Tom Toles for January 14, 2010

Oh, another variation on the old saw: The surgery was a success, too bad the patient didn’t survive..

Is that a C-Span camera showing this?

Surreality TV.

it was brain dead anyways

The patient survived, but the joke died.

The Great Appeaser

Yeah, explain it to the “voters”…they’ll be more than happy for you to bring them the deceased carcass of Obamacare!

Sooky Rottweiler says; Once, Beebee’s owner took her to the pet groomer. She couldn’t decide between a poodle cut and a golden retriever cut…bad mix.

Code Blue - stat.

Joseph Heller is one of the most overrated novelists in history. Catch-22 was a whiny bore.

Catch 22 is the Best Book in the World, Bar None. (Cannery Row is ALSO the Best Book in the World, Bar None, and I acknowledge no contradiction in these statements.)

Catch 22 should be required reading for every American student on reaching the age of, perhaps, 13. It’s the perfect testament of the truth that the people and institutions controlling our lives are primarily concerned with covering their own asses. You’d think that in the era of “Government is the Problem, Not the Solution”, the political Right would have belatedly discovered the marvelousness of this book, but since the government arm which is the prime agent of Yossarian’s suffering is their beloved military, I suppose they can’t be bothered to be ideologically consistent. “Question Authority” is a dangerous course to endorse if you want your own authority obeyed rather than the Other Guy’s.

I’m also a big fan of God Knows, and I remember enjoying Picture This even though I don’t remember any details of the book. Good as Gold and Something Happened didn’t strike me as terribly interesting, but I may simply have been too young when I read them.

My big disappointment with Closing Time is that Heller didn’t give Yossarian a fatal liver condition, which his doctor discovers because Yossarian suddenly shows no symptoms of a liver condition…

Yeah, you Libs enjoy rebellion against the establishment until its your Healthcare Bill in jeopardy.

If “the establishment” you mean is the institutionalized extortion of the Insurance Industry, rebellion is called for. Armed, if necessary…

RV: “I knew there was a reason I liked you!”

If you stick around long enough, I’m sure to say SOMETHING that pisses YOU off, as well.

(I seem to recall that I already have, at some point or another. N’est-ce pas?)

Fritzoid, Catch 22 is indeed a great book, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the book on which it was modelled, The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War (in the original Czech, Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války). Alas, the English translation of this magnificent unfinished novel that I read many years ago was not the best, but hopefully a better one is now available. A comic masterpiece !…

Henri

I suspect I saw on TV Die goeie soldaat Schwejk but dubbed into Afrikaans! I was too young to understand it fully though, I was under the impression he was German!

I only read Catch 22 much later in the Portuguese translation, Artigo º22 and later discovered there had been a movie made so I managed to watch it too. Brilliant book. I see that Heller acknowledges the influence of The Good Soldier Švejk. Looks like I need to look up yet another book from the library. And perhaps read other Heller.

There’s a version of The Good Soldier Svek translated by Cecil Parrott published by Penguin. I’m in no position to judge the accuracy of the translation, but I enjoyed reading this version. While we’re on the subject of great satirical war stories, there is also The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus, by Grimmelshausen, written during the 30 years war, published in 1669.