When the Moon Hits Your Eye
I’ve finally gotten around to reading T. Corraghessan Boyle’s collection of short stories, Greasy Lake, which has proven far more appropriate under the circumstances of Bush II’s latest announcements regarding space exploration, i.e., putting a man on the moon again, to wit: the story “The New Moon Party,” in which a candidate for the highest office in the land succeeds to the office by promising to build a brand new moon to replace the shabby, meteor-pitted old one. Similar tactic: similar effect? Of course, since the success of the fictional effort turns into a global debacle that leaves the protagonist reviled and discredited forever more, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing.