Category: Writing

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Trumpolini

Not really. Trump is not an ideologue who craves power. He is rather a pragmatic demagogue. His new call to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. is a dangerous extreme and crosses the line. That’s his negotiating strategy. Start with the most outrageous to shape the debate. Congress is already voting to ban immigrants from certain countries. His end game is to make America tougher.

Simplistic brazen narcissism? Yes. Will he win? Maybe. Unless rest of the Repubs can rally around one candidate. Not sure who that would be.

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Snarkington Post

Okay. Holiday schmaltz is upon us. Snark break. Lauren Bush Lauren aka Lifshitz had a baby. Adele’s new album should have gone the way of Amy Winehouse’s second. Too soon? SNL’s Adele Thanksgiving table banter was familiar and funny. Matthew McConaughey has physical humor chops. AMA show a study in narcissistic indulgence. Except for JLo. She stuns. Homeland too close to home in current terrorist theme if cartoony in personal plotline. The Affair gets better every week. Williams College location scenes. My money is on the jilted daughter. Spoiler alert. IMG_1479

Pats continue undefeated in a weak division of the flimsy AFC. But, best head coach with a great QB. One of the few who knows clock management. Makes the most of every player. Rex Ryan angry. And. So long SanFran’s Kaepernick. “Foot injury” puts you on IR. Right, Peyton in Denver?

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Allergy Upside Down Cake

New York State recently approved allowing dogs to share outdoor dining spaces with human customers. It’s more like Paris! So, what could be wrong with that?

Modern menus solicit food allergy alerts. Gluten-free fare is everywhere. No smoking anywhere. So, why is there this new fad of allowing pets at eateries? And hotels. And airplanes. Confined places where an unwitting patron could lose his air. 15% of the population is allergic to dogs and cats, 30% of those with asthma are allergic to pets. Don’t pet allergy sufferers have rights, too?

Oh. And your 60 lb. yellow lab that splayed itself over half of an enclosed Upper West Side sidewalk café? That’s another story. Slurp. Poop. Jump. Pant.

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Benched

Not only has Forty Niners QB Kaepernick been benched. Next week’s Republican debate on Fox Business has sidelined Christie and Huckabee. Relegated to the B team. There will only be eight starters in Prime Time. And. When you turn 91, you can tell the truth. Poppy Bush 41 has sent Cheney and Rummy packing. He even casts his own son President 43 under the bus. Makes Jeb!’s prospects for scoring a touchdown even dimmer than ever. He’ll be lucky to get a first down.

Autumn fallen to Christmas. Commercials have already begun. Bon weekend.

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Bats in the Belfry

On this most horrible of all holidays. If you care. Try these costume party stand-outs on for size. If like me you hate All Hallow’s Eve. Put cheap candy in a bowl on the porch and re-watch the Republican debate. Or Hillary’s 11-hour Benghazi hearing. Or Boehner’s tearful farewell. Redundant.

Or. Spend Halloween night chugging shots in between handing out Kit Kats to trick-or-treaters at the door. Apologize for your plaid pajamas. For your Vampira meets Bride of Frankenstein updo this year. Sorry about no pumpkins on the porch. Nor scary lights. They’ll get over it.

Can we get through one more?

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Dilbert Trump

Dilbert creator Scott Adams calls Trump a linguistic wizard. He predicts that The Donald’s brilliant power of persuasion will win him the presidency. Tactics that are seemingly clownish are actually calculated. Tagging each of his foes with caricature traits, just accurate enough so they stick. Jeb low energy, Carly robotic, etc. Adams himself is a hypnotist. And. Writes a great comic strip.

Fargo Season 2 with Ted Danson. In Golf. Presidents Cup. Who cares. Celebrating Genoa’s favorite son. Bon weekend.

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Lost in Translation

Yogi Berra. Junipero Serra. Yankees. Mets. Putin. Trump. Mickey. Terry. So. When you come to a fork in the road take it.

Final Papal thought. He met with sex abuse victims. Ray. Bunchy. Unless you speak Spanish, you missed most of what Pope Francis really said. Idioms, off-script quips, dropped by abysmal and sanitized translations. Duplicated voiceovers. His passionate literary Argentine soul was totally lost. Che.

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Game Changers

Are the tables turning? Defining moment. Apolitical sibling yearned to see Trumpo at New Hampshire town hall. Ready to make the trek. Wow. The Donald expects to fill a stadium in Alabama tonight. What will he say about North Korea’s war taunt? Kim Jong. Bing. Bing. Bong. Bomb. Bomb. Bomb. Probably. While everyone else scowls and gripes. H-Rod to go toe to toe with Joe?

Tiger shot a 64. Could there be more? Caitlyn Jenner changed so she could go to a women’s prison for manslaughter? Just asking. Bon weekend.

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Desperately Seeking Somebody

Democrats are scrambling to find somebody to rise from the bench if/when Hillary implodes. Bernie energizes the moonbat far left base. Biden never stimulates votes. God love him. Gore rumor quashed before it became one. Kerry lame afterthought. Warren done. Anemic choices.

Repubs not so great, either. Jeb’s foreign policy speech at Reagan Library written by Dick Cheney, Kristol, Wolfowitz. NeoCons Term3. Trump, Carson, Fiorina anti-magnetic forces with short shelf life. Kasich not igniting sparks.

Tiger out. Spieth and McIlroy even. PGA a bust of late. Somebody. Fire us up!

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Gear Switches

DSC_0034_2Steampunk is a subgenre of fiction, in a Victorian setting, using components of steam powered machinery to bend time and place. Until I read the reviews of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, I’d never heard of it. Despite a lack of context of the literary genre, I loved this novel. Clockworks attract my fascination. Mori, a former Japanese Samurai turned watchmaker in Knightsbridge, London came to life. His relationship with Thaniel, a boring clerk, was real and endearing. His world of future telling and incendiary events captivates. An Oxford physicist shakes the fantastical octopus. Well done debut by Natasha Pulley. Great read.

Teflon Don. Wrong again. Can we really have a petulant adolescent as President? Entertain on.

Photo by G. Levine: RiverCulture Sculpture. Turners Falls, Massachusetts.