Humorist Barry skewers the 2000s

Humorist Dave Barry takes on the first few years of the new millennium in "Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far)" (Putnam, 224 pages, $22.95) - prefaced by his brief but equally warped overview of the previous 1,000 years.

There has been plenty of unusual news, celebrity misbehavior and all-around utter foolishness so far in the 2000s for Barry to lampoon, from the Florida presidential election debacle to the bizarre tale of runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks to Michael Richards' racist tirade in a Los Angeles comedy club.

In a series of year-in-review pieces that originally appeared in newspapers around the country, Barry looks month by month at each year from 2000 through 2006, with one exception.

He notes that he did not write a year in review for 2001 because he would have had to do it only a few weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, "and at the time it didn't feel right to make jokes about the rest of the year and then either ignore the attacks or suddenly become serious."

Instead, he writes, "I took that year off, although I have no doubt that many stupid things happened."

Many stupid things also happened in the other six years - enough to fill a book that offers the laughs fans have come to expect from Barry.

There's nothing harder for a writer than to be consistently funny but Barry always makes it look ridiculously easy.

He seamlessly segues from his glib twists on news stories to taking jabs at political figures to offering up general mockery, frequently returning to earlier topics at opportune times for added absurdity. *