The Politics Of Personal Congestion
We're exchanging respiratory infections in this house like a fast and furious card game; you lay down a nine and someone scoops it up in a second. John has trouble bringing work from school but he had no difficulty hauling this bug home. By my reckoning he's three days ahead of my wife and I. I have seen the future, then, and it involves sneezing.
My version seems to include insomnia, so I had a pleasant night reading Time magazine and learning about Saudi Arabia. This has put me hopelessly behind, considering I have a meeting tonight to moderate and work to accomplish. So I will be brief.
I went into Seattle Sunday and spent the evening with Molly Ivins and Al Franken. I have no idea if they're touring together or happened to be in town on the same night or they knew I didn't get out much so I deserved double the pleasure, which would be amazing considering I got offered a ticket at the last minute. At any rate, I had fun.
Populism and poking fun at the rich and powerful are popular up here, obviously; the house was packed and gave them a standing ovation just for walking out on stage. I don't go to political conventions or rallies, so it was interesting to be surrounded by such a partisan group. They were a happy bunch, too; the only negative reaction was a little hissing whenever Ann Coulter's name was mentioned, which I assume she gets even from her friends. Some things just come naturally.
They were a good team. Molly was friendly and let her folksy stories sort of float around Al as he ranted a bit in a very funny way. He just oozes confidence and outrage at the same time, like a guy might who has a bestseller and made a news organization he really doesn't like look stupid in court.
The Fox News battle was the best story, from his initial clash with Bill O'Reilly to the case getting laughed out of court. "When people say 'laughed out of court,'" he said, "they usually mean it figuratively. In this case, they were literally laughed out of court."
Apparently the attorney for Fox started her presentation by saying, "Your Honor, Fox News has 80 million subscribers." At which point the judge said, "Wait a minute," and it went downhill from there.
"I have cable," he said. "Does that make me a Fox News subscriber?" She didn't speak for a few moments, and then in a small voice said "Yes."
That was even funnier when Al told it. Great timing. Sort of Jack Bennyish.
The O'Reilly incident is fascinating to me. Here we have an accomplished man, a big star on Fox with bestsellers of his own, apparently a man with no sense of humor, particularly about himself, and he antagonized a comedian in a public forum. A comedian who was to follow him at the podium.
This is like standing on the other side of a four-foot fence and teasing a pit bull. The dog will jump. Oh yes.
Anyway, listening to them talk about Karl Rove and Bush made me a little nervous, as that's the subject of my Times piece, and even though it was already written I felt like putting my hands over my ears in case I stole something in retrospect, I guess. I worry way too much.
I did tweak the piece a little Monday morning, which with this one is sort of like sculpting with smoke; there's nothing substantial there, just flow and dumb jokes. At any rate, my editor was pleased with the changes and it runs on Thursday, so you can judge for yourself. I'll post a link.
Did I say something about being brief? It must be this cold.
11:30:37 AM 
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