Happy Birthday, Peej!

P.J. O'Rourke was born this day in 1947. Sheila wallows in some of her favorite quotes in tribute.

As much as I love O'Rourke myself (and he damned near ran me off the road in his convertable a couple years back, so I've forgiven a lot), I have to confess that I harbor suspicions that he's peaked. IMHO, All The Trouble In The World was probably his best, rising on the shoulders of such previous greats as Give War A Chance and Holidays in Hell. But after that? Well, Eat the Rich was still pretty good. But I didn't much care for The CEO of the Sofa and I found Peace Kills to be disappointingly flat.

Nonetheless, I see Peej has a new book coming out - On the Wealth of Nations (Books that Changed the World) :

As one of the first titles in Atlantic Monthly Press’ “Books That Changed the World” series, America’s most provocative satirist, P. J. O’Rourke, reads Adam Smith’s revolutionary The Wealth of Nations so you don’t have to. Recognized almost instantly on its publication in 1776 as the fundamental work of economics, The Wealth of Nations was also recognized as really long: the original edition totaled over nine hundred pages in two volumes—including the blockbuster sixty-seven-page “digression concerning the variations in the value of silver during the course of the last four centuries,” which, “to those uninterested in the historiography of currency supply, is like reading Modern Maturity in Urdu.” Although daunting, Smith’s tome is still essential to understanding such current hot-topics as outsourcing, trade imbalances, and Angelina Jolie. In this hilarious, approachable, and insightful examination of Smith and his groundbreaking work, P. J. puts his trademark wit to good use, and shows us why Smith is still relevant, why what seems obvious now was once revolutionary, and why the pursuit of self-interest is so important.

Have I pre-ordered my copy? Bet your Republican Party Reptile Backside.