By Bonnie Fishman If fall doesn’t scream farmers’ markets, I don’t know what does. Actually, they’ve been open for a few months already but there’s something really special about hitting the fresh produce stands when there’s a nip in the air, the leaves are beginning to turn. and we see summer veggies making way for winter squash, root vegetables, and pumpkins. Farmers’ markets are my weakness. I palpitate when I visit them, just as a seamstress’ fingers itch in a fabric store or an artist gets a twinge in a paint supply shop. It doesn’t matter what part of the world I’m in–I hunt down the farmers’ markets. As a matter of fact, before I go abroad, I spend countless hours online looking for ones not to miss when I travel. You learn so much about the food culture of a country by seeing what they grow, interacting with the farmers, watching the patrons, and trolling for noshes for yourself. The author at the market in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Provence, France, 2015 I’ve had the good fortune to visit three of CNN’s 10 best list of fresh food markets in the world: Borough Market in the Southwark district of London, Mercado de la Boquiera in La Rambla Barcelona, and Le Marché Provençal in Antibes on the French Riviera. These are not to be missed even if you don’t cook. On my vacations to London, Barcelona, and Antibes, respectively, I wasn’t able to cook where I was staying. It did not hinder my enjoyment of these fresh food markets because beside raw vegetables, fruits, fish, seafood, and meat, the stalls were loaded with local cheeses, nuts, jams, honey, olives, oils, vinegars, spices, breads, pastries, flowers, wines, and even some prepared street foods. I was with my sister Marcia and my cousin Jeri at the Borough Market in London in October three years ago. They were awestruck by my ability to suss out the best stalls and buy samples from many of them. “Here, share this pizza with me, how about some fish and chips, check out this nut tart, maybe a handheld pie, ooh, ooh let’s hit up the cheese shop for samples.” They couldn’t keep pace with my undying desire to eat everything. My niece likes to call me a “healthy eater”, having to do with volume not content! Assorted spices and olives at the Marché Provençal in Antibes, France 2015 I don’t know about anyone else, but I find it thrilling to take in all that these markets have to offer: the sights, the sounds, the people, the tastes, the smells. It’s quite exhilarating. I thoroughly enjoy our local markets, too, where I can actually buy produce to cook. I don’t really know what that will be until I go up and down the aisles and see what calls to me. On a recent visit, I zeroed in on eggplants. What is more classic than a delicious ratatouille? I find many ratatouilles watery. That’s when they are cooked on top of the stove and the juice is not allowed to fully evaporate. I have solved this problem by grilling all of the vegetables. This takes ratatouille to new heights. The only negative: it is quite time consuming to make, but well worth it. Buying local is a great way to support farming, one of the most underappreciated professions, but one of the most necessary ones. I am a healthy eater by both volume and content. What most piques your interest at farmers’ markets in cooking? Tell us here at The Insider! Grilled Ratatouille Yield: 8 servings 1 lg. firm eggplant 2 med. zucchini 1 lg. onion 1 head of garlic 2 lg. ripe tomatoes 1 red bell pepper 1 yellow bell pepper 1/4 c. chopped parsley or basil 2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice, or more to taste 2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil, or more to taste coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste Remove the stem from the eggplant. Cut lengthwise into 1” thick slices. Slice each zucchini lengthwise into 3-4 pieces. Peel the onion. Cut into 3/4” thick slices around the middle, not from stem to stem. Core the tomatoes. Heat grill to moderately high. Grill the garlic, turning once. The garlic takes the longest. It is done when the cloves are very soft. Add the vegetables to the grill. Lay the eggplant, onions, and zucchini on the grate crosswise to create grill marks. Close the lid. Cook the vegetables until they are tender. This will take about 10-12 minutes, depending upon your heat intensity. Place the vegetables onto a jelly roll pan with edges to cool. Grill the peppers until they are blackened on all sides. Put in a plastic or paper bag for 10 minutes to sweat off the skin. Peel the skin while running it under cold water. Remove the core and seeds. Cut peppers into 1” squares. Put in a large bowl. Grill the tomatoes whole until they are charred and softened, about 8-10 minutes. Put in the bowl with the peppers, allowing the juices to flow, until the tomatoes are cool enough to handle. Chop the tomatoes coarsely and add to the bowl with their juices. Cut the eggplant into 1” squares. Stack up the zucchini slices, cut down the center lengthwise, then crosswise into 1” pieces. Cut the onion slices into 1/2” pieces. Add all of these to the peppers. Using a sharp knife, remove the core end of the garlic head on a cutting board. Squeeze the bottom of the garlic head firmly. The flesh will come out of the cloves. Coarsely chop and add to the bowl. Finish the ratatouille by adding the fresh herbs, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature. Bonnie Fishman attended the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London. Later, she owned and operated Bonnie’s Patisserie in Southfield, Mich. and Bonnie’s Kitchen and Catering in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. She has taught cooking for over 35 years and created hundreds of recipes. She is now living in Northern California.

