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First Sentences

“There is a perennial temptation to read the greatness of distinguished men backward into their youth; to imagine that, if one just knows where to look, their early lives will provide evidence that the fully formed person was there in microcosm all along.” Troy Senik, A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland.

“Á filthy boy stood on the doorstep.” Zadie Smith, The Fraud.

“If you were searching for world-famous deep-sea monsters, a stately building at the top of a hill in Upsala, Sweden, is not the first place you’d look.” Susan Casey, The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean.

“This early, the East River takes on a thin layer of translucence, a bright steely skin that appears to float over the river itself as the water turns from its nocturnal black to the opaque deep green of the approaching day.” Michael Cunninghan, Day.

“A young woman sprinted ahead of the fleeing soldiers on the forest path, her long red hair streaming on the wind as if it were a banner urging them onward to escape their own destruction.” Peter Stark, Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison’s Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation.

“Needless to say, when Julia Prentice began to cast her huge, hazy eyes in the direction of my husband, I should have snapped to immediate attention. But at the moment I was too distracted thinking about her breasts.” Lindsay Maracotta, The Dead Hollywood Moms Society.

“European Wars would bookend Rudolf Diesel’s life.” Douglas Brunt, The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genuis, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I.

“The night I watch Athena Liu die, we’re celebrating her TV deal with Netflix.” R.F. Kung, Yellowface.

“‘Please throw down the box.’” John Boessenecker, Gentleman Bandit: The True Story of Black Bart, the Old West’s Most Infamous Stagecoach Robber.

“Possum Creek trickles out of a swampy waste a little south of Raleigh.” Margaret Maron, Bootlegger’s Daughter: A Deborah Knott Mystery.

“Jim Wedick yanked at his collar as he walked across the parking lot toward the Thunderbird Motel, a sprawling Native American-themed lodge in suburban Minneapolis.” David Howard, Chasing Phil: The Adventures of Two Undercover Agents with the World’s Most Charming Con Man.

“In the drowsy heat of the summer afternoon the Red House was taking its siesta.” A.A. Milne, The Red House Mystery,

“Since first setting foot on the Te-Chag-U ranch, Gil Bonifácio Carvalho Neto had felt a growing sense of dread—but it was only after uncovering a hidden clearing in the jungle that he began to truly fear for his life.” Heriberto Araujo, Masters of the Lost Land: The Untold Story of the Amazon and the Violent Fight for the World’s Last Frontier.

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A Response to a Friend

A knowledgeable friend concerned with the state of America asked me to comment on some of his views. He thinks that Biden does not understand that people don’t care much that the rate of inflation is dropping when they see that things still cost more than they did a year or two ago. The Southern border is a “mess and leadership demands some reasonable proposals to stop the bleeding in a fair amount of time.” He concludes that while he could never vote for Trump, his many issues with Biden will make it hard to vote for him just because he is “less of a disaster than the other choice.” The friend says he may vote for a third-party candidate and choose “to throw my vote away.” I responded in the following manner:

I agree with much of what you say. The inflation rate may be dropping but, as you point out, Americans in general may not care much about that. Those of us who lived through the regular inflation of the 1960s and 1970s might be impressed with the current lower rate of inflation, but many Americans only remember a world that for practical purposes had no inflation. I sometimes think that the presidency largely depends on the cost of gas, milk, and eggs, and those costs are higher than in recent years.

This hurts Biden, but as with much of the economy, I don’t know how much the president should be held responsible. Developed countries everywhere had inflation. It was not just an American problem, and our inflation rate was less than almost all of the European countries. By that measure, we did well on inflation. And, of course, by many standard measures—job creation, unemployment, GDP, average wages, the stock market–the economy is doing ok-to-quite good. If Biden is to be held responsible for inflation, then he should be given credit that it was lower than Europe’s rate and that the rest of the economy has performed well. However, the administration is going to need to amp up its messaging if this going to penetrate to the American electorate.

Many forecasters over the last 18 months predicted a recession. That has not occurred. I am not sure that Biden should be given much if any credit for this, just as I am not sure how much blame he should get for the inflation, but if a recession had occurred, he would be blamed for it. Inflation is a reason why Biden might not be reelected, but it is not a rational reason not to vote for him. But as someone observed, “A great president is the one who happens to be on the job when you are on a run of good luck.”

