The IQ of Bean Dip

DAVE BARRY’S TIPS FOR THE HURRICANE SEASON

From Sunday’s Miami Herald:

The 2006 hurricane season is here, and if you’re a resident of Florida, you know what that means: It means you have the IQ of bean dip. If you had any working brain cells, by now you’d have moved to some less risky place, such as Iraq. . . .

ARIANNA’S TAKE ON THE MOVIE YOU MUST SEE

From the Huffington Post:

May 22 — Over the weekend, I flew from Washington to Cannes. In Washington, the talk was all about 2006. In Cannes, the talk is all about 2008.

That’s because even with Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Penelope Cruz, Jamie Foxx, and Halle Berry here for the film festival, the hottest star in town is Al Gore.

In Cannes for the European premiere of his powerful global warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, Gore has been surrounded by adoring crowds and deluged with interview requests. He told me that he gave 23 back-to-back-to-back interviews on Sunday, Hollywood junket-style (all on only one hour’s sleep), and had another 23 scheduled for Monday. “This is my second visit to Cannes,” he said. “The first was when I was fifteen years old and came here for the summer to study the existentialists — Sartre, Camus… We were not allowed to speak anything but French!” Which may explain his pitch-perfect French accent.

It’s clear that the film, and the engaging “New Gore” on display both in the film and his public appearances promoting it, have connected with people in a big way.

The film is an environmental punch in the gut. Gore 2.0 is a revelation, and a critical smash. When asked at his press conference how he should be addressed, he replied “Your Adequacy.” “Hanks himself could not have delivered the line more smoothly,” gushed The Guardian. The Washington Post’s Sebastian Mallaby labeled him “a hero.” Time’s Anne Marie Cox called him “a rock star.” New York magazine touted his “amazing comeback.” And even Fox News’ Roger Friedman described him as “funny and relaxed.” Talk about killer reviews.

Of course, as potent as the film is (Friedman says the minds of skeptics “will be changed in a nanosecond” and Franklin Foer says “it will certainly change elite opinion”), the other reason is the “Will he or Won’t he?” speculation about 2008.

He’s saying no — but you can hear the “Run, Al, Run” chant growing louder.

“Democrats are looking everywhere to find their presidential candidate,” Graydon Carter told me. “But the solution may be right under their noses.” . . .

Even major skeptics like myself (and I’ve never been shy about attacking Gore, as you can see here, here, here, and here) can’t help but be affected. It’s why he suddenly finds himself surrounded by people all but begging him to run. . . .

☞ I am enthusiastically neutral among all our fine potential Democratic candidates. So leave the politics aside and consider the planet. We’re operating it, more and more people are beginning to say, as if it were a business in liquidation. It’s as if we had the IQ of bean dip.

Go see this movie – today if you live in New York or L.A., or next week as it opens wider (Friday: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Washington) . . . and then in the weeks to come as it opens ever wider still (Peoria: June 30).