{"product_id":"a-brass-pole-in-bangkok-fred-reed-9780595393909","title":"A Brass Pole in Bangkok: A Thing I Aspire to Be","description":"\u003ci\u003e\"Oprah? I remember her,\" said Uncle Hant reflectively. \"Looks like five hundred pounds of bear liver in a plastic bag?\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e So go the essays in \u003ci\u003eA Brass Pole in Bangkok\u003c\/i\u003e, sometimes wildly funny, sometimes deadly serious, always merciless in their unmasking of the pretenses and charlatans of society. Fred, a former Marine, subscribes to no ideology (\"an ideology is just a systematic way of misunderstanding the world\") but exuberantly wreaks havoc on practically everything, and delights in everything else: the psychotherapy swindle, squalling feminists, race racketeers, damn fool wars, red-light districts in Asia, and tequila fests in Mexico, where he lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Why marry, he asks? And answers: \"As a young man full of dangerous steroids, your answer will probably be, 'Ah, because her hair is like corn silk under an August moon; her lips are as rubies and her teeth, pearls; and her smile would make a dead man cry.' This amounts to, 'I'm horny, ' with elaborations.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Behind the folksy approach lie a great deal of reading and thought by a man who has spent a lifetime in journalism, much of it overseas in places like Cambodia and Taiwan, where you find the snake butchers.but that is inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Fred Reed\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 059539390X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780595393909\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e iUniverse\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/19\/2006\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 340\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.10lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.76d","brand":"Fred Reed","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46838258106623,"sku":"9780595393909","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_641099bf-954c-41c6-80d6-1f170a647203.jpg?v=1746589280","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/a-brass-pole-in-bangkok-fred-reed-9780595393909","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}