From Amazon.com; reimagined by Martin Higgins for ETP
Christopher Hitchens has had a good week: It was announced that he would receive a National Magazine Award for his "prolific columns in Vanity Fair and as the subject of a masterful profile by Ian Parker in The New Yorker," which sort of sounds like a bit of a shaft to Parker, and, come to think of it, to Slate and the Weekly Standard and the WSJ where Hitchens really is prolific. Dude writes a lot.
But anyway, we think that he should be bringing that prolificity (fun new word!) to the masses, never mind his fabled and self-celebrated wit — so why won't he? ETP has learned that Hitchens has ignored repeated invitations by comedienne Catie Lazarus, hostess of the oft-touted "Fresh Meat," to perform with her Tuesday-night showcase. Lazarus confirmed that she had invited Hitchens to join in the fun at this week's event, which featured the comedic stylings of Page Six's Paula Froelich; past performers have included funny people like Unstoppable Fighting cartoonist David Rees, ex-Daily Show/Colbert Report EP Ben Karlin, lit-funny authors Jonathan Ames and David Rakoff , plus Air America's Marc Maron, firmly on Hitch's side of the political spectrum. Plus, all of them are boys so we know they're funny. Yet sadly, Hitch has not yet replied so hence not yet appeared.
Which is a shame, because his upcoming book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (May 1, 2007), sounds like a laugh riot. Check out this sample line: "Monotheistic religion is a plagiarism of a plagiarism of a hearsay of a hearsay, of an illusion of an illusion, extending all the way back to a fabrication of a few nonevents." Try the veal! Remember to tip your waitress! (We got this from the Publisher's Weekly review, which seemed impressed here.) Which brings us to our re-imaging of the cover: We ran into someone carrying it at last week's Radar party, and in the dim light of the Beatrice Inn, we mistook the angry-looking mustard-yellow cover for a lovely, pearly pink. Well, there's enough anger in the world, so we thought we'd pretty up the cover just a smidge so that it might bring a little more sweetness and light into this crazy, God-addled world. Plus every "i" looks happier when dotted with a heart! We would so totally buy this book, we're just saying. Yay!
Okay, perhaps that "Yay!" was gratuitous, not unlike this post. But still. Perhaps if Hitch had more "Yay!" in his life then he could have a little less "barely disguised misanthropy" and a little more "out-loud, head-back, mouth-open-to-expose-the-full-horseshoe -of-lovely-teeth, involuntary, full, and deep-throated mirth." We shall not elaborate further.
Image spiffery courtesy of Martin Higgins. Thanks, Martin!
