Thursday, August 12, 2004

Today's Huck Finn(s)

It can't be a coincidence that we received advance copies of two important new travel chronicles today. And like Toqueville taking the measure of a nation by wandering its highways and byways, these authors tell us more about America than perhaps we are ready to know.
I awoke this morning to find one of the many hard-to-identify C-list celebs who routinely fill out the dance card passed out on the floor, near a puddle of vomit.
When I first began to encounter the German word schadenfreude ... I couldn't find the compound word in my little German dictionary. I decided to decipher its meaning by looking up the component words, and from schaden and freude I worked out my own home-made translation of "tarnished joy" ... like adventuring through China or Africa--with dysentery.

Yes, we too are shocked at how hard it is to discern which is the effort of Paris Hilton's teacup chihuahua (The Tinkerbell Hilton Diaries, Warner Books, $9.95) and which is the work of Geddy Lee's housepet--er, drummer, Neil Peart (Traveling Music, ECW, $28.95). Uncanny.

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