In the New Yorker...

[serious crayons]

Um. ... I know this is going to spoil some of it, but that's pretty much the situation that Aviv's article is about. I won't go into any more details.

I figured. Well, it will be instructive, because I didn't pay close enough attention when it happened to my friends' family.

You could have sold that article to TNY!

I know! Too bad about my friends, but I'd be rich and famous! 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I figured. Well, it will be instructive, because I didn't pay close enough attention when it happened to my friends' family.

Of course I haven't gotten around to trying to check the law in Pennsylvania, but I hope my dad would have at least some protection since I'm half-owner of his house and now half-owner of his bank accounts. At least I might be in a legal position to put up a fight.

It comes to me now that to the best of my memory Aviv says nothing about insurance policies. But I guess the "guardian," to use that term loosely, would be in a position to cash them in along with everything else.

[Front-Ranger]

Read Aviv's article tonight. Shocking that this can happen even when the elders have children or close relatives nearby! I couldn't imagine the nightmare of visiting my mother and finding her gone, the door locked and the possessions seized!

[serious crayons]

Of course I haven't gotten around to trying to check the law in Pennsylvania, but I hope my dad would have at least some protection since I'm half-owner of his house and now half-owner of his bank accounts. At least I might be in a legal position to put up a fight.

I still haven't read the article and my understanding of my friends' experience is hazy, but doesn't the guardian who steals the money have to be someone who has been officially appointed to care for the person? Does your dad have someone like that? I thought you were his primary caregiver at this point, in which case wouldn't it not be a threat?

[serious crayons]

(At the risk of provoking an argument that I'm really not interested in, I'll admit I'm not a fan. I think she's a publicity hound. I recognize that her tactics have been clearly, if not extraordinarily, successful; it's just that I was brought up to distrust publicity hounds.)

I'm so behind I haven't even finished the Allred piece, and then there are all those other good ones!

I guess I've also thought of Allred as a publicity hound of some sort, by virtue of the fact that she represents such high-profile clients and cases. But then aren't most famous people -- with the exception of crime victims or others unintentionally thrust into the spotlight -- "publicity hounds"? I mean, how do people get to be famous in the absence of publicity in some form? And most -- actors, for example -- are motivated to take high-profile jobs.

Anyway, you expressed the desire not to argue and no argument intended here. I was brought up to be impressed by strong and effective women. I didn't know much about Allred but the article has greatly increased my admiration for her.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I was kind of disappointed in "Fantastic Beasts and How to Rank Them" (Nov. 6).

I really only liked two things, which might be considered asides:

"Unicorns ... attract virgins--which, power-wise, puts them at the same level as boy bands."

Also:

"Controlling the elements, for instance, seems considerably harder than controlling an animal (unless, perhaps, it is a cat)."

[serious crayons]

 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm currently reading Larissa MacFarquhar's November 13 article about Orange City, Iowa.

I'm surprised by one thing. I'm about halfway through the article, and, while she makes much of the fact that the town's first settlers were immigrants from the Netherlands, she hasn't gone into the reason why Orange City is called Orange City. I'd bet it's because the settlers were from the Netherlands and the House of Orange is the ruling dynasty of the Netherlands. It was back then and it still is today.

(MacFarquhar: Now, there's a Scottish or Scots-Irish name for you!)

[serious crayons]

Larissa McFarquhar wrote what was, for some reason, one of my favorite New Yorker profiles ever, of the producer Brian Grazer:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/10/15/the-producer

You can't read the whole thing without a subscription and even then I'm not saying it's a must-read. But for reasons I can't fully explain, it has really stuck with me ever since.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Larissa McFarquhar wrote what was, for some reason, one of my favorite New Yorker profiles ever, of the producer Brian Grazer:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/10/15/the-producer

You can't read the whole thing without a subscription and even then I'm not saying it's a must-read. But for reasons I can't fully explain, it has really stuck with me ever since.

I have a vague memory of that article. That was in the hard copy, wasn't it?

But, anyway, I like her stuff, too.