Culture > March 24, 2004

False Advertising

By Kurt Vonnegut

I recently gave a speech in Cleveland. I feel so safe there. The bi-partisanship of Neocons working in perfect harmony with the Christian Right has made this city so safe that Cleveland’s mayor is actually laying off police persons and fire fighters. There can only be one word for a community that secure: “Utopia.”

So many American communities are now such Utopias that only one issue remains to be dealt with in the next presidential election: Is the United States of America for or against homosexual marriage?

I’m going to tell you some news.

No, I am not running for President, although I do know that a sentence, if it is to be complete, must have both a subject and a verb.

Nor will I confess that I sleep with children. I will say this, though: My wife is by far the oldest person I ever slept with.

Here’s the news: I am going to sue the Brown and Williamson Company, manufacturers of Pall Mall cigarettes, for a billion bucks! Starting when I was only twelve years old, I have never chain-smoked anything but unfiltered Pall Malls. And for many years now, right on the package, Brown and Williamson have promised to kill me.

But I am now eighty-one and a half!!!!

Thanks a lot, you dirty rats. The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon.

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• Reader Comments

  That was funny! 

  Posted by Chad Massey on Mar 25, 2004 at 11:28 PM

  I hope Kurt makes it for another 81 years. He is an American treasure.

  Posted by Clarence Fisher on Mar 26, 2004 at 6:01 PM

  I love you Kurt Vonnegut.

  Posted by Guido Moreira on Mar 26, 2004 at 9:15 PM

  Hey, some of those Cleveland cops that Kurt Vonnegut mentioned as being laid off have been hired for the Cincinnati police force.  I guess the Cincinnati police needed to import help to kill more black men and create more bad publicity for the city, as if they haven’t already gotten the City of Cincinnati enough. C’est la vie.

  Posted by Gary Cook on Mar 27, 2004 at 3:27 PM

  congratulations kurt!!! you are the 38747482nd person to make the bush, dick and colon joke!!!!!

  Posted by steve on Mar 27, 2004 at 9:20 PM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 27 posts.

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