Curtman Curtman:
Margaret Atwood: My paper napkin guide to the election
$1:
Being a writer, I write frequently. It’s a nervous habit. The other day I was writing on a paper napkin, having rashly left the house without a notebook. What I was trying to figure out was the kind of country I would like to live in, and thus the kind of party I’d vote for if it were likely to encourage such qualities.
Like many swing voters, I want to vote for values, not for labels. I don’t much care what parties call themselves or what they say they will do. I care about what they really have done, and the values they’ve demonstrated by their actions.
What I was looking for were qualities we swing voters might be able to agree on, no matter what “party” we may have voted for historically. Suppose we had a party called the Common Grounds Party, or maybe the Common Decency Party. It might begin with the list on the paper napkin. Here it is. As you can see, there are pairs of opposites.
And, since you probably can’t read my writing, this is what it says:
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$1:
Chris Selley’s Full Pundit: Harper bad. Others better. Any questions?
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Chris Selley Apr 26, 2011 – 12:26 PM ET | Last Updated: Apr 26, 2011 12:29 PM ET
Alias Pundit
With a Conservative majority looking more and more likely, the commentariat tries desperately to keep calm and carry on.
Margaret Atwood scrawls a list of nouns and adjectives on a dinner napkin, in two columns: On the right (interestingly enough) are negative leadership characteristics (“dictator,” “mean,” “always right, like God” — gee, whoever could she be talking about?) and on the left are their more desirable opposites. And … well, for some reason, she thought Canadians would be interested in her napkin. And for some reason, the Toronto Star agreed! They actually have a photo of the stupid thing! If nothing else, Atwood’s embarrassing forays into op-ed writing are proving that renowned wordsmiths can be every bit as vacuous when it comes to politics as pop musicians can. How long until she’s guest-editing The Globe and Mail, we wonder?