Y.P.R.: Following the Trail Blazed by Margaret Truman

& Recently . . .

Disquieting Modern Trends: Interacting with the Smarty-Pants yet Ultimately Insufferable Public Edition

Hidey-hidey-ho, friends, and welcome to the end of the world.

Signs of apocalypse: (1) duh, the one-two hurricane punch in the gulf that hardly needs explicating here, (2) the actual apology from the president regarding his response to said one-two punch, which apology (even though accompanied by near-simultaneous withering critiques of the state and local governments) made more than one head spin clear around in Linda Blair-like bafflement given the “NEVER APOLOGIZE” tattoo that pudgy, C.I.A. agent-endangering, creepily evil political boy genius Karl Rove had tattooed on the inner arm of all Bush Admin big-wigs, and (3) that we, the erstwhile gadflies-at-large who help this great nation to define those things in the culture that blink in the night with quivering disquietude, have chosen to correspond with you, the reading public. Yes, the end nears.

In our last column, we dared to expose the San Andreas-like rift that fuels the volatile friendship at the top of the D.M.T. food chain. Faced with a cultural milestone—the use of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” in a back-to-school ad for Target (an ad featuring dancing ten year-olds rather than dancing buttocks)—we stared long and hard at our own disagreement. In short …

Polish Fact

Flag
Two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red (bottom); similar to the flags of Indonesia and Monaco which are red (top) and white (bottom)