The Conical Glass: Vote 9/12 in 2008

Monday, October 01, 2007

Vote 9/12 in 2008

Over the weekend, someone asked me who I was supporting for president. I said I didn't yet know, and in truth, none of the candidates should want my support, considering that in the past, I've been for such unsuccessful contenders as Gen. Wesley Clark and Paul Tsongas.

Now that the New York Times has freed its op-ed columnists from behind the Times Select pay wall, I can go back to reading them online. (For some reason, I could never bring myself to shell out the $40 or whatever it cost, just to see what Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman happened to be saying this week.) This column by Thomas Friedman is absolutely dead on, in my opinion. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Joe & I went to see Paula Poundstone last night at Cobb's Comedy Club. I've been a fan of Paula's since she first became a popular comedian in the 1980s. In 2001, she was arrested on a charge of felony child endangerment, which evidently stemmed from driving her foster children while intoxicated. She was sentenced to several years of probation and spent several months in rehab. I hoped at the time that she would emerge sane & sober and ready to make a comeback, and that's what's happened, fortunately. She now drinks nothing but Diet Pepsi (over a dozen cans a day, she said during her act) and has three adopted children. She is arguably the funniest panelist on one of my favorite radio shows, NPR's "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" She generally plays theaters these days, not comedy clubs, but Cobb's lured her back as part of their star-studded, month-long 25th anniversary celebration. She is a very funny lady, and someone who can now look back on her woes with insight and wry humor.

posted by 125records @ 2:20 PM

2 Comments:

At 7:26 PM, yellojkt said…

I've always heard more unsavory rumors about Paula's foster kid troubles. I won't repeat them here, but I can't listen to her without thinking of them.

And I have started a secret fan blog for Maureen Dowd. I hope she finds it someday.
At 9:29 PM, 2fs said…

Keeping in mind the paranoia around child endangerment, and the perverse and vampiric way the media treats celebrities, I'd take those rumors with a whole bunch of salt...