By Naomi Serviss When I was ten, my friend Terri invited me to spend a week at her family’s Beach Haven summer place, down the shore. Down the shore is how Philadelphians describe going to a New Jersey beach. Terri also unkindly let me know I was her second choice, after her first pal bailed. Still, a week down the shore would be dreamy and I was grateful. Beach Haven has long been our family’s Shangri-la. We’ve beachcombed, been lulled by the endless surf and struck seashell gold with intact clam shells and mysterious driftwood. Once we found a wayward starfish that we coaxed back into the sea. Emmy loved eating at Jeffy’s because, as the window placard stated: There’s Something for Everyone! One September, we had to hightail it home because of an impending hurricane. It’s a gamble going off-season, but the rewards often outweigh the risk. Lew and I have started a new family tradition, three years running. Just us so far. One day with the kids. A few years ago, I researched and found a no-frills, immaculate, three-story beachfront motel. The reviews of it on assorted travel sites cinched the deal. A family-run operation for decades. It’s the perfect location, with Barnegat Lighthouse at one end, a nature preserve on the opposite. We fell in love with this Beach Haven nest from the moment we set foot in the cheerful, light-flooded room. A balcony overlooked the crashing waves, salt spray doused the crisp air. After this past year of discontent, we counted the days until September 20th. Our never-ending light and sound show was just outside the screen door. Sunrises were magnificent. Lew, a nocturnal sort, appreciated each daybreak. The first night’s full moon stunned with its looming presence. The ocean’s symphony calmed and reassured us. A sign of hope for mistreated Mother Earth. We lucked out weather-wise, rained just once, and were rewarded with a fully arching rainbow across the sky. The whole gestalt turned us into giddy teenagers, grateful to be in the moment. Simple pleasures like an extra-large coffee and an indescribably delicious oversized pretzel wowed. A treasure found was an Australian-made hat with SPF 50 built-in. It wasn’t about the stuff. Granted, the lobster roll was beyond amazing. Lew’s tuna tacos were spot-on. Our four nights sped by. I have nearly finished Hayley Mills’ memoir and am shocked! Shocked! Hayley was a child actor who rocketed to stardom in Tiger Bay when she was merely 12. Her father, the venerable actor John Mills, eased her initial nervousness. She was a natural performer, unaffected and sincere. Then Disney. It’s a terrific read, especially for fans. These past five days were a tonic. Away from the constant drilling, hammering, honking, air horns and rowdy ATV drivers on West 96th Street. Our moods lightened and our breathing seemed to sync with the sea’s ebb and flow. We’re holding onto the feeling. Small shells strung on dental floss now hang from a wooden blind in front of my laptop. I can still see that 10-year-old girl whose passion for life was ignited one summer by a salty breeze and a rising tide. Naomi Serviss is a New York-based award-winning journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Highroads (AAA magazine), in-flight publications, spa and travel magazines and websites, including BroadwayWorld.com

By Victoria Rolfe Those clean crisp October days are here. What better way to spend them than outside enjoying the fresh air and golden autumn sunshine? To the uninitiated, it may seem that garden season is over, but the true gardener knows that this passion of ours is a year-round endeavor. Early fall is the perfect time to add more flowers to your garden beds. And you don’t even have to buy them. Just use what’s already there! You may have some perennials in your garden that that are now ready to be divided into more plants that you can use for yourself or to share or trade with someone. Gently dig them up and pull them apart. (You may have to be less than gentle in pulling some plants apart; sometimes a knife is in order for this task.) Each division can be replanted in order to grow a whole new (free) plant. Water them thoroughly after you plant them and keep them well-watered until the ground freezes. You may then want to tuck them in for the winter with a nice blanket of shredded leaves for warmth. It is cheaper to buy spring bulbs (in bags) and plant them now, than to buy those already sprouted daffodils and hyacinths that are sold in abundance during the springtime. You can plant those store-bought potted plants in the ground, but you will get more for your buck if you buy bulbs and plant them now. Follow