December 29th, 2009
Dateline Wellington Leg: The Towne Council has dropped the ball so here in the Leg 2010 began promptly at 1143 GMT yesterday evening. Disappointed revelers near the Angle of Repose refused to disperse, however, until The Flying Squad cameth to Dunsinane brandishing ebooks. Happy New Year from the staff of One More Bite of the Apple who are herewith fired for cause.
You’re Alone in a Very Large Office: Cub reporter Tuffy Tuffington of the Tuffington Post, is the last man standing in the newsroom once the scene of hustle and bustle now eerily quiet. Tuffy frightened himself in the hallway with his Liz Cheney tapes and is now cowering under the Editor in Chief’s empty desk. Come out, Tuffy, it was just a computer animation! You have to cover the news and then there is Pop Culture which waits for no man because here in the Leg the news cycle goes on and on in six minute segments of relative significance. That is to say that what happened six minutes ago succumbs to what will happen six minutes from now and all that space in between is where we are in the continuum. We need you Tuffy even if we cannot pay you.
Dear Friends, please pour your hearts out for Tuffy so that we can continue our customary cutting edge of coverage of all things literary. Help get Tuffy out from under the desk!
Thanks, The Management.
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November 15th, 2009
Dateline: Wellington Leg: In a shocking development authorities are now convinced that an entire industry has been hijacked spirited out of Publishers Row and stashed aboard an abandoned tugboat in Newark Bay. “I think it’s safe to say that we’ve never experienced anything like this before,” said Big Publisher Rudy G. “One minute I was reading Chapter Five of Sarah Palin’s memoir, the next minute the Thought Police arrived and took the book away.”
Is Chapter Five significant? Authorities believe the hijacking began with Carrie Prejean’s riveting work STILL STANDING. Carrie was Miss California and then she wasn’t and then she was and now she’s not and probably won’t be in the future. Sorry for the spoilers. “I had hoped to read the sequel NO LONGER STANDING,” Rudy G said. “But now we have a ghost writer shortage and hippy treehuggers running Washington, so I think we’re finished here, cooked.”
Glengarry, Glenn Beck: Perhaps Alex, a Master Salesman, can negotiate the release of the publishing industry before North Jersey toxins begin corroding editorial judgment and taste. While few people enjoy white water rafting on the Passaic River Rudy is pretty certain that Alex can redeploy an energized salesforce after just such an event. Fortified with enough Glenlivet they can market the next dozen Palin memoirs and the reinstatement of Carrie Prejean.
“Those sound like demands,” Rudy observes. “But they’re really life affirming goals. I never forget that I’m in the hopes and dreams business and ultimately I hope this is all a bad dream.”
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October 18th, 2009
Wellington Leg: With one writer in lunar orbit and another down in Argentina it’s been awhile since we visited Eddie’s Book Nook to see what Wellington Leg’s premier purveyor of books is up to these days. According to Marge, the afternoon cashier, the two thousand foot vertical shaft in the Lifestyles section of the store continues to be both a blessing and a curse. “We’ve broken a lot of rock,” she says. “Customers enjoy our new mezzanine at the one thousand foot level although the constant thump of horizontal drilling can be a distraction.”
Sarah Palin’s Memoir: The launch date approaches and already lines are forming in Wellington Leg’s Revolution Square. Eddie is offering the e-book version if your last name begins with e.
Glenn Beck Bobblehead Display: Eddie reminds everyone that playing with the Glenn Beck dolls in the front window is not only unfair to Glenn but to other customers who choose to follow the rules about pressing down on Glenn’s head and watching it bounce.
Good reads: Caro Ramsay’s ABSOLUTION and Stuart MacBride’s latest FLESH HOUSE.
Ende.
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September 25th, 2009
Wellington Leg: The Leg has been quiet lately for reasons no one can explain, least of all me. To blog is to heft a mighty weight and to link, Dear Cassius, that’s beyond the pale. But, in this edition of One More Bite of the Apple we’re going to link to interesting places or die trying. The new version of Word Press has a button on the task bar that says “link.” Opinion is divided as to whether this reporter should press that button first or find something linkable and then press the button. Two schools of thought, no real answers.
