Nekkid In Austin: Drop Your Inner Child Down A Well (Paperback)

by Fred Reed (Author)
Key Phrases: missile submarine, queer studies, Nekkid In Austin, New York, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Brash, outrageously funny, incorrect political and social commentary by a Washington reporter fed up with practically everything

About the Author
Fred Reed is a Marine combat veteran, police reporter, amateur biochemist, former long-haul hitchhiker, and part-time sociopath living in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from the Yankee Capital.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: IUniverse (July 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595237134
• ISBN-13: 978-0595237135
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #820,708 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth wrapped in Humour, February 22, 2004

By	P. Brooks (Isle of Man, British Isles) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was thinking of suing Fred Reed. I thought I would never get over the stomach ache from laughing. His penetrating humour crucifies the Politically Correct. Yet this book can also make you cry with frustration, as Fred throws into sharp relief the many crass stupidities of western society. This book only articulates what we already mostly knew but could not always express. He reminds us of what we have already lost . He shows what we are still losing. His message is sharp yet gentle - never vicious or nasty. If you want ammunition to do your little bit amongst friends to stop the rot in our society, then you could not do better than wrap your message in the humour that Fred Reed gives us. The message is as true in Britain, Australia, or elsewhere in the old Anglo Saxon world, as in Fred's home country. A wonderful book! Buy it and get sore sides too.

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh, funny and thought provoking, July 8, 2003

By	Alexander E. Paulsen "AlexP" (Jacksonville, Fl United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

An eclectic collection of essays, stories, recollections and observations that are poignant, poetic, thought-provoking, amusing, infuriating and hilarious. Written in Freds unique and very eloquent style.

At times you don't know when Fred is departing from the literal truth and entering into the "Fred Zone". Frankly I prefer the Fred Zone it's a lot more interesting.
I am regular at Freds web site and look forward every week to the latest Fred on Everything column

Fred has a way of exposing the [falsehoods]in a way that refreshingly funny and enjoyable. His outlook on life ans attitudes are what made this country great and hopefully will again. Plus Fred will have you laughing or crying or both.

You will wish you could have a collection of individual essays on various always handy to give to some loudmouth know-it-all dunce running his mouth on the subject.

But this book, read and enjoy. It is true keeper.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A few more thoughts, June 26, 2005

By	Wheelchair Assassin (The Great Concavity) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Well, I've already written one fervently pro-Fred review on this site, but I'd still feel remiss if I didn't add some more of my thoughts to the pile, both to amplify what the guy below me wrote and to further refute what that one idiot wrote about Fred being a "racist" (do we even have a definition for that word now? It seems to mean about as much as the "alternative rock" label means in music by now). Anyway, much as some people might try to label him, Fred is a truly independent thinker, someone who's not bound by the conventions of any ready-made ideology. He's experienced a lot more of the world and its people than most of us could ever dream, and he's come away a refreshing perspective that doesn't smack of liberalism, conservatism, libertarianism, or really anything ending in "-ism." To steal one of his own phrases from a recent column, Fred knows the people of other countries, and knows that they are people, a fact that often seems lost on his fellow Americans. Perhaps more to the point, Fred has enough experience with politics and the way the world works to see through the sloganeering, name-calling, and prejudice that so often substitute for debate in America (and probably everywhere else as well). In a world where people are constantly trying to give us easy answers, Fred is constantly questioning the conventional "wisdom" and trying to tease the truth out from the endless piles of rhetoric and deceit. Don't belive me? Here are just a few of the little bits of wisdom from his site (which I think are in this book, although I'm not sure how many of his columns made it in here):

On the 9/11 attacks: "Our politicians and talking heads speak of 'a cowardly act of terrorism.' It was neither cowardly nor, I think terrorism. Hijacking an aircraft and driving it into a building isn't cowardly. Would you do it? It requires great courage and dedication--which our enemies have, and we do not."

On patriotism: "To doubt the wisdom or necessity of a war, any war, is treason; any inclination to think for oneself is evidence of being in the enemy's camp. This is everywhere the rule."

On the so-called drug problem: "We're in Colombia and Mexico and Peru and God knows where because these folk work in the drug trade, and we have A Drug Problem. We have a drug problem because Americans want drugs. It's not Colombia's problem. It's our problem. Why don't we leave Colombia the hell alone?"

On sex: "A man genuinely doesn't understand why he can't say to the young lady in the next cubicle, 'Hey, Jane, what say we go to my place at lunch for a roll in the hay?' He may like Jane, think she's bright and fun, have no slight desire to exploit, use or degrade her. They may have been friends for years. But if he made what would seem to him a perfectly reasonable suggestion, she would explode and file at least a dozen lawsuits."

There are tons more such penetrating insights on Fred's site (updated with new column every ten days or so), from which this book and his other one are drawn. In a generally irrational world, Fred is a rare voice of reason (and a funny one at that), which explains why the mainstream media won't touch him with a twenty-foot pole. Honest discussion of taboo subjects is rare these days, which is all the more reason Fred deserves some of your time.