The Plan by Jack Handey

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/11/24/081124sh_shouts_handey

by mhb • 18 years ago

30 17 18 years ago

unalone6• 18 years ago

Jack Handey is a brilliant prosist. It's close between him and Dave Barry for my overall favorite: Barry's more prolific, Handey is much less hit-and-miss.

s3graham• 18 years ago

Hertzberg and Handey, always look forward to reading them every week when they have a spot.

unalone6• 18 years ago

I'd never heard of Hertzberg before! Thanks for the name tip-off.

josefresco• 18 years ago

Dave Barry?!? What is this 1997?

unalone6• 18 years ago

He was very active up to a few years ago. He still keeps a blog. He's a fan of Achewood, which is how I came across his name again.

And he's a master of his sort of humor. No doubt about it.

newsit• 18 years ago

Completely off-topic, but why is it dated 24th November 2008?

mhb• 18 years ago

It's from the current print issue which I think they post-date so that it looks timely when it's sitting on the store shelves.

sutro• 18 years ago

This reads like most startup business plans I've seen.

patio11• 18 years ago

How so? It includes things I rarely see in startup business plans: a revenue model, for one.

quickpost• 18 years ago

Sounded like he was talking about the Financial Bailout to me.... ;)

mynameishere• 18 years ago

I can't believe only the New Yorker publishes poetry anymore.

unalone6• 18 years ago

To be fair, have you read the poetry in it? Most of it is on the better side of mediocre, which isn't saying much.

There aren't many good poets anymore. Of contemporary poets, I love Richard Siken and like a few other ones, but a few isn't enough to sustain anything like a dedicated effort. Meanwhile, we have quite a few very good short fiction writers: that's where the focus is moving.

It's sad, and I continue writing poetry in an attempt to become one of the great ones, but the trend right now is that most people who want to write poetry write lyrics instead. There are several brilliant lyricists out there - Tom Waits and Stephin Merritt come quickly to mind.

dgabriel2• 18 years ago

Slate.com, The Atlantic, and The New Republic all publish poetry and poetry criticism. Also Asimov's, but I'm not sure the sci-fi stuff counts :)

unalone6• 18 years ago

Science fiction is the cutting edge of literature. A sci-fi writer won the Nobel Prize in 2007; Philip Dick and Frank Herbert were the foremost writers of the 50s and 60s, in terms of pushing the envelope, along with only Beckett on the proper literature side.

noonespecial• 18 years ago

All I could keep thinking was "Hell, its got more of a chance of working than Paulson's plan..."

Monkeys are much more predictable, you see.

The Plan by Jack Handey

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