A reader writes:
Thanks for making my pre-dawn with the gentle but deadly skewering of Jonah G over the Balzac bon mots idiocy. I'm sure Jonah at heart is a delightful fellow but it's always-always amusing to see someone throwing stuff around when it's clear they've not done their homework and don't know what the f they're talking about. And he got to use proleterian too. Clever lad -- Made my day.
I'd say we qualify around here as pointy-headed elites. Down on our luck too which is, after all, the ultimate qualifier. Here are the sources of the bon mots we reach for and repeat tediously on a daily basis -- Stuff from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Eddie Izzard (as James Mason), The Simpsons (from the glory days), and most anything South Park. Sometimes when we're feeling uber & languid we devolve and head for George Bernano. He's got some great pithy simple stuff about the necessity and futility of dusting.
Speaking of elites, caught a few minutes of the fantabulous Marlene Dietrich serving post-concert coffee to a bemused Spencer Tracy in Judgment at Nuremberg. "It's ersatz but I make it strong." Marlene was so skilled at being able to convey a lifetime of experience in one simple sentence. So very very elitist. And what a body for terrific clothes.
Okay with Biden -- He can speak English in a way folks get and that's a good old thing.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2008/08/elite-email-of-the-day/212632/
