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Gems from "The Fran Lebowitz Reader"

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Lightwizard
 
Reply Fri 3 Jan, 2003 06:55 pm
The female Dave Barry? Fran has some observations on life that are sometimes sarcastic humor, sometimes just outright funny truisms but always provokes gales of laughter when I first read them. I've tried to read passages out of her two books, "Metropolitan Life" and "Social Studies" and rarely can get through without breaking up. This doesn't belong in the Jokes section (wish we had a humor category) and the following are excerpts from the book that I Laughing Laughing Laughing

Gem Number One:

The Climate in Los Angeles

It is generally quite sunny in Los Angeles, thereby allowing the natives to read contracts by natural light. The mild weather is one of the main topics of conversation in Los Angeles, the other the one being the lack thereof in New York.

Many tourists come to Los Angeles because of the climate, attracted no doubt by the pleasant glare and festive air colors.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 0 • Views: 2,430 • Replies: 19
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Rae
 
  1  
Reply Fri 3 Jan, 2003 07:43 pm
<snicker, snort, snicker>
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blatham
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 07:05 am
'festive air colors"... what a gal!

Or... "Spilling your guts is exactly as charming as it sounds."
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 09:34 am
More, more!
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ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 09:50 am
I've got several worn out copies of both books. I wish she'd get write more and party less. I saw her at a 'talk' here. Can't call it a reading, it was mostly a 'be rude to those who paid to hear you' event. She's definitely best read. I love her bit on clock radios. It slays me every time I read it - and the urban olympics. I know i'd do well at the going to the dry cleaner event. I've been in serious training for decades - i think i'm reaching my prime years for competition.
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eoe
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 12:21 pm
She wrote an article that appeared in Vanity Fair about a year and a half ago. It was about getting older. Hysterical!
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 01:13 pm
OK, OK, I get it, really funny but you have to read it yourself.

Beth, how is it you multiple copies of the same books?

Y'know, I gotta admit, when I saw this, I thought it was going to be photographs from ANNIE Liebowitz.
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ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 01:17 pm
piffka, Fran Lebowitz is one of those authors that you HAVE to have spare copies of, if you lend books to people. The books either never come back, or take years to come back. I've got to have a copy on hand in case i need a fierce giggle.

I've got duplicate sets of a few of my favourites. With the number of books coming and going, it's not a big deal.
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 01:18 pm
Must rush to favorite used book store (Tacoma Book Center) and search the stacks.
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ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 01:22 pm
Lightwizard - i think you were right to put this in books, not jokes. Lebowitz is a humorist, not a joke writer. Trying to imagine who I'd rank her with, but so far I've rejected all of the contenders from the humour section of my home library. She may need her own category. For a moment, I thought maybe Woody Allen or Steven Martin, but she's truly unique, I think.
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blatham
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 02:03 pm
ehBeth

Agreed, and the same notion occured on LW's Barry comparison. Yet all these people you've mentioned, plus others like Groucho and Barry and Thurber are each unique. Let's just put them in the category of folks who likely don't realize just how valuable they are to everyone else.
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ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 02:31 pm
Good idea, blatham. Ms. Lebowitz does sit on the same shelf with Thurber and Groucho upstairs. Actually, they're all kind of fidgeters, so they're probably sitting up there, smoking cigarettes and tapping their toes and trying to outdo each other. Groucho, as the quipster would get the first laugh. Fran would probably get the next chuckle or snort. Thurber, being more of a slow boiler, would get the last laugh.
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blatham
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 02:33 pm
Well, ehBeth just got one from me.
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ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Jan, 2003 02:41 pm
:wink:
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Lightwizard
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jan, 2003 05:23 pm
Great commentary and I figured there were some who have read and/or have her books. I also have purchased "The Fran Lebowitz Reader" because of loaning out the books long ago and never getting them back!

Another gem, from "Metropolitan Life," Fran on SCIENCE:

In order to better understand the modern perchance for science it is necessary to take the historical point of view. Upon doing this, one makes the discovery that the further back one goes the less science one is likely to find. And that the science one does encounter is of a consistently higher quality. For example, in studying science of yesteryear one comes upon such interesting notions as gravity, electricity, and the roundness of the earth -- while examination of more recent phenomena shows a strong trend toward spray cheese, stetch denim and the Moog Sythesizer.


(Canned laugher Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing )
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larry richette
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Feb, 2003 02:15 pm
Fran L. was under contract to writea novel at least 10 years ago. I wonder why she never published it. She admits she is a slow writer, but this is ridiculous!
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larry richette
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Feb, 2003 02:15 pm
Fran L. was under contract to writea novel at least 10 years ago. I wonder why she never published it. She admits she is a slow writer, but this is ridiculous!
0 Replies
 
larry richette
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Feb, 2003 02:15 pm
Fran L. was under contract to writea novel at least 10 years ago. I wonder why she never published it. She admits she is a slow writer, but this is ridiculous!
0 Replies
 
larry richette
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Feb, 2003 02:16 pm
Fran L. was under contract to writea novel at least 10 years ago. I wonder why she never published it. She admits she is a slow writer, but this is ridiculous!
0 Replies
 
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Fri 14 Feb, 2003 09:03 pm
uhhhhhhhhh larry - were you trying to make a particular point here?
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