“I’m not running, I’m not planning on running,” Mitt Romney told Fox News regarding the 2016 presidential election. “My time has come and gone. I had that opportunity. I ran and didn’t win.” Well, Mitt is a pretty smart guy, and I think his take here is 100% accurate, but I just wish that he…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. Move along
Say, what was all that fuss down in Ferguson about, anyway? According to This Town author Mark Leibovich, it’s just a lot of hot air from, you know, the media. “In a less media-saturated time, we might have gone on to consider this serious news event on its own terms, with journalists providing facts and…
Advice to screenwriters, while there is still time
The next time an Hispanic maid (or, really, any other person) discovers a dead body, don’t have her say “Madre de dios!” Have her say something like “Damn! This dude is dead!” or “Shit! I ain’t cleaning this up!” Something like that. I would really appreciate it.
Yeah, we’re in California
Over at the Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf highlights the latest in Bay Area let them eat radicchio greed/stupidity/self-indulgence: subsidized urban farming, a new way for the wealthy to indulge their liberal guilt, boost their property values, and reduce their real estate taxes all at the same time. Rich liberals can donate the crops they raise to…
James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide, Part 24
INTRODUCTION This is the 24th episode of “James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide,” a rambling consideration of Thurber’s works, examining his life and work in some detail. Generally, these appear every Friday. The links to the first part and the most recent part are given below. Part 24 is given over almost entirely to discussions of…
Nicholas Burns, fortunately no longer with the State Department
“It was one of the most unfortunate weeks of his [Obama’s] presidency,” moaned Nicholas Burns, former State Department official (under George Bush), now at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, to intrepid Politico reporters Josh Gerstein and David Nather, referring to that shocking occasion when President Obama actually consulted with Congress before launching an assault on…
Meet the new liberators, same as the old liberators
In the past, I’ve raved, or at least praised, Pankaj Mishra and his book, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia. In his book, Mishra quotes a testy Egyptian on the original liberators of the benighted East, the army of Napoleon Bonaparte: “It is their custom not to bury their dead but…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. All cartoons here. and here “I’d like to order either an Uzi or about 60 pounds of salmon steaks.” “Usually he only shows up to watch the Mickey Mouse Club, but lately he’s been coming a lot earlier.” “They can’t read minds, can they? Because I think he’s reading my mind.” “Hey,…
MONK’estra Big Band—“Oska T”
John Beasley Conductor/Arranger, definitely takes his time to get to the melody, but once he does the sound makes the wait worth while. Here’s the line-up: SAX: Bob Sheppard, Jeff Driskill, Justo Almario, Tom Luer, Tommy Peterson TRUMPET: Bijon Watson, Willie Murillo, Ray Monterio, Brian Swartz, Gabe Johnson TROMBONE: Francisco Torres, Wendell Kelly, Steve Hughes,…
Guardians of the Galaxy: Raccoons are Jewish. Who Knew?
Yeah, I definitely think that Rocket Raccoon knows from knishes, you know what I’m saying? He talks like a digitized Phil Silvers. And Groot is a cross between Mother Nature, Jesus Christ, and the Jolly Green Giant. As for the rest of the film, well, the chicks’ boobs could have been bigger, and, of course,…