| Edition |
1st ed. |
| Description |
292 pages ; 23 cm |
| Contents |
Introduction -- Family business -- A new arrival -- Return of the Rubes -- Worms turning -- Talk about ugly? -- Special dish -- Agents, agents everywhere -- Time and tide -- Iowa on my mind -- Believable history -- Sound policy -- Stargazing -- Adventurees in the book game -- The Alice tax -- Check him out -- Women, women -- Lip-synching -- Truth is stranger -- A traditional family -- Gecko redux -- Dog-bark duet -- Keeping up with geography -- Frog theories -- Mass exit -- Rock threat subsides -- Naming the German baby -- The past and the future -- Go to your room -- International chigger alert -- Chinese golf -- Please stop -- Errands -- Polite society -- Who was first? -- I'm O.K., I'm not O.K. -- Planted questions -- Counting my blessings -- Too old -- Speak softly -- Orlando when it sizzles -- A visit from Jean-Michel -- Blues blues -- Don't mention it -- Bad language -- Searching for the elite -- Merger -- Women and clubs -- Folktale, for real -- The right to bear chain saws -- New worries -- Broken English. |
|
(Cont'd) Taxing the Queen -- Networking for fun and profit -- Just plain Bill -- Smoking incorrectly -- Presidential symbols -- Seat belts for dogs -- Capital goobers -- Tabloid in the tabloids -- Contemplating the zoo -- Steven the turtle -- Tough enough -- Hurt feelings -- In defense of sleeping -- Doubly generous -- Alas, poor Willy -- Little-known facts -- New professor -- The hot stuff cure -- Unmasked -- A Christmas shopping tale -- Pacific insults -- Networkers triumphant -- Exchanging information -- Unplugged -- Out of style -- Dangerous machines -- Movie reality -- Din! Din! Din! -- Beware of pickpockets -- Eye of the beholder -- Brutal attack on Barney -- Nerds, unvanished -- Hazardous dining -- Embarrassment of riches -- Questions about Prince Charles -- Jeff again -- The piping plover -- So, Nu, Dr. Freud -- Hat trick -- Sign writing -- Video talk -- What's the good word? -- Afterword. |
| Summary |
The topical essays of Too Soon to Tell reveal Calvin Trillin at his barbed and irrepressible best. Dealing with matters of the family, he tells the tale of a couple who were at first pleased that their twenty-six-year-old son had finally moved out ("If Jeffrey's going to find himself, it would probably help for him to look somewhere other than his own room") and then realized that they had lost the ability to videotape. Grappling with educational issues, he discusses whether the presence of Michael Milken as a lecturer at the UCLA business school means that its religion department will get around to employing Jim Bakker ("Church Management 101: Imaginative Ideas in Religious Fund-Raising"). In the field of world affairs, he deals with the role of astrologers ("The planets are perfect for trading arms for hostages and saying you didn't") and whether the language laws in Quebec really require the hiring of a mime who doesn't speak French rather than a mime who doesn't speak English. Trillin's short takes send us back to life refreshed and delighted. |
| Subject |
American essays.
|
|
American essays. (OCoLC)fst00807040
|
| ISBN |
0374278466 |
|
9780374278465 |
|
9780374529864 (pbk.) |
|
0374529868 (pbk.) |
|
