What Bobo is trying to say is:

Welcome to the “Bad Memory Century”… ….Forget about the Bush years…

…and watch out for part 2, “What have the Democrats done to the world”

Maybe we have been underestimating the subtlety of BoBo’s wit. Could this be a brilliantly self-referential feuilleton written as a stream-of-consciousness narrative suggesting the ravages of early-stage Alzheimer’s?

Or is it more like, “Shit! The Times needs my piece in half an hour! What the hell am I going to write?”

A decent human being would sense your distress and give you some lagniappe of information

But I thought the Republicans hated the French?

The dawning of the Bad Memory Century will have vast consequences for the social fabric and the international balance of power.

What BoBo is doing is setting up an excuse for his being wrong about everything for his entire career. Mea non culpa, since I don’t remember anything I said before today.

Shorter David Brooks: I am now Andy Rooney.

“George W. Who? Wasn’t he that Democrat from Texas?”

“In the era of an aging population, memory is the new sex.”
And David Brooks is the new Allen Tate.

…after reading that piece, my first inclination would be to suggest to Bobo that he stick to his day job. On reflection, though, that wouldn’t really be an improvement…

talk about narcissism… because HE is having memory issues, it must be a generational issue. as usual, it never occurs to him that the deficiency is simply his.

Oh yeah, makes you want to donate to The News Hour doesn’t it.

On the one side are these colossal Proustian memory bullies who get 1,800 pages of recollection out of a mere cookie-bite. They traipse around broadcasting their conspicuous displays of recall as if quoting Auden were the Hummer of conversational one-upmanship.

I wanted to write something snarky, but instead I will just translate this paragraph.

Drivel. Drivel. Drivel. Pretentious drivel. Insert word from Word-of-the- Day desk calendar. Drivel. Drivel. Drivel………..

Bobo should steer clear of the All-England Summarize Proust Competition.

Is david saying that sometimes forgets to jack off and sometimes he remembers?

David always remembers to jack off, it’s just that sometimes he forgets to wear one of his mom’s old gardening gloves while doing so.

Technology means never having to remember. Who the Hell is David Brooks, again?

As in most great historical transformations, the members of the highly educated upper-middle class will express their suffering most loudly. It is especially painful when narcissists suffer memory loss because they are losing parts of the person they love most.

These two sentences next to each other once again prove that Bobo’s disconnect is active, & he can break the irony meter at will.

I had a bad memory before having a bad memory was cool.

The News Hour needs to update their point/counterpoint critters. Both are a bit threadbare. I used to watch Shields/Brooks/Gigot/etc regularly, now I cant recall the last time. Bobo is spotty. but his lucid moments are farther and farther apart. Soon he will be in Kristol land. Then he gets taken out back for the old Yeller treatment.

I think it’s a recycled column about Ronny Raygun.

tbogg, maybe Pie-fight could replace the cheerleading video you’re so fond of, whereas we could see Billy K. get it in the mug 3x a week, as opposed to you-know-who making an ass of herself. It would make me oh so happy.

who is the Hummer of conversational one-upmanship? I would like to know because i could use a good hummer?

…memory is the new sex.

Probably ’cause he can’t remember the old.

Um … What. The. Fuck?

I’m guessing he was the one in the supermarket, was confronted by some past acquaintance, his mind went dark (as it does before he writes most of his columns) and he decided if it was happening to him, it must be ridiculously important and happening to everyone and will have dire implications for the rest of the world.

Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ on a Pogo Stick … how the hell does he still get so much run?

these colossal Proustian memory bullies

Telling, isn’t it? Anyone who can do anything better than he can is a “bully.” Even if it’s just memorizing poetry. Speaking of narcissists…

Thanks for posting the vid of bloody bill getting it in the face with the pie. I’d never seen it before and would click on it every time it’s posted if you’re so inclined.

Shorter David Brooks:

As more Americans go soft in the head, John McCain will resonate more strongly with America.