Today's entry
Dumbing Down the Arts
A frustrated writer came up with novel scheme to test the intelligence of book publishers. He retyped into manuscript form
The Painted Bird, Jerzy Kosinski's award-winning novel, and submitted it, under his own name, to a dozen big publishers. They all rejected the manuscript as not being worthy of publication, including the house that had actually published Kosinski's book.
From Tuesday
Everything You Always Wanted to Know but Were Too Smart to Ask
Why do the idiots always rise to the top?
They're handpicked by the top brass, who don't want someone smart coming in and making them look bad by comparison.
From Monday
International Idiocy
The world's first parking tickets were given out in Nineveh (now Iraq) over 2,000 years ago to people who parked their chariots on the king's road. The fine? Death by impalement.
From Sunday
Dumb Moments in the Lives of Famous People
Not all presidents need scientific advisers. Ronald Reagan, for example, found it more efficient to invent his own science. Here's Reagan on the campaign trail dismissing the dangers of atomic energy: "All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk." That would have been one amazing desk, big enough to cover up the 25 tons of nuclear wasted produced each year by an atomic power plant.
From Saturday
People with Unique Vision
Lady Lewson, a wealthy eighteenth-century English woman, refused to bathe, ever, thinking immersion led to illness. Instead, to preserve herself she coated her body daily with hog's lard. She lived ninety years that way.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
