Palin made her daughter's inconvenient pregnancy an issue, often, then convenient, so I find the joke(s) fair game. I'm a female, got knocked up at 18 and brought the birth full term, even if I wasn't your typical 'hillbilly trash' (not my words, mon dieu) but as a feminist and the rest of it, I find the jokes funny.
Letterman's funny in the exact same way Dawn Powell's funny. They both laugh at the middle class. They're both from the mid-west, humble, frank, witty, simply happy to be in the big city, taking the mickey outta the blessed middle class of america and our fellow fools on the make.
When reading the deep and over the top analysis of bloggers and commenter's this lazy saturday morn while mio marito goes off to watch his beloved All Blacks (rugby's a religion, not a sport, apparently) I need to remind myself that Palin strikes a chord with people obsessed by class. She's obsessed with her own 'class' and she feels terrifically slighted that her mom and dad didn't give her a passport to study abroad while attending any of the 6 colleges in which she did attend.
I'm sorry for Sarah, I mean, I got a passport and studied abroad and it was just swell all the way ''round. I'm still friends with the tony group of Ivy Leaguers from the east coast I lived with in the stylish 'dorms' down the street from Harrods, in fact, I'm still friends with the fabulous english actors I knew while working as an intern at a theatre in London...I can't tell you how utterly fabulous it was, in fact, that's exactly why I live on this side of the pond.
It's unfortunate she feels she missed out, I had to work hard and write well in order to get into this program even if my beloved Muv did foot the bill, but somehow I think she's doing alright...I even think The Governor and Todd may become the first couple of the blessed United States of America. Sarah wants it and she wants it bad. She wants it like Madonna wants fame, so I'm thinking, for better or worse, sheer protean will get that girl her just due, I really do.
Actually, we'll all get our due, won't we, for we're all victims in our own precious way. Whether or not we're pretty and sensual or gay, straight or just stupid, our time will arrive; we'll die suddenly, too soon, slaughtered maybe, or rather, age and decay will make their cruel way with us.
Alors, I do go on, but I just want to say how much I love David and Dawn and their sensible take upon our blessed middle class of America, even if it's feeling a bit less blessed than before. David will continue to go on and on, thank gawd, and Dawn, well, she knew as much about writing and authors and her America as anyone; she documented it adroitly, artfully, dutifully even.
She once said, "Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like
to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out."
Dawn could rarely, if ever make ends meet, had an autistic son, a drunk lover, two, in fact, at the same time, while imbibing her share of highballs and playing intellectual doyenne of Greenwich village circa post ww2.
But not once, not ever, did Dawn complain, or lose her keen sense of curiosity about the silliness of it all....I read her diaries, each entry, more than twice, mini masterpieces every single one... ..she simply wrote every damned day of her life, until practically the last day with the last word written in Sept, ''65..."Will....
This is the weekly weather report for Malta. Everyday it displays a bright and perfectly formed yellow ball, just like Mr Happy Face. Each ensuing week the numbers will increase until it feels like the Middle East, or at the very least, like when I used to walk outta the air-conditioned #8 tram at Largo Argentina in Rome mid August around 3pm.
