Parliament of whores
In 1988 the author moved to Washington to take a long look at our government and to find an answer to the question every American asks: What the hell do these guys do all day, and why does it cost so much money? In his Introduction, he proffers the theory that we are suffering under a dictatorship of boredom. Adopting the manner of a high school civics textbook, he covers the three branches of government -- legislative, executive, judicial -- in a section entitled "Money, Television and Bullshit."
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- Read books.
East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, for example. Or collections of Sherlock Holmes stories. Or Asimov's Foundation series (skip the last couple of books!). Or Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. Or Parliament of Whores by P.J. O'Rourke.
Or go through lists of famous opening lines of novels and maybe pick up a novel that you really like the beginning of ("It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife", "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times [...]", "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen", etc.).
It doesn't matter what it is, as long as the writing is good and you like reading it.
(And don't bother looking everything up. It shouldn't be necessary and it makes the reading process dull.)
Another option is to watch TV.
Watch something you never used to watch before, such as Grand Designs or Would I Lie To You (start with the clip "I accidentally bought a horse" on the "WILTY? Nope!" channel as it has fantastic subtitles... which you WILL need). Or maybe A Bit of Fry & Laurie, for example the sketches about language and the sketch with the pretentious tourists (it's on youtube as "A Bit of Fry and Laurie S02E04 Czech"). Or Jimmy Carr hosting I Literally Just Told You (season 1 episode 2 -- the others are not as good). Or Carr hosting The Big Fat Quiz of the Year/Decade/etc or 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
A third option is radio/podcasts.
The Unbelievable Truth (hosted by David Mitchell), for example. Or In Our Time (hosted by Melvyn Bragg) -- start with some of the older ones as Bragg is no longer as sharp or as clear in his speech as he used to be just five years ago.
- I'd start with Parliament of Whores or Holidays in Hell. It's not as well known, but Modern Manners is a real howler with more laughs per page than just about any book I can think of, and is the perfect night table book because you can read short snippets of it right before bed.
- And anything by P.J. O'Rourke. Parliament of Whores was entertaining.
- being specific is the essence of lawmaking and the whole difference between having a Congress and having a mom
~ P. J. O'Rourke, "Parliament of Whores"
- PJ O'Rourke had a line in his book "Parliament of Whores" when he, as a layman, ham-fistedly cuts a bunch of stuff from the federal budget, and then just subtracts 10% from it at the end. Probably not the originator, but a quote I think about often.
"Add it all together, and I've cut $282.8 billion, leaving a federal budget of $950.5 billion, to which I apply O'Rourke's Circumcision Precept: You can take 10 percent off the top of anything. This gives me another $95 billion in cuts for a grand total of $337.8 billion in budget liposuction."
Parliament of Whores, page 103.
- Are you familiar with what PJ O'Rouke says about politicians?
Have a listen to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbIqKqojOZU
He is the author of Parliament of Whores
Parliament of Whores is an international best-selling political humor book by P. J. O'Rourke published by Atlantic Monthly Press in 1991. Subtitled "A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire US Government"