Immigration is both a political and policy mess. Biden comes across as not caring about the border, and that is a huge mistake. I thought from the beginning of Biden’s administration he should have tried to seize control of this issue by saying that it is not a southern border issue. We need comprehensive immigration reform. Biden should have been making it clear that we need immigration and that such statements as Lindsey Graham’s recent one that “the country is full” is silly, dangerous demagoguery.

I believe that the birth rate is below the replacement level. Without immigration we will have a shrinking workforce. If a 55-year-old wants to get social security, we need more workers, which means more immigration. Biden should have been making that clear. Many industries depend on immigrants. Biden should have been enlisting these industries into reform proposals. Of course, many conservatives are happy with the border crisis because it is such a potent political issue.

Biden should have put forward proposals to the Republicans that he would support massively increasing border security personnel if they massively increase the number of immigration judges — which requires additional government spending — and accept DACA reform. Of course, the conservatives would not do that. Compromise is not part of their game plan, just testosterone-fueled “solutions.” But Biden should have been stressing that our whole system is a mess and needs reform.

I have learned how little I know about our immigration system from many of the people I have met in my local biergarten. Many are immigrants, both legal and not, with at least one seeking asylum. I had little idea how complicated our system is and am still amazed that Viktor asked for asylum over five years ago and still does not have an answer. Every one of these immigrants works hard and has added to this country, but they live under an incredibly bad system.

I do have my criticisms of Biden, but I also believe that he has accomplished more than is generally recognized. Most important is the infrastructure bill, which is only a start on what is needed. Trump regularly talked about infrastructure but did nothing while Biden got something passed. It is always interesting when conservatives who voted against the bill have something from it rolled out in their district and then try to take credit for the coming improvement.

Democrats have many failings. One of their biggest, as mentioned above, is messaging. They have not touted their successes on infrastructure. Or on the economy. When Obama was President, I heard frequently how bad the economy was when it wasn’t. Most of the important indicators were favorable. Many of those economic trends continued under Trump, but by then the indicators were publicized to show how great the economy was. It was basically the same economy under both, but the conservatives messaged better about it, as they do now.

Biden has accomplished other things that fly under the radar. The spouse reads Heather Cox Richardson who regularly reports on Biden accomplishments that the spouse was not aware of. I was reminded of this while watching a Sunday morning show. A firefighter was talking about the high cancer rates among his colleagues. This has something to do with the protective gear they wear, and he was saying how changes needed to be made to improve the health of firefighters. He then went out of his way to thank Biden and Debbie Dingel for their efforts in this regard. Who knew?

Throwing away your vote where you live may not matter. Your state is likely to go Biden no matter what, but throwing away votes is how Trump got elected. In spite of popular perceptions, there was no great surge to Trump in 2016. He got almost the same percentage of the vote that Romney had four years earlier. However, an important percentage of the population apparently felt that they could not vote for Hillary Clinton. I guess that most of those thought she would win. They could not stomach voting for Trump so they voted for third party candidates. In most places that did not matter, but it proved decisive in enough battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — to give Trump the presidency. In those closely contested states, Trump did not get majorities. Sometimes he did a little better than Romney had, but not much. Hillary, however, underperformed in these states and did not get the majorities that Obama had. Apparently a sizeable group decided they would “throw away” their votes. The third-party totals, while small, often doubled and tripled. This allowed Trump to get the pluralities in these states and their electoral votes. And thus Trump became president. In 2020, the percentages for the third-party candidates followed the pre-2016 historical trends, and Trump lost. Fewer people threw away their vote in 2020.  

“Throwing away” your vote can have unexpected consequences. This year, the consequences are too dire to contemplate. Sometimes a thrown away vote is not really thrown away; it just goes into a trash pile you didn’t anticipate.

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Snippets

I get e-books from the New York Public Library. If the book is not immediately available, it is reserved and I get a message indicating, not very accurately, what the wait will be. Right now I have a reservation for A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland by Troy Senit. The library notice tells me that the biography will be “available for checkout in less that 23 days.” From my grade school grammar, I was taught that less is wrong here and should be replaced with fewer. But this comes from the New York Public Library. Surely they know better than I (not me.) Do I not remember my grammar, or has it changed? I was struck by this question when I heard an NFL ad that was a warning about betting. It said that about 25% of pro football games are decided “by three points or fewer.”

A wise observer said, “I feel that progress is being made when people agree with my ideas.”

