Culled from Mr. Sarvas’s painstaking retyping of a TLS article: “‘We’re angrier than Dave Eggers and his crowd,’ he told the Observer. Well, that’s promising, kind of. Angry about what? The war? Religious fundamentalism at home and abroad? Race and its discontents? – the big, Mailerite subejcts. No. Kunkel is angry about dating.”
For the benefit of those who follow n+1, here is a full list of issues that Ben Kunkel is angry about:
- The whole hot dog to hot dog bun ratio. Standup comedians have been mining this territory for years, but with Kunkel, it’s personal. A veritable supermarket jihad. A future issue of n+1 will try and track down the appropriate people responsible for this catastrophe, imagining a judicious world in which disreputable hot dog bun manufacturers are executed for their crimes against humanity.
- The bastards who cut you off on the freeway. While most commuters inevitably shake off the momentary fury of someone merging into a lane without checking their blind spots, Kunkel’s been keeping score. License plate numbers and full dossiers of car owners will be printed in future issues to come.
- Those call banks in India. Surely not enough has been said on the subject!
- Those who would decry beating a dead horse.
- How acid wash jeans are misunderstood.
- While competitor Eggers has frequently bemoaned men who don’t subscribe to the metrosexual code of shaving the neck, Kunkel has his own millstone: men who selfishly wear black socks to bed when their girlfriends aren’t around. Kunkel considers this sartorial gaffe to be a full-blown deception! In order for humanity to thrive, a certain dining out consistency, far from foolish, should be maintained. It is the American way.
- The charges leveled at Tony Danza.
- The guilt of illegally tearing a mattress tag off.
- People who bring in bag lunches (and, even wore, those Tupperware containers of last night’s leftovers) to work. Kunkel, awash in his own brilliance, has figured out the economic effect on small mom ‘n pop eateries, who rely upon office drones and their unassuming palates for their bread and butter.
- The avaricious impulse encouraged by the unlimited refill.
- The popularity of Jason Kottke.
- Men who wear Speedos in locker rooms.
- Women who don’t put out by the third date and the saps who love them.
[UPDATE: My colleague Scott Esposito also has some thoughts on the subject.]
WHY WE LOVE TLS (UPDATED)
We’re still technically on vacation so, really, nothing to see here. But this caught our eye and was too entertaining not to share. Since it isn’t available online, we painstakingly retype TLS’ marvelous NB column from the most recent issue:Norman