. Losing the War

'Losing the War,' written by Lee Sandlin, was the most interesting & excellent story in Ira Glass' “The New Kings of Nonfiction." But how annoying is it when you reach the end of the piece to find it's an abridged version? Very annoying. No polite teeny tiny 4-point asterisk note at the beginning. Nope, it's at the end, after you've finished it. Or at least thought you had finished it.

Perhaps it was just the odd preposition & extra comma that was removed. But then again, it might have been a big chunk of awesomeness (yes, 'chunk' is the official measurement unit of that silly word 'awesome'). So while I do find this abridged-nonsense exceedingly annoying*, it is likewise exceedingly cool that the author posted the full text on his web site: leesandlin.com.

Long live the internet & self-publishing.

*(original diatribe has been removed due to my ability to mis-convey humorous outrage as being very very angry & general refusal to use 'winkies' to indicate such things)