Domestic comedy

[Two sleepy people, waking up at the end of Havana Widows on TCM.]

“I didn’t understand that at all.”

“There was something about Cuba in it.”

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“Author”

An item in the December 3 New Yorker (an archival issue) got me curious about one small bit of the Donald Trump Story. The item that prompted my curiosity is a reprinted 2006 piece by Mark Singer about Trump’s displeasure with two writers: Timothy O’Brien, whose estimate of Trump’s net worth in TrumpNation (2005) prompted Trump to sue, and Singer himself, whose profile of Trump for The New Yorker (1997) resulted in an angry letter from Trump to The New York Times when the paper reviewed Singer’s collection Character Studies (2005), which included the New Yorker profile. From Trump’s letter to the Times (September 11, 2005):

I’ve been a best-selling author for close to 20 years. Whether you like it or not, facts are facts. The highly respected Joe Queenan mentioned in his article “Ghosts in the Machine” (March 20) that I had produced “a steady stream of classics” with “stylistic seamlessness” and that the “voice” of my books remained noticeably constant to the point of being an “astonishing achievement.” This was high praise coming from an accomplished writer.

But look at what Joe Queenan wrote about Trump — in, yes, a piece about ghostwriters:

One of the few “authors” who have succeeded in avoiding the pitfalls that increasingly ensnare ghostwritees is Donald Trump. In the past 18 years, Trump has put his name on a steady stream of classics, while using various collaborators. Yet throughout this long literary interlude he has managed to maintain tight quality control. For example, in the seminal Trump: The Art of the Deal, which appeared in 1987, the ghostwriter Tony Schwartz delivered the Trumpian goods in a clipped, staccato, tough-guy style, opening the book with the words:

I don't do it for the money. I’ve got enough, much more than I’ll ever need. I do it to do it.

Seventeen years later, Trump's new book, Trump: Think Like a Billionaire, written with Meredith McIver, kicks off:

In a world of more than six billion people, there are only 587 billionaires. It’s an exclusive club. Would you like to join us?

It has been said that Thomas Mann began writing The Confessions of Felix Krull as a young man, put it aside for decades, then picked up the narrative exactly where he left off. Similar stylistic seamlessness typifies Trump’s work. The intermediaries may come and go, but the Donaldian voice never wavers. This is a truly astonishing achievement.

Yes, facts are facts, and the fact is that for Joe Queenan, Donald Trump was a quote-unquote author, someone who puts his name on books written by others. Whoever wrote the letter to the Times was either too dim to recognize Queenan’s mockery or too dishonest not to twist it into praise.

Whoever: because I suspect that the letter itself is at least in part the work of a ghost. (In the letter Trump, or “Trump,” claims to have read Orhan Pamuk, Philip Roth, and John Updike.) It’s reasonable to think that Trump read the Queenan piece and the review of Character Studies, since he seems to be interested, always, in himself. It’s reasonable to think that he read, or at least skimmed, Singer’s New Yorker piece. Though it’s not certain that Trump is willing to read books about himself.

Just walk away

[“Trump walks off leaving Mauricio Macri standing alone at G20.”]

At the fifteen-second mark, you can hear an exchange: “Yes, sir?” “Will you get me out of here?” Yes, many of us would like for him to be out of here.

This moment is also available (not from The Guardian) with musical accompaniment in the form of Luciano Michelini’s “Frolic.” You’ll know it when you hear it.

“Lane Greene on Editing”

Here’s an especially good episode of the BBC podcast Word of Mouth: “Lane Greene on Editing.” The episode could have been called “Lane Greene Editing,” as it features Greene revising a passage written by the show’s co-host Laura Wright.

I like what Bryan Garner says about editing: “Few things are better for writers than competent line-editing, which (as we know) is an act of friendship.” For a lively exchange of ideas between Garner and Greene, see the New York Times feature “Which Grammar Rules to Flout?”

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Lester Ruff, is eminently do-able. 31-Across, nine letters, “Toon first called Stinky,” gave me a first chance to begin putting the puzzle together. Four clues that I especially liked: 1-Across, four letters, “Drop off.” (WANE? No.) 10-Down and 11-Down, each six letters, “Slotted for service.” And 24-A, three letters, “Cell trio.” One clue that taught me something: 35-Across, thirteen letters, “They make money from misspelled URLs.” I knew about the practice but didn’t know the name.

Never no spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

There and here

In The Washington Post, Mary Tedrow, an American teacher, writes about what she saw in Finland. For example:

On one of our nights in Helsinki, the streets were filled with students celebrating the end of one of their matriculation tests. We asked them: “What do you think is different between your schools and ours?”

They were able to tell us in English — one of up to four languages most students have — that American students know they are all competing against each other for limited seats at university and that they will have to find the money to go there. “We are not worried about that, so we can just focus on learning,” they said.

Bush to Clinton

Elegance? I suppose one could say that. But I’d say dignity and humility and magnanimity. The note that George H.W. Bush left for Bill Clinton seems like an artifact from a lost America.

Hope vs. fear

Michelle Obama, on The Late Show tonight: “I think it is so easy, and lazy, to lead by fear. It is much harder to lead by hope.”

[Corrected this morning. The interview is now at YouTube.]

Little Everywhere and Stitcher, sheesh

In episode seven of the podcast The Dream: “There’s a man named Bruce Craig, who was a assistant attorney general for the state of Wisconsin.” I listened three times to make sure what I was hearing: a, pronounced ā. And it’s not an interviewee who’s speaking: it’s one of the podcast’s makers. You can listen for yourself, beginning at 6:58.

See also: him as subject.

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All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard)

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