In recent days we have seized upon the
silliness of the steak knife, the endur-
ing allure of early Hitchcock, and even
the gothic Hogarthians who run the leg-
islature in North Carolina as inmates
of Charenton under the direction of the
late Marquis. It was with some surprise,
therefore, that we discovered our child-
hood hometown newspaper, The Los Angeles
Times, midway just now upon a methodical
dissection of the plainly over-arching
subject of the season, the destruction
of the republic and the trashing of as
much of the world as possible, by self-
confessed enthusiasts for terrorism.
A taste for silliness, style, and hilar-
ity, meanwhile, has been ingeniously be-
friended in the rhetorical tournament
being refereed by Alexandra Petri, at
The Washington Post, now in the finals
between the two most glorious pronounce-
ments of the new government, Conway's
on alternative facts vs. the master's
own, on the complexity of health care.
People are still training samurai swords
on their tenderloins, squirming breath-
lessly to treacherous blondes on film,
and tearing the wings off flies in Ral-
eigh, but Alexandra Petri and The LA
Times are way out in front in exposing
these distractions for their underlying
projection of the general trauma. To
the Times, for taking our Augean stable
seriously, and to Ms Petri, for ranking
the manure through the steam, we extend
glad thanks for allowing us all a rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment