compulsive factoid o’ the day
“Deësis” is an example of “diæresis.” That is, the two dots over the second “e” in “deësis” form a diacritical mark indicating that the second “e” is to be pronounced separately from the first. “Deësis,” from the Greek δέηοις (“prayer”), refers to any art work depicting Christ enthroned, with the Virgin on one side and…
David Broder is a liar
Ken Silverstein blows a massive hole in David Broder’s credibility right here. The trouble started with reports that Big Dave was giving speeches at political fund-raising events and lobbbyists’ conventions. Broder refused to speak to Silverstein about this, because reporters don’t have to answer questions, and, when asked about it by Washington Post omsbudsman Deborah…
Can’t stop the schadenfreude
I know that similar documents, expressing the horrors that await unwary interns in the offices of Democratic senators and representatives, surely exist, but that won’t stop me from linking to this “do’s and don’t’s” list for those brave Alaskans working for Rep. Don Young, the Republican most famous for engineering funding for the Bridge to…
Milton Coleman, a brother in the barrio
Hugo Chavez and Milton Coleman Last week, the Washington Post ran a stultifyingly stupid “essay” by Post Editor Milton Coleman, describing in absurd detail Coleman’s encounter with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Hugo’s bad-boy swagger had Coleman weak in the knees from the get-go, and nine hours later, well, let Milton tell it: “We exchanged smiles,…
Two-fisted financier, seeks someone to fist
I’ve always been a fan of capitalism, even though it sure hasn’t been making me rich these days, but if you want a picture of Wall Street’s seamy side, check out James J. Cramer’s cri de cœur, “Last One Left, Please Turn Out the Lights—Wall Street is in the midst of its biggest, ugliest, worst…
Get them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow dept.
In Inside Higher Ed, Jack Stripling notes that Owen Cargol, until recently head of the U.S.-funded “American University of Iraq,” left his position as head of Northern Arizona University back in 2001 in part because of the publication of an email from Owen to a NAU employee describing himself as “a rub-your-belly, grab-your-balls, give-you-a-hug, slap-your-back,…
A World Without Thelonious?
Fortunately, we don’t have to face that prospect. Thelonious Monk has been in the grave for more than 20 years, but his music lives on, in dozens of his own CDs and dozens more that other musicians have recorded in honor of his genius. But how, you may ask, can one select from the dozens…