Monday, June 22, 2009

Fangirl squee.

If there is one writer that has consistently been the Pole Star in my constellation of snark lo these many years, it would be P.J. O'Rourke. Oh, sure, I've been influenced by H.L. Mencken, Florence King, and Hunter S. Thompson, but I've never had a schoolgirl crush on any of them. So it was especially cool when I heard that he had a new book out, since I already had pretty much every other book he'd published and I was jonesing for a P.J. fix. It was even cooler when I read that Turk Turon had gone to a book signing at the Cato Institute...

...but all that dissolved into helpless fangirl squee when I returned home from Knoxville and found the contents of the envelope Turk had sent to Roseholme Cottage:



The new book even has a grownup P.J. rebuttal to his immortal essay "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink".

23 comments:

  1. Way too cool, Tam.

    Kinda like getting your own copy of "Life, Death, and Everything in Between" signed by Ambulance Driver...

    :)

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  2. Tam,

    Thank you SOO much for the book yesterday:

    My life had a huge hole filled in when I couldn't pull myself out of a truckstop/Starbucks near Demotte, IN since I was reading "Holidays in Hell" last night on the way home!

    Nice to meet ya'll!

    Shameless self-promotion: Please check out the Chicago Appleseed site!

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  3. I am in spastic fits and seizures of jealousy.

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  4. I am *SO* jealous...

    Grats to you and a shoutout to TT for going above and beyond!

    Gmac

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  5. Too jealous.

    Waaaayy too jealous.

    I have been a P.J. fan since... well... I can't actually recall life pre-P.J.

    "War! War! Cry havoc and release the dogs of ditto!"

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  6. Actually, I think I like the dynamite-and-hashish story even slightly more. The idea of the stoned math prof trying to decide which of the three sticks of dynamite was most central to the other too still makes me giggle.

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  7. not many for whom i would stand in line for a signed copy, but p.j. would be one of the few...

    he promo'd this book on jon stewart a few weeks ago:

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=228971

    the interview is at the end of the show and was a bit lame, but of course o'rourke was just there to hawk the book.

    oddly, as much as i'm not a fan of stewart, this episode is pretty damn good...he nails bobo for his nationalizing of autos, insurance, and banking, and that segues into a pretty dang funny bit on the relative investment virtues of ar's vs. ak's!

    let us know if p.j.'s new book lives up to expectations; i might have to spring for a copy, even if it's not personalized.

    jtc

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  8. Ennnnnnvy. P.J. was a major influence on my tender teenage years; I think he's probably the reason I never went through a true liberal phase.

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  9. I got a signed copy of Parliament of Whores, plus picked up one for my brother and another for a friend. And on top of it all, got to chat with O'Rourke for a few minutes.

    The icing on the cake was listening to the local university radio station interview him, while driving home. The interviewer tried to make it a hostile interview but O'Rourke kept turning the tables on him. You'd have to be awfully full of yourself as an undergrad to think you could take on P.J. O'Rourke. I'd have been a little sorry for the hapless interviewer except that college students need to have some humility slapped into them.

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  10. CSPAN last week, really early in the AM and I don't think it was booknotes because he was standing in front of a podium ripping on GM and others. It was my first hint he had a new book out and it was well worth me waking up to watch.

    I am *still* jealous.

    Gmac

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  11. ME TOO!!! Thanks for enlightening me. I can't even wait for Amazon, I'm off to Barnes and Noble right after Dinner.

    Talk about devotion. Have you ever watched a guy with a broken left knee kick gas pedal, clutch, and brake with the right, all while trying to keep the cast out of the way?

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  12. Too much rock for one hand.

    \mm/

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  13. He drives a Porsche, nuff said in my book.

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  14. Friggin' sweet. I picked up all of his books until about 2006 at McKay's not too long ago, for all of $.75 each(at that price, I bought the dupes, too) and it was on your recommendation. I can't say I've regretted any of it.

    Also, I'm a geek for signed books - wife got me a signed Mona Lisa Overdrive once. A personal dedication to you makes it doubly cool, I'll have to go out and buy PJ's latest at retail to boost his numbers.

    KsR

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  15. Somebody in the audience at Cato asked what kind of vehicles he owned and he said he had a Porsche, a couple of Suburbans, "and if I ever get around to cutting the grass I would probably find a couple more."

    wv: farmatic

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  16. Been a fan since his National Lampoon days.

    Steve--guess there's another young man that's beginning to think he's not ready to pitch in the big leagues, after all.

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  17. That is excellent! I am truly jealous. I just finished Holidays in Hell, and I can't wait to start another. PJ rawks!!

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  18. "Have you ever watched a guy with a broken left knee kick gas pedal, clutch, and brake with the right, all while trying to keep the cast out of the way?"

    No, but I did break my left ankle before the races and found left foot braking a stock car on a half mile dirt track hurt like hell. Actually just the bumps hurt but the clutch and braking were special.

    Way cool Tam, I'm jealous too.

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