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March 30, 2004 12:00 PM Subscribe
How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and not Spill Your Drink (perhaps NSFW, some Robert Williams-ish illustrations)
well, at least once. still a classic though. i retract the snark.
posted by quonsar at 12:06 PM on March 30, 2004
posted by quonsar at 12:06 PM on March 30, 2004
i retract the snark.
*makes a mark in the calendar*
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:17 PM on March 30, 2004
*makes a mark in the calendar*
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:17 PM on March 30, 2004
Good old P.J. I was always a big fan until he took to gratuitous left-bashing. And not the kind of articulate bashing that brings up legitimate points, but the kind where he assumes the worst represent the group and resorts to mocking tactics like effecting a whiny voice which supposedly all of us lefties possess. Still, Parliament of Whores is a top-notch read.
posted by vito90 at 12:25 PM on March 30, 2004
posted by vito90 at 12:25 PM on March 30, 2004
PJ O'Yawn? Aren't he and Dennis Miller cellmates now or something? Cellmates, soulmates, whatever.
I liked Holidays in Hell years and years ago though.
posted by fenriq at 12:33 PM on March 30, 2004
I liked Holidays in Hell years and years ago though.
posted by fenriq at 12:33 PM on March 30, 2004
O'Rourke jumped the shark about 15 years ago
one just needs to check out his ever-shrinking output to figure out that playing the clueless ugly American abroad for 80's-era Rolling Stones is one thing. Having something even remotely interesting (or relevant) to say about politics is entirely another.
in the Republican field of, ahem, pundits, he's been outsmarted by people like Jonah Goldberg and, you know, if it comes to booking macho jingo Republicans, well, there's women who can do the job better and more mercilessly than O'Rourke.
they're equally shallow -- but at least they look better on TV. PJ's drunken libertarian Laffer-curve-loving shtick got old pretty quick -- it kind of wilted along with the Reagan Presidency
I remember I chanced upon an almost painful reading in DC (about 1993, Olssons Metro Center) where in front of an uptight, 100% white audience (and in DC it's no small feat, sheer statistics play against that) his tired jokes kept falling invariably flat.
i retract the snark
sissy
posted by matteo at 12:41 PM on March 30, 2004
one just needs to check out his ever-shrinking output to figure out that playing the clueless ugly American abroad for 80's-era Rolling Stones is one thing. Having something even remotely interesting (or relevant) to say about politics is entirely another.
in the Republican field of, ahem, pundits, he's been outsmarted by people like Jonah Goldberg and, you know, if it comes to booking macho jingo Republicans, well, there's women who can do the job better and more mercilessly than O'Rourke.
they're equally shallow -- but at least they look better on TV. PJ's drunken libertarian Laffer-curve-loving shtick got old pretty quick -- it kind of wilted along with the Reagan Presidency
I remember I chanced upon an almost painful reading in DC (about 1993, Olssons Metro Center) where in front of an uptight, 100% white audience (and in DC it's no small feat, sheer statistics play against that) his tired jokes kept falling invariably flat.
i retract the snark
sissy
posted by matteo at 12:41 PM on March 30, 2004
natlamp culture is all over but few recognize it. you know the "buy this "X" or we'll shoot this dog" meme? a natlamp cover.
and lately i cannot help but think of a parody on the old hertz-avis ads, "what if america were a second rate world power?". hilarious shit, and perhaps prescient.
posted by quonsar at 12:54 PM on March 30, 2004
and lately i cannot help but think of a parody on the old hertz-avis ads, "what if america were a second rate world power?". hilarious shit, and perhaps prescient.
posted by quonsar at 12:54 PM on March 30, 2004
That article, along with the adventures of O.C. and Stiggs and (doug kenney's?) "Beat the Meatles" were perhaps the most influential literature of my adolescent and college years. (Yes, pity me.)
Interestingly, the dope-and-debauchery NatLamp stuff ages remarkably poorly, while the darker Michael O'Donoghue material is absolutely brilliant to this day. ("The Vietnamese Baby Book," "A Child's Letters to the Gestapo")
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:18 PM on March 30, 2004
Interestingly, the dope-and-debauchery NatLamp stuff ages remarkably poorly, while the darker Michael O'Donoghue material is absolutely brilliant to this day. ("The Vietnamese Baby Book," "A Child's Letters to the Gestapo")
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:18 PM on March 30, 2004
Yeah, P.J.'s a sad caricature of the adage that men are liberal when they're young, then when they get older, turn into complete assholes. Or something like that.
For me, Parliament of Whores was OK - even though he'd definitely turned right, he still knew how to skewer people wittily. But Give War a Chance was godawful - most notably his gut-busting rendition of the carnage on the road fron Kuwait City to Basra as a wacky traffic report ("We’ve got a real tie-up, outbound on the Basra Road this morning, due to explosion, incineration, mutilation, and death …") This is where our onetime draft-dodger thought it perfectly appropriate to quip, "It looked like a bad holiday traffic jam in the States except charred and blown-up, as though everybody in Hell had tried to go to the Hamptons on the same weekend" immediately followed by "Allied burial details were moving through the wreckage, but some bodies were still lying there, crispy and twisted in agony." Har-har! The Hamptons! Get it?
I went to his book-reading anyway, and was surprised at what a tiny little guy he is. Must be something like 4-foot-8. No, really.
posted by soyjoy at 1:40 PM on March 30, 2004
For me, Parliament of Whores was OK - even though he'd definitely turned right, he still knew how to skewer people wittily. But Give War a Chance was godawful - most notably his gut-busting rendition of the carnage on the road fron Kuwait City to Basra as a wacky traffic report ("We’ve got a real tie-up, outbound on the Basra Road this morning, due to explosion, incineration, mutilation, and death …") This is where our onetime draft-dodger thought it perfectly appropriate to quip, "It looked like a bad holiday traffic jam in the States except charred and blown-up, as though everybody in Hell had tried to go to the Hamptons on the same weekend" immediately followed by "Allied burial details were moving through the wreckage, but some bodies were still lying there, crispy and twisted in agony." Har-har! The Hamptons! Get it?
I went to his book-reading anyway, and was surprised at what a tiny little guy he is. Must be something like 4-foot-8. No, really.
posted by soyjoy at 1:40 PM on March 30, 2004
Nothing handles better than a rented car.Many a true word is spoken in jest.
Ah, memories ....
posted by dg at 3:28 PM on March 30, 2004
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posted by quonsar at 12:03 PM on March 30, 2004