November 9, 2002
NaNoWriMo Day 9
How many times did you curse the EPA because it
got in the way of some concrete you wanted to pour?
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Millions of leaves. Hours
and hours of moving leaves.
Why?
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note: Saving Private Ryan
was on TV tonight, it's important to hear a counterpoint, i have
taken the following totally out of context,
caution, viewer discretion is strongly advised:
Here, the answer to the film's
purported "big" question "Have I led a
good life?" is answered. Hell yes.
Look at these blonde babes my genes
have launched. It's Aryan eugenics
hybridized with Hollywood's sense of the
good life. If the Nazis had won, and
Hitler had settled down in Burbank, he
wouldn't have thought any different.
Or, more reasonably, well, how the hell are we
supposed to know if the poor son of a bitch led a
good life? His wife doesn't look beat up.
But that nose! How much gin did you
knock back, papa? How much TV did you watch?
How many peaceniks did you rail against during Vietnam?
How many Nazis did you help elect to
Congress, with your little democratic ballot, so like a bullet to the rest
of the world? What do you think of Rush
Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich? Do you hate the
eggheads as much as Spielberg seems to think you should?
How many times did you curse the EPA because it got in the way of
some concrete you wanted to pour?
Sorry if these questions are inappropriate, if
they interrupt this orgy of amour propre uniting
VFW dads and their contrite middle aged sons. (Hasn't
that been a scene at the local cineplex!) I'm
patient. I can
wait for your response. I'll be sitting here
whistling something incorrigible. Say,
Frank Zappa's "Bow Tie Daddy."
Don't try to do no thinkin'
Just go on with your drinkin'
Have your fun, you old son of a gun
And drive off in your Lincoln.
Curtis White,
American author, from an essay titled
Saving Private Ryan: Don't try to do no thinkin'.
The entire essay is available at:
http://www.centerforbookculture.org/context/no1/white.html
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