9.30.2005

A Scary Day with Bill & Willie

The day suddenly got weird. All it took was a simple customer request: "Do you have The O’Reilly Factor for Kids?" I stood there stupefied for a few seconds. Even though I live in Thailand and don’t watch Fox News, I had heard enough about the horrific “O’Reilly Factor” to know what the customer was talking about. I knew that we didn’t have the book in stock – I’d thankfully never seen it - but I played dumb, and went through the motions of looking for the title on our bookshop's computer database. The customer, a man that appeared to be in his late twenties, sighed in disappointment. “That’s too bad. My mother asked me to find that for my sister. I guess I’ll look for it somewhere else.”

You guessed right, buddy. Take a hike! But I was curious; was there really such a revolting book? O’Reilly for Kids? Nice, innocent children will be subjected to this guy’s right-wing drivel? I checked online and, sure enough, found the offensive title listed: The O’Reilly Factor for Kids: a Survival Guide for American Families. Oh that’s great; wrap your narrow-minded views under the guise of keeping families together. Pathetic.

But the day's weirdness wasn’t over yet. After work I stopped by a branch of CD Warehouse and perused the new releases. Some interesting new albums by the likes of Tracy Chapman, Bonnie Raitt, Neil Young, Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Ryan Adams. But there was something else nestled among the fresh titles, something inexplicably odd and revolting: a Willie Nelson reggae album called Countryman. Yes. Really. I’m not making this up. I like old Willie, but the idea of him singing “The Harder They Come” is even harder to fathom. Try Jah Love? In this case, I think not.

2 comments:

Deb said...

I have heard several cuts off of it, not bad. Sort of like when Johnny Cash did his cover of 9 Inch Nails. Now if you want really, really weird music there is this Hasidic Reggae Rapper,http://www.hasidicreggae.com/ . Very very strange.

John in Atlanta said...

It's been a while but I remember reading a few passages from O'Lielly's book. Nothing but pure drivel. Of course what can one expect from him? Common sense? Hardly.