Here is what we do know: this week will go down in history, world history, as one of the most absurd since the Hundred Year War abruptly ended after ninety nine years. Yes, they rounded up to one hundred. Okay, let’s say that you’re an international banker and you’ve traveled to Hong Kong for a conference. Who is your keynote speaker?
E. Howard Hunt: I’m fairly sure that he’s dead.
Hugo Chavez: Busy in New York speaking to the UN General Assembly. Otherwise the guy’s a natural.
Michelle Malkin: She’s scary, but you’re an international banker.
Moamer Gaddafi: No one can spell his name, not even spellcheck. It’s hard to get a Bedouin tent permit in Hong Kong.
Sarah Palin: Dude, you’re totally correct. Now English is your second language so you’re going to have listen carefully to what Sarah is saying; there are many compound sentences or compound fractures and stylistic flourishes that seem inconsequential or puzzling but she is not addressing you in your native tongue and the translators are befuddled. She’s telling you how to lose eighty pounds in three weeks by sweating the prospect that she is a possible candidate of a major party for the presidency of the United States. I know you guys totally missed that.
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August 6th, 2009
Wellington Leg: in a frightening development local author David Thayer is now on Facebook.
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August 1st, 2009
Wellington Leg: This year’s Literary Faire began shortly after three o’clock this morning when Prudentia Chalfont-Smythe roared through towne on a red Indian Scout motorcycle. A crowd of three outside Dunkin Donuts cheered as Prudentia tossed a wedding bouquet to Night Manager Cindy. “I’ve never won anything before,” Cindy said. The bouquet was confiscated by mall security shortly before Cindy’s shift ended at seven am.
His aim is true: Senator Foghorn consoled Cindy with a cash offer for her maroon Yugo. Waving a copy of his bestselling Beige Book, the senator arranged a trip for Cindy to the Fed’s discount window. “I asked for a billion dollars,” Cindy said. “I’d never heard of the cash for clunkers program,” she added.
When Books go Bad: As a test case the forty third earl’s masterwork VOLTAIRE’S MIASMA may be returned to Eddie’s Book Nook this Saturday in exchange for cash. The Senate Literary Oversight Committee declared the book a clunker after Senator Foghorn discovered that Voltaire was a “French person.” Adding insult to injury Senator Leghorn dropped the massive tome on his foot after being startled by a lobbyist discussing the Louisiana Purchase. “We’re not returning Louisiana to France anytime soon,” Leghorn vowed. Foghorn seconded the motion joined by Longhorn who came in third.
One lucky customer received a $3,500 credit after dragging VOLTAIRE’S MIASMA across the Sierra Nevada range. He also managed to trade in his donkey for a new Chrysler minivan. “This baby has air conditioning,” the lucky fellow enthused.
Late word from the Palace: anyone attempting to return the Dowager Princess’ Her Lyrical Poetry will be beheaded. A word to the wise.
T. Rex Love-Handles reporting.
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July 24th, 2009
Wellington Leg: Following the arrest of several of New Jersey’s mayors experts are suggesting that many cities in the Garden State adopt open source governance. Under this method of leadership bribes can reach more people more quickly creating more economic stimulus by increasing the velocity of laundered money.
According to the Tuffington Post laundered money often moves more slowly than unlaundered money in part because the great unwashed have sticky fingers. “A single laundered dollar will often drift around in the trunk of someone’s car for weeks on end,” noted Atlantic City resident Eddie. At one point the money supply, the M!, dropped to zero in Hoboken as all the cash went to the sidelines. “This is incredibly inefficient,” Eddie says.
Tuffpo Contributor Little Mahmoud can relate: after naming a Jersey City resident as First Vice President, LM was shocked to discover his choice was overruled. “Recycling politicians is even messier than laundering money,” noted Mahmoud. Caught in the spin cycle he had no choice but move on.
Jersey Beaches are Open: the sudden shortage of mayors and public officials won’t effect the shore. Bundles of cash may be visible at high tide and schools of jellyfish, sometimes used to launder money, have floated north toward Long Island. The sighting off a shark off Cape May turned out to be a loan shark. “The water’s fine,” said a local mayor who has yet to be taken into custody. Loan sharks are not considered a threat to swimmers.
