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Culturally Speaking #36
By Sarah Stodola
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Yes, it's true that you no longer know whether you are watching a commercial or a program...
* * *
View, online, campaign commercials from every election since television
became a factor.
* * *
I never, ever thought I would think such a thing, much less publicize it, but I think I may have to start encouraging my friends to have babies...for the sake of the presidential election of 2030...
* * *
That thing that Cheney said, the one about the risk you are taking if you vote for Kerry with regard to the terrorist threat, is the lowest of the lowest of the very lowest ever. What it basically amounts to is a threat. He implied that if Kerry is elected there will be another terrorist attack. In other words, a vote for Kerry is a vote for the terrorists. It's possibly the dirtiest tactic I've ever seen a politician employ, and John Edwards was completely justified in calling the statement "Un-American."
* * *
Me Three columnist Steve Finbow has short fiction in the new issue of Dicey Brown.
* * *
The real underground life of Paris...
* * *
Last
week I linked to a page that elucidated the potential drawbacks of using
gmail. This week, a reader pointed me to another, similar site
that defends the new email system being rolled out by Google.
The interesting thing is, we may never actually know just how intrusive
(or not) gmail really is.
* * *
It's
nice to see Somerset
Maugham being reconsidered. However, I find it quite strange
that a supposed review of The Razor's Edge would end with a paragraph-long
discussion of Of Human Bondage. On the other hand, the
reviewer in question still does seem to approve of the suggestion that
Maugham may have been a great writer, as well. Jeffrey Meyers considered
the same suggestion in his recent biography of Maugham (which, ahem, I
reviewed for the Brooklyn Rail). Perhaps academia will
finally loosen up enough to appreciate a good story or two.
Click here for the last Culturally Speaking.
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Sarah Stodola is the Managing Editor of Me Three. She can be contacted here.
© 2004 Me Three