I just finished reading The Red House Mystery. It was written by A.A. Milne. Yes, that A.A. Milne. (Is there another?) And yes, it is a mystery. Who knew?

I was in the hardware store buying a mousetrap because even though the neighborhood has become more upscale, every so often the little furry creatures get in the house. As the store clerk put my purchase in a bag, he told me to bait the trap with peanut butter. I replied that sometimes I use chocolate peanut butter. He exclaimed, “No, no, no! For Fort Greene mice you now have to use organic peanut butter.”

Another sage observation: “We like to have people come right out and say what they think, when they agree with us.”

You attend a classical concert. You know that an acquaintance has also gone to that performance, but you don’t see each other exiting. It is always interesting to see the reaction of that person when you meet again by saying, “What? You stayed for the Debussy after that Mahler?”

What is Beethoven doing now? Decomposing.

Although the spouse and I had partaken of a few finger foods at the reception after the dance performance, we were still hungry. We walked into an Italian restaurant around the corner from the Mark Morris Dance Center, but it was too noisy for our liking. We passed a Mexican place and entered a Haitian restaurant—I think its name is the same as its address, 33 Lafayette—and were quickly seated by a gracious host. We later learned that he was a co-owner. I thought that a couple of appetizers would suffice and ordered coconut shrimp, which were divine, and smoked herring in plantain cups. I associate herring with northern climes, and the menu said that the fish were from Canada. I told the host that I was surprised to find a Haitian restaurant offering herring. He replied that Haitians regularly eat herring and have it even with spaghetti and pizza. He said it might have entered Haiti’s cuisine when Haiti opened its doors to European Jews before World War II. Who knew? But I later learned that you can find many Haitian herring recipes online. I don’t plan to try them.

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Collected Resolutions That I Might Resolve.

I resolve in 2024 to:

  Work “Time will tell” into conversation at least once a week.

  Not act my age.

  Get better at making lists.

  Not dress my age.

  Use the phrase “It’s a no-brainer” more often.

  Not skydive.

  Not learn how to moonwalk.

  Stop daring people to lick frozen flagpoles.

  To drink one fewer cup of coffee every day, week, month, year.

  Only eat white snow.

  Perfect my Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation.

  Ask at restaurants if I can substitute another glass of wine for the fries.

  Learn how to swear in multiple languages.

  Eat more cheese platters.

  Stop introducing the spouse as my first wife.

  Perfect the art of silent karaoke.

  Consider lifting the TV remote as exercise.

      Not get stuck in a lobster trap.

  Try to avoid clichés like the plague!

  Remember that ice fishing works better if you cut a hole in the frozen lake surface.

  See the untoward not as mistakes but as happy accidents.

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Trump Tribulations

Critics maintain that the Colorado Supreme Court decision that bars Trump from the ballot is antidemocratic. They are right, but merely stating that the decision is wrong because it is antidemocratic overlooks the fact that many provisions in our Constitution are antidemocratic. Take the Senate, for example. Every state gets two Senators no matter what the state’s population. States that contain far less than a majority of the people have the majority of the Senators. This is not democratic. The Constitution limits a president to two terms. This is not democratic. I don’t know if Colorado’s decision is correct, but it is not wrong because it is antidemocratic. The court was interpreting a constitutional provision that is inherently antidemocratic because it prohibits certain people from holding office. Its enforcement was meant to be antidemocratic. Of course, ironies abound when Trump supporters label the decision wrong because it is antidemocratic. Trump without proof, of course, maintained that Obama could not be president because Barack was not a natural-born citizen as the Constitution requires. Obama was a natural-born citizen, of course, but the provision remains antidemocratic. And, of course, Trump was not democratically elected as president. He did not get the votes of a majority of the People. He became president because he got the majority of the antidemocratic electoral college. It is also ironic that Trump supporters mock the Colorado decision by invoking the mantra “Let the people decide” when many of them refused to accept what the people decided in 2020.

The “misery index”—the sum of the unemployment and inflation rates—that soared under President Trump has dropped precipitously since Trump was dumped, but it is still not as low as it was under President Obama.

After criticisms of his remarks about immigrants polluting our national “blood,” Trump responded by saying that he had not read Mein Kampf. Trump frequently does not tell the truth, but when he says that he has not read something, the odds are overwhelming that this time he is not lying.

Homelessness, which jumped under President Trump, has not returned to pre-Trump levels.

