What do you think the Iraqis think of....

I just got off the phone with a friend who is staying in Santa Monica. His business requires him to travel a lot, and Santa Monica is one of the places he frequents. He told me that all the hotels are so booked up he had a really hard time finding a place. Then he began telling me about the hotel he had finally settled on.

For two hundred bucks a night, he was staying in a dingy, musty, beat down hotel on Ocean and 2^nd. He said the place was so nasty he didn’t want to take his socks off and walk around. To make matters worse, there was no A/C, or swamp cooler or anything. The only source of ventilation was a large window which opened onto the street. Right onto the street. There was SO much noise – buses, people talking & laughing, music, etc – he said he felt like it was just one step above actually sleeping on the street. “I slept with one eye open all night,” he said. As he spoke to me he looked around the room and said, “This better than sleeping in the street. But not by much.”

Then he told me that this morning he was awoken by a beat poet. He described his voice and delivery and said it was really kind of nice. “What was he saying?” I asked. He said really could only remember one line. “What do you think the Iraqis think of…“The Dukes of Hazard?”

I’m gonna use it next time someone wants to talk politics with me.