Bonfire of the Insanities

Disappointing.

Tarantino schlock.

Like trying to kill a mouse with a fork; gratuitously violent and ultimately a complete waste of time.

I probably gave the wrong impression in the last post. The Penguin UK/US deal is actually off for the memoirs. Cancelled some time ago, no hard feelings just a difference in what both parties wanted out of the project. So not a cause for congrats, although it's always nice to be congratulated, so keep sending them if you like.

I just wanted to put what I had from the last book out there. I'll put out the other chapter next week.

But I have another project cooking, purely fiction this time and I'm getting quite enthused about it. Apart from enthusiasm, I seem to be actually doing some work as well. It's a long way from completion, but I've got some good contacts from the last one.

This is the first two chapters from the Penguin book. There won't be any legal issues--the deal is done.

(edit:
I mean done as in not happening. i.e. contracts negated. I just thought I'd post the two chaps I finished here so as people could read it.)
( chapter one )

http://tiny.cc/uArLb

Funny. Check it out.

Bear Stearns is fading
It was so profitable
But now it is gone.


Add your own.

Hi,

Is there anybody still out there? I'm doing another book and I need to talk to a hedge fund manager. I could do it by email or skype and I just need to find out what it's like to work in a hedge fund in a global credit crunch.

If anybody is still reading this and you know a good stockbroker or hedge fund manager, please help me out.

According to toxicology reports, large amounts of carbon were found in his body. The autopsy also indicated high serum levels of oxycodone, hydrocodone (Vicodin), diazepam, temazepam, doxylamine and Xanax. So an 'accidental overdose' is the formal verdict, but as you can tell, I'm not convinced.

Fortunately for Sanofi-Aventis, who have their own big problems, Ambien is off the hook on Ledger's death--apparently he had used the controversial sleeping pill last year but it didn't work for him.

So could global warming be the cause? It certainly seems to have been responsible for the extinction of all life on Venus and will ultimately, if you believe the media, be responsible for the deaths of every man, woman and child on planet Earth as well.

Sadly one of Australia's favourite actors, Heath Legend died yesterday after a long battle with depression. He was found peacefully asleep (when they say asleep, they mean dead) in his New York appartment yesterday morning. The family says it was an accident, zealots say it was Ambien, although other prescription drugs (antidepressants) and a rolled up twenty were found next to the bed. Ambien (a sleeping tablet) allegedly makes you hoot and fart, paint your walls, raid your fridge, drive fast cars and have wild sex while you're on it. Sound good? See your local doctor before it gets taken off the market.

But more about Heath. Celebrities have been asked to opine and John Travolta was quick to comment. "I thought he was extraordinary and had a depth and ability and a sense of humanity that I've never seen on screen ... I really don't like it at all that he's gone."

Nicole Kidman: "What a terrible tragedy," Kidman said through her publicist Wendy Day.

Mel Gibson: Gibson, who played the actor's father in 'The Patriot', states: "I had such great hope for him. He was just taking off, and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss."

All true of course. Heath Ledger's death sucks. But he made some great movies before he carked and now I'm going to rent them all.

Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard, is currently promoting his new book: The Stuff of Thought.

One of Pinker’s main research areas is linguistics, and in the talk I watched here -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBpetDxIEMU – he talks about the different ways in which profanity is used. Why, he asks, when we spill a glass of wine in our laps, do we suddenly switch our topic of conversation towards excretion, fornication or theology? Why are these particular topics censored with such illogical hypocrisy?

He cites one particularly amusing example where Bono, the lead singer from U2, upon accepting a Golden Globe Award on live national TV, uttered the words: “this is really, really fucking brilliant.”

The case ended up at the FCC and they had to decide whether to fine the network for broadcasting the offending word.

They decided not to fine NBC, on the grounds that indecency is “material that describes or depicts sexual or excretory organs or activities” and that the fucking in “fucking brilliant” is “an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation.”


Cultural conservatives were enraged and this bill was penned (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:h.r.3687)

House Resolution 3687

To amend section 1464 of title 18, United States Code, to provide for the punishment of certain profane broadcasts, and for other purposes.

A BILL

To amend section 1464 of title 18, United States Code, to provide for the punishment of certain profane broadcasts, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 1464 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--

(1) by inserting `(a)' before `Whoever'; and

(2) by adding at the end the following:

`(b) As used in this section, the term `profane', used with respect to language, includes the words `shit', `piss', `fuck', `cunt', `asshole', and the phrases `cock sucker', `mother fucker', and `ass hole', compound use (including hyphenated compounds) of such words and phrases with each other or with other words or phrases, and other grammatical forms of such words and phrases (including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms).'

Pinker notes that unfortunately the “fucking” in “fucking brilliant” is an adverb and that is the one part of speech that the representative penning the bill forgot to include on his list.