Trump’s definition of the holiday spirit is different from that of the rest of us. On December 24, Trump posted on social media that special counsel Jack Smith is a misfit and a thug. Trump wished that various people would “rot in hell.” I wonder if he was sacrilegious enough to do this from a pew during a Christmas Eve service.

Deaths per capita skyrocketed when Trump was in office. It has fallen while Biden has been President.

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One Line Christmas

When I was kid, from what I heard in church, I assumed that Jesus spoke English. I was surprised when I was told that Mary and Joseph did not speak our language. I wondered, then, how Jesus had learned it.

I have read that the song “Silver Bells” was originally called “Tinkle Bells” until the composer’s spouse pointed out the problem.

I received for Christmas a few years ago a specially-made T shirt I had requested. It reads: “TRUMP. HIS MOTHER DID NOT HAVE HIM TESTED.” I am not yet retiring it.

Do we ever refer to a song as a “carol” except for those about Christmas?

“What’s so special about Christmas—the birth of a man who thinks he’s a god isn’t such a rare event.” Graffito.

A Christmas bird dog is called a point setter.

Do you know how to spell the name of that Christmas plant? Does it contain more than one “t”? Does it end with an “a” or “ia”?

Shouldn’t the line really be: “Later on we’ll perspire as we dream by the fire”?

When I bought some camembert, the woman behind the counter said, “What a friend we have in cheeses.”

During a break in the chess matches, the tournament players gathered in the hotel’s lobby and started bragging about their triumphs in past meetings. They were just chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.

One of Santa’s helpers tried to commit suicide. He had low elf-esteem.

Santa told me that he will only come if before Christmas he can get a flue shot.

“I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white man would be coming into my neighborhood after dark.” Dick Gregory.

“The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.” George Carlin.

Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, an honest lawyer, and an old drunk are walking down the street together when they simultaneously spot a hundred-dollar bill. Who gets it? The old drunk, of course, The other three are mythological creatures.

“How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few his precepts! O! ‘tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.” Ben Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack.

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‘Tis the Season for Movies

In December I watch Christmas movies I have not seen before while revisiting classics important to me. There are untold numbers of Christmas movies including a slew of animated ones, many of which are outstanding. My favorite this year was Shaun the Sheep: A Flight Before Christmas. Shaun realizes how puny his Christmas stocking is after spying a bigger one hung elsewhere. Shaun seeks a larger stocking. Complications ensue. Shaun the Sheep movies range from very good to wonderful. See what you think.

Many of the films seem autobiographical and in some way are coming-of-age movies. The one I saw this year features a young artist who has squelched his artistic dreams. He works in his family’s fish store as the neighborhood prepares for the feast of the seven fishes in the movie entitled—wait for it—The Feast of the Seven Fishes. On a blind date he meets a waspy, repressed Ivy Leaguer. Sparks fly causing complications to ensue. Italian-born nonna does not want a non-Catholic around, and blondie’s family doesn’t want her consorting with a garlic eater. Will things work out? Will young love blossom? This is one of those independent movies that surprise me. An excellent script, splendid acting, good production values, and I assume little box office. Go watch it. Learn how to argue over bacalao’s preparation.

What seems to me a new category of Christmas films asks us to sympathize with characters who are rolling in money. Case in point: Holiday in the Wild. Son leaves for college. Father decides it is now time to end his marriage. Mother goes off to Africa on a luxury safari. She meets Rob Lowe. Complications ensue. This might be worth it if you want to see baby elephants being saved or glimpses of a New York City apartment the likes of which you couldn’t afford in your most extravagant dreams.

At Christmastime, hunky guys are everywhere — at least in movies that do not feature children. Would you be surprised if the viewers skewed female for these movies? In The Noel Diaries, the hunk is a bestselling author who has found out at Christmastime that his estranged mother has died. He cleans out the longtime family house, which — surprise, surprise — contains family secrets. After standing across the street for a while, a young woman knocks on the door and says her mother once lived there. Complications ensue. And, yes, sparks fly. This was better than average. It is worth watching sipping a good cup of cocoa with melting full-size marshmallows.

