Monday, May 12, 2008

News of the Day -- Monday, May 12

+ The official preview for "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" has been released. Check it out below while I take a few moments to wipe the drool from my chin:



+ Did you hear that PBS' "The Electric Company" is coming back? On the one hand, yay for the return of a show about reading that was one-part entertaining and two-parts scary Tom Wolfe-acid trip for me as a kid. On the other hand, the PBS exec described the new version this way: "It’s the old one mixed with ‘High School Musical’ and a Dr Pepper commercial." Dr. Pepper?? Really? Um, okay.

+ NPR previewed a great new book on "great political comebacks, putdowns and ripostes," proving yet again that the British have the best sense of humor. The book, called "I'll Be Sober in the Morning," is edited by Chris Lamb and includes great little nuggets of political backbiting like this one about Winston Churchill:

Winston Churchill had been drinking heavily at a party when he bumped into Bessie Braddock, a Socialist Member of Parliament.

"Mr. Churchill, you are drunk," Braddock said harshly.

Churchill paused and said, "And Bessie, you are ugly. You are very ugly. I'll be sober in the morning."


Nicely done, Winston, nicely done. Thanks to Dr. Gambit for submitting this item.

5 comments:

Kat said...

I heard that review too, I really like this one: Lady Astor to Winston Churchill: "Winston if you were my husband I would put posion in your coffee."
Churchill to Lady Astor: "Nancy if I were your husband I'd drink it"

I swear most of the book must be Churchills chilling sense of doom and humor, which I love so much.

Anonymous said...

My favorite is the one where he enters the men's room in the House of Commons, and Labour Party leader Clement Atlee is at a urinal. Even though they're the only two people there, Churchill deliberately goes all the way to the other end.

"Feeling standoffish today, Winston?" Atlee asks.

"Not at all," says Churchill. "It's just that when you socialists see something big, you want to nationalize it!"

Liz said...

Ha, that's a great one. I wish I could manage those snappy comebacks. I always think of things anywhere from 15 minutes to 15 days after they cease mattering.

Anonymous said...

There's the one about Disraeli.

Once at a social gathering, Gladstone said to Disraeli, "I predict, Sir, that you will die either by hanging or of some vile disease". Disraeli replied, "That all depends, sir, upon whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."

Anonymous said...

No one told me Billy Connolly was going to be in X-Files! Now I'm totally on-board...