I Hope You All Appreciate The Things I Do For You
I’m about to sacrifice a couple of hours in the presence of MoDo, solely for the benefit of you, my dear readers…barring a complete madhouse (it is Austin – lots of MoDo fans in these parts) or a sold-out event, I will attend this shortly…either way, I will, of course, let you know how it goes…
UPDATE 6:56 p.m.: Fiasco! Let me give you a somewhat stream-of-consciousness rundown:
5:30 p.m.: I parked my car in a parking garage on the University of Texas Campus and made my way to the Auditorium of the Lyndon Baines Johnson complex. On the way, I’m contemplating doing this straight-up journalist style, you know, bury my biases like the MSM does (stop laughing!). Maybe I’ll turn it in to the Austin American-Statesman, see if I can get a byline. Entering the auditorium to an overflow crowd. Interesting mix of the affluent, New Yorker-lifetime-subscriber types, the pseudo-bohemian young progressives I’ve come to know and hate (though less than I thought), and stunningly attractive coeds. (I must say, as I near 40, that I’ve come to find a good 60% of all women attractive – better taste or desperation? – but I digress). Let’s just say the university life has its charms, and three lovely examples are very near me, as I have to sit down leaning against the back wall since no seats are available. How odd, I find myself thinking, that so many would stand for 2 hours to see this pretty mediocre talent – how much we enjoy having our biases confirmed! It’s getting awfully crowded now, uncomfortably so, and I have to stand up now…I would estimate a good one hundred people are standing, in addition to the several hundred seated…
5:50 p.m.: A good twenty minutes later, I’m on my way back to the parking garage. I didn’t even get to miss rush hour. What happened, you may ask? Too many sycophants? You got claustrophobic? Yes and yes…but that’s not it…they threw me out!
Well, okay, me and about a hundred other people…everyone that didn’t have a seat was told in no uncertain terms to vacate (and yep, that’s the word they used). Seems they got antsy about the Fire Code.
You might say this was the perfect Dowd event…a lot of waiting for nothing, and it ended as quickly as her romances…
UPDATE 9:38 p.m.: Dowd’s new book is somewhat of a flop: NYT DOWD BOOK: ONLY 10,140 SERVED IN FIRST WEEK AFTER MEGA-PRESS BLITZ FOR ‘ARE MEN NECESSARY?’…(from Drudge)…
I wasn’t laughing yet…
Nettie, my beagle says to tell you she’s going to make an appearance soon…
Mark, Such a waste of your valuable time!
[...] Apparently, after running off a hundred or so of us from the MoDo speaking engagement yesterday, the LBJ Auditorium folks set up a room for the overflow crowd to watch from television. Yet, mercifully, I was spared and left before this occurred, because if this account is accurate, and I’m sure it is, I missed…nothing, nothing at all. [...]
You should have said, as they were throwing you out, “but I bought the book”.
It works-
I saw Bush, Sr. in 89 speaking at my college, Bush is leaving, shaking hands…
my room mate, after Bush had passed and misses the hand shake, yells, ‘I voted for you’- Bush turned and walked back towards us, asks ‘who said that?’ and shakes my roomates hand.
(As a side note, he is now in congress…)
(I must say, as I near 40, that I’ve come to find a good 60% of all women attractive – better taste or desperation? – but I digress).
Mark, I’m only a few years behind you, and I visited my alma mater this year with an old friend to relive our glory days. As it happened, it was welcome week for freshmen. The two of us were gobsmacked by the attractiveness of the young women there, and felt like dirty old men for it (it didn’t help when one of them passed by me saying, “Excuse me, sir.” Sir!?!?)
I think what drove me nuts was it appeared that the standard uniform these days is an incredibly tight, cleavage-baring tank top. I felt like the girls in my generation dressed in burkas by comparison.
Topic? Uh, I’m sure Maureen Dowd addresses this in her book.
I’m not surprised sales aren’t great. It’s been excerpted and talked about everywhere, so that even people who agree with the thesis have the gist of it. Does anyone really need to slog through hundreds of pages of MoDo feeling sorry for herself?
Everytime I see freshman/underclassmen at the football games, I keep mumbling ‘Humbert, humbert…’