City Desk: A City Christmas

Christopher Hitchens and Christopher Caldwell are formidable practitioners, and they know good writing when they see it. In an anthology they have co-edited, Left Hooks, Right Crosses: A Decade of Political Writing (Thunder’s Mouth/Nation, 401 pp., $16.95), they put forward an impressive selection of the greatest hits of the 1990s. A highlight—indeed, worth the price of the book all by itself—is David Tell’s hilarious parody of the Clinton impeachment … in the form of an opera synopsis. “Giuseppe Conason’s I Disonesti” is a brilliant and sustained work of political humor writing, of which the following snippets are quite representative:

ACT I. Don Guglielmo, leader of the Disonesti noblemen, …despairs that palace life has withheld from him the worldly counsel of high-born women (“Che orrore! Mia moglie è frigida e i miei testicoli sono blu”)….Don Guglielmo is revivified by Donna Monica’s support and exults over their meeting (“Buongiorno, un pompino fantastico! Upsidesi—il mio sperma. Scusa”)….ACT III. All seems lost until Don Guglielmo dramatically appears and makes clear the truth (“Non ho avuto rapporti sessuali con quella donna”). Moved by his obvious sincerity, the spectators disembowel the Inquisitore and set fire to his liver. A chorus of citizens reaffirm their love for the Doge (“Noi, il popolo, siamo stupidi e immorali”).

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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Christopher Hitchens and Christopher Caldwell are formidable practitioners, and they know good writing when they see it. In an anthology they have co-edited, Left Hooks, Right Crosses: A Decade of Political Writing (Thunder’s Mouth/Nation, 401 pp., $16.95), they put forward an impressive selection of the greatest hits of the 1990s. A highlight—indeed, worth the price of the book all by itself—is David Tell’s hilarious parody of the Clinton impeachment … in the form of an opera synopsis. “Giuseppe Conason’s I Disonesti” is a brilliant and sustained work of political humor writing, of which the following snippets are quite representative:

ACT I. Don Guglielmo, leader of the Disonesti noblemen, …despairs that palace life has withheld from him the worldly counsel of high-born women (“Che orrore! Mia moglie è frigida e i miei testicoli sono blu”)….Don Guglielmo is revivified by Donna Monica’s support and exults over their meeting (“Buongiorno, un pompino fantastico! Upsidesi—il mio sperma. Scusa”)….ACT III. All seems lost until Don Guglielmo dramatically appears and makes clear the truth (“Non ho avuto rapporti sessuali con quella donna”). Moved by his obvious sincerity, the spectators disembowel the Inquisitore and set fire to his liver. A chorus of citizens reaffirm their love for the Doge (“Noi, il popolo, siamo stupidi e immorali”).