In the New Yorker...

[Jeff Wrangler]

I think some of the actual verified appointees are just as scary, if not more so.

Maybe I'm insufficiently knowledgeable about New Jersey politics, but Chris Christie would seem positively reassuring compared to, say, Steve Bannon.

You do need to read up on Jersey politics. Christie is a bully and an asshole. Look up "Bridgegate" if you're not familiar with it. Before the Supreme Court ruling, he twice vetoed a same-sex marriage bill that had passed both houses of the General Assembly because he didn't approve of the concept, and his excuse was, "The voters should vote on it."

On the other hand, a drinking buddy of mine who lives in Jersey was kind of hoping Christie would get a cabinet position just so he'd get the hell out of New Jersey!

[serious crayons]

You do need to read up on Jersey politics. Christie is a bully and an asshole. Look up "Bridgegate" if you're not familiar with it. Before the Supreme Court ruling, he twice vetoed a same-sex marriage bill that had passed both houses of the General Assembly because he didn't approve of the concept, and his excuse was, "The voters should vote on it."

On the other hand, a drinking buddy of mine who lives in Jersey was kind of hoping Christie would get a cabinet position just so he'd get the hell out of New Jersey!

Oh, I do know enough about Jersey politics to know Christie is a bully and an asshole, and I'm familiar with Bridgegate. We've just reached the point where an asshole bully who closes down a bridge could look good next to a white supremacist.

Still, if he's a heterosupremacist, that puts him in the same realm. 

[serious crayons]

Keep in mind that, over the past couple of weeks, I have longed for the return of Richard Nixon. And that while within the past year I have called George W. Bush the worst president in history, I would take him back in a second.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I was going to skip the Nov. 21 issue, the one with the reflections from the writers, but then I noticed it has an article by Jill Lepore, and I always read Jill Lepore, and the article about the guy in the Philippines might be instructive.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I just realized the cover of the Nov. 21 issue is supposed to represent the wall.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm now reading Jill Lepore's "Esme in Neverland" in the Nov. 21 issue, and I'm fascinated by the part about TV in the 1950s and early '60s. I recognize the actors mentioned; Ted Bessel went on to play Marlo Thomas' boyfriend in That Girl.  

Trivia: Another actor mentioned was Michael Burns. I remember him as a cute young guy from various TV shows of the '60s, so I looked him up at IMDb. Seems he's one young person who wasn't destroyed by an acting career. He got out of acting, earned a PhD from Yale, taught history at Mt. Holyoke for 20 years, wrote an acclaimed book on the Dreyfus Affair, married a former president of the college, and is now living in Kentucky raising thoroughbreds!

I'm also getting a little concerned because I haven't heard anything about the renewal of my subscription. That got all screwed up last year when I had to update my credit card information.  

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm also getting a little concerned because I haven't heard anything about the renewal of my subscription. That got all screwed up last year when I had to update my credit card information.  

Actually, I looked at the mailing label on my copy of the Dec. 12 issue, which arrived today. Thanks to the screw-up with my subscription last year, my subscription now doesn't expire until Feb. 6, 2017.

[serious crayons]

I'm now reading Jill Lepore's "Esme in Neverland" in the Nov. 21 issue, and I'm fascinated by the part about TV in the 1950s and early '60s. I recognize the actors mentioned; Ted Bessel went on to play Marlo Thomas' boyfriend in That Girl.  

I read it, too, though Ted Bessel was the only actor in the group I recognized. I used to love That Girl! I looked up Michael Burns, and in one or two of the photos he looked vaguely familiar. Especially when he was wearing a cowboy hat. Did he do some Westerns (on TV)?

So then of course the rabbit hole opened and I found myself looking up Marlo Thomas, which led me to wonder whether she was young enough to have been Rachel's mom on Friends (for which she won an Emmy, FYI).

Turns out she was, because Jennifer Aniston is getting close to 50! Bessel and Thomas were both born in the '30s -- non-baby boomers! -- Aniston in the late '60s. Her TV mom would have had her at 32, which at the time was oldish, but now of course is not the least bit unusual for a new mom.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I read it, too, though Ted Bessel was the only actor in the group I recognized. I used to love That Girl! I looked up Michael Burns, and in one or two of the photos he looked vaguely familiar. Especially when he was wearing a cowboy hat. Did he do some Westerns (on TV)?

Yes! It probably won't surprise you that I always remember him from a single episode of my favorite show from childhood, Daniel Boone.   But he was a "regular" in some of the later seasons of Wagon Train.

Check out his IMDb entry. The future Yale PhD and Mt. Holyoke professor is shown naked with a towel in front of his privates!  

I remember Glenn Corbett, too, but mainly from various "guest appearances."

Trust a gay man to remember handsome faces from TV during his childhood!  

I guess Marlo was old enough to be Rachel's mom. She certainly seems to be aging well.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I used to love That Girl!

At the risk of prolonging an OT discussion. ... We watched That Girl! too. Of course, I was too young to realize that it was groundbreaking. Before there was Mary Richards, there was Ann Marie.