Pam Spaulding over at Pandagon commends the works of Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist James Lileks, who’s making his name by ridiculing the “Interior Desecrations” of the 70s and the incredible parenting advice of the 40s and 50s. Whether you were conscious during those decades or not, Lileks has gathered material that’s both stupefying and hilarious–don’t miss it.
Spaulding doesn’t happen to mention that Lileks’s taste in politicians is, if possible, worse than his parents’ taste in shag and paneling. His websites include humor based on the premise that Howard Dean is a greater danger to the republic than the Cheney administration; thus he recently found it necessary to mock “talk” and “work” in foreign policy, both features noticeably absent from the current regime. (For those who, like me, enjoy this sort of thing when done well, think of Lileks as a bush-league P.J. O’Rourke, or something like Tom Roeser if he were a century younger.)
If Lileks thinks it’s easy to make fun of the taste of previous generations, he should stick around until 2036 and see what they think of his.