People of Seattle, prepare to be amused
John Hodgman, Writer, has offered up fascinating insights into himself for our sister publication, Gothamist. He's created smarty-pants user-generated content for McSweeney's and This American Life. And Mr. Hodgman, Writer, has published a book, The Areas of My Expertise, in which he makes up a bunch of facts. (Like that's not a contradiction in terms. Did you think no one would notice, Mr. Hodgman? Must you lie to us to be funny?)
Basically, the book is the bastard collaborative offspring of Douglas Adams, Cecil Adams, and David Wallechinsky. (We're confident and pleased with this comparison even though we haven't actually read the book yet.)
And if the customer reviews at Amazon are any indication, it is not to be missed. Avid Reader of All Books gives it one star, noting "Parts of it--especially the werewolf tables--were obviously more intelligent than I could understand." D. C. Carrad "augustabookman" (note: that's his real name, scare quotes and all) gives it zero stars, raving "think of watching the dullest speeches you ever saw on C-SPAN followed by Garrison Keillor on his worst off-day after you exceeded your Prozac dose and you will get the idea."
Hodgman will read from his book and try not to crack himself up in the process at Elliott Bay Book Co. tomorrow night at 7:30. Also, he promises via email that Jonathan Coulton will play "Baby Got Back" on acoustic guitar at this gig. Hold him to that promise, Seattleites.
In closing, we have composed an honorary Hodgman-centered list of This American Life contributors who he is not:
- the guy who was a Macy's Christmas elf
- the wry smart girl with the heliummy voice who makes my mother want to slap the radio
- the Seattle sex advice columnist
- the guy who founded Found
- the atheist lady who played Pat on Saturday Night Live
- Ira Glass
But he's probably wittier than all of them put together into an amazing colossal Frankencontributor, so go take a listen tomorrow night.
