In the New Yorker...

[Front-Ranger]

So you really didn't miss your New Yorker reading? I just renewed my subscription and I've noticed that the couple of issues I've received since then have been kind of blah. Especially the fiction.... There were a couple of really good fiction pieces in the fiction issue but they seem to have been all the good fiction there was to be had for a while. I'm not a fan of the stories that start out with an older woman who doesn't seem to have much purpose. Or one whose partner has left her. Or a younger one who has indiscriminate sex. Or a family of quirky women. Or a woman at a party. So, that leaves very few stories I may be interested in.

In "The Critics" section I usually find something of interest. For many years, I've had a dream where I lost a key. Sometimes a mailbox key, and sometimes even my dorm room key. This led to many searches and trips to the office and many stair climbs and trips up and down the elevator. And many searches for the stairs, office, and elevator. I used to wake up exhausted!

[serious crayons]

So you really didn't miss your New Yorker reading?

No, I do miss it! I'm just overwhelmed with stuff to read. Although I will say I tend to see more interesting articles in the Atlantic these days.

I just renewed my subscription and I've noticed that the couple of issues I've received since then have been kind of blah. Especially the fiction.... There were a couple of really good fiction pieces in the fiction issue but they seem to have been all the good fiction there was to be had for a while. I'm not a fan of the stories that start out with an older woman who doesn't seem to have much purpose. Or one whose partner has left her. Or a younger one who has indiscriminate sex. Or a family of quirky women. Or a woman at a party. So, that leaves very few stories I may be interested in.

I can imagine that any of those situations could make stories I would enjoy. In fact, I can think of some. Little Woman (family of quirky women), Olive Kitteridge (older woman), Mrs. Dalloway (party)  For me, it's more about the quality of the writing than the setup.

I agree, though, it does seem slightly blah of late. Malcolm Gladwell has a new book out. I wish they'd publish an excerpt of that.

In "The Critics" section I usually find something of interest.

Me too.

[serious crayons]

Going back a couple of weeks, a mid-September issue had a piece centered around a new book about Reagan, by a writer who was once an old-school Republican and has become a progressive in the Trump era. It's a fascinating analysis, starting out with all the ways you'd think Reagan differed from Trump -- cheerier, more affable, made funny jokes when he got shot rather than shaking his fist at the crowd yelling "Fight!" etc. But as it goes on, it points out how many surprising similarities they had, including mistaken ideas of allies and enemies, lack of understanding world affairs and other important things, weakness of response to major disease (in Reagan's case AIDS), etc. And of course, both started as performers, playing a part.

And of course, Reagan left a lasting scar on the country in the form of trickledown theory that we still live under a version of.

[Front-Ranger]

I read that. I wasn't surprised by the similarities. They seem to be cut from the same mold. Reagan thought he was riding in in triumph on a white horse and Trump in a white golf cart.

A personal similarity was that I became aware of both of them as celebrities when I was a teenager. I remember looking at a large photograph in Life or Look Magazine. Spread across two pages, it was mostly dark, here and there the flash of jewelry or a cigarette, a vast dark cloud of people. But in the center in a hazy spotlight was a table and banquet chairs on which a man and three others sat, his blond hair alight. Trump must have been no older than 21 when he was photographed at Club 54. I remember then wondering what he had done in his short life to merit such treatment, such adoration. Some part of me seemed to realize that I'd be seeing/hearing about him all my life. 

My father wore a brown suit sometimes and he looked good in it. He affected it in admiration of Reagan, who was everything a man could aspire to in that day and age. That was even before Reagan was in politics. At the time he was the host of some variety show that came on on Sunday evenings.

[serious crayons]

I read that. I wasn't surprised by the similarities. They seem to be cut from the same mold. Reagan thought he was riding in in triumph on a white horse and Trump in a white golf cart.

A personal similarity was that I became aware of both of them as celebrities when I was a teenager. I remember looking at a large photograph in Life or Look Magazine. Spread across two pages, it was mostly dark, here and there the flash of jewelry or a cigarette, a vast dark cloud of people. But in the center in a hazy spotlight was a table and banquet chairs on which a man and three others sat, his blond hair alight. Trump must have been no older than 21 when he was photographed at Club 54. I remember then wondering what he had done in his short life to merit such treatment, such adoration. Some part of me seemed to realize that I'd be seeing/hearing about him all my life. 

My father wore a brown suit sometimes and he looked good in it. He affected it in admiration of Reagan, who was everything a man could aspire to in that day and age. That was even before Reagan was in politics. At the time he was the host of some variety show that came on on Sunday evenings.

I'm sure I've told this story, but my ex-husband and I were strolling around NYC when we saw a crowd of people standing in the street. We saw a photographer we knew and asked what they were doing. Waiting for Trump was the answer. We kept strolling.

I think the "everything a man could aspire to in that day and age" must have depended heavily on that man's perspective. My own dad didn't aspire to be like Reagan.

[Front-Ranger]

You're right that Reagan went through ups and downs in popularity. I think your father was a newspaper man, wasn't he? Reagan was definitely not in the camp of the intellectuals. But for my father, who wanted to go to university but was called home to help on the farm when the Depression hit, Reagan was the model of the successful man despite little higher education.

Another person he respected was Hemingway but was shocked by his downward trajectory. He went to see the movie The Old Man and the Sea and swore that he would never go to the cinema again after that. He stuck to television Westerns with no tragic themes.

[serious crayons]

You're right that Reagan went through ups and downs in popularity. I think your father was a newspaper man, wasn't he?

My dad worked in advertising, wrote CEO speeches and did other brand-promoting kinds of things for Honeywell, which was then based in Minneapolis and a bigger company than it is today.

(My mom also worked in advertising; my grandfather was a newspaper editor.)

Another person he respected was Hemingway but was shocked by his downward trajectory. He went to see the movie The Old Man and the Sea and swore that he would never go to the cinema again after that. He stuck to television Westerns with no tragic themes.

I don't know who my dad respected per se aside from some writers he liked, mostly comedic writers like Kingsley Amis or light mystery writers like Raymond Carver and Rex Stout. I do have a very vivid memory of me sitting there watching TV when suddenly the show was interrupted for a special report that Martin Luther King had been assassinated. My dad overheard and ran to the TV in horror. I, at the time, had never heard of MLK, so his strong reaction lodged in my memory.


 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I never thought I'd say this, but you can skip Jill Lepore's article in the Oct. 7 issue; it's BORING. On the other hand, I found Hannah Goldfield's article amusing.

[Front-Ranger]

I thought of you when I started to read Elizabeth Kolbert's article on the end of the ice. I think I'm going to have to read it in small doses.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I thought of you when I started to read Elizabeth Kolbert's article on the end of the ice. I think I'm going to have to read it in small doses.

Which issue is that one in? Sounds vaguely familiar. She has one about rats in Oct. 7.

I just started the one on social media and harm to teenagers (Oct. 7). 

I am procrastinating reading the one about Trump and union members--but I will read it,