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Handgrenade Talk (2000)

R. A. Sully


(What the cover is supposed to look like -- my copy must be worth ... well, not the cover price, but maybe more than half the remainder pile rate?)
From the back cover:

"Handgrenade Talk is a commentary on the efficacy of popular communication and the sensationalization of sex and violence in the media. The title suggests that some people--like handgrenades--are infinitely better at talking than at listening. A handgrenade hears nothing. If you listen closely to many conversations today, you may hear two monologues rather than one dialogue."

Hrmm. Maybe so, but I only bought it for the title. Speaking of which, I sure hope FBI agents aren't monitoring book titles on this website the way they are now monitoring the titles you check out of your public library, which, you may know, they have been empowered to do by the so-called "USA PATRIOT" act. You did know that already, didn't you? Did you also know that "USA PATRIOT" is an acronym? Believe it. Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.

You couldn't ask for a more sadly splendid example of the twisted babble that issues effortlessly from the people who are running and ruining things these days. Or, as R. A. Sully once so memorably put it (I am quoting from memory): "Blah, blah blahblahblah blah blah blah blahblahblahblahblah blah blahblah" (p. 141).

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