Wednesday, December 14, 2005

it's not just krugman you're missing by not having a subscription to times select

Maureen Dowd, today:
Never ask a guy who's in a bubble if he's in a bubble. He can't answer.

'Cause he's in a bubble.

But the NBC anchor Brian Williams gamely gave it a shot, showing the president the Newsweek cover picturing him trapped in a bubble.

"This says you're in a bubble," Brian told W. "You have a very small circle of advisers now. Is that true? Do you feel in a bubble?"

"No, I don't feel in a bubble," Bubble Boy replied, unable to see the bubble because he's in it. "I feel like I'm getting really good advice from very capable people and that people from all walks of life have informed me and informed those who advise me." He added, "I'm very aware of what's going on."

He swiftly contradicted himself by admitting that "this is the first time I'm seeing this magazine"

[...]

Brian struggled to learn whether W. read anything except one-page memos. Talking about his mom, Bubble Boy returned to the idea of the bubble: "If I'm in a bubble, well, if there is such thing as a bubble, she's the one who can penetrate it."

"I'll tell the guys at Newsweek," the anchor said impishly.

"Is that who put the bubble story?" W. asked. First he didn't know about it, and now he's forgotten it already? That's the alluring, memory-cleansing beauty of the bubble.
With the last remark, I was reminded of the time my stoned-and-psycho freshman roommate woke me up in the middle of the night to say, "Dude, I was at a party and met this girl named Tracy. I think she could be the one to break down my psychological barriers." As it turned out, Tracy was not interested in such demolition work. I did end up becoming friends with Tracy myself later, although by that time she was known more around campus by her nickname, Satan. I suppose it is better that our president has his mother to penetrate his barriers rather than Satan, even if Satan is married now with a kid somewhere in the Chicagoland area.

6 comments:

Tom Bozzo said...

I only wish, from time to time, that Dowd would choose to use her powers more for good than for evil (or, more commonly, cheap snark) when it mattered -- e.g., 2000 and 2004 election seasons.

Drek said...

Oh my. It's like our president is a military bureaucracy from World War I.

Tonya said...

I'm curious. How did Tracy get the nickname Satan? And, did you date her? Because, if you did, that would explain a lot. ;-)

Tom Volscho said...

A way around subscribing to Times Select: my university has a subscription so I just get Krugman and others through ABI-INFORM after logging into the virtual private network. It gives you access to the whole paper up to each day.

Anonymous said...

My favorite Shrubya exchange of all time:

Interviewer: Mr. President, are you in a bubble?
Bush: (puts hands over ears) I can't hear you! La la la la la! I can't hear you!

jeremy said...

No, I have never dated anyone with any known nicknames of the anthropomorphization of Christian evil.