Only on the Internet

It's not only fluff we post here; sometimes we go for the hardcore ephemera that is so ephemeral one barely notices it ephemerating before one's very eyes. It's like Marty McFly in those photographs that he always manages to have on him as he zips and back and forth to the future.

First up today is Keggers of Yore, a photo-blog devoted to the festivities enjoyed by past generations of American (and, no doubt, Canadian) college students and hangers-on before they faced reality, conquered their five-beers-a-week alcoholic hell, sharpened their straight edge, made a fortune selling mousepads or organic yak's milk to gullible yuppies, or became Secretary for Defense. A surprisingly large number of these photographs can bear the simple caption: 'in happier times.'

There is also the Slanket, which is nowhere near as weird as it should be, now that is has featured on an episode of 30 Rock. This ingenious variation on an old favourite is a big hit with the monks of Chartreuse, the Ku-Klux Klan, Obi-Wan Kinobi and Masonic lodges in wintry northern climes among many other key demographics.

From the Emerald Isle comes a brave stab at at mounting an Áine Chambers-esque bid for Internet Meme Stardom. The trick, not surprisingly, involves clowns, coffins, funerals and pre-Y2K web-design. I would try and analyse it as it clearly means something but it's not as if I wasted my time in college studying art history.

And though this has been around for a few months now, here's the latest piece of annoying self-referentialism from hipsters, for whom fashion clearly never sits still for one minute. Die hipsters die!

Hat tips to Octavia, Cormac and Jim, without whom none of this would have been possible.

Dear Reader...

Joe Queenan is, as a friend of mine and a fellow fan put it a few years back, a very facile man. Queenan is also consistently funny, as anyone who has read his masterpieces of snide humour will attest. These perfectly-formed volumes of snark include Imperial Caddy (about Dan Quayle's expected impending run for the 1996 Presidential election) and Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon (an account of his year slumming it amid American middle-of-the-road pop culture - retitled simply America for benighted Europeans).

In a piece in the Wall Street Journal Queenan turns his hand to a short study of readers' reviews on Amazon.com, because someone must, just as many imagine someone must pen those reviews in the first place. Queenan imagines a world in which the Amazon readers' review - that great leveller of canonical rankings and literary esteem - has been with us from the dawn of writing (and reading, of course). Below are a selection of his reviews. No fish in this barrel escapes Queenan's fire, nor does this detract from his greatness.

• "King Lear"—Average reader rating: Two stars. The author tells us: "As like flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport." Oh, right, like I didn't know that? Like I didn't know that to be or not to be is the question? Like I didn't know that the fault lies not in us but in the stars? Tell me something I don't know, Mr. Bard of Whatever.

• "The 120 Days of Sodom"—Average Reader's Rating: Five stars. OK, so I like totally pre-ordered this book based on the author's name, which just happens to be the same as my maiden name—Marquis de. Yeah, a sketchy reason to buy a book, but I was pumped. But when it got here I didn't understand it at all. It just didn't go anywhere. It just kept repeating itself. I went through it a few times more, searching for some deeper, awesome meaning, but just ended up totally bummed. Actually, some parts of it were kind of gross.

• "Mein Kampf"—Average reader's rating: One star. Lively writing, but just too, too depressing. Why does he keep using big words that normal people can't understand, like lebensraum and oberkommandant? Hey! I own a thesaurus, too! And what's up with the Jewish thing?

Next week Joe Queenan turns his attention to YouTube commenters.

Joe Queenan: Amazon Reviewers Take On the Classics - WSJ.com

Tes Oignons

I have long been a fan of The Onion, which more often than not lives up to its banner claim to be 'America's finest news source'. The quality of the writing has never flagged in the ten years since it was established in Madison, Wisconsin ten years ago, which is something phenomenonal considering how even good satire can date and wane so easily. A recent addition to the Onion roster is their audio news section, one-minute bulletins presented by the plausibly-named Doyle Redland. Though this is as masterfully produced as the 'print edition' there is something less convincing about it, probably because it is so hard to take American radio news seriously when it is straight. I found this too with Brass Eye, which I watched again on DVD over the last week. Chris Morris' show is incredibly funny but its bullet-point style, slavishly mimetic, and parodic, of flatulent current-affairs programmes, wearies, mainly because it is so reliant upon its original subject matter for life and vigour. I found it desperately hard to watch more than episode in one sitting. The Onion radio news produces humorous news items that really do not develop beyond the initial hilarity of the headline and the standfirst. Still, 'Parents Blame Rise In Obesity On Eating-Based Video Game' is pretty damn funny, as is 'Morgan Spurlock's Experiment To Try Heroin For 30 Days Enters 200th Day'.

Langered

Having dinner with a pair of expat Paddies the other night, the Internet was summoned when we all got a bit biccied and I got my introduction to Langerland, the latest in excellent satire to come out of Ireland. Hilarious, offensive, irreverent and witty it is a worthy successor to the fondly-remembered Slate. Does anybody know if any of the guys from the Slate have a hand in this? My favourite is 'What Have The Brits Ever Done For Us?' Stellar.