Phil Gramm was almost right. We're not a nation of whiners..we're a nation of easily-insulted crybabies. by Tully
(libertarian)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
I have to admit to a sort of inside-track. My Dutch ancestors arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam in 1642, and were granted a patroonship on what is now the Bronx Zoo and Fordham University. 366 years later, I am the first in my direct family line to have left The Big Apple. I'm sure my assignment is only temporary, and before I die I will return to the Greatest City in the World.
The New Yorker is, of course, the quintessential Upper East Side Journal of choice. The humor and cartoons are almost required to be very dry, very sophisticated, very satirical. One does not guffaw like Billy-Bob drinking Bud on the porch made of palates outside the doublewide when reading the cartoons in the New Yorker. One is more likely to smirk knowingly, sportinga rakishly unbuttoned Pierre Cardin shirt, while nosing a snifter of 21-year old Aberfeldy single malt...at the Guggenheim Annual Fund Drive.
The cover of this edition of the New Yorker was brilliant in its satire. Sophisticated, pointed, tongue-in-cheek - everything the New Yorker is known for.
But of course, how silly to expect it to be recognized as such by unrefined tastes in flyover country. McCain, being hoisted out of his wheelchair and fed the appropriate lines by some western aw-shucks rube with his wet finger in the wind, predictably condemned what he didn't understand (Hmmm, now there's a repeating Washingtonian theme...). The Choir Boy from Shy-Town and his public-school-ejukated cronies were equally aghast, missing the point that the New Yorker is pointing fingers at the rednecks who make the most ridiculous claims against their man.
Oh well. It was high satire and pure cosmopolitanesque humor.
No wonder there's an uproar. We shouldn't have expected the poor Bumpkins-Beyond-the-Hudson to get it.
No matter. They can engage in their little boy games, bravado, outrage, and chest-thumping.
We'll simply read the magazine and smirk.
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The views expressed
in this article are those of Tully only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Tully is solely responsible for the contents
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I saw an article about this somewhere else and my initial response was these people h who are making a big deal out of this don't read the New Yorker much do they. It would be fair to say the mass of America is lost when subtle or sophisticated humor is used instead of the more blunt vulgar sophomoric kind that has become main stream and popular.
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