Some Christmas movies center on children; some on adults where kids are not evident; and some on families. In the family category this year was Candy Cane Lane, starring Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross. They live with their children on a street where neighbors are competitive to see who can have the most ostentatious outside Christmas display. This year a valuable prize offered by a local news station is at stake in addition to mere bragging rights. The movie also features a fallen elf who is trying to get back into Santa’s good graces. The complications that ensue center on that most annoying of Christmas songs, The Twelve Days of Christmas, which is not quite as annoying as Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall. (A twelve-year-old boy sang all of Bottles as I drove him and others to a tennis tournament. My Christmas wish is that someday, somehow, I will be rewarded for not inflicting abuse on the child, although I fantasized about it during the ride.) Even though Candy Cane Lane featured Twelve Days, I still enjoyed the movie. It had a wonderful, often surprising cast. The movie also brought a smile to my face because of tubas. The musically obsessed son in the movie plays the tuba, which his father mocks.  It reminded me of an event almost fifty years ago when a Christmas concert with hundreds of tubas of different sizes — and only tubas — took place around the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The spouse and I headed off to what we thought was going to be a little-attended event. We were wrong. We could not get near the Plaza because of the crowds and did not see a single tubist (tubaist?). But from a block away, we heard them. It was a marvelous, wondrous sound. Christmas music (which did not include The Twelve Days) had a fresh life when played by an all-tuba orchestra. The tuba concerts have continued. If you are in New York at the right time, go listen. Of course, in the movie Eddie Murphy comes to appreciate the tuba playing of his son.

Another Christmas movie genre centers on a Santa Claus, often real or maybe real, who is at least quirky and may even be offensive or outrageous but ends up teaching positive life lessons. In The Christmas Chronicles the younger sister sets out to video Santa on Christmas eve, which, of course, she does. Her cynical brother joins in her chase of St. Nick, played wonderfully by Kurt Russell in what is now my second favorite role of his after the classic Overboard. Complications ensue, including a crash landing, loose reindeer in downtown Chicago, the loss of the sackful of toys, and a Chicago blues Christmas song. But a warning: All the movie is not in English; some of it is in elvish. My debate now is whether to watch The Christmas Chronicles II this week or save it until next year.

After all these new to me movies, I decided to return to the one that I have seen many more times than any other, Miracle on 34th Street. (See “It’s a Miracle” posted on this blog December 6, 2021.) To my surprise, I came across a version of it I had not seen before. It was an adaptation for television made eight years after the movie. Its impressive cast included Thomas Mitchell, Terese Wright, Macdonald Carey, Sandy Descher, and Hans Conried. It is half the length of the film, and it changes a few plot points, but much of the dialog comes straight from the movie including these words from Kris Kringle: “Christmas is not a day. It is a state of mind.” And that is the message of many of the Christmas movies I have watched.

Religious themes might appear peripherally—a Christmas carol, a church service, a creche—but Jesus is almost never the focus of the movie. Instead, many –most — of the films are about the loss and, dare I say it, the resurrection of the Christmas spirit. A central character is often cranky, is a cynic or a pessimist who has experienced some loss—a marriage, a parent, a spouse. In the course of the movie, the unhappy ones change as they see a future with positive possibilities; they (re)gain a sense of wonder; they spread sunshine; they see a glass half full. They feel again the Christmas spirit. Of course, these movies are predictable. Who cares? It’s always nice to see happy endings.

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Snippets

You might know a lot of them, but I met my first professional thereminist the other day. Well, complete disclosure. It was the first thereminst professional or otherwise I ever met. This was at a Christmas party that I semi-crashed. I had been stopped by an unknown gatekeeper at the door of my local biergarten. She told me that a private function was underway, and the bar would be open to the general public in an hour. The establishment’s owner interceded to ask if it would be all right for me to sit at the bar, and the gatekeeper agreed. I then asked her what the group was, and she replied, “The Mark Morris Dance Group.” The gatekeeper seemed pleased that I knew about MMDG after I ingratiatingly told some of my vast array of Mark Morris anecdotes. (I have attended performances, and Mark Morris danced a long time ago in a dance company headed by the wife of a colleague and friend.) As I was sitting at the bar, nursing an Einbecker, a man squeezed in beside me, a ticket in hand, to get his own beer. He perfunctorily asked me, “What do you do with Mark Morris?” I said I was not affiliated, just a cherished neighbor of the bar’s owner. But I felt compelled to reciprocate, and he told me that he played the theremin in some of the dance company’s performance. He then also told me about some of his other theremin gigs. I could not imagine that one could make a living playing the instrument which emits those weird sounds, but he said he did. With a look that seemed to indicate that he was well rid of me (I was not going to offer him work), he wandered off among the tables. A half hour later he was next to me again with another ticket in hand. I then asked him what he thought of Sheldon Cooper playing the theremin. He hesitated as if he did not want to acknowledge the reference (you can look it up on YouTube), but he then said that it was awful. After a few seconds he amended himself: “It was good that he introduced the instrument to so many. But his playing. . . .”

