The Machinery of Night

Posted 8:27 AM by Angie Schultz

Drive-by Whacking

In case anyone's wondering just who would call Lileks a "hateful nostalgia monkey", that would be the suspiciously-named and dubiously-handsome Budd Rugg. (Feel free to not click on this. The actual phrase is "hateful and nostalgic little monkey", just FYI.) Rugg is writing an apparently-pointless column about someone named Paul Magers, but along the way he says he has lists of celebrities. On the first list, there are people worth gawking at in restaurants (should you chance to see them); in the second list, people worth actually going out of your way to see (Lileks is on this list); the third list consists of people who are nearly gods, and this is where that Magers chap sits.

Now it's obvious he's being Ryan Ironic here, but exactly where, I don't know and don't care. (This is a terminally precious piece, whose natural home is the society pages of some place like Palm Springs. Maybe you just have to live in Minneapolis to get it.)

This was published at the end of November, by the way, so it's kind of stale.

Lileks contributed to City Pages for a while back in the eighties.

I love that last linked piece, about working in the convenience store. Wouldn't you like to be the Ghost of Writing Gigs Future and walk in there at 2am, wearing a trenchcoat and sunglasses, buy the brillo pads, butter, and mothballs, and say: JaaaAAAAmmmees LiIIIiiilleeeekssss, youuuu wiill be haaaAAAppyy and successsfulll. Sooo cheeeeEEEEeeer the helll uuuuuup.?