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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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 QUEENAN ON LABOR DAY 
10

Say Goodbye to a Sad Excuse for a Summer

When even Joe Biden doesn't make us laugh, something's gone wrong

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(Newser) – Labor Day traditionally marks the end of summer, and the last day of this exhausting season couldn't come soon enough, writes Joe Queenan in the Wall Street Journal. The weather's been lousy, the movies were mediocre, and Jon and Kate somehow convinced the nation that they mattered. And don't mention politics; what with town hall brawls and sputtering health reform, we needed "the peregrinatory Lothario Mark Sanford and that prickly cop up in Cambridge" to cheer us up.

"This is the summer when nothing exciting happened," Queenan writes, a season so deficient that even Joe Biden didn't make a single gaffe. A new Apple OS and a new Woodstock were pale retreads, and "the seen-it-before sense was particularly acute in the movies": another Terminator, another Harry Potter, another X-Men. This summer only Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett or Ted Kennedy excited us—but death, "even at the highest levels, is no substitute for good clean fun."

FILE - This image released by TLC, shows Jon Gosselin, right, and his wife Kate Gosselin, from the TLC series
FILE - This image released by TLC, shows Jon Gosselin, right, and his wife Kate Gosselin, from the TLC series "Jon & Kate Plus 8," in Hawaii.   (AP Photo/TLC, Mark Arbeit)
A rose covered coffin holding the remains of Michael Jackson rests in the front of stage during the Jackson memorial service at the Staples Center, Tuesday, July 7, 2009 in Los Angeles.
A rose covered coffin holding the remains of Michael Jackson rests in the front of stage during the Jackson memorial service at the Staples Center, Tuesday, July 7, 2009 in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Wally Skalij, Pool)
Carlene Trimarchi, of Seldon, Long Island wears a glove and holds a Michel Jackson poster outside the Apollo theater where tribute to Michael Jackson is being held, Tuesday, June 30, 2009 in New York.
Carlene Trimarchi, of Seldon, Long Island wears a glove and holds a Michel Jackson poster outside the Apollo theater where tribute to Michael Jackson is being held, Tuesday, June 30, 2009 in New York.   (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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What kind of a summer is it when people actually read the 1,200-page health-care 'document' and TiVo the budget director on The Daily Show? What kind of a summer is it when Americans even know the budget director's name? -

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OFF THE GRID
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Books Are Bad for You
10 comments
VIEWING:
 
timeandagain
Sep 7, 09 9:44 AM CDT
Welcome to a ho-hum existence under the Obama Administration. Reply
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-18
IN RESPONSE:
UrUndertaker
Sep 7, 09 10:23 AM CDT
Oh exactly right you brain dead pi$$ poor excuse of a lump of flesh, much better when GW was killing brown people by the thousands in the name of money err I mean profit err I mean Democracy. Much better when Bush was destroying the National Economy by spending 1.5 trillion we did not have on a war that should have never been., Oh yea, I see your point completely......and I wonder if you honestly mean what you say, is the crap between your ears so far gone you can't see the total lack of intelligence the bile you spew. Are you so desperate for someone else to blame for your own failings as a human being you would sit back taking shots at someone who has been left with a bowl of crap and is honestly attempting to do the best they can when they were left nothing to work with besides a bunch of racist red necks who would love nothing more than to see him dead. I would tell you what you could do with yourself but I can picture you now sitting in a robe behind a monitor in a dark room, awaiting your next cross burning for the weekend
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+9
IN RESPONSE:
BoZo
Sep 7, 09 11:30 AM CDT
Summers were better under bush...WTF... That makes no sense.
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+3
IN RESPONSE:
DJM420
Sep 7, 09 12:18 PM CDT
you MUST think he's god if you think Obama controls movies, the weather, AND jon and kate....once again, timandagainepicfailure...
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+1
SPH
Sep 7, 09 10:31 AM CDT
Although often without work, I had a great summer... Reply
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0

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Ted Kennedy • summer • Labor Day • Michael Jackson • Farrah Fawcett • Mark Sanford • nostalgia • 2009 • Jon and Kate Plus 8

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