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Baaaaaaaahhhh!

Nov 2, 2009
By .
Culture

I've been a fan of Stephen Fry since seeing his hilarious turns as Lord Melchett, the Duke of Wellington, and then General Melchett in Blackadder II, III, and IV, respectively. So I was happy to discovery, via John Scalzi, that he writes an entertaining blog. The occasion for this discovery was his well-written and heartfelt apology for a cheap and easy line featuring the phrase "let’s not forget which side of the border Auschwitz was on,” a turn of phrase that made me preemptively cringe before I even read the context. Fry aptly describes a human failing with which I am quite familiar: "If a joke or a neat phrase or an apparently convincing rhetorical trope or apt simile occur to me they will emerge from my mouth without passing Think." It's well worth reading.

Last 5 posts by Ken

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  1. Scott Jacobs  •  Nov 2, 2009 @10:00 am

    I very much enjoy Mr Fry's stuff, and wish he pod-casted more.

    I also wish I could get QI here is the states…

    He seems a very nice man, and I would love to sit for a drink with him and pick his brain.

    If you haven't seen it, he was on an episode of Robert Llewellyn "Carpool" podcast.

  2. jb  •  Nov 2, 2009 @12:06 pm

    Although he made the point hamhandedly, let us not forget, in our rush to rightly condemn the German Nazis, how happily and eagerly nearly every Eastern European nation collaborated in killing the Jews. Hungary is to be applauded, as is Bulgaria; they stand alone as countries who saved rather than killed (I have no idea how gypsies, gays, and other Nazi targets fared in various countries–this is a failing on my part and on the part of everyone whose writings I have read on the issue).

  3. Jdog  •  Nov 2, 2009 @12:56 pm

    Far be from me to suggest that Mr. Fry's apology was misplaced, when I can come out and state it, explicitly.