the instructions on the packages for how deep and how far apart to plant each type of bulb. Best of all, your vegetable planting days are not even over for this year. There is still one more crop that you can plant right now. Garlic! It’s the crop that keeps on giving. Let’s say you start with one single bulb. You will (typically) split it into six cloves. Plant each clove now and it will yield a full bulb next year. While you eat some of your crop, save three bulbs (or 18 cloves) to plant for the following year’s bounty. As you can see, in just a few years, you will be growing as much garlic as you can possibly use, and then some. All from one little bulb of garlic! Garlic is very simple to grow. If you have ever planted flowering spring bulbs such as daffodils or tulips, you will be familiar with the process. I recommend using a hardneck variety, which is heartier for our cold winter growing conditions here in the Northeast. (Look for them in the garden centers near you.) Once you have split your garlic bulbs apart, simply dig holes three-to-four inches deep and six-to eight-inches apart. Place your cloves in the holes, pointy end up. You may enrich the holes with some fertilizer, compost and/or bone meal, a good source of phosphorus for root crops) Then water them in. When the ground freezes, cover your bed with a three-inch layer of mulch. Shredded leaves are perfect for this and at this time of year you should have them in abundance. In the springtime, when the flowering bulbs are emerging from the ground, your garlic will start to put up similar little green shoots. You may remove the mulch once the ground has warmed up sufficiently. When the shoots are about six inches tall, they will benefit from an additional dose of fertilizer. I like to use a liquid fish emulsion at this time. Mix it according to the directions and just water each shoot with the solution. In the next month or so, the shoots will put out curly flower stems called scapes. Cut these off, as you want your plant to put its energy into growing a bulb, as opposed to a flower. These scapes taste like garlic and you can chop them up and use them in cooking as such. Sometime in July, the lower leaves of your plant will begin to die. That’s when you know it is time to harvest your garlic. Do not attempt just to yank the stems out, as they will break off. Instead, loosen the soil around each bulb with a garden fork. Push the fork into the ground four-to-six inches away from the stem, so as not to pierce the bulb, and gently lift. Now you should be able to pull up the stem and clove easily. Do not wash them. Cure your garlic bulbs in a well-ventilated shady place. I lay them out on newspapers in my garage for several weeks. Once they are cured, you can “clean” them by taking off the outer layer of papery skin. They will last until next year’s harvest. Save your biggest bulbs to plant in your garden next fall. And now you are all set with garlic for life! If you thought the gardening season was over now, I have given you plenty to do to keep you going for another month. So get out there in your yard and enjoy that lovely fall weather! Victoria Rolfe has had a love of gardening all her life, from the time she was a tiny child coveting the daffodils growing in her neighbor’s yard (and wondering why she couldn’t have them in her own), to her teenage years when she took her pot experimentation in a different direction by growing the seeds she extracted from the bag into a beautiful marijuana plant on her bedroom windowsill. She went on in her adult years to feed her family by growing a huge and bountiful vegetable garden, as well as beautifying her three-acre property with an array of ornamental trees, bushes and flowers in the magnificent Hudson Valley region of New York. Victoria learned a great deal in the process of all this plant experimentation. She then added to that knowledge by taking courses with the Cornell Cooperative Extension to become a Master Gardener Volunteer. In her volunteer capacity, she helps to educate the public on gardening through classes and information booths, most notably at the Dutchess County N.Y. Fair each August. Throughout the summer months, Victoria is most likely to be found among the weeds, either in her own garden or those of others who actually pay her to play in their dirt and do the thing she loves best, delight in the magical world of gardening. Victoria is not only a gardening aficionado; she is also passionate about helping people live a better life on less money. Visit her website and blog at brightfuture2budget4.weebly.com, or email her at brightfuture2budget4@gmail.com.

