You can probably tell by my lack of blog postings these last few months that I haven’t been up too much. My days mostly consist of sleeping in, working out, eating, watching The Price is Right (not necessarily in that order) and very often shopping. One of my many online purchases (I live in Vernon, trust me online shopping is the way to go) was an Amazon Kindle……you know one of those fancy E-readers that you can download like 3,000 books to and then carry them all in your handbag. I’ve somehow managed to read more books in the last 3 months than in the last 3 years combined….....I credit that to my Kindle……and all my free time.
Currently I am about 70% done (I know it’s 70% because my Kindle tells me that) a great book called “Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff” which is a collection of some of the articles he has written over the past 40 years (clever title I know). The book peaked my interest after seeing the author’s appearance on The Daily Show with John Stewart (one of the greatest and most informative shows on television in my opinion…..of course an interest in American Politics is probably required to truly appreciate it.) This is the second time that John Stewart has directed me towards a great book. The first was the Thomas E. Ricks New York bestseller called “Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq”. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would really like to see how dysfunctional the Bush Administration was and how it cost the lives of many US Soldiers….....oh and how they pretty much just fucked that whole thing up.
Back to Calvin now, I’ve added the link to his October 18th appearance on the Daily Show just in case you want to watch it. On top of being a great writer, Calvin predicted the Underwear bomber back when he was on The Daily Show in 2006. Check out the video if you don’t believe me.
http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart/interviews-a-z/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart---interviews-t/clip555000#clip555000 This link will give take you to the Canadian site. Not sure if you can view it outside Canada.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-october-18-2011/calvin-trillin?xrs=share_copy Hey America, you should be able to find the video here. If you are elsewhere in the world…..sorry I’m not sure if either of these will work for you.
A few excerpts from the book:
“The fact that those marks got him into Harvard Business School is another confirmation of which class of Americans the original affirmative action system was established for” - Talking about George W. Bush in 1999
“I’m supposed to believe that the reason men tend to have more interest in, say carburetors than women do is because little boys are given trucks at Christmas instead of dolls. Really. I believed it for years. I continued to believe it even after my friend Bernie Mohler, the feminist, gave his fiver year-old daughter a catcher’s mitt for Christmas only to have her plant a marigold in it.”
“It was my wife who argued that I had no legal standing for making a citizen’s arrest of someone for performing mime in public. It’s clearer than ever that she is to blame for the children’s excessive tolerance.”
“As far as I’m concerned, “whom” is a word that was invented to make everyone sound like a butler.”
The book also includes an entire chapter of some of the poems he has written inspired by American politicians including John Edwards (Yes, I know He's a Mill Worker's Son, but There's Hollywood in That Hair), John McCain (Sweet Jesus, We Hate Him a Lot) and Sarah Palin (On a Clear Day, I see Vladivostok). Quite entertaining.
And those are just a few of the things I am truly enjoying about this book. My review: Smart, Funny, informative, fun and just an overall good read.
Julie
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