abandoning my oh-so-clever gimmick

Well, my takeoff on James Frey-America-oil addiction memoir was going to be a three-parter, but it's getting old and Tom the Dancing Bug on Salon already made a comic with the exact same joke (I did it first, but his stuff is actually read by lots of people...). The third part would have been "America exposed as a fraud." Ha, right?

Speaking of frauds, I cracked up at the story about Dick Cheney accidentally shooting his hunting buddy. Seriously, where's Justice Scalia when you need him on a hunting trip (what? come on, Ann Coulter wants to put rat poison in Justice Stevens food). I guess we know now how Dick ended up getting all those deferments from serving in Vietnam (twelve, I believe. OK, OK, five, whatever.) Interestingly, he was also a prominent figure in our marathon session of "death is not an option" last night. For those unfamiliar with the game, you have to choose who you would sleep with among two competing repulsive options. These range from lighthearted (i.e. dorky television characters) to truly disturbing (political figures, teachers, friend's parents, etc.) Dick lost out to...pretty much everyone he was up against. Trust me when I say that the "winners" of each round had rather Pyrrhic victories.