A clear grope at the :44 second mark. No grab? No grope? No fondle? I think not.
Harlan & Connie: The Video
– September 1, 2006Posted in: Ellison, Harlan
Books To Jump Up and Down Over
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (Bat Segundo interview with Murphy)
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (Bat Segundo interview with McClear)
I don’t know. That video seems inconclusive. His hand seems like it is reaching toward her left breast or at least very close, but then the podium obstructs the view.
Nor does she doesn’t seem to react in any visibile way as if her breast had been grabbed, which seems odd.
What are you talking about? She clearly reacts. She gasps when he does it and then her voice quavers when she speaks afterwards.
His hand is clearly on her breast for a good two seconds. She bends down to try to conceal it, and when she speaks, it’s with a certain amount of shock. There’s no doubt that Ellison’s contention that it was a “slight touch” is a flat-out lie.
Blah, please. The audience reaction of laugher and his “aw shucks, ain’t I a stinker?!” pose immediately after the grope shows that he knew exactly what he was doing – which was to put Connie Willis in a place inferior to his own. He can deny his intent until he’s blue, but there’s no denying that he enjoyed the audience’s laughter (both at his sliming of the mic and then the groping), as well as Connie Willis’s flustered response.
I think Harlan and the recipient of his grope are waaaay too old for it to be anything other than a friendly handshake.
Tit-grab, no doubt about it. He looks like Mickey Rooney, but with no class.