HOME / the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Katha Pollitt and Andrew Sullivan

Bye, Jerry

Posted Monday, May 11, 1998, at 11:55 AM ET

Katha,

Someone stole my paper today, so I had to catch up with reality online. I started to read the stories about the 737s but got too scared. I started to read the telephone company merger stories but got too bored. I think I've read the late-snag-in-the-Mid-East-peace-process story about 10,000 times before, so I moved on. And spinning Dan Burton I leave to Bill Kristol.

So there's the end of Seinfeld! I'm not ashamed to admit I can't resist the show. It's the only non-cartoon I can bear to watch on a regular basis (South Park, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and British Prime Minister's Question Time are my weekly must-see TV). I don't think it's a bunch of whiny, self-interested yuppies, or, if it is, I don't see much wrong with whiny, self- interested yuppies. It's honest about the kind of little dramas, human neuroses, and mini-existential crises all late modern bourgeois individuals have to deal with. Almost every day, I find myself in a Seinfeldian moment. (Last week, a friend of mine and I were furiously discussing whether he could possibly continue to date a guy whose answering machine ended, unironically, with the word "Ciao!") I also think it's a brilliant exposition of how friendship really works and enriches our lives; and how it's possible to be happy, fulfilled, attractive, and single!

Do you agree with me? Or do your anti-bourgeois knees go atwitch at its self-absorption?

later,
Andrew

Print This ArticlePRINTEmail to a FriendE-MAILShare This ArticleRECOMMEND...Get Slate RSS FeedsRSS
Katha Pollitt is a columnist at The Nation. Andrew Sullivan is a senior editor at the New Republic.
What did you think of this article?
Join The Fray: Our Reader Discussion Forum
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
TODAY'S PICTURES
TODAY'S CARTOONS
TODAY'S DOONESBURY
TODAY'S VIDEO
Hallo, Berlin.55/091106_TP.jpg
Cartoonists' take on gay rights.17/091106_TC.jpg
High praise.4/091106_TD.jpg