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Second acts, and third, and fourth....

By Owen Paine on Saturday June 7, 2008 07:39 PM

Father Smiff in a recent and (as usual) magisterial take on the Clan Antichrist's endless curtain calls, threw in this epigrammatic sizzler: "the only thing we recycle is our shame."

I'm not sure I get this. I almost figured Der Alte -- but for a slip of the finger tips -- was intending to write "the only thing we don't recycle is our shame."

We ought to recycle it, of course. It's in short supply inside most American heads and might retard our ceaseless craving for the lime light: "Just 15 minutes more -- please, Mistah Big -- pleeeeease!"

The ultimate pinup boy for shamelessness, American style, is of course Sir Jerry Lewis.

At least Vegas Elvis lives on only through his impostors.

Comments (3)

Agi:

The ultimate pinup boy for shamelessness, American style, is of course Sir Jerry Lewis.

Yes, he is a sometimes overlooked yet an important part of our glorious culture. Your observation has inspired a response over at GFA51...

MJS:

The gimlet-eyed Owen Paine has got me dead to rights -- I committed an ambiguity. What I intended to convey was that we recycle the things we are or ought to be ashamed of, not that we recycle the shame we do or should feel about them.

op:

after visiting GFA51

i feel like an aztec foot soldier
after a scrap with
cortez and his limited liability horsemen

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