Cool. I made Janeane Garofalo laugh last night.
There we were, sitting across from each other at a well-hidden Italian eatery... Janeane swirling her fork in a nest of linguini... me, seductively probing a ravioli with my tongue. I said something witty, like "What's your fucking problem?" which sent her a-tittering, tossing her hair and flipping her hand toward me as if to say "Oh, you kid!"
Then I woke up.
In reality, Janeane did laugh at me last night, which was (pathetically) enough of a thrill to last me for the rest of my trip. I tried to take her photo last night as she and Sam Seder broadcast The Majority Report live from the Tank, but I left my lens cap on, which she found utterly charming. In fact, she seemed to enjoy it so much that I did it again, later... ya know... just for laughs.
That was when I decided to go for it.
more photos and the rest of the story below
When Jeff Seemann (
donate now) announced a few months ago that he was going to be appearing on her show, I politely asked him to pass on a proposal of marriage to Janeane for me. I was sure that she would have phoned immediately if she'd received it, so the only explanation was that Jeff had forgotten. I mean, he
is running a campaign. And so I went up to the stage during a commercial break... with morbidly curious Kossack AdamW hot on my trail. ("I just wanted to see what was going to happen." he told me later.)
"Hi, I'm theoria from dailykos." I said, wiping my sweaty palm across my jeans and then reaching across the table. The look of recognition that crossed her face was... well... it wasn't there. "Oh... yeah, of course." She said. What a nice lady. LIAR! Obviously noting that I'm a bit shy, she didn't follow up with "I love your work!" or anything that would embarrass me. Like I said, she's very kind.
I asked her if Jeff Seemann passed on my...
It was then that images of yesterday's "die-in" flashed across my mind. Hundreds of people trying to pretend they're dead and suddenly springing to life, screaming and rubbing their faces as the police hit 'em with the pepper spray. I'm a bad liberal cuz I think that's a funny image.
Anyway, the pepper spray story was still fresh in my head, so I altered my story.
"Did Jeff Seemann pass along my... dinner invitation?" I asked.
She said something like "Umm. No." And I followed up with my witty response about how I didn't think he had because I was sure she would have at least called to tell me "no" if she'd received my offer. Then she said something about how she doesn't eat dinner, which I think I may have read in my fan newsletter, the Garofalo Report. Dammit.
I should have said lunch.
And so, someone please tell Janeane that I meant to say lunch. Or breakfast.
Arrested at Brant Park, August 31, 2004. My friend from Colorado was also arrested there a few minutes earlier. The NLG is working on it.
A threat to democracy. Yeah... right.
I'm afraid that flag ain't gonna help you anymore, dear.
A young lady takes time a break from all the arrests to have a good stretch.
The Human Chain trick.
Never works, unless your goal is to be arrested. Then it works great.
Protesters bang drums across from Bryant Park as their counterparts are loaded into Paddy Wagons across the street.
Markos! Turn off that laptop and go to bed!
This is what the projected television looks like from the courtyard of the Tank. That's where we all go to wretch and regain our composure.