Friday, August 18, 2006

Chump change

Thought I'd seen every possible derisive reworking of Noam Chomsky's name: Chumpsky, Num Chumpsky, Chumps, Chimpsky, Nim Chimpsky, Chomps, C.H.O.M.P.S., Chompster--you get the idea. But it took one of those interminable Chumpster (!) interviews at Znet to find the
best--because inadvertent--name change:
Last week, a group of renowned intellectuals published an open letter blaming Israel for escalating the conflict in the Middle East. The letter, which mainly referred to the alignment of forces between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, caused a lot of anger among Ynet and Ynetnews readers, particularly due to its claim that the Israeli policy's political aim is to eliminate the Palestinian nation.

The letter was formulated by art critic and author John Berger and among its signatories were Nobel Prize winner, playwright Harold Pinter, linguist and theoretician Noam Chomsly, Nobel Prize laureate José Saramago, Booker Prize laureate Arundhati Roy, American author Russell Banks, author and playwright Gore Vidal, and historian Howard Zinn.
Chomsly! Renowned intellectual Noam Chomsly. Always serve from the left, Chomsly! Empty my dribble cup, Chomsly!

Sorry, I didn't read the interview. But here's the Berger letter. The only two "major newspapers" that printed it, far as I could tell, were (drumroll, please): The Independent and the Grauniad!

This picture has nothing to do with the post above.

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