Good news: Life expectancy, which fell in this country when Trump was president, has started to rebound although it is still not as long as it was before the decline started under Trump.

The spouse is so immature. I’d be at home in the bath, and she’d come in and sink my boats.

After the last Republican presidential debate, which I hope you have forgotten, commentators on a conservative “news” channel bemoaned that the candidates only attacked each other and did not discuss issues. One said, “Not one of them talked about high taxes.” Apparently, she had forgotten that the tax cuts skewed towards the rich by the Republicans only six years ago are still in effect. She must have been of the political camp of the observer who asked, “Are we ever going to realize our political ideal of making the other fellow pay the taxes?”

I would like to see those candidates talk about this issue: healthcare. The United States spends much more on healthcare per capita than any other country. However, life expectancy in this country lags far behind that in other

developed nations. (It is slightly shorter than it is even in Cuba.) Our healthcare is confusing and filled with bureaucracies. Does anyone want to hear another commercial for a medicare advantage plan? They don’t exist in countries with better healthcare systems. But our candidates don’t address the situation. Oh, yes, except for Trump, who recently again said that if elected he would get rid of Obamacare and replace it with something better. Are old promises the best ones? I have been waiting since 2016 for the details or even the broadest outline of Trump’s “better” healthcare plan, and I don’t hold my breath for one now.

“No problem is too big to run away from.” Charles M. Schultz.

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Sandra Day and Henry K.

Sandra Day O’Connor and Henry Kissinger recently died only a few days apart. I glanced at some of the obits, memorials, and reminiscences about them. There was a striking difference. Nary a bad word was said about O’Connor. Not so for Kissinger. We were reminded of some of his positive accomplishments, but many comments dwelled on what were seen as immoral decisions leading to the deaths of tens of thousands and brutal dictatorial actions. Much of this commentary was summarized in a political cartoon that had Kissinger on escalator descending into hell. I thought of Jackie “Moms” Mabley’s take on the well-worn adage: “They say you shouldn’t say anything about the dead unless it’s good. He’s dead. Good.”

I first became aware of Kissinger when in a college political science course in 1965 I was assigned to read Kissinger’s book Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy. In certain (but small) circles it had garnered much attention. In the book, Kissinger criticized President Eisenhower’s stated policy of massive retaliation if the United States were to be attacked. The theory was that one party would not attack if it knew that the response would assure the destruction of both sides. Later this policy became known as mutually assured destruction whose acronym indicates how easy it was to mock the Strangelovian doctrine of massive retaliation. Even so, Kissinger was one of the first to criticize it openly.

The book, however, did not just criticize massive retaliation. It also promoted the use of nuclear weapons. Kissinger did not want the United States to eschew their use, but to employ tactical nuclear weapons in our conflicts. I did not know then, and am not sure now, what a “tactical” nuclear weapon is, but I thought even in my college days that their use would lead to widespread noncombatant deaths. That apparently was ok with Kissinger if the US was engaged in some righteous cause, but he did not define, at least to my satisfaction, his notion of righteousness. I had the feeling that he might mean that the US never did inappropriate things, and therefore America would always be justified in the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

I didn’t think much of Kissinger one way or the other after reading the book until he obtained nationwide recognition when he was appointed National Security Advisor by President Richard Nixon in 1969. A friend of mine, however, met Kissinger before he took federal office. The friend was working for the first hedge fund created by Alfred Winslow Jones. Someone trying to obtain some of the fund’s investment money came to the offices with Kissinger in tow. Kissinger then held an academic position at Harvard, but he was also happy to make additional money by advising rich and powerful businessmen. (Later in life he had a consulting firm. He did more than ok in these ventures. Several sources report that he was worth $50 million when he died.)

Kissinger addressed this hedge fund in early 1968 when the country was bogged down with the war in Vietnam. Kissinger confidently said that the war was unwinnable. After Kissinger concluded his remarks, my friend asked, “If this is apparent to you, surely it must be to the advisors to the President.” Kissinger replied, “I am sure it is, but the President can always choose who he listens to.”

