I Love Sarah Vowell

After several ranting or whiney posts, I thought it would be good for my mental health to create a positive and uplifting post.

So I wanted to let everyone (well the 2 or 3 people in the universe who may actually read this posting) that I am in love with Sarah Vowell.

What an amazing writer she is. I loved "Partly Cloudy Patriot" and I am thouroughly loving her new book, "Assassination Vacation".

The book is witty, pithy, political, poignant, historical, thought-provoking and reveals much about the writer's own soul.

In her book she writes of the assassinations of three former presidents (Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley) and their assassins. I can hear you out their yawning, but truly, the book is amazing and riveting and you can't help but just revel in her delivery of the material.

Here's one short passage where the author is making a comparison between the types of people who want to become president and the types of people who want to assassinate them:

"I am only slightly less asstonished by the egotism of the assassins, the
inflated self-esteem it requires to kill a president, than I am astonished by the men who run for president. These are people who have the gall to believe they can fix us -- us and our deficit, our fossil fuels, our racism, poverty, our potholes and public schools. The egomania required to be president or a presidential assassin makes the two types brothers of sorts. Presidents and presidential assassins are like Las Vegas and Salt Lake City that way. Even though one city is all about sin and the other is about salvation, they are identical, one-dimensional company towns built up out of the desert by the sheer will of true believers. The assassins and the presidents invite the same basic question: Just who do you think you are?"

Just one entry to entice you. I'd be breaking copyright laws if I were to type in all of my favorite passages.

Don't be fooled by Sarah's (we're one a first name basis now that I've professed my love for her) seemingly cynical view of presidents and their motivations, she seems to have a deep love and respect for many or our presidents. Especially Lincoln. She actually had me moved to tears in a couple of passages about Lincoln, particularly the way in which she relates one particular speech that Frederick Douglas gave after Lincoln's death.

But she also doesnt' deify Lincoln. She portrays his flaws and foibles at times as well.

She's also not at a loss for words for those presidents whom she despises. I love that in a person too. [Note to George W. Bush: avoid running into Sarah Vowell in public unless you enjoy witty eviscerations in public by very short women.]

Check it out.

And hopefully, in some twisted way, blogging about how much I love Sarah Vowell and her book of presidential assassinations (which frequently tangents into the absurdity of our current president, his administration and their depression-inducing policies of destruction and greed) somehow equates toward my quota of one positive and up-lifting blog entry.

And finally, like the author herself was clever enought to point out (just in case their is an FBI agent lacking any sense of humor lurking about at blogger.com) I would like to say for the record that I am a non-violent person and do not advocate for, plan or hope for any type of presidential assassination at any time. Making a martyr out of an evil moron who will one day be appropriately villified by history, seems to me to be pointless.