Tuffy Tuffington reporting.
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July 20th, 2009
Wellington Leg: Economists say that the diffusion index has turned positive sources close to the palace say. The closely watched metric measures the amount of energy expended by a consumer during sporting events. The test subject in this case is a man from Hatterborough who made eleven roundtrips between his couch and refrigerator during the Yankees-Tigers game. Except for a sharp single to left the unidentified fan missed none of the action on the field but did miss several tire commercials.
The recession is over: The diffusion index is a combination of two other indices, the Confusion Index and the Difficulty Multiplier. Any reading above the value of 50 tells policymakers that recovery has begun. “I’ll race you to the mall,” said one forecaster.
Jobless Recovery? While the index is higher the labor market continues to struggle leading to what pundits refer to a jobless recovery. “Things are good but no one has a job,” explained one economist. “Hey, I just got fired.”
There is more difficulty than confusion in the diffusion reading at this time; once this ratio turns around everyone will have jobs again but the economy will collapse.
T. Rex Love-Handles reporting.
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July 13th, 2009
Wellington Leg: I thought it was time to reach into the mailbag for questions from readers. Unfortunately most of the mail is Cyrillic spam, or I guess it’s spam because with all due respect to St. Cyril, i have no idea what any of it means. Mysterious spam falls into the same category as a speech by Sarah Palin; sort of scary but garbled, troubling with hints of nascent demagoguery searching for a home. Perhaps pearls of wisdom lurk unnoticed in the spam collector bin lost to the inadequate language skills of your reporter.
His Literary Career: Most writers wonder when their literary careers officially begin. It’s tempting to say that the publication date of the first book would mark the beginning or the first poem or short story, but by the time something is published the author has spent years laboring away at their craft. I signed with a literary agent a few months ago after she read a crime novel of mine. Stacia is marketing the manuscript as we speak, so my literary career hasn’t begun yet. I wonder if she and I went in another direction and built a nuclear submarine together, people would ask us at the launch party “What gave you the idea to build a nuclear submarine?”
This speculation is a byproduct of anxiety. School teaches us how to prepare for pop quiz moments such as “name the knights of the roundtable,” which I got terribly wrong with Dopey and Sneezy as my first gut instinct response to a nun brandishing a ruler. However after time spent in the cooler I suddenly remembered Sir Lancelot but that ship had sailed, propelled by a nuclear reactor.
It is entirely possible that my literary career has already begun, and equally possible that it’s already over. That’s the tension writers live with as opposed to other jobs which have entirely different dynamics such as monitoring the parking lot at Dunkin Donuts for drive through bottlenecks. Some people freeze when asked to converse with a mechanical mouth. Others seem to enjoy it.
Here is one question from the mailbag: Can you name the new governor of Alaska?
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July 7th, 2009
Wellington Leg: As regular readers can attest this is a satirical blog full of imaginary characters in a mythical towne whose Triple A baseball team, the Fighting Gastropods, have dropped 345 games in a row. Even worse than baseball futility, however, is the encroachment of reality, actual events that are far more absurd than any satire this reporter can manufacture. In fact, this intrusion of incredible nonsense has created what is known as the “July Effect” a locking down of the creative brain due to sensory overload.
The shame of it is we were all set to introduce guest writer Little Mahmoud who recently opened a Myface Account here in the Leg. Little Mahmoud is new in towne, but no stranger to the spotlight as he once presided over an ancient and powerful land as its beloved President. And he’s a heckuva public speaker: quoting from his own page: “I am mesmerizing with turns of phrase so elegant as to induce tears.”
He’s a cocky little fellow who wanted only to be pals with the new kid, Barack, but it was not meant to be. Other kids called him names and soon little Mahmoud was not even allowed to go to Libya where former BFF Gadaffi lives. His pet duck died and it was time to move on.
Sadly, though, he missed his first assignment the resignation of Alaska governor Tsar Alexander. Why would the Tsar step down and sell the entire state? “I am thinking maybe his fingers are crossed behind his back,” Little Mahmoud said. “Perhaps the terms of sale exclude the fish,” he speculated.
Still, he is wistful. “Who will protect the powerful from the weak?” he wonders.
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