Is Bad Taste an Impeachable Offense?

Catharine Edwards just introduced her mother and, in the process, quoted from "her mother's favorite poem" a line about how "a further shore is reachable from here." The poem in question is apparently this steaming pile of crap, a treacly bit of inspirational-poster fodder by Seamus Heaney. But I guess fitting enough given how often John comes off like a self-help motivational speaker.

Comments

[Bo]

Oh, man. My 10th grade English teacher loved that poem and poet. Worst class ever.

[Syd Henderson]

I don't think you should impeach the vice-presidential nominee's wife.

[Ken Shultz]

People love that stuff; but I'm a little surprised. I thought, for sure, if her Mom had a favorite poem, it would be the one about Jesus and the footprints in the sand.

And I really don?t think it?s appropriate to talk about the size of the caboose Catherine Edwards is draggin' around. Unless somebody asks John Edwards if he?s aware of the problems resulting from the fattening of America, and he replies with something insensitive like, ?Are you kidding? Have you seen the size of my old lady?s ass??, then it?s not going to be an issue, and, really, how likely is he to say something like that? Some of you might be concerned about the national heirlooms in the Vice President?s residence, and I?m sure there are some antique chairs, etc., but, surely, they must have something she can sit on. So, in the interest of probity folks, let?s not even bring that up. Okay?

[kmw]

Uh, Ken... Catherine is the daughter of John and Elizabeth.

[SM]

"Catharine Edwards just introduced" etc

My guess is this post was born when Julian was snubbed by the blonde girl in school. Like the man said in "High Fidelty" - Sad, very sad.

[Ken Shultz]

kmw,

You know who I meant; It's the one with the big ass, okay?

[Jason Ligon]

"There once was a man from Nantuckett..."

[Mark]

Steaming pile of crap is right. Of course, any poem prefaced by or printed on a silly and cliched photograph is guranteed to suck.

[Jason]

This was a stupid opportunity missed for the whole John Edwards up from the cotton shack routine. If Cate was going to insist that her Mom's favorite work was by Heaney, she should have fabricated a quote from his first published poem, "Digging". It's all about Heaney's granfather digging potatoes, and his father cutting sod in the bogs, and how he's doing his own form of "digging" with a pen in his hand. Would have been a nice lead-up to her dad's yapping at his parents in the gallery.

THe "favorite" quote probably got fabricated anyway, so why not fabricate something from one of his better poems?

[Jason]

This was a stupid opportunity missed for the whole John Edwards up from the cotton shack routine. If Cate was going to insist that her Mom's favorite work was by Heaney, she should have fabricated a quote from his first published poem, "Digging". It's all about Heaney's granfather digging potatoes, and his father cutting sod in the bogs, and how he's doing his own form of "digging" with a pen in his hand. Would have been a nice lead-up to her dad's yapping at his parents in the gallery.

THe "favorite" quote was probably fabricated anyway, so why not fabricate something from one of his better poems?

[Jim Henley]

In defense of Heaney (which I must offer because, translated, the two of us have practically the same name), that particular passage is part of a much longer work and plausibly grounded in the source material (the god's deus ex machina speech at the end of a classical tragedy). I'll certainly blame Heaney for his previous glee at Democratic Party politicians excerpting this particular passage, though. (We all remember that Bill Clinton was the first, right? We might darkly suspect that Catharine Edwards only knows the poem BECAUSE of Bill Clinton.)

[Jason]

Jim,

I'll grant you that the passage is taken out of context, and thank you for reminding me that the passage has made a public appearance before. I'd entirely forgotten about that. I also suspect that the Edwards's (pick whichever member you'd like) favorite poem, if asked one of them, would be Maya Angelou's poem from Clinton's first inaugural.

Also, I do find the context of the play as a whole invading my response to the quotation. That may have more to do with the lackluster staging I saw a few years ago than anything in the script, however...or maybe John Kerry is the crafty Ulysses? (In that case, you wonder who the guy cursed with the rotting foot is...)

[Nelson]

Moms really DO like that kind of shit--what can you do? They're your mom.

[chthus]

This is actually the third time in the past week I've seen this particular thing come up. Am I the only person that doesn't have a favorite poem?