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Not that there is anyone quite like Frazier, unless it be Robert Benchley and E.B. White, both of whom he occasionally resembles in Coyote v. Acme, a collection of 22 short humorous pieces, some of which originally were published by his former employer.
Thematically and stylistically they cover the map. The title essay, for instance, purports to be a lawsuit by cartoon character Wile E. Coyote against the Acme Company for the damages its defective devices have caused him while using them in the pursuit of his prey. The deadpan approach here recalls White's mounting righteous sarcasm in "Two Letters, Both Open."
In "The Last Segment" he offers mock reverence to the great god, television, by showing how life was diminished when "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" went off the air. ("We didn't know what a wasteland was.") "Dial W-H-Y W-O-R-K" will appeal to anyone in private industry who thinks government employees have it made; the only thing Frazier forgot is to include the number of the "No-Show Jobs Hotline."
The one that made me laugh the most, however, is "Your Face or Mine," which plays off the suggestion that "We can kick your city's ass" be made the slogan of New York City. That attitude is just fine with the sassy narrator who, first thing every morning, gets in his breakfast's face. "I violate the space of that breakfast. . . . I really get loud with it. . . .Hey, I'm a New Yorker-my food doesn't give me ulcers, I give it ulcers."
Hey, I'm a Midwesterner-more of this sort of thing, and I'd renew my subscription to any magazine.
Roger K. Miller is a freelance writer in Grafton, Wisconsin. He can be reached at roger_miller@bookpage.com
©1996, ProMotion, inc.