Agent Palmer

Of all things Geek. I am…

The Satire of Franken’s “Why Not Me” is Now Just Our Reality

Why Not Me is Al Franken’s 1999 future fiction satire of his run to the White House in the election of 2000. This was years before his actual journey into the realm of public service.

This book may be dated, but not because it was written before the turn of the century or in a different millennium. This book is dated because the line on what works as satire is drawn based around the current events that satire is set against. Why Not Me has moments of clarity that shock, but those are few and far between.

Declassify >

Zinoman’s biography of David Letterman should make your Top Ten list on Late Night

I was too young to experience the Late Night Wars. They were well over – or at least not as hostile – by the time I was able to stay up late enough to watch any of the Late Night offerings, but I did choose a side. I was a Letterman guy.  At the time, I just preferred Letterman to Leno. Since then, I’ve enjoyed his post-Late Night era Netflix series “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman.”…

Declassify >

The Catcher Was A Spy isn’t just for Baseball and Espionage Fans

I enjoy baseball, and I enjoy spy and espionage books, films and series. It would seem, then, that The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg was bound to not only interest me, but intrigue and entertain me as well. I would argue that sociologists and psychologists would also enjoy this book, as the curious case of Moe Berg is more than what it seems.

Despite the research completed here by author Nicholas Dawidoff and other books written about him, the constant in this book is what we don’t know.

Declassify >

Sometimes Three Isn’t the Magic Number

Enough with the trilogies!

I recently read a pretty good book. But it was published at the height of publishing’s trilogy mania and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t quite enjoy it enough to continue with the trilogy. And that’s kind of a shame, because about two-thirds the way through the book, I knew there wouldn’t be any answers when I finished it.

Now, that’s not the case for all trilogies.

Declassify >