Looking for a good pair of shoes to hurl at evildoers who make you crazy with anger? Come down to Zainab's Shoes, open seven days a week (until curfew).
For reasons we can go into some other time, nursery rhymes were not a part of my childhood. (Okay, short version: it had to do with benign parental neglect of me, the fourth of four boys.) In any case, the outer limits of my knowledge ranged no further than "Humpty Dumpty" and "Jack & Jill." (I pondered Humpty's problem at great length. And it seemed to me that Jack & Jill would have been better off fetching water at the bottom of the hill, since water runs downhill. But what did I know?!)
Actual fairy tales (the Grimms brothers' or otherwise) might as well have been quantum physics as far as I was concerned: totally inaccessible.
For these reasons, I find this exegesis of "Humpty Dumpty," by British comedian Ricky Gervais, to be especially delightful. It's from his recent HBO special Out of England. (Incidentally, it's NSFW or school.)
Who knew that bloodless bureaucrats could feel such emotion? I feel his pain.
During a Department of Agriculture press conference announcing an internal referendum on countercyclical potato pricing, a mid-level USDA official takes a courageous stand against what he calls neo-agrarian policies. The Onion News Network captured this emotional moment.
