Did you watch the newest coverage of the current American president's doing? Did this make you horribly depressed? Are you ambiguous about your own country? Do you want companionship? Pick up this collection of essays now. Sarah Vowell, who wrote articles for Salon and beautiful audio essay for This American Life is not going to solve your problems, but she will feel like a friend, someone you can whine with. Also, she knows more than you do.
My favourite essays are "Ike was a Handsome Man" because I am too ambiguous about Clinton and usually end up being deeply sentimental, considering how you could easily find Clinton sympathetic and smart, regardless of his politics. Isn't it reassuring that he nearly lost his job for keeping an affair secret, whereas we are nowadays threatened with a president that dismisses the habeas corpus principle and other such minor things, freedom of speech etc? Vowell also talks about Al Gore who seems to have a place in her heart. In "The Nerd Voice" she explains in detail why he did not become president and compares him to Willow from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Nerds of his generation have never learned to deal with their nerdness. Why would an American president have to be sorry for knowing stuff? It seems that Americans are rather unforgiving of knowledge.
"I wish that in order to secure his party's nomination, a presidential candidate would be required to point at the sky and name all the stars; have the periodic table of the elements memorized; rattle of the kings and queens of Spain; define the significance of the Gatling gun; joke around in Latin; interpret the symbolism in seventeenth-century Dutch painting; explain photosynthesis to a six-year-old; recite Emily Dickinson; bake a perfect popover; build a short-wave radio out of a coconut; and know all the words to Hoagy Carmichael's "Two Sleepy People", Johnny Cash's "Five Feet high and Rising", and "You Got the Silver" by the Rolling Stones. After all, the United States is the greatest country on earth dealing with the most complicated problems in the history of the world – poverty, pollution, justice, Jerusalem. What we need is a president who is at least twelve kinds of nerd, a nerd messiah to come along every four years, acquire the Secret Service code name Poindexter, install a Revenge of the Nerds screensaver on the Oval Office computer, and one by one decrypt our woes."
Isn't that adorable? You want to carry this book around as a manifesto of your protest against the growing number of politicians who can only talk and look nice on TV.
Of course, Vowell can not go without mentioning her beloved Lincoln – every time anyone mentions any of his speeches (four score and seven years ago) I burst out laughing, happened only some days ago when I was watching the Daria episode "Depth takes a Holiday". She also likes the absurdities, well, the "weird stuff".
Sarah Vowell is sentimental about America. It is her specific kind of Patriotism I can handle, although Patriotism is always cloudy for me. She believes in the idea of this country, which makes her even more sad when she sees the idea spoilt and exploited. You want to hug her and tell her that everything is going to be ok, but then, you already know better than to do so. Whenever the news are too dark, read this book. You are not alone.
My favourite essays are "Ike was a Handsome Man" because I am too ambiguous about Clinton and usually end up being deeply sentimental, considering how you could easily find Clinton sympathetic and smart, regardless of his politics. Isn't it reassuring that he nearly lost his job for keeping an affair secret, whereas we are nowadays threatened with a president that dismisses the habeas corpus principle and other such minor things, freedom of speech etc? Vowell also talks about Al Gore who seems to have a place in her heart. In "The Nerd Voice" she explains in detail why he did not become president and compares him to Willow from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Nerds of his generation have never learned to deal with their nerdness. Why would an American president have to be sorry for knowing stuff? It seems that Americans are rather unforgiving of knowledge.
"I wish that in order to secure his party's nomination, a presidential candidate would be required to point at the sky and name all the stars; have the periodic table of the elements memorized; rattle of the kings and queens of Spain; define the significance of the Gatling gun; joke around in Latin; interpret the symbolism in seventeenth-century Dutch painting; explain photosynthesis to a six-year-old; recite Emily Dickinson; bake a perfect popover; build a short-wave radio out of a coconut; and know all the words to Hoagy Carmichael's "Two Sleepy People", Johnny Cash's "Five Feet high and Rising", and "You Got the Silver" by the Rolling Stones. After all, the United States is the greatest country on earth dealing with the most complicated problems in the history of the world – poverty, pollution, justice, Jerusalem. What we need is a president who is at least twelve kinds of nerd, a nerd messiah to come along every four years, acquire the Secret Service code name Poindexter, install a Revenge of the Nerds screensaver on the Oval Office computer, and one by one decrypt our woes."
Isn't that adorable? You want to carry this book around as a manifesto of your protest against the growing number of politicians who can only talk and look nice on TV.
Of course, Vowell can not go without mentioning her beloved Lincoln – every time anyone mentions any of his speeches (four score and seven years ago) I burst out laughing, happened only some days ago when I was watching the Daria episode "Depth takes a Holiday". She also likes the absurdities, well, the "weird stuff".
Sarah Vowell is sentimental about America. It is her specific kind of Patriotism I can handle, although Patriotism is always cloudy for me. She believes in the idea of this country, which makes her even more sad when she sees the idea spoilt and exploited. You want to hug her and tell her that everything is going to be ok, but then, you already know better than to do so. Whenever the news are too dark, read this book. You are not alone.
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