Lightning Rod Gets The Zot

The Poet's Eye ^ | Lightning Rod

[Lrod]

A character like Christine O'Donnell presents a unique problem for a humorist. Few elaborations are called for since the caricature is self-embodied. All that is needed is a dead-pan Jack Benny look. You know, the one where he just stares blankly at the audience without saying a word and eventually someone titters and before you know it the whole place is in hysterics? Her very existence as a major party candidate for US Senate is the kind of comedy which arrives ready-written and would only be spoiled by embellishment. I mean, what can you add to rabidantimasturbationtarianism, rats with fully-functioning human brains and her famous Witches of Eastwick campaign ad that looks like it was produced by Tim Burton? I had fully intended to leave Ms. O'Donnell to the other comedians and the pundits who were wearing her out on cable TV. But then came the most recent revelation that she has claimed that her father was Bozo the Clown. Here I had to break my silence, not in the name of humor, but in the cause of veracity. This is a subject I happen to know something about.

Long ago, for one magic season, I was related by marriage to Bozo the Clown. I'm not making this up. My father was a semi-notorious lothario in the television and advertising business. Sometime after he turned 50, he married the 17 year-old daughter of one of his professional colleagues, Larry Harmon, the guy who owned the franchise to Bozo, the Most Famous Clown in the World. He was Bozo Primero, not one of the many FauxZos who were franchised in every major media market. I was much closer to the power center of the Bozo world than Ms. O'Donnell ever dreamed of being. It gave me an intimate glimpse into the backstage life of clowns. I knew little of the inside workings of the clown business in those days. Like a naive child, I had assumed that, you know, Bozo was Bozo. It never occurred to me that there was a school, like a Bozo boot-camp, where imposters went to learn how to walk like a Bozo and talk like a Bozo and draw the red rictus of a smile on their faces with greasepaint. It was like learning a dirty family secret and it was a big disappointment. When you go to see Bozo, you want it to really be Bozo, not some guy dressed up in a Bozo costume.

I hadn't thought about my brief inclusion in greasepaint royalty for years until Ms. O'D surfaced with her claims of actually being a blood relative of Bozo the Clown. The marriage between my father and Princess Bozo, which was chronologically challenged to begin with, barely outlasted the honeymoon. They had about as much in common as Christine would have in common with the 99 other US Senators. Suddenly the whole subject bubbled from my subconscious and made me wonder about franchises and politicians and the authenticity of clowns.

Since John Quincy Adams carried forth his father's political legacy, American politicians have campaigned on the richness of their family's past public service. Roosevelt and Kennedy and Bush all represent minor dynasties and it is entirely in keeping with this tradition for Ms. O'D to claim descent from Bozo. Clowning is as present in the current of American politics as populism, liberalism or conservatism. But in light of Ms. O'D's penchant for resume enhancement, she fibbed about her college career and has downplayed her wiccan studies, her claims to clownly ancestry are also suspect. While she seems like a natural and can certainly get a laugh and works well in the side-shows, one has to wonder if she is really ready for the Big Top, the center ring.

The US Senate is the Big League of Buffoonery. Even pros like Colbert have trouble hanging there. It's a tough room. Notice that Al Franken, even with all his years of practical comic experience, has been keeping mum in deference to the mime-masters of the Senate. These clowns can juggle, ride unicycles, do pratfalls and get shot from cannons, all with the perfect dead-pan of their painted-on media faces. They are consummate clowns adept with all the tricks, the seltzer bottle, the pie-in-the-face, the filibuster. I don't want to get all Stephen King on you but these aren't nice clowns. Ms. O'D should think twice before she alienates her witch constituency, she may need some strong juju to avoid the dunking stool. They'll make her the senator-punk-clown. Every troupe of clowns has one, the smallest clown, bottom of the pecking order, the one who all the other clowns slap and when there is no smaller clown for her to slap, she turns to the audience with her out-turned palms and pitiful Emmett Kelly frown and says, "I am you."

