"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all . . ."Dearest Mick--
--George Washington
Chip, my loyal manservant, and I were awaiting our shipment of the Topsy Turvy Upside-Down Tomato PlanterTM from UPS when, instead, your package of books arrived. Chip had been looking forward to dressing up in his bumblebee costume and buzzing the plants. Myself, I wanted to sink my dentures into those delicious vine ripened tomatoes. Mmmmm . . .
However, we do eagerly anticpate your selection of reading material, and your latest package seemed to feature a bevy of Father's Day titles. War books seem to be popular, and I do not believe you can have a more succinct title than Sebastian Junger's new book, War (9780446556248) 26.99. It reminded me of my service with the British Army in The Great War. You may not be aware that I had served in the trenches with J.R.R. Tolkien and we became fast friends. Many years later, the rumour was that the Aragorn character in The Lord Of the Rings was based upon yours truly. I see that you have also sent Robert Leckie's Helmet for my Pillow (9780553593310) 16.00 and With the Old Breed (9780891419068) 16.00, which I hope is not a snarky comment on your part. Of course in WW II, I served in the US Army as Douglas MacArthur's Chief of Staff. I was the one who came up with the now famous line, "I shall return." In fact I am told that Hugh Ambrose correctly credits me with coining that phrase in his HBO TV series inspired book, The Pacific (9780451230232) 26.95.
The title of your next choice, Sh*t My Dad Says (9780061992704) 15.99 by Justin Halpern, made me a wee bit apprehensive. But then, as Chip read it to me in bed last night, I realized I was reliving my own relationship with my father. Scary. According to the flap, more than a million people follow this character on Twitter. I am not sure what a Twitter is, but I am assuming it has something to do with those intrawebs.
I have heard some positive feedback on this book called Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things (9780151014231) 27.00 by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee. I find a lot of their claims to be spurious at best. Sure, I may have had Chip store every model of Jaguar from the past 25 years in our hangar, and I may have had Chip alphabetize every bottle of wine in our cellar, but that would seem to be Chip's problem and not my own. Once again, I do appreciate the kind gifts . . .
Warmest Regards,
Charles Edmund Wilson III
Odds & Sods
I was aghast at the teaser commerical for Oprah's show that ABC ran during the finale of 'Lost.' Oprah's girlfriend Julia Roberts was on, and Oprah asked her with a smirk, "You have kids now. So do you carpool with other parents?" And then she laughed heartily. Yeah, Oprah, it's really funny what us non-millionaires have to do to pay the bills these days. Julia was on there to promote her new movie based on the book, Eat, Pray, Love (9780143038412) 15.00. Between this movie adaptation and Sex in the City 2: Electric Boogaloo, there should be plenty of entertainment for the yuppie mom crowd . . .
As much as that disturbs me, this is worse:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/opinion/24schaub.html
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