FRED PLOTKIN is one of America’s foremost experts on opera and has distinguished himself in many fields as a writer, speaker, consultant and as a compelling teacher. He is an expert on everything Italian, the person other so-called Italy experts turn to for definitive information.  Fred discovered the concept of "The Renaissance Man" as a small child and has devoted himself to pursuing that ideal as the central role of his life. In a “Public Lives” profile in The New York Times on August 30, 2002, Plotkin was described as "one of those New York word-of-mouth legends, known by the cognoscenti for his renaissance mastery of two seemingly separate disciplines: music and the food of Italy." In the same publication, on May 11, 2006, it was written that "Fred is a New Yorker, but has the soul of an Italian."

By Andy Borowitz September 27, 2021 PALM BEACH (The Borowitz Report)—Urging the German people to “stop the steal,” Donald J. Trump claimed that he was elected Chancellor of Germany over the weekend. Trump said that, once the official vote tallies have been recounted, it will be clear that he won the German election by a “landslide.” Reflecting on his purported win, Trump said, “I’ve always wanted to be the Chancellor of Germany. That’s a title that’s been held by some very fine people.” He revealed that he planned to send the former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani to Germany to contest the election results. “He hasn’t been disbarred there yet,” Trump said. For his part, Giuliani said that he relished his latest mission on Trump’s behalf. “I can’t wait to get to Germany,” he said. “When does Oktoberfest start?” Andy Borowitz is a Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes The Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news.

One film journalist’s stream-of-consciousness cinematic journey through the pandemic, Part 52 By Laurence Lerman / New York City For many in the media-saturated public, fictional entertainment in the movies and on TV has served as a respite from a heightened diet of news and nonfiction informational programming. Yes, I used that word “entertainment,” the assumption being that Americans are looking for some in the evening, following a day of work (probably at home) and updates on the latest Covid-19 and quarantine news. Not surprisingly, studios and independent players great and small have taken all that Covid and quarantine news and crafted it in to fictionalized entertainment for everyone to enjoy when they head into the living room to lighten up. The films that have been released over the past 18 months—let’s call the new category “Covid Cinema”—traverse the genre spectrum and appear to be conceived with the genuine idea of entertainment in mind. (Well, not all genres—there hasn’t been a musical yet!). But they really haven’t made much of an impression at the box office, or with critics and general audiences. Sure, there’s a long, long history of disaster movies based on real-life happenings and tragedies out there, but they’ve generally been created with the kind of respectful hindsight that comes with time and distance. Perhaps it’s just that today’s audiences don’t need a reminder, particularly a fictionalized one, of a calamitous situation they’re still going through every day. The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 was tragic, yes, but the 1997 movie definitely wasn’t. And neither were any of the other Titanic movies. Time and distance. Here’s a roundup of half-dozen films that have emerged since late last year through this month. They all take on what’s been going on since the lockdown began in March, 2020––and what may be going down in the immediate years to come. Host (Released in July, 2020) In an attempt to perk up their deathly slow quarantine experience, six friends hire a medium to hold an online séance via Zoom. The results appear to be more than the participants hoped for when something sinister begins to pick them off one by one. As if their pandemic boredom weren’t enough… A creepy little British shocker set during the initial days of the lockdown, Host was directed entirely over Zoom by Rob Savage (who also served as co-writer). Songbird (Released in December, 2020) Songbird was the first of a handful of larger-budget Covid-oriented releases (it was produced by mini-major STX Entertainment. A thriller set in 2024 where Covid continues to ravage the world, it focuses on group of people who do their damnedest to cope with the ever-present virus, martial law, quarantine and all manner of criminal behavior. Directed by music video veteran Adam Mason and featuring the familiar faces of actors Bradley Whitford, Alexandria