Comments on: What was that all about? Were fat people involved?

By: Mr Ripley

Mr Ripley — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 22:15:36 +0000

I wonder what Keillor thinks of (fellow public radio populist) Codrescu’s Road Scholar, which has some of the same stops he describes as clichés in Levy, albeit a rather different tone and approach.

By: david tiley

david tiley — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 10:39:29 +0000

All done up like a pox doctor’s clerk.

That’s the drum.

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 08:38:22 +0000

(One Ozzie friend said the “Snowy River” model made me look “as rakish as a rat with a gold tooth,” but I’m not sure she was serious.)

You mean “as flash as a rat with a gold tooth”. An apt description of BHL, as is the suggestion that commonly follows, that he has tickets on himself.

By: nick s

nick s — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 07:41:05 +0000

I thought Keillor let himself down a bit: one would have presumed that, as a NYT book reviewer, he might have realised the extent to which BHL has responded to his lampooning in France by becoming a self-parody for the benefit of Americans.

Now, it’s interesting that GK is himself a purveyor of Minnesota Lutheran stereotypes (‘Lake Wobegone… where all the children are above average’) though with some degree of tweaking and subtlety.

Here’s an odd compare-and-contrast, though: BHL’s C-SPAN thing this weekend—where he was introduced by Fukuyama and shared a stage with Bill Kristol—reminded me of Niall Ferguson, both of whom appear to have taken advantage of an unfamiliar nation to reinvent themselves as doyennes of the neocon (i.e. AEI/Hoover) rubber-chicken circuit. It’s a bit like Hollywood celebs doing Japanese TV commercials and posing for billboard ads selling low-rent products.

The thing I found most fascinating about Lévy when I saw him on the Daily Show was his shirt, which was of a rather unusual cut.

There is something earlier in the C-SPAN archives where his shirt is unbuttoned to the navel, revealing a large gold medallion. Quite. My wife still can’t get the image out of her head.

By: dr ngo

dr ngo — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 05:53:36 +0000

Akubra is a hat company, like Stetson. They traditionally made the best Australian hats (from rabbit felt, IIRC), which come in various models. My favorite, the “Snowy River” model, I unfortunately left in the airport at Bangkok returning from a trip with the Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir. (I’m not making this up, you know.) I now have the “Cattleman” model, equally well made, but less stylish. (One Ozzie friend said the “Snowy River” model made me look “as rakish as a rat with a gold tooth,” but I’m not sure she was serious.)

The Akubra does not come with corks on strings, which, if wanted, must be designed and attached by the wearer. But it’s a great hat, nevertheless!

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 01:59:22 +0000

I was all excited to find out what this akubra hat thing was, but it turns out just to be what the Man from Snowy River wore. The cork part is pretty weird, though. No way the Man from Snowy River would wear those- he’d just kill the flies w/ his whip.

By: Tom T.

Tom T. — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:51:02 +0000

Slate's discussion of Levy points out that he is apparently a fan of Francis Fukuyama. That's all I needed to know.

By: Frenchdoc

Frenchdoc — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:39:44 +0000

From a french perspective, BHL is NOT a huge celebrity. His heyday was 25 years ago(along with the other so-called “new philophers”, a movement launched by editor Francoise Verny, Barbarism with a human face was part of that trend).
It’s been downward ever since. He made a movie that bombed at the box-office. as mentioned above, he got pied pretty consistently. And his recent books, including “who killed Daniel PEarl” were all convincingly debunked. He is by no means representative of the intellectual french scene. For more interesting work, look for Olivier Roy, Gilles Kepel, and Alain Touraine. Whether you agree with them or not, they have more intellectual breadth and depth and know what they’re talking about.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:06:35 +0000

Sorry, Belgium still is not a land of paradoxes.

Neither is New Zealand.

By: rea

rea — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:04:11 +0000

Those cheese-eating surrender monkeys sure seem to accept a lot of misleading and supeficial stereotypes about Americans, don’t they? ;)

By: helmut

helmut — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 23:47:53 +0000

Noel Godin’s interest in new and more prestigious victims must, I supposed, have taken the heat off his old enemy Bernard-Henri Levy. “Sadly not,” said Godin. “I offered my terms for a ceasefire several months ago. Hostilities will end when he and his wife appear in public and sing, as a duet, the popular French comic song “Avez-Vous Vu Le Beau Chapeau De Zozo?”.

But… I’m all for pieing BHL. Keillor too. Maybe Bono? All of Oasis?

By: yabonn

yabonn — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 22:19:12 +0000

Which also rather neatly confirms the weirdness of Belgium.

Belgium simply rocks, all hail Godin.

He got B. Gates’ whole bodyguards team fired last time (it is rumored), but i like him better for his repeated BHL pieings.

BHL’s face and cream pies, it’s just magic, really.

By: jamie

jamie — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:32:42 +0000

May I throw this into the BHL mix?

http://www.jaybabcock.com/observer.html

Which also rather neatly confirms the weirdness of Belgium.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:09:50 +0000

Levy accuses Keillor of Francophobia in the New York Sun today. He also says the book was written to combat pernicious continental anti-Americanism. It doesn’t sound like he and Keillor are talking about the same book.

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:05:22 +0000

“Don’t forget to bring your akubra hat with the corks in it.”

Embarrassingly enough, I actually had one of these once, as a child. That was before Aerogard.