BobHarris.com - What Saddam Hussein has in common with HeadOn

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"

-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"

-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."

-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

What Saddam Hussein has in common with HeadOn

Tag it now -

Friday, 05 January 2007

A 10-year-old Houston boy hung himself the other day, apparently imitating of what he saw on TV.

For the record, while the family is Guatemalan, he wasn’t watching Univision’s Primer Impacto, which casually broadcast Saddam’s actual drop. (I just plain forgot to cross-post here; been busy.) According to the family, the boy had just seen a report about Saddam’s death on Univision's competitor, Telemundo.

Just out of curiosity, I flipped Primer Impacto on just now, just to see how they’d handle it. Had they any shame? Cut to: Univision reporter doing a stand-up outside the boy’s house. Grieving family. Talk of the “tiny body” perhaps being returned to Guatemala, milking the pathos. But the Saddam clip today was only a glimpse. No drop. So somebody seems to have learned something. Maybe we won’t wind up seeing it everywhere.

Obviously, the kid and the family are responsible for their own lives. Don’t get me wrong.

But the billion-dollar advertising business only exists because repeated viewing of any goddam thing whatsoever creates some interest. Say it with me: HeadOn! Apply directly to the forehead! HeadOn! Apply directly to the forehead! You see my point.

HeadOn, incidentally, is wax, dammit. It’s wax. They don’t tell you what it does, or how, or anything. They never even say the word “headache.” Why? Because it’s WAX. Your fellow citizens are paying $37.45/oz. for a goddam tube of WAX, with no active ingredient above one part per million. Your empty hand has just as much clinical evidence of effectiveness. But people pay money. They smear wax on their heads. Then the HeadOn people buy more ads.

So far, they’ve sold over 5 million tubes of wax.

How can this effect possibly be less intense with something as vivid as a snuff film? Obviously, if you show millions of people death on TV, over and over, you’re gonna get more death.

It’s not just our culture. A 9-year-old boy did the same thing in Pakistan.

Homo sapiens see, Homo sapiens do.

Basic human decency. Apply directly to the forehead.