Browse Archives

By Category

By Date



My Friend Sancho

My first novel, My Friend Sancho, is now on the stands across India. It is a contemporary love story set in Mumbai, and was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008. To learn more about the book, click here.


To buy it online from the US, click here.


I am currently on a book tour to promote the book. Please check out our schedule of city launches. India Uncut readers are invited to all of them, no pass required, so do drop in and say hello.


If you're interested, do join the Facebook group for My Friend Sancho


Click here for more about my publisher, Hachette India.


And ah, my posts on India Uncut about My Friend Sancho can be found here.


Bastiat Prize 2007 Winner

Recent entries

Welcome to the 19th Century

Ah, modern times. Check out these two amazing news headlines: Community ostracises woman touched by outsider Muslims on social…

Hachette on the Rise

Just back from the Galle Lit Fest, rested, and all set to resume blogging. Let me begin with the…

Off to Galle

In a few hours, I’m off to the Galle Literary Festival. Blogging will be light till I’m back in…

Why Australia? Why Not Dubai?

Reader Ruchir Khare writes in to point me to this passage from the Johann Hari piece on Dubai that…

An Offence That Cannot Be Ignored

The WTF statement of the week comes from a Dubai cop: The woman confessed that she had sexual intercourse…

04 June, 2008

Nonsense With Emphasis

The anecdote of the day comes from Lou Cannon:

In 1976, [Gerald] Ford had never run for office beyond his Grand Rapids congressional district; while an estimable human being and an underrated president, he was a plodding campaigner and often a dreadful public speaker. His speechwriters once tried to improve his delivery by writing the words “WITH EMPHASIS” in the margin of his text. Ford, denouncing something or other as “nonsense,” incorporated the notes into his speech and told a startled audience: “I say to you this is nonsense with emphasis!”

Meanwhile, it seems that Hillary Clinton has said that she is ready to be the VP candidate of a man she has constantly decried as being too inexperienced for the top job and not “ready on day one.” Heh. I can imagine the following scenario:

The bedside clock shows 3 am. Hillary Clinton’s phone rings. She picks it up.

Hillary: Hello. Who is this?

Obama’s voice: Hillary, hi, this is Barack. I hope I didn’t wake you up.

Hillary: No, of course not, Barack. Tell me, what is it?

Obama’s voice: Hillary, I have a question to ask you.

Hillary: I know what it is! Yes I will join you on your ticket! Together we will win! All the women will vote for me, I’m a woman! All white people will vote for me, I’m white! All Americans will vote for me, I’m entitled, I’m a Clinton! I even promise to keep Bill out of your wing in the White House, provided I have the budget to hire interns!

Obama’s voice: Er, actually, what I was going to ask was…

Hillary: Yes?

Obama’s voice: ... can you lend me your recipe book? I’m told you’re a really good cook.

Hillary shrieks, and then finds that Bill is shaking her as she lies on the floor, clutching the phone.

Bill: What happened, honey, did you have a bad dream? You must come to bed now, you’ve been lying besides the phone for hours, and you fell asleep like this.

Hillary: I know. Yes, I guess I had a bad dream. But I’ll stay awake now. I’m not leaving the phone.

Bill: Why?

Hillary: Because I’m not a quitter.

Posted by Amit Varma in Dialogue | News | Politics

Copyright (C) India Uncut - http://indiauncut.com
All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Email: amitblogs@gmail.com
This article is permanently archived at:
http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/nonsense-with-emphasis/