William Raspberry has written an interesting opinion piece. It talks about an old legend that says African tribesmen used to trap monkeys by cutting small holes in coconuts. Then they would fill the coconuts with rice or some other food which appeals to the monkeys.
The little fellows would then come along and squeeze their open paws through the opening. They would grasp the rice inside BUT--and this the hilarious part--then find themselves unable to remove their now closed fist from the hole. So the monkey is now stuck!
Of course, all he has to do is open his fist and he would be able to extract his open paw. But that would also mean giving up the rice, and they're unwilling to do that!
Raspberry's point is that I'm a monkey and Bush is a coconut.... No, wait.... I think I'M supposed to be the coconut and BUSH is the monkey.... Yes, that would seem to make more sense.
And, of course, my oil is like the rice. Bush has his fist around it, but he's stuck inside the coconut of Iraq, and unwilling to loosen his grip on my oil. All in all, HIGHLY ironic situation!!
Hold on.... I just got an IM from Alanis Morissette. Let me see what she wants....
Okay, here's the deal: Alanis says the coconut story is NOT irony. It's actually something called a "metaphor." Whatever. I always thought metaphors were those rocks that fell from space. I'll just pretend I know what she's talking about. That always worked when we were dating.
Anyway, in the meantime maybe I can distract Bush with a banana long enough to get my coconut back.
----------Bill Day, Memphis Commercial Appeal
(Thanks to Vaiday Subbaraman for sending it in)
