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- <text id=92TT1235>
- <title>
- June 01, 1992: Reviews:Books
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- June 01, 1992 RIO:Coming Together to Save the Earth
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- REVIEWS, Page 86
- BOOKS
- Pet Tricks
- </hdr><body>
- <p>By AMELIA WEISS
- </p>
- <p> TITLE: What the Dogs Have Taught Me
- AUTHOR: Merrill Markoe
- PUBLISHER: Viking; 233 pages; $18
- </p>
- <p> THE BOTTOM LINE: Flimsy when she talks about horoscopes
- and cute guys. But where the dogs reign, Markoe shines.
- </p>
- <p> Top 10 reasons to read this book: 10. These funny essays
- were written by the woman who invented Stupid Pet Tricks for
- the David Letterman show (and won four Emmys) -- a woman who
- was Letterman's longtime companion and who certainly deserves
- our support.
- </p>
- <p> 9. During an election year, how novel to find someone who
- is intentionally funny (and who also inhales).
- </p>
- <p> 8. Readers are taken on tours of pop-culture monuments:
- the Las Vegas revue Nudes on Ice, for example, with its Act 5,
- "A Russian Fantasy."
- </p>
- <p> 7. Unadventurous types can vicariously attend Markoe's
- sessions in past-life regression without having to lay down any
- nonregressed cash.
- </p>
- <p> 6. There are no pictures of Merrill naked, although she
- does describe nudity at beaches in Malibu, Calif., where she
- lives ("Do you really want to see your mailman with his clothes
- off?" she asks. "I know I didn't").
- </p>
- <p> 5. Men and women who have never been to a men's-movement
- convention in a large, open meadow can visit Iron Johns in
- action. "I have to be Mr. Right for me before I can be Mr. Right
- for someone else," says one.
- </p>
- <p> 4. Markoe never brags about famous men she's slept with,
- although she has lain with several dogs ("4:10 p.m. We all
- changed sides . . . 5:20 p.m. We all lay on our backs").
- </p>
- <p> 3. Finally, a chance to eavesdrop on intimate woman-dog
- conversations:
- </p>
- <p> Merrill (to Bob the Dog): You have the nerve to discuss my
- manners? Who drinks out of the toilet and then comes up and
- kisses me on the face?
- </p>
- <p> Bob: That would be Dave.
- </p>
- <p> 2. You will gain an appreciation of the silly from which
- you may never recover. You may begin to collect windup toys at
- airports, catalogs of exotic nightwear, and unemployment ads for
- stun-gun salesmen.
- </p>
- <p> And the No. 1 reason to read this book:
- </p>
- <p> Torrid glimpses into bestiality with swell dogs Bob, Stan
- and Lewis, the new significant others of the '90s. If you're
- looking for a committed relationship and a warm, muddy tongue
- on a cold night, these are your boys. You do have to sleep under
- the bed, but then all relationships take work.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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