The other day
Sitting all alone in LAX
Having only recently inhaled
Truth outside the departure lounge
Albeit in a miniscule dose
Whilst eating a flavorless cheeseburger
And wondering to myself
What could Bob Lefsetz possibly have
Intended by ending his email promotion
Saying: The human condition
Is both fascinating and repulsive
Oh and by the way
This guy Stoller’s new book
Is most definitely worth reading
Now let's just sit back and watch
His Amazon rankings soar
It sounds both off-hand
And way too extreme
This mode of address
Though fully familiar to me from
So many TV shows I've seen over
The course of too many years
Hawking this attitude
As if it's a cure for everything
Including the common cold
But perhaps it's merely a symptom
Of a much more common
And terminal self-preoccupation
Which is precisely what gives rise to
This habitual resort to glibness
When it comes to describing the particulars
Of our daily existence
And then as if in response
To the first hint of
Audience annoyance
To throw up a smokescreen
Of heart rending despair
It's the very same frame of mind
Mind you that Larry and Jerry
Rode right into
The Sitcom Hall of Fame
Obsessively honing their craft
And polishing their timing and lines
To the point of making their
Personal bile all but
Shimmer and shine
But eventually there's moral hazard
That needs to be dealt with here:
It’s inner hollowness itself that provides
An equally strong foundation
For outsized commercial success
And the exquisitely Wagnerian
Tragic-comic sensibility that
Underlies this entire way of life
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