In which I fail to solve Mark Steyn’s puzzle:
Well, it can’t be a political “thing.” Cosby’s a Democrat, although I’m not sure how helpful he’s been to the party. Throwing his support behind Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Senate, Cosby told an audience:
“This is another joke we are going to play on Hillary. We are going to vote her into office. She wants it, she is going to get it.”
And everyone laughed obediently, even though—is it really just me?—I don’t actually understand what he meant.
(Has anyone else noticed that, for a man whose mouth made him fabulously wealthy, Bill Cosby is often shockingly inarticulate, at least of late? Is this some famous-old-black-dude disease? Look at—or, more apropos, listen to—Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, if you can stand it. Their silver tongues could use some Twinkle too.)
Ah, here we are…. the ghost writer for Cosby’s Fatherhood:
Ghostwriting Ethics(9/4/2006)
“Best-selling author Ralph Schoenstein recently died at 73. You may have an old copy of his most popular book, in fact. But you wouldn’t know that, because his name isn’t on its cover. The book is entitled “Fatherhood,” and the man who took credit for it, went on TV to talk about it, received the royalties from its sales and listed it on his professional resume, was comedian and actor Bill Cosby. Why? There are many reasons, but there are two main ones. The first one is that nobody would have bought a book by Ralph Schoenstein containing his wry and wise comments on fatherhood, because few people knew who he was. The second is that Bill Cosby didn’t have the time, skill and quite possibly even the desire to write a book. But he was quite grateful for the resulting royalties and prestige.”
