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  •  Actually, The Play Was the Hail Mary (3+ / 0-)

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    chumley, aaraujo, Rob Cole

    Kissinger back in the pocket, Mother Theresa straight down the sideline--right sideline, of course--and he throws the bomb deep in to the end zone.  The audible is "Cambodia."  

    Hitchens didn't like the play, but his objections had something to do with an Evelyn Waugh novel, and I never did follow his explanation.  

    I hear, though, that he and Cockburn used to recreate the play on those cruises when they were both still writing for The Nation.  

    The revolution will not be televised, but we'll analyze it to death at The Next Hurrah.

    by DHinMI on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 05:12:26 PM PDT

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    •  Good memory. (1+ / 0-)

      Recommended by:
      DHinMI

      Though my take on it was that Hitchens adherence to Waugh's viewpoints were a reactionary swipe against Howard Cosell's slavish dependency on Ford Madox Ford.

      But then, you hear a lot of things when you drink with historians.

      President Obama.

      by Rob Cole on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 05:25:47 PM PDT

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      •  I Remember It From Mad Magazine (1+ / 0-)

        Recommended by:
        Rob Cole

        Some things I didn't understand at the time I filed away and when the reference or knowledge came to me later, I went "a HA, now I get why that was supposed to be funny."  Like when I saw Blazing Saddles, and Hedy HEAD-lee Lamarr wants to snatch land, and he picks up the dictionary and as he leafs through it says "snatch...snatch..."  Well, eventually I figured out why it was supposed to be funny.  Well, about 1974 Mad Magazine had something about Richard Nixon's favorite football plays, or showing him in front of X's and O's or something, and I didn't get it until I learned that he sent George Allen a play.  

        iirc, Allen ran the play, and they took a loss.  

        The revolution will not be televised, but we'll analyze it to death at The Next Hurrah.

        by DHinMI on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 05:32:08 PM PDT

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        •  Yep: here's the transcripts of that phone call. (1+ / 0-)

          Recommended by:
          DHinMI

          "Now George, I want you to listen to me, just like you did when we were freshman at Whittier College.

          A team is not finished when it is defeated. It is finished when it quits.

          Secondly, always remember that the 49ers may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

          What you have to do, George--Bebe, put some ice in that tumbler, there's a good man--what you have to do is give 'em a sword. And then stick it in, and twist it with relish. If they were in your position, they'd do the same thing.

          Now I know there have been plays in the past that didn't work out so well. I can see clearly now... that I was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with your last game, for instance.

          But those plays, well, they're filed away in boxes now...when I retire I'm going to spend my evenings by the fireplace going through those boxes. There are things in there that ought to be burned."

          President Obama.

          by Rob Cole on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 06:04:44 PM PDT

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