Daddario, Peter Stormare, Sofia Carson and Demi Moore, Songbird lists Michael Bay as a producer, which explains all the explosions and gunplay. Locked Down (Released in January, 2021) Big name players Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor star as an unhappy couple forced to continue living together because of a lockdown order in the U.K. But at least their scheme to steal a diamond from Harrods department store keeps things interesting even as their love life grows thornier by the hour. It’s one part rom-com and one part heist, presented with a handsome veneer by Doug Liman in the first film he’s directed since 2017’s under-appreciated Tom Cruise vehicle American Made. Safer at Home (Released in February, 2021) This indie thriller from director/co-writer Will Wernick is set in 2022 in a United States where the pandemic is still going strong and quarantine and curfew are a police state norm. For one group of young people, an online party filled with games, drinking and drugs is the answer to all the tension. But that’s only until some heated arguments, sexual discomfort, alcohol-fueled mistakes and drug freak-outs make the supposed safety of everyone’s homes even scarier than the chaos outside their doors. Oh, and in the 2022 of Safer at Home, Donald Trump is still President, making it more of a horror movie than a thriller. Together (Released in August, 2021) Perhaps the most inevitable narrative of the bunch, Together stars the always-game James McEvoy and Sharon Horgan as a troubled husband and wife staying together for the sake of their young son. They are plunged into the Covid lockdown and then forced to reevaluate themselves and their relationship. Written by playwright Dennis Kelly and directed like a stage drama with long takes and fourth wall-breaking monologues by Stephen Daldry, this British comedy-drama premiered in the U,K on the BBC before rolling out to theaters on this side of the pond a few months later. Coronavirus Conspiracy (Released in September, 2021) Another indie entry that was shot at the height of the lockdown in August, 2020, this paranoidly titled surrealistic satire comes from writer-director James Sunshine, a seasoned reality TV producer whose credits include Hell’s Kitchen and Big Brother. It revolves around a crazed economist (Joseph Reitman) who thinks he’s discovered a link between animals, a secret cabal and Covid, leading him to kidnap a retired zookeeper (John Lehr) during the lockdown. Set to stream on October 5 is what appears to be the first out-and-out quarantine comedy, the indie offering Distancing Socially from writer-director Chris Blake and featuring Resident Alien’s Alan Tudyk and Schitt’s Creek’s Sarah Levy. As per the trailer, this one looks like it’s a small ensemble piece that mines a lot of laughs out of a ubiquitous Zoom-like telecom app. And laughs right now. particularly light ones, aren’t a bad thing. Of course, there will be more films to come—there always are—as we creep up on the two-year anniversary of the Covid outbreak and its accompanying horrors. Again, one day down the road, with a degree of time and renewed perspective, the content creators of the world will undoubtedly have something substantial, nuanced and wizened to say about these years. But right now, as retrospection and current events feel like they’re almost blending together, Covid Cinema offers a weird kind of parallel nostalgia to events that are still going on. Or it postulates a dangerous, militant and unhealthy near-future which, though it may not be quite dystopian, isn’t looking good, either. Either way, it’s fair to say that this first round of Covid Cinema is only the beginning, as there are many stories to tell, from the personal to the epic. And as the talents who made these movies are finally able to move beyond the locked-down experiences that everyone had to endure during the darkest days of the pandemic, perhaps they’ll broaden their vision to more richly examine what this experience has done to us all. Laurence Lerman is a film journalist, former editor of Video Business--Variety's DVD trade publication--and husband to The Insider's own Gwen Cooper. Over the course of his career he has conducted one-on-one interviews with just about every major director working today, including Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Kathryn Bigelow, Ridley Scott, Walter Hill, Spike Lee, and Werner Herzog, among numerous others. Once James Cameron specifically requested an interview with Laurence by name, which his wife still likes to brag about. Most recently, he is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the online review site DiscDish.com.

