Is That True or Did You Make It Up?: Cosmic Ruminations from Bill Stockton's Satirium.com

by Bill Stockton

At his popular Internet Web site, author Bill Stockton uses piercing satire and zany humor to take on everything from George W. Bush and Washington's neoconservatives to the danger of global warming caused by bovine methane emissions. In Is That True or Did You Make It Up? Cosmic Ruminations from Bill Stockton's Satirium.com, the author has assembled the funniest articles from his satirical cyber-hangout, www.satirium.com, including:

Telepathic Parrot Caught Monitoring Karl Rove's Brain Is Death Final? Debate Riles Obituary Writers Castoff Armani Launches Homeless Man's Lobbyist Career Latest Terror Worry Is Radioactive Horse Manure Lord of the Rings Plunges Fan into Six-Day Coma Neocon Identity Card Theft Alarms Beltway Insiders

The author, an editor at The New York Times for two decades, learned the hard way that nothing is ever what it seems. Is That True or Did You Make It Up? provides a witty and irreverent road map to a new world order viewed from behind the looking glass. Be warned: this book could cause you to shriek helplessly and roll around on the floor.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595331653
• ISBN13: 9780595331659
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

more fun and games

This book is a clever satire on things that are not true yet the reader could believe to be true. In this age in Internet news and web blogs this book seems especially relevant. It is broken down into everyday topics that touch on such areas as politics and domestic life. Not even pets are spared his wit. This was appealing because I could pick up and read those areas that were most interesting to me while saving other sections for a later time. His writing is crisp and he avoids the trap of out and out sarcasm. Instead he relies on his talent to craft a book that sticks to dry humor and satire to illustrate his points. Each piece is just long enough to highlight what the author calls the "absurdities of every day" without droning on.

Secrets revealed, or some of them, anyway

Tastes vary. My favorites are the feral chihuahuas, the castoff suit that launched the lobbying career and the foreign spies photographing the Washington women. Plus the telepathic parrot advising the Kerry campaign. An added feature of the book is the chapter on how to write satire. Bookstores are full of how-to-do-it books on everything from cooking to carpentry and beyond. This author first tells you how to do it, then shows you what to expect as a result. Right. Like the other books (and much TV), this one increases my appreciation for the product and diminishes my urge to produce my own souffle or picnic table. I also liked the ninth-grader's paper that was the source of Dick Cheney's energy report and Martha Stewart practicing for prison with overnights in homeless shelters. One or two might be a little over the top, like the Baltimorean who exercises his model siege engine with bags of garbage. (Garbage has poor aerodynamics - pros use gourds.) But some people have told me it's their favorite.

Intelligent Humor

I enjoyed this book. It is a hidden treasure. It borrows nuggets from the news and spins stories out of control. The humor is sometimes subtle, sometimes outrageous, and always intelligent. As you're reading you're thinking it can't be real -- or is it? Each "article" is the perfect length for bathroom reading; whether this was intended or not, I do not know.

Is That True Or Did You Make It Up?: Cosmic Ruminations Fro

Most of the short pieces in this book are funny enough to make me laugh out loud. The author is an equal-opportunity satirist who goes for everybody's jugular: Republicans, Democrats, celebrities, and the next door neighbors get trashed with an equal measure of delight. Being a horse person, my favorite is the one about radioactive horse manure as a potential terrorist threat. Next on my list is the article that was supposedly written by an 80 year old dairy farmer whose fancy neighbors took him to see "Fahrenheit 9/11". Great gift for anyone who is even vaguely aware of what's going on in the world.