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Something Lighter for the Holidays: Calvin Trillin Rhymes About 2012, Thomas Frank Giggles at Mayan Doomsday, Will Durst Belittles Lame Ducks

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The New Yorker’s Calvin Trillin talks about his new book, Dogfight, an epic poem of the 2012 campaign; Thomas Frank of Harper’s on the latest end-of-the-world predictions;  Will Durst on lame ducks.  Trillin returns for brilliant banter about our recent $2 billion presidential campaign, complete with rhyming excerpts from the new collection, which also “recycles” some of his verse as deadline poet for The Nation (at extremely low pay, he says). We meander through the GOP field that produced Mitt Romney, including Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Newtie.

At about 32 minutes in, Tom Frank joins us by Skype to talk about the latest wave of end-times predictions, this time related to the Mayan calendar.  It’s a seat-of-the-pants chat, and Frank confesses that he’s not wearing pants….as he gaily explains the films and books he recently consumed to research his column in Harper’sincluding the TV show Doomsday Preppers.   Late in the exchange, he comments on the November election.

And at about 1:03, Will Durst weighs in with colorful descriptions of the lame duck Congress.