The Bag-Person's Dave Barry Speaks OutIf you haven't already, you should go read AJ Jacobs' essay in this weekend's Times book review defending himself against the rather cruel review that Joe Queenan wrote of his book, The Know-It-All: I explained the flaws of the review to my wife about 842 times. She pleaded with me to talk about something else, anything else -- the history of wicker furniture, for instance. I preferred to repeat the same points: Queenan believed that I actually thought I was going to become the smartest person in the world, whereas I kind of thought the ridiculously hyperbolic subtitle might have been a tip-off. He bashed Entertainment Weekly, while he was, not so long ago, writing regularly for the highbrow Proustian journal TV Guide. Posted by Dana at 09:49 AM
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The Roar of the Masses Could Be Fartsfuck, it's like war of the gargantuanly unfunny old douche bags over there. is this what people in new york do for fun? i'm suddenly glad i live in a swamp.
Posted by: patrick at February 14, 2005 02:00 PMyeah.
and i'd say joe q has the upper hand.
AJ, you *ARE* a piss poor dave barry.
of course, lots of people like that sort of thing.
hell, every newspaper has TWO PAGES WORTH OF COMICS directed to the exact same demographic.
enjoy your looming success.
Posted by: fishfucker at February 14, 2005 03:09 PMOuch. Queenan can be vicious, and funny, and though I hate to see people torn apart in print I think he's basically right. I'm halfway through The Know-It-All and for a book with a snappy little premise it's unfortnuately slow going. Sorry, A.J.
Posted by: Mrs. Kennedy at February 14, 2005 06:12 PMI'm a fan of Queenan, and goodness knows it's fun to read a juicy pan every now and then. But bonus points to Jacobs for responding with wit and not losing his cool.
Posted by: Vidiot at February 15, 2005 02:04 AM