There’s no need to read any of this. We’re all going through the same thing, all reading the same stuff on the internet. I can’t offer any fresh insights on American life in the time of Covid-19. I’m just writing here because I’ve finished the new season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and the last murder mystery I had on the Kindle (The Perfect Couple, three stars). So. […]
Romney’s finest hour
I owe Mitt Romney an apology. Of course he’s never heard of me and never will, but I’ve long been one of those snide, cynical voices on Facebook and Twitter, quick to ridicule the man as an out-of-touch plutocrat (running against Obama in 2012), a soulless opportunist (dining at Trump Tower in 2016), and just another generic kisser of Trump’s ample ass (2018 up to about three […]
Trump in spyland
I just finished John Le Carre’s latest: “Agent Running in the Field.” It’s a pretty good book for those who like literate spy stories, but to me it’s noteworthy for at least one other reason: It’s the first time I’ve explicitly encountered the dark and dimwitted presence of Donald J. Trump in popular fiction. Probably won’t be the last. Trump is not a character, thank God. But […]
Highway 21 revisited
Last Friday I was driving up I-95 to see my daughter and her girls in Virginia. Somewhere south of Savannah a gleaming red Mercedes coupe with New York plates swept by on my left. It was car to remember, even more so because there was an enormous cream-colored cat lounging the back window, calmly observing all the other northbound motorists. It seemed very relaxed for a cat […]
Fifty-two books
and counting
I participate in the Goodreads reading challenge mostly to keep track of the books I read in a calendar year. Why that’s important, I don’t know. At this point in life, I guess, I like to take note of the few challenges I can actually accomplish. Now that I’ve ruled out paddling around the world in a dugout canoe. My goal this year was 52 books: one […]
Boring is good
OK, the debates were kind of boring. But really, boring is fine, isn’t it? At this point, boring is cool. The only thing not cool is for Democrats to show up with machetes and start carving each other apart on nebulous policy issues. It veered that way for a bit, but cooler heads prevailed. What I want in a president is (a) somebody who is smarter than […]
Black list
What if you discovered that a friend or relative had been donating to Trump’s reelection? Not just shrugging off the malignant stupidity and breathtaking corruption of the last three years, but actually sending money to prop up the world’s largest sack of shit. Would it matter? It would matter to me. A lot. It might even be a deal breaker. In the Washington Post today, there’s a […]