Tuesday, July 15, 2008

NEW YORKER COVER, BILL BENNETT AND ME

I was going to get right to this, and blog my head off about the New Yorker cover, but I'm getting ready to go to China for 3 weeks and am going nuts getting ready. I always get pretty anxious before going on a big trip, because, like everyone else, I'm worried that I'll forget something important like my toner, or favorite something. Everything I'd ever need is made in China, so what am I worried about?

But I've been pretty upset by that cover, and immediately canceled my subscription. My excuse was that the magazine has gotten pretty tabloidy, anyway, these days what with all of their boring celebrity profiles. I mean they try and make these incredibly ordinary people, so hip, so cool and after you're finished reading about them, you don't want a smoke, you just kind of scratch your head, and wonder why you just spent 20 minutes of your precious fleeting time reading crap because it's in the New Yorker. While I had an inkling, I never knew George Clooney was so dull.

Anyhow, I got the magazine today and took it with me to the sushi bar - I always have a sushi meal before I leave town just in case it's the last meal I'll ever have - and read this totally fun article about shopping in Shanghai by Patricia Marx that made me remember why I've gotten the New Yorker for oh, so many years. It was so en point, and so well written, and she made Shanghai sound so fun and funny...I can't wait!

Oh, I'm going to China for about 3 weeks and I'll try and blog a bit but I'm actually very happy to be away from the computer. FYI: I'm going to see the solar eclipse in the Gobi desert on the 31st, and touring around before then. If you ever get a chance to see a solar eclipse, and as beautiful as lunar eclipses are, do try and get to a solar eclipse once in your life...it's cosmic.

So, last night I saw Bill Bennett and James Carville duke it out on some talking puke-head show about the now pukey-infamous New Yorker cover, and I found myself agreeing with Bill Bennett for the first time in my entire life. And he didn’t look half bad compared to the live-action, cartoon that is James Carville. Man, can that guy get any weirder looking? Hey, he got his panties in a twist because he thought people were somehow picking on Hillary, because she’s a girl, about her looks, so I feel it’s AOK to pick on him. As I was saying, this guy is some cartoonist’s idea of a camel fart. Besides, can you understand what he’s saying? I caught just enough to hear that he was endorsing free speech and pontificated – no, that’s not the right word for him, more like ‘spewed’ - that satire was ok because it was political and it went back to the stone age or some such incomprehensible bullshit…what the hell, I didn’t get past that. Who knows what he the hell he was saying, and who cares.

My take on this is that he hates Obama, and anything that will take him down is good. Watch him seething with disgust, practically drooling venom as he garbles something just intelligible enough to hear that he’s 'down' with the cover. He thinks he's so sneaky the way he undermines Obama and tries to trash the Conqueror who dethroned Mr. Carville’s Queen. Everyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of Republicans, but what in the WORLD does Mary Matalin see in that guy? I defy anyone to say he’s crazy sexy.

Anyone, I’m off topic here…so, I was saying that I agreed with Bill Bennett, which is setting off alarm bells as we speak. He absolutely seemed so reasonable about this. Does this make people who were outraged by the cover, uh, conservative? I’m not going there except to say, at times, there are idealogic convergences that are best left unexplained.

My bet is that there will be t-shirts aplenty with that cartoon image, and guess who'll be wearing them. Thanks, David Remnick, super sophisticated sophisticate who made a big mistake and can't admit it. Here is a real instance where an elitist just doesn't get it.

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