P.J. O'Rourke is old; reviews a book about Starbucks

link to NYT book review by P.J. O'Rourke

I like O'Rourke on "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me", and I have fond memories of reading his articles in Rolling Stone back in the 1980s (especially the one about the drug dealer who came home to his house being raided and asked the cops if he could go in to get his drugs), but I think he was drunk when he wrote this book review. It makes no sense, it veers wildly from topic to topic and spends multiple paragraphs discussing P.J.'s own finances, and it ends up with P.J. congratulating himself for having taught the author to disregard fair trade rules. Or something.

I don't know what happened here, but somehow P.J. ended up feeling self-satisfied about his intellectual superiority by reading this book and not liking it very much. I get the impression that he expected it to be an anti-capitalist screed, and when it wasn't, he (P.J.) felt like he'd won an argument that no one even knew he was having. So he condescends to the "young" (his words) author for having let Papa P.J. teach him a lesson. (Here's a pic of author Taylor Clark. I don't know, he looks to me like he's out of short pants.)

At any rate, read the review because it's funny because it's bizarre. I guess once the editors asked O'Rourke to do a review, they figured they had to print whatever he sent in.

I think I love P.J.'s review most because he's the only person in America who still considers the word "hippy" to be a withering put-down. Keep fighting those dirty hippies, P.J.! Make them cut their hair! Maybe then our country will finally get back on the right track.