I believe it was some famous guy whose name eludes me (Thomas Jefferson? Mark Twain? Karl Marx?) who said, “I’d have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have time.” I think I’ve never appreciated that as much as I do now, having just recorded my summary of the second presidential debate. See, for my previous two debate raps, I’ve spent hours (in the first debate, way too many hours) reading the debates and writing up rhymed summaries for myself to rap later.

This time, I wanted to take less time. So after watching a brief clip of the debate to hear the candidate’s voices (conclusion: I don’t care), I brought up the debate transcript, turned on a looped backbeat, and began freestyling. I had gotten maybe a quarter of the way down the page when I realized: “Crap, I’m already ten minutes into this!”

Since the whole thing was freestyled and recorded real-time with no pre-writing, you actually get to hear my realization on the podcast. Anyway, the whole thing clocks in at nearly 23 minutes, which is a lot longer than the previous debate raps, a little longer than I’d like, but still not nearly as long as watching the debate itself. More importantly, it took me much less time to do, so I’m likely to freestyle a summary for the final debate next week (unless I get a lot of people emailing to say “the first two were much better, please pre-write the last one!”)

Anyway, enough written blather. Time for rhyming verbal blather!

http://risingpun.podomatic.com/

I summarized last night’s debate in rap form. So if you want to know what Palin and Biden said, but can’t be bothered to sit through two hours of blather to find out, why not listen to my rapping executive summary? It can be found here.

Also, if you’d like to read an article about a lecture you just missed on Japanese culture and Art, look no further.

…are writing and eating. Often at once. This is why I’m thrilled to have finally gotten into doing restaurant reviews. A few weeks ago I reviewed an Italian restaurant, and yesterday they ran my article on the local greasy spoon.  Writing down the price range for Jack’s in comparison to most other places I reviewed was just plain entertaining.

Speaking of my life as a gourmet, tonight I had a seafood casserole with lobster, crab, scallops, shrimp, garlic, cilantro, white wine, and parmesan. It was, frankly, pretty damn tasty. And the best part is, I didn’t have to go to a restaurant to get it.

The problem with unreasonable people (aside from the fact that they are sufficiently unreasonable that such is the main adjective you use to describe them) is that you can’t complain to them that they are being unreasonable, or they will simply get stubbornly huffy and continue being unreasonable while calling you an unreasonable complainer. This is as true in real life as it is in politics.

Well, it’s September. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it. The months start to speed by, and I’m sure the year will be over before I know it. The Olympics are already over, although you can relive all the highlights in my most recent column. And I’m back from attending yet another wedding, for what will in all probability be my last time in a tuxedo. Tuxedos are bizarre, and wearing one with any frequency seems more trouble than it’s worth. Honestly, I don’t know how penguins do it.*

Still, catching up with old friends is always delightful. Whether it’s playing board games, or hearing interesting anecdotes (one of my lawyer friends had an objection sustained against him for “being sarcastic”), or just hanging out, weddings provide one of the few reliable reunions that gather many of my friends from all over the country.

Speaking of country, my article about Country Joe McDonald was published last week, so feel free to read it if that sort of thing interests you. Right now, I think what interests me is lunch.

*please do not take this as an invitation to send me videos of penguins mating.

Since this is the website I direct potential clients to, (or as a more stilted but grammatically correct person might say, to which I direct potential clients), it occurs to me that I should perhaps post some indication that I write things that exist in the world.

I write a weekly limerick for BBSpot.com. The site admin was on vacation for a few weeks, so a backlog accumulated and can be viewed here.

I’ve been doing some book reviews for USA Today. Last week’s can be viewed here.

I’ve also been doing some restaurant reviews for the Berkshire Eagle, but they tend to take them down pretty fast; I’ll try to remember to post the next one when it runs.

And I’ve been writing product copy and podcasting for a sales website. Link available upon request.

Well, thanks to the technological efforts of Lex Friedman, RisingPun.com is back on the air. Now that I can update my blog without having to hand-code four different pages, maybe I’ll update my blog more often. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I’ll tell you that my book review* was in the USA Today. Yesterday.
*(me reviewing someone else’s book, not vice versa.)