Word: confesser
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...seem not only post-funny but posthuman. And sometimes it can hurt. Three months ago, as the guest host of Fridays, Kaufman engaged in a seemingly spontaneous shoving match with the show's cast and crew; a week later he was back-unshaven, disheveled, distraught-to confess that his behavior had put his career in jeopardy with "the show-business community," then sobbed and fell silent. Was he serious? Is he mad? Perhaps he was once again playing the Duchampian agent provocateur of modern comedy: the Dada of haha...
Some people, of course, go to the other extreme and pro duce detailed confessions even when nobody asked them. The nation surely had no "need to know," as the White House says, but Jimmy Carter confessed to Playboy in 1976 that he had felt lust in his heart for women other than his wife. That robust literary charlatan Frank Harris went to the trouble of inventing all kinds of elaborate sexual adventures to confess; with both Carter and Harris, confession shaded into exhibitionism...
...with juries. A commanding 6 ft. 2 in. and 225 lbs., he is in constant motion in the courtroom, sometimes edging up to the jury railing to make a point in the deep, reassuring baritone that almost led him into a singing career, or to confess disarmingly: "I'm a little anxious about whether I can represent my client-I just wanted to share that with you." Says a former partner, Robert Rose, now chief justice of Wyoming's supreme court: "He comes off as so real that jurors trust him. They have to decide which side...
...been duped into and subsequently arrested for agreeing to participate in a "plan" to free the hostages. "I think they wanted to grab somebody after [the rescue attempt in] Tabas," she explained. "I was a very convenient, naive person to grab." Dwyer was not under "heavy pressure" to confess. Said she: "I think they just wanted to say to their people they'd finally caught...
People no longer hesitate to confess that they simply do not like to drive-an admission that would have been treated as an aberration a few years ago. Some former auto commuters like Pulitzer-Prizewinning Cartoonist Herblock explain that they swore off the gas when they realized that they were incurably bad drivers. "I was just too tense or too relaxed to drive well," says Herblock (real name: Herbert Block), whose cartoons occasionally picture autos as demented beasts. Who could be censured for preferring the luxury of a chauffeured limousine, particularly if someone else is footing the bill...