Books: August 2003 Archives

Am reading, and thoroughly enjoying Al Franken's book. Also enjoyed this interview...

--> www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/articles/A58846-2003Aug28.html

Gee, for a network that brought us "The Simpsons" and "Futurama", Fox sure seems to lack, well, a sense of humor. Consider their new lawsuit against Al Franken and the publishers of his upcoming book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, in which they claim that Franken's "intent is clear — to exploit Fox News' trademark, confuse the public as to the origins of the book and, accordingly, boost sales of the book."

As anybody who has been unlucky enough to experience Fox News' brand of "fair and balanced" reporting, there can't be any brand confusion there.

Good going guys. I was going to buy the book anyway, because I loved Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, but now maybe I'll pick up a few extra copies for friends and relatives. I don't think any of them will think Fox News had anything to do with the production of the book, but they may think, as do I, that Fox network is the big fat idiot of 2003.

(Or perhaps they are acknowleging that the audience they have been targeting with their right-wing propaganda is stupid enough to think that this book is a production of Fox.)

--> "Fox sues Franken over 'fair and balanced'", CNN, www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/books/ 08/12/foxnews.lawsuit.ap/index.html

Just finished reading one of the books from Virago Modern Classics, The Brimming Cup by Dorothy Canfield, written just after the end of the first World War. It takes place in rural Vermont and focuses on the year in the life of a wife and mother named Marise, who goes through early midlife existential angst precipitated by her youngest child going off to school and the arrival of an attractive new neighbor who has designs on her.

It took me over a month to get through it because I kept putting it down and reading other things. On the one hand, the writing... is — very — oh so... dramatic, and overwrought at times. So! many! exclamation points... and ... ellipses!

Yet underneath that is a well-written and enjoyable melodrama, and underneath that are some interesting reflections on human nature, mortality and immortality, what helps people get through the day, and how to find something to believe in when your old beliefs are no longer enough. It also sounds like Marise and her husband Neale have a really healthy marriage, and I like to think that when their kids are grown, they'll get to leave their house in rural Vermont from time to time for some extended vacations in Europe. (Though due to the timing of the book's events, that would place their retirement during World War II... )