March 24, 2008

A surprising piece in the New York Times recently claimed that Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” was not fictional, but based on a true person with a real medical condition. The article refers to recent publishing scandals about supposedly non-fiction books that turned out to be fake, and suggests that the reverse situation may turn out to be the biggest scandal yet. Uh huh. I wonder how the news biz’s “Grey Lady” will respond when they discover that this story is itself a fake. In fact, I have some inside scuttlebutt that this “Mark Leyner” on the by-line is really the new pen name of the Times’ own past prevaricator Jayson Blair. In fact, my sources suggest that he may have also been involved in that John McCain story last month.

Newsweek has this long article titled “When Barry Became Barack” which featured a bunch of anecdotal items about the Presidential Candidate’s “formative years”, starting with his decision in college to drop using the “Americanized” nickname Barry in favor of having himself addressed as Barack. It’s a generally positive piece but is not without its doubt-inducing moments, particularly suggesting inconsistencies within his autobiography. But it never addresses the real motivation behind the “name change”, which may have a lot to do with who he shared the name “Barry” with. I have assembled ten good examples of why “Barry” was and is not a good name for Obama. First, five who were prominent when he made the change:
Is that all? Of course that’s not all! Click Here.