By Jessie Seigel / Washington, D.C. In their new book, Peril, Bob Woodward and Robert Costa have delivered Woodward’s usual kind of book: entertaining and gossipy anecdotes lacking serious analytic substance. If you’ve paid no attention to public affairs, been out of the country, or off the planet, and like to receive your information in the form of contrived vignettes that pull the reader along as quickly as a Dan Brown novel—and have just about the same staying power—then perhaps this book, purporting to examine both the Trump and Biden administrations, is the book for you. But if you’ve paid attention at all to political events during 2020 and beyond, you’ll find Peril’s only important new information—how close we came to a successful domestic coup, as well as a possible nuclear war—are contained in the book’s 16-page prologue. Woodward and Costa have flagged these revelations in their flurry of TV interviews conducted to promote book sales. You can watch any of those interviews—on YouTube, if you missed the original broadcast—and save yourself the $30 plus tax. (Okay--$18 at Amazon.) Well, admittedly, you might want to dip into Chapter 38 at your local bookstore. That chapter confirms that former Vice President Mike Pence was not a beleaguered hero of conscience who did the right thing in counting the electoral votes, but the spineless character who was desperate to find some way he could do Trump’s bidding to prevent the count. The Meaningful Scoops: The book’s prologue contains two important revelations. The first is that the Chinese were on high alert prior to the 2020 election, believing that Trump, desperate to retain power, would attack them in order to “create a crisis, present himself as the savior and use the gambit to win reelection.” The January 6 insurrection intensified this fear. So, on January 8, two days after the attack on the Capitol, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley called his Chinese counterpart, General Li Zuocheng, chief of the Joint Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, to assure him that there was no chance that the United States would attack China; even if it did, he would give Li notice. Milley subsequently acted to ensure former President Trump could not circumvent established protocols to launch an attack—nuclear or otherwise—on his own. On the day he talked to Li, Milley called a secret meeting of senior officers from the National Military Command Center to review the process and procedures for military action, including launching nuclear weapons. He emphasized to the attending senior officers that no matter what they were told, they must follow procedure, that informing him was part of the procedure, and that no action should be taken until he had been involved. According to the prologue, Milley went around the room, looked each officer in the eye, and required them individually to verbally confirm they understood. As head of the Joint Chiefs, Milley was the main military advisor to former President Trump, but his role was oversight and advisory. He was not in the chain of command. And since he was not, Trump and his minions are now accusing Milley of treason, particularly for his conversation with General Li. But both the White House and Milley’s spokesperson at the Pentagon have said that top U.S. commanders regularly communicate with their counterparts in other countries. Given the sycophantic yes-men surrounding the mad man who was in the White House, Milley’s exchanges with Li may have saved us from death in a Chinese preemptive strike. That makes Milley a patriot, not a turncoat. The second important Woodward-Costa scoop in the prologue is a transcript they obtained of a January 8 phone conversation between General Milley and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Woodward and Costa portray Milley as the hero of their book, giving him credit not only for sidestepping a possible attack by China, but ensuring that President Biden’s inauguration came off peacefully. But it is really Pelosi who deserves the credit, or who—at a minimum—should get the lion’s share of it. It is Pelosi’s tenacity in holding Milley’s feet to the fire in that phone conversation that appears to have pushed him into blocking Trump’s ability to go rogue and give a catastrophic command. According to the transcript, Pelosi pulled no punches, at one point saying straight out: “it is a sad state of affairs for our country that we’ve been taken over by a dictator who used force against another branch of government.” Pelosi asked sharp, direct questions but, in the beginning, Milley repeatedly tried to deflect, using a lot of words to impart nothing. Pelosi asked: “What precautions are available to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike?” Milley replied: “I can tell you that we have a lot of checks in the system. And I can guarantee you, you can take it to the bank, that there’ll be, that the nuclear triggers are secure and we’re not going to do—we’re not going to allow anything crazy, illegal immoral or unethical to happen.” Pelosi demanded to know the specific steps Milley would take. He responded with language like, “the precautions are procedures that we have in place…and they have to be legal…and there has to be a logical rationale…” Referring to the insurrection just two days before, Pelosi pointed out: “But [President Trump] just did something illegal, immoral, and unethical and nobody stopped him. Nobody. Nobody at the White House. …The president incited it and nobody in the White House did anything about it.” Noting that Milley had said he wouldn’t let it happen, Pelosi said: “It already did happen. An assault on our democracy happened and nobody said, you can’t do that. Nobody.” After many similar feints and efforts to deflect, Milley finally proclaimed “I agree 100 percent with everything you’ve said.” He finally vowed,, “The best I can do is give you my word and I’m going to prevent anything like that in the United States