Thursday, May 19, 2005

OK... Now What?

Chapter 7 of Douglas Adams' book Mostly Harmless (the Fifth book in the incredibly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy) has this to say about a small insignificant planet in the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy:

It said that the planet of NowWhat had been named after the opening words of the first settlers to arrive there after struggling across light years of space to reach the furthest unexplored outreaches of the Galaxy. The main town was called OhWell.
People of Pittsburgh, welcome to NowWhat.

The Tribune-Review has an interestingly venomous article about, well, it's entitled "Vote tosses dirt on Murphy's political grave"... I think that gives you some sense of the article. The only more effective title that they could have come up with would have been: "Murphy Anally Buggered by Electorate" or "Murphy on Fire; Voters Refuse to Piss on Him." And so forth.

Now What?

We've had our catharsis, but the problems still remain. The City is still in debt, neighborhoods are declining, pension obligations are crushing us... etc., etc., etc. None of that goes away now that Bob has won this election. Same hole, different digger.

Now What?

Bob's promised to "Build Bridges" and "Put the City on the Right Track" and told us to "Believe in Ourselves"... but that's about it. Once we get into the details, it gets a bit murky. With all the anti-Murphy hate out there (some of it justified), one wonders if really believes that Bob O'Connor can rectify past mistakes, or are they just blindly voting for the Enemy-of-my-Enemy. Are we going to piss on O'Connor's political grave in 2009?

I wait with baited breath for what's to come.

5 comments:

Ol' Froth said...

Murphy Anally Buggered by Electorate

Is it possible to bugger someone other than anally?

O said...

Touche. Two points for 'Froth.

I could point out that technically speaking "to bugger" is to have unnatural sexual relations with someone, i.e., sodomy, which in itself, is not necessarily anal sex. And so, my description would be more of a clarification than a redundancy.

However, in reality I felt that "Anally Buggered" had a nice, forceable ring to it, and it would have been a shame to let such a nice piece of prose go to waste.

But in real reality I was just too lazy to change it.

Anonymous said...

Actually, yes, technically, you can bugger someone, or animal for that matter, other than anally, by definition, and other related definition.

"O", since I can not find your email, and because of you have a H2G2 reference, I thought you might not be aware of this. The BBC is adapting the final three books to the radio. First six episode were done last fall. Last eight are going on now. Currently, they are on episode 4.

O said...

Amos, you are indeed one hoopy frood. I was not aware, of this latest development, but look forward to pirating copies from the Beeb.

Anonymous said...

Ya, She-who-would-be Ms. Poker Cat is always accusing me of thinking I have a brain the size of the planet. It is good to be loved.

Anyway, use "TERTIARY" as a keyword for the first six from last fall, and "QUANDARY" for the past four. If you want DSripped versions look for wma, or real format. I rip my own. Most have been converted to MP3. eMule seems to have a lot of hits. isoHunt, and other BT indexes, not so much.