Sex, Cars, and Carville
The X-acto Knife Award for Creative Editing goes to the promoters of
the movie Sleepy Hollow . Their New York Times ads feature this
quote from Newsweek :
"'Sleepy Hollow' has got to be the most gorgeous, sumptuous, painterly movie
ever made ..."
The full sentence, from Jeff Giles' review, reads:
"'Sleepy Hollow' has got to be the most gorgeous, sumptuous painterly movie
ever made about multiple decapitations."
Carville Hitches a Ride on Hillary: James Carville--last seen
pathetically weaseling out of his ill-considered offer to pay
$100,000 "to any reporter who can show me that Hillary Clinton linked the
president's sexual misconduct with his childhood" in Lucinda Franks'
Talk article--is now "volunteering" to go to New York to campaign
against Mrs. Clinton's likely opponent, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "I'm
going to New York. I'm setting up committees," Carville told Tim Russert on
Meet the Press . Has it occurred to anyone on Mrs. Clinton's campaign
staff that Carville's interests might not be entirely congruent with the first
lady's? Mrs. Clinton wants to get elected senator. Carville no doubt wants her
to get elected, too, but above all he needs to draw attention to himself to
pump up his book sales and lecture fees. It's in his interest to make a fuss in
New York even if it doesn't help Hillary a bit in the polls--even if he hurts
her. How could he hurt? Because he's a Clinton-era character who reminds
undecided voters of everything about the past eight years they'd like to be rid
of. ...
Mandatory Automotive Items: The news in the latest Consumer
Reports "New Car Preview" is the Saab 9-5's terrific reliability score. Who
would have thought a car company half-owned by General Motors would build a
car--even a $40,000 car--as trouble-free in its first year as a Toyota? Maybe
Subaru won't be ruined if, as expected, GM buys 20 percent of it. ... A
previous, highly scientific kausfiles item proclaimed the victory, in the marketplace,
of "high-butt" over "low-butt" auto designs. Further confirming evidence now
comes from Ford. The company raised the rear end of its mass-market Taurus four
inches--and raised sales 23 percent (compared with a year earlier), according
to figures released yesterday. Indeed, the new, non-drooping Taurus outsold the
Toyota Camry in November to become the best-selling sedan in the United States.
... Next time raise the rear five inches! The sky's the limit! ...
Yent-a-Matic No. 3:
An occasional feature in which kausfiles
suggests romantic possibilities between public figures who may or may not
know each other . This is one of our classier matchups:
Lucinda Williams , slightly neurotic,
obsessed maker of the long-awaited, critically acclaimed country-rock album
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,
and
Ron Rosenbaum , slightly neurotic, obsessed author of the long-awaited,
critically acclaimed book Explaining Hitler .
Bonus rationale: He's a sometime literary and
music critic; she's the daughter of a respected poet.
Notes: Ron-- Don't read her daddy's
Clinton-inaugural poem. It stank! Lucinda-- Write a song about Pale
Fire and he's yours!
