That’s right: FREE, as in beer, as in don’t cost nuthin’. Actually, it costs $0.01 and you have to pay for shipping, but yeesh, this is quite a deal. $0.01 + shipping is worth it for the CD alone.
Run, don’t walk, here and get a copy for yezself.
Of course, being a McSweeney’s book, it contains adult content. Here’s an example, just to pique your interest:
blowkay [bloh’-kay] adj. of an attitude, typically exhibited by the electorate, that elected officials who have sexual relations outside of marriage while in office are less deserving of impeachment than officials whose decisions lead to the loss of human life. Folks say the new senator from Rhode Island is a skirt chaser, but as long as he doesn’t send thousands of Americans off to die in a war on false pretenses he’s blowkay with me.
You get the idea.
‘Kay, M’sF went on a short hiatus (who am I kidding? It’ll probably go on another one after today). Recent events have made it necessary to pull M’sF out of semi-retirement.
McSweeney’s seems to be in a bit of a pickle. Their distributor went bankrupt a number of months ago, forcing them (and all the other small presses that used the distributor’s services) to switch to a new distributor. The news guys seem to be working out well. However, the bankruptcy enabled the defunct distributor to simply cancel profits that it owed the presses. That sucks.
For some odd reason the financial loss is hitting McSweeney’s now. That’s why now more than ever they need money. This is a temporary setback, one that was 100% out of their control, and once the storm blows over it’ll be business as usual. To help the storm blow over, please consider popping by the McSweeney’s store and buying something.
I’ll recommend the McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern bundles, particularly the #11/#12 bundle and the #13/#14 bundle. I’ll also recommend two books: The Better of McSweeney’s and Ben Greenman’s Superbad. You actually can’t go wrong with most of their stuff. I will say Samuel Johnson is Indignant by Lydia Davis and McSweeney’s Outlaws, Noisy Blobs, etc. book didn’t impress me, though. You can’t win ‘em all.
[UPDATE: It looks like those two bundles are sold out. Individual copies of the books are available.]
If you don’t wanna help, no biggie. I just figured I’d bring this up. (Note to my Utah friends: McSweeney’s publications tend to be Rated R. You’ve been warned.)
[When I remember to do so, every Friday I post something interesting that I saw on the McSweeney’s Internet Tendency web site. I usually forget. Once you hit 40, these things happen. I’m educating you on the benefits of reading McSweeneys’ content, which hopefully qualifies as fair use. If not, McSweeneys, tell me to cut the crap.]
This week’s offering is from the Lists section of the site:
The Names of Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs
After Being Prescribed Paxil, Ritalin, Prozac,
Lithium, Provigil, and Benadryl.
by JEFFREY GREENSTEIN
Dwarf
Dwarf
Dwarf
Dwarf
Dwarf
Dwarf
Doc
If I can remember to do so, every Friday I’ll post something interesting that I saw on the McSweeney’s Internet Tendency web site. Odds are good I’m going to forget. Still, at least you’ll enjoy one weeks’ worth.
Note that I’m only doing this because I can’t find any legalese on the site that says this is a no-no. Intuitively I guess I know I shouldn’t do this, but I’m not selling it, I’m not taking credit for it, and I’m doing it to educate people on the quality of information that the site contains. I believe Fair Use kicked in somewhere around the word “educate.” If not, McSweeney’s, tell me to cut the crap.
With that said, here’s this week’s offering from Reviews of New Food:
Tilla-Moos
Submitted by Whitey Eckerson
I’ve laid out two pairs of tweezers and a pair of toenail scissors on the table in front of me. Tilla-Moos come individually wrapped in an air-tight vacuum, and there’s little room for error. It’s less pleasing to eat a damaged miniature cheese brick.
Suddenly, my wife taps me on the shoulder and says, “Phone for you.”
“Message, message, take a message!” I cry.
My fingers are greasy with cheese sweat and regular sweat. I apprehend the cheese brick.
Just then my stomach taps me on the arm and says, “Dude, another one? What’s the deal? How about a pear or some hot water and lemon?”
I warm the serrated edges of the packaging by massaging them between my thumb and forefinger. Shallow breaths in through the mouth, out through the nose. I make the initial cut with the toenail scissors and set them back on the table with shaking hands. Taking a tweezer in each hand, I carefully work the initial cut toward the exact center of the edge of the brick. Veins appear all over my head. I take a flap of plastic between my teeth and rip and tear at it like a lunatic and pretty much eat the cheese right through the packaging.
I recommend Tilla-Moos to people who like heist films.