Two of the greatest Senatorial Clowns, Lloyd Bentson and Dan Quayle, in their famous vice-presidential debate in 1988 demonstrated the type of cut-throat comedy these jokers are capable of. When Quayle set the joke up by comparing his inexperience to the inexperience of Jack Kennedy, Bentson spiked it with this punch-line, "Senator," he said, "I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy."

The Poet's Eye would like to say to Christine O'Donnell in this same spirit, "Ms. O'Donnell, you say your father is Bozo. Well, I knew Bozo. Bozo was briefly my step-grand-father-in-law. Christine, your father was no Bozo."

Yes I’m stuck in the middle with you, and I’m wondering what it is I should do. It’s so hard to keep this smile from my face. Losing control yeah I'm all over the place.

Clowns to the left of me! Jokers to the right! Here I am stuck in the middle with you. ---Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty

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[Tax-chick]

Yes, it was. And I plan to have more, since it’s now lunch time here.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to my attorney’s office to get whatever I get, which will be more than nothing but less than all I deserve. Life is like that.

[ColdOne]

Morning! Hope you all have a nice safe day!!!!

[ColdOne]

Morning to you too! Hope you as well will have a nice safe day!

[Tax-chick]

Things are going okay here. It’s raining.

[Darksheare]

*shuffles in, grabs coffee*

Graaaaaagh.... Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiinnnsss..

[sionnsar]

Thanks! It’s almost warm and quite sunny here. But my body clock is going the wrong way — I first woke up about 2 AM; I will probably be useless later today.

[sionnsar]

Coffee. Hm. Haven’t had my weekly cup yet.

[Monkey Face]

Good eatin’!
I’m afraid I had the sympathetic miseries for you, and felt every hour of your liquid diet.

When will you get the results of the test?

[Monkey Face]

Morning!

Another 80 degree day here, but the good weather won’t last long, I’m afraid.

[Monkey Face]

I had a bottle of Starbuck’s yesterday, but it made me jittery, so I don’t think I’ll be drinking any coffee for another month or two.

Then it will have to be decaf.

[Monkey Face]

I’m always useless when I get up before I really want to. I might have been able to go back to sleep, but I was just rested enough to where my mind started to work, and then it wouldn’t shut off. *sigh*

So I got up.

[Tax-chick]

A week or so.

[Monkey Face]

I’ll keep you in my prayers.

:o]

[Tax-chick]

The doctor didn’t think there would be any problem. Garden-variety polyps, I guess. I didn’t have my glasses on, so I didn’t see the video of my intestings.

My aunt and uncle called from New York a little while ago. One of my cousins is expecting her second son in February; the first will be 2 in December, I think.

Will be time to take more byos to swimming lessons soon. I’m feeling perfectly fine now, no more gastric distress. I didn’t get to sleep for more than half an hour, but I’ll catch up tonight.

[Darksheare]

Tekeli-li!

[Tax-chick]

I don’t think they found any of that in my bowels.

[Monkey Face]

It’s probably a good thing they didn’t...
What would they have thought if they had found it there?
Would they have known that Darks was at fault?

[Monkey Face]

I had an endoscopy ‘way back when, and though I was punched out on Valium, the doctor allowed me to see my stomach. It was pink, where it should have been gray. I work hard at not allowing it to become pink again!

Still, it was an awesome experience, even so. Had I been a Star Trek fan at the time, I most likely would have said, “Fascinating!”

[Monkey Face]

FYI/FWIW:

It would appear that the problem with Miss Daisy NOW is the carburetor. Two master mechanics have worked on the truck since early this AM (0800) and I just got the call.

I can get a rebuilt carb for $150 + $100 core charge, but I need to find someone who can install it for me for not a lot of money.

When I was over there this morning, I poured some Gumout into the tank and when the engine was revved about 10 minutes later, the GUNK that came out the exhaust was hideous!

Still, I’m almost at the point of tears again, but I will keep going. I actually don’t know how NOT to!

(Other factors come into play at this point, but they are boring and/or dramatic....)

[Tax-chick]

I replaced a carburetor in my old truck, iirc. It was ugly!