I was at the Brooklyn Book Festival for just a couple of hours yesterday, so I didn’t hear if David Foster Wallace was mentioned.
According to his obit in the NY Times, Wallace had been severely depressed for months, and had been dealing with depression since his 20s. He never seeemed to write or talk about it, though in his writing there’s an undercurrent of sadness, even in his funny observations, which made his essays even more appearling to me. There wasn’t that arrogance or snarkiness that’s found in a lot of other modern humor writing.
The festival was just okay. That morning I had run the Race for the Cure, just 5K but I was pooped from it. It wasn’t too hot but the sun was strong and it was extremely muggy. Before the race started I wandered around looking for a bathroom (no port-a-potties!) and when I got back, I was already soaked with sweat.
As usual the whole thing took too long to get started with five billion speeches, including Cynthia Nixon (a breast cancer survivor) and, randomly, Stephen Colbert, who was pretty funny. “Who else will be carrying their six year old for the entire race?” Once I got past all the walkers – as per every year, what are you doing in the 9 minute mile portion??? – I had fun running in the Park. My time wasn’t bad, about 30 minutes.
The heat worsened throughout the day. At the book festival as I walked around checking out the tents, I was positively roasting, and when I sat in the shade to listen to a reading – and to get away from the heat – my hair was literally dripping with sweat. In the middle of the next reading, my throat started killing me. I thought it was just because I was thirsty, but it just got worse and now I feel sorta crummy. Hopefully it won’t blow into a full blown cold.
In other news, as you know the press has been all over Sarah Palin lately. What I find interesting is how many people are afraid of her, or use that term, ie, “She scares me,” including yours truly.
Just how many people are scared of the Alaskan wolf?
This guy, whom I LOVE by the way. Supposedly Palin tried to ban his book, Pastor I am Gay. “She scares me,” the author says. “She’s Jerry Falwell with a pretty face.”
Ed Koch, former mayor of New York and possible gay. The Bush supporter now endorses Obama – who knew! Of Palin, he says, “She scares the hell out of me.”
Pink! She told PopCrunch that she thinks Palin “hates women” and “is not a feminist,”that she “is not the woman that’s going to come behind Hillary Clinton and do anything that Hillary Clinton would’ve been capable of … She’s not of this time.” Concluding, “The woman terrifies me.”
Ben Stein.: “I don’t know if she scares Obama, but she scares me.” You’re not alone, Ben.
Matt Damon, saying that her story is “like a really bad Disney movie — the hockey mom…from Alaska, and she’s the president, and it’s like she’s facing down Vladimir Putin and using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink,” and “there was a good chance John McCain would die in his first term in office and the thought of a President Palin is ‘terrifying.'” Not as terrifying as the thought that that movie premise sounds pretty good. (Just kidding. . . or am I?)
Sharon Osbourne. When finding out Palin hunts animals for sport, she said, “I’m scared of that woman with the glasses and gun!”
Palin’s own former campaign manager. “I’m still proud of Sarah,” she added, “but she scares the bejeebers out of me.” My favorite word of the day is officially “bejeebers.”
And lots of bloggers, including one who also loves her hair.
Although Palin frightens me as well, it seems saying so in the press is yet another no-brainer, like the whole pit bull/pig and lipstick thing. And what is it exactly about her that’s so frightening? Cheney and his cohorts are terrifying as well, but I guess they LOOK like it so it’s not as much of an issue. Palin is pretty and feminine, so somehow her extremism and alleged ruthlessness seem extra skerry, like a Stepford wife or little girl ghost.
Anyway, now I’ve been blogging for far too long.
Tina Fey makes a better Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin.