When November 11 rolls around, it's pretty common to see this Kurt Vonnegut quote about the date trotted out, and god knows we've done it ourselves a few times in the past ourselves. But it's an awesome quote anyway, and since Vonnegut was never afraid of flirting with cliché, neither will we. Let's have a nice rummage through the mental attic with Uncle Kurt:
Yeah, I&#039;ve been to Thiepval, Tyne Cot, and Menin Gate. Those places&#039;ll make a pacifist outta most people, but the most somber place we visited was <a href="http:\/\/www.greatwar.co.uk\/ypres-salient\/cemetery-langemark.htm" target="_blank">Langemark</a>.
Now wait a minute, &quot;Gangnam Style&quot; is a hilarious send-up of the pretensions of the Korean nouveau-riche, and, was morphed perfectly into the great &quot;Mitt Romney Style&quot;, which is well worth Googling up.
I had a job as a technician in a public library. One of my jobs was to preview 16mm movies (Google it kids) for the library for possible purchase. I was the first filter. One movie came through that was an interview with Kurt Vonnegut. He came off surprising normal and I found that a little disappointing. But he seemed like the kind of guy that would have been a hell of a lot of fun to hang around.
Goddammit, the URL keeps getting screwed up. What I tried to say was: to each his own. <a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch\?v=VAl0FRjEzCA" target="_blank">June Tabor&#039;s version</a> is also worth a listen. Too.
Very thoughtful of you, Dok, not to make me cry at work by picking a <a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch\?v=iKYG2_OlNTQ" target="_blank">different</a> Eric Bogle song in remembrance of WWI.
Apparently there was nearly a riot when Bogle claimed the song as his own in an Irish bar where they were convinced it was totally the Fureys&#039;.
Maybe Armistice Day got hijacked by veterans. But there&#039;s still a day to honor the dead, although fewer and fewer remember that that is its purpose, rather than kicking off summer. It&#039;s called Memorial Day, which itself got hijacked from &quot;Decoration Day.&quot; So one day for the survivors and one day for those who didn&#039;t make it home seems like a reasonable division of holidays.
Here&#039;s Dan Wakefield, editor of Vonnegut&#039;s letters, in yesterday&#039;s<i> NYT Book Review:</i>
<blockquote> My 16-year-old goddaughter was entranced reading his short story &ldquo;Harrison Bergeron&rdquo; in high school last year, and my friend Shaun O&rsquo;Connell, an English professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, affirmed that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s hard to get students now to read Updike and Roth, but they still love Vonnegut.&rdquo; </blockquote> Tolstoy and Shakespeare don&#039;t stand a chance if popularity with college students is the standard. How&#039;s Richard Brautigan&#039;s reputation holding up these days?
Gunther? Heinz? Friedrich? Rudolf? All German boy names are<i> &uuml;bermenschlich.</i> Well, &quot;Adolf&quot; is a bit sissified.
Bravo, Mr. Twain!
Well now I know where the inspiration for the end of the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth came from...
Yeah, I&#039;ve been to Thiepval, Tyne Cot, and Menin Gate. Those places&#039;ll make a pacifist outta most people, but the most somber place we visited was <a href="http:\/\/www.greatwar.co.uk\/ypres-salient\/cemetery-langemark.htm" target="_blank">Langemark</a>.
I&#039;ll throw in some Wilfred Owen <a href="http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/..." target="_blank">" rel="nofollow noopener" title="http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html">http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/...
I was raised Unitarian so it was OK.
Now wait a minute, &quot;Gangnam Style&quot; is a hilarious send-up of the pretensions of the Korean nouveau-riche, and, was morphed perfectly into the great &quot;Mitt Romney Style&quot;, which is well worth Googling up.
I had a job as a technician in a public library. One of my jobs was to preview 16mm movies (Google it kids) for the library for possible purchase. I was the first filter. One movie came through that was an interview with Kurt Vonnegut. He came off surprising normal and I found that a little disappointing. But he seemed like the kind of guy that would have been a hell of a lot of fun to hang around.
Goddammit, the URL keeps getting screwed up. What I tried to say was: to each his own. <a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch\?v=VAl0FRjEzCA" target="_blank">June Tabor&#039;s version</a> is also worth a listen. Too.
&quot;Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.&quot; Kurt Vonnegut
Layla.
Very thoughtful of you, Dok, not to make me cry at work by picking a <a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch\?v=iKYG2_OlNTQ" target="_blank">different</a> Eric Bogle song in remembrance of WWI.
Apparently there was nearly a riot when Bogle claimed the song as his own in an Irish bar where they were convinced it was totally the Fureys&#039;.
Ah, but where do you keep your electronic thumb?
<i>Vonnegut was never afraid of flirting with clich&eacute;,</i>
He was always thinking outside the box and pushing the envelope.
Maybe Armistice Day got hijacked by veterans. But there&#039;s still a day to honor the dead, although fewer and fewer remember that that is its purpose, rather than kicking off summer. It&#039;s called Memorial Day, which itself got hijacked from &quot;Decoration Day.&quot; So one day for the survivors and one day for those who didn&#039;t make it home seems like a reasonable division of holidays.
Here&#039;s Dan Wakefield, editor of Vonnegut&#039;s letters, in yesterday&#039;s<i> NYT Book Review:</i>
<blockquote> My 16-year-old goddaughter was entranced reading his short story &ldquo;Harrison Bergeron&rdquo; in high school last year, and my friend Shaun O&rsquo;Connell, an English professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, affirmed that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s hard to get students now to read Updike and Roth, but they still love Vonnegut.&rdquo; </blockquote> Tolstoy and Shakespeare don&#039;t stand a chance if popularity with college students is the standard. How&#039;s Richard Brautigan&#039;s reputation holding up these days?
Gunther? Heinz? Friedrich? Rudolf? All German boy names are<i> &uuml;bermenschlich.</i> Well, &quot;Adolf&quot; is a bit sissified.
Nice, nice very nice.
When I was very young my mother got me a copy of Welcome to the Monkey House. Thanks mom!