A year later, Dr. Henry Kissinger was National Security Advisor to the newly elected President Richard Nixon. Kissinger, at least from what he had said to my friend a year earlier, was convinced the war could not be won. So, America’s involvement in Vietnam ended once Nixon and Kissinger got power. Of course, not. The United States did not withdraw its troops until 1975, and from the time Nixon took office until that messy, embarrassing withdrawal, another 20,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam. Furthermore, Nixon and Kissinger escalated the war by bombing Cambodia and increasing the unacknowledged bombing of Laos. (See the post on this blog, “Bombs Away” on April 24, 2017.) Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of Southeast Asians died because of the war after Nixon and Kissinger ascended to power. (No accurate count of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian deaths exist, but by one estimate three million Vietnamese died in the war, two million of whom were civilians.)

Perhaps, even though Kissinger had previously said the war was unwinnable, instead of helping end it, he supported its escalation because he had an honest conversion. Somehow, perhaps, he became convinced that although the extensive bombings in Vietnam had not worked, more extensive, more brutal bombings would bring the enemy to the bargaining table. That Kissinger ever thought that is hard to believe. That kind of fantasy hardly fits with Kissinger’s realpolitik mystique.

Instead, as discussed on Harry Shearer’s fascinating radio program Le Show (This was the fortieth anniversary of Le Show. Who knew?), the White House tapes of conversations between Nixon and Kissinger show that the continuation of the war was strictly politics. The war could not be won, but Nixon and Kissinger did not want to be blamed for losing the war, at least not before 1972 when Nixon desperately planned to be reelected. The war had to be maintained for at least four years after Nixon and Kissinger took office. And, consequently, many, many had to die to ensure Nixon would remain in office.

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A Lesson for Brewing Good Coffee

I learned a valuable tip for making good coffee this morning. I got the cannister of coffee from the top-rated coffee club off the shelf. (For various reasons, I no longer keep coffee beans in the freezer as I once did.) These were freshly roasted beans from New Guinea. I used the long-handled scoop that I keep tucked in the cannister. I have used this scoop for decades, and I am confident of the scoops of coffee beans to water ratio for my brewing techniques.

I took the top off my top-rated burr coffee grinder and put in the desired amount of coffee. I turned on the grinder, which is set to grind according to its display for 28.7 seconds. (I am a bit suspicious of a device that lets me set by the tenth of seconds.) Meanwhile, I got fresh water in the pitcher I keep next to my top-rated coffee maker and poured the desired amount of liquid into the aforementioned top-rated coffee machine.

I then got a coffee filter from the shelf. These are basket filters required by my top-rated coffee maker because, according to every knowledgeable coffee maker (or at least the manufacturer of my top-rated coffee machine) a basket filter allows for a more even and complete extraction of coffee from the beans than a cone filter. I put the filter and the basket holding it on top of the carafe of my top-rated coffee machine, placed them in the appropriate place for my top-rated machine, and turned the maker on.

I had previously programmed the machine so that it first “blooms” the ground coffee, an essential step for top-quality coffee I was first instructed about when I did single cup pour over coffee a half century ago. A little bit of water first wets the ground coffee beans to release the full potential of the beans. Then a few moments later, the full brewing takes place.

This top-rated maker, correctly so, does not allow the brew cycle to be interrupted before the cycle’s end. This, I am convinced, will bring out the best quality from the New Guinea beans from the top-rated coffee club. While all the coffee is brewing, I get dressed and do some dishwasher loading.

The top-rated machine’s brewing light turns off. All I need to do now is take the filter basket off the insulated carafe (the carafe is better for keeping the coffee warm because, I have been led to believe by the manufacturer of the top-rated coffee maker, the continual heating by a warming element degrades the freshly brewed coffee) and replace it with the carafe’s top.

It was at this point I learned the tip for the day, which you have perhaps already figured out. The precisely measured New Guinea beans from the top-rated coffee club that have been ground by the top-rated burr grinder for 28.7 seconds must be removed from the grinder’s receptacle and placed in the filter that has been placed in the basket of the top-rated coffee maker before that machine is turned on. Otherwise, you get, as I did, a carafe of hot water and a wet filter with nothing in it. And you learn, as I did, how disappointed you are when you are ready for the first cup of top-rated coffee, and it is not ready because of your own ineptitude.

[For a related post on this blog, see “The Barista is Not an Essential Worker” posted July 15, 2020.]