for 21 March 2000. Updated every WEEKDAY.
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Feel-Bad TV Nice work, uh, Destiny. It seems like it became fashionable a few years back to write Letterman off, claim that he'd lost it, etc., when in fact, as his recent trip up and back from the big yonder has proven, he is as he always was — self-plagued and touched with comic brilliance, surly as hell, obsessed with good, original craft, and appalled at his own attempts to achieve it. I've loved his work since I was 16, and still do, unapologetically. Your piece really did him justice, I think. Cheers. Andy Markham <andy@msinteractive.com> Thanks! People cap on Letterman for his ironic detachment — but that was the prevailing motif when Letterman was coming up in the 70s. Film Comment was busy hailing so-called "eccentrics" like Martin Mull and Andy Kaufman, who hid their entire personality behind a facade ("Trying to analyze it is like trying to analyze a dream or an Abstract Expressionist painting."). The spookiest thing about Letterman's detachment is: it's real. In Bill Carter's Late Shift, there's a revealing anecdote about the station break during an interview with Teri Garr. "Letterman grabbed a pad on his desk and scribbled a note that he passed back to her. The note read; 'I HATE myself.'" When Teri Garr tried to reassure the neurotic talk show host, "he grabbed the note back, underlined 'I HATE myself' twice, and shoved it back at her." Destiny  McSwindle's In his letter, Scott Pactor echoes Dave Eggers's complaint that reading Suck is like having someone yelling in your ear. Might I suggest that perchance their ears are too tender... which if true is quite allright. Some people go for speed metal or rap, others, easy listening or r&b. It takes all kinds. If forced to choose between Suck and McSweeney's, I'd have to go with Suck. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Plus, a fresh edition arrives at one's monitor each weekday morning. Cheap and easy. Moreover, it's in technicolor. The good folks at McSweeney's more or less lifted its old-timey look from The Baffler and they're always whining, "give us money, give us more money." At least when Sucksters whine they don't hit you up for cash. No contest, I say. regards, Peter Kilander <peterk@enteract.com> Are you sure that's a the best way to judge the quality of a published collection - by how often the author asks for money? Maybe we should start asking for money, too. Our new motto: "It will be less difficult now that we have your money." Forever free, Sucksters Subject: Coincidence? How is it that Scott Proctor (The Fish, 3/13) has ceased to read Suck on a daily basis but caught your piece dealing with David Egger's new book? Did he just "happen" to hit the site on that day in the hopes of finding a piece that would be less harsh on his tender ear? Sounds suspiciously like my old roommate who would "happen" to grab the wrong box in the adult section of the video store. And hey, if you've got it, you may as well watch it. Give me a fucking break; admit there is nothing out there like Suck, guilty pleasure or not. The content at McSweeney's site is cute and amusing, but so is my girlfriend. Your Mr. d'Arcy once insinuated that I was the stupidest man in America, and I still read Suck every day. Getting off on whiny crit. letters, Michael Clausen <mdclausen@yahoo.com> Your girlfriend is cute and amusing and you're complaining? You truly are a natural born Suck reader. Whining about getting off, Sucksters RU4ME or 8GNSTME? Amazed that, in your otherwise shrewd coverage of the "Choose Life" license plates, you missed the clearest sign that advocates were more interested in PR than in substance. Almost a year ago, leaders of the Florida state legislature offered backers of the plates a compromise: same children's drawing, new motto: "Choose Adoption." After all, the stated goal of the plates is to encourage more people to adopt, no? No. The compromise was rejected. The same people who support the plates, by the by, also oppose adoption by single people and gay couples, while thousands of kids remain trapped in orphanages and foster care, dreaming desperately of an adoptive family. When you care enough about one "truth," mere demonstrable facts are irrelevant. There's a reason the Pope did not apologize for protestants! Harry Matthews <matthews@panix.com> You're right: such an offer was declined, for the vague, feet-shuffling reasons one would expect. Further proof that the concept of politicizing license plates is ludicrous is that "Choose Adoption" doesn't really make sense as a slogan, either. In fact, I'm pretty sure if my father had seen a bunch of "Choose Adoption" plates during our family's 1976 packed-car trip to Disney World, I'd have a different last name now. Tom What an issue. What's next, regulating bumper sticker makers? More directly, regulating the U.S. mail system so that no political literature may pass through those sacred walls. Victim of CrimeThink, Pablo Money <homeopape@yahoo.com> I'm holding my breath for commemorative stamps. Tom Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. I'm tempted to take a few moments to ask you why I should care what some Floridian puts on the back of his/her car, but I have a much more pressing question. How did Polly find her way onto Utah's license plate? Sucking up, Ben Levin <blevin@ziplink.net> I think she was put there to distract sharp readers like you from asking potentially embarrassing questions like "Why should I care about this issue?" Tom The ruling I would issue, were I at the bench (and I'm not), would go as follows: "The whole problem with the question of abortion is the gross oversimplification of the issue, by the power-grubbing extremists on BOTH sides of the proverbial fence. "Pro-lifers would expect a victim of rape or incest to carry the product of that hateful act fully to term. Pro-choicers would have you believe that the unborn child, right up until exit from the womb, is not even a living thing, much less a human being; and that abortion is not even killing, much less murder. "Until reason prevails at last, the State shall encourage and, where appropriate, even sponsor open debate on the question of abortion. However, the Division of Motor Vehicles will NOT be the forum for that debate." Case dismissed. Alan Augustson <EvlGenius1@aol.com> You're definitely not going to get that bench appointment after this sees print. Tom |
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