Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll

The funny thing is the 'is said to be.' A way of avoiding legal issues. What the article says is that the CIA tried to buy this election and, because of 21st Century technology, it didn't happen. In the way it happened, say, in Latin America in the 50s. Stuffing the ballot box just ain't what it used to be.

A few howlers from the piece.

A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment for this article.

“No intelligence organization worth the name would ever entertain these kind of allegations,” said Paul Gimigliano, the spokesman.

Some American officials said that the allegations of Mr. Karzai’s role in the drug trade were not conclusive.

“There’s no proof of Ahmed Wali Karzai’s involvement in drug trafficking, certainly nothing that would stand up in court,” said one American official familiar with the intelligence."

Two examples of damning with faint praise.

Eight Thousand Words

I have a long article in the Fall issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review.

http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2009/fall/anasi-game-over/

From beginning to end, this piece was tough on me. The phrase 'the torments of the damned' comes to mind. But it's out and I'm pretty happy with it. Of course, I think it should be twenty thousand words.

Many thanks to Bill Wasik for all his help and to Ted Genoways for giving it a home.

Flat Foot Floogie'

'In penning his biggest hit, "Flat Foot Floogie," the sly Gaillard perpetrated a monumentally mischievous prank on the American pop music public. The whole first line read: "Flat Foot Floogie with the Floy Floy." As it happen, a flat-foot floozie (Galliard substitutes "floogie"). in the African American slang of the period, is defined as a streetwalking prostitute and, in the same lexicon, the floy floy is defined as gonorrhea. In other words, America was unwittingly singing along to a song celebrating a streetwalker carrying the clap.'

Not my prose but a great joke, the 'YMCA' of its day. Slim Gaillard was a bad-ass.

Observations from the Late Shift

William T. Vollmann is a genius.