military.” It may have been the Pelosi conversation that brought home to Milley the severity of the situation and the need to take further action. It was that same day he summoned the senior officers from the National Military Command Center and forced from each the commitment to call him first before taking any action, regardless of who gave the command. Furthermore, although Milley had told Pelosi he did not want to make a public statement because it “would be misconstrued in 50 different directions,” the day after he spoke with her, he presented a draft public memo to the military stating that January 6 was a direct assault on our constitutional process and that on January 20, 2021, “President-elect Biden will be inaugurated and will become our 46th Commander-in-Chief.” Milley gave copies to the Joint Chiefs at the Pentagon, saying he could sign it by himself or they all could. They read it and all signed the letter, which went out on January 12. It’s been my longstanding belief that as the military goes, so goes any nation. That is, when a democracy is challenged, whether it survives depends upon whose side the military takes. Thank goodness a military leader took the side of democracy here. But I still think Woodward and Costa should have given Pelosi more of her due for that. The rest of the book: On any page that one opens, Peril reads like fiction. I don’t mean that Woodward and Costa are making up the relevant facts but that they use fiction-writing techniques intended to make the book a breezy read. But they add annoying flourishes—not to mention dialogue—they could not possibly know without being present. This approach tends to diminish the book’s credibility. They try, preemptively, to defend this with a note to the reader placed after their epilogue. There they write: “all interviews for this book were conducted under the journalistic ground rule of ‘deep background.’ This means that all the information could be used but we would not say who provided it.” They write that the book was based on hundreds of hours of interviews with more than 200 firsthand participants and witnesses to the events, nearly all tape-recorded. But the authors also write: “When we have attributed exact quotations, thoughts or conclusions to the participants, that information comes from the person, a colleague with direct knowledge, or from government or personal documents, calendars, diaries, emails, meeting notes, transcripts, and other records.” Using records is one thing. But to manufacture quoted dialogue based on “a colleague with direct knowledge” lacks integrity—especially when the authors are setting out whole scenes with extensive dialogue to which they were not personally privy. At a minimum, rather than a general disclaimer at the end of the book, such scenes should note that they are being rendered “according to a source”—even if an anonymous source. In an interview on September 21, Stephen Colbert touched upon one example of what is wrong with the entire book. Colbert suggested, “Barr had to have cooperated with you, because at one point it says, ‘…thought Barr.’ How would you know what Barr thought unless Barr told you?” Trying to suggest other ways they could get access to Barr’s thoughts, Woodward responded that Barr could “have a diary…” But this deflection was disingenuous because Woodward and Costa would not get access to Barr’s diary without Barr’s cooperation. The book is rife with such liberties taken, stating what people thought or felt without attribution. Colbert also hit on another flaw in the book, asking, “How many of the people talking to you for this book are trying to rehabilitate their own image by saying, ‘I always thought it was bad. I pushed back’?” Woodward acknowledged, “No question about that.” Colbert’s question and Woodward’s answer go to the book’s lack of critical analysis. Woodward and Costa take whatever anyone says to them at face value. There’s no assessment of whether what has been said is self-serving. These authors may argue that that’s not their job. However, when you merely accept and regurgitate what’s said to you without questioning it or analyzing it, you are not practicing serious investigative journalism but allowing yourself to be used as a propagandist. It is only in the three and half page epilogue that Woodward and Costa make any pretense of analysis. And there they have the nerve to write of the January 6 coup attempt: “The conventional wisdom, which had settled into Washington, was that there had been warnings. But Milley knew the internet chatter had lacked coherence and did not provide the specific credible intelligence that could avert a catastrophe…It had been a grave U.S. intelligence failure.” Actually, the so-called “conventional wisdom” in those first days after the attack was the exact opposite. It was claimed that there had not been enough specific credible intelligence to warrant stronger protections of the Capitol, and some called it an intelligence failure. But there were enough public warning signs, over a course of weeks if not months, that every sane person in the country—and particularly in the House and Senate—was holding their breath, fearful of what might happen on January 6. Some senators and representatives went to the Capitol that day with trepidation. Some, concerned about the possibility of extreme violence, told their staffs to stay home. Moreover, claiming that failure to protect the Capitol was the result of an intelligence failure without addressing the fact Trump’s Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller held back deployment of the National Guard is journalistic malpractice. Finally, despite the epilogue’s last line, “Peril remains,” Woodward and Costa hedge their bets, refusing to commit themselves to any real conclusion. They state that when they interviewed Trump in March 2016, “we recognized he was an extraordinary political force, in many ways right out of the American playbook…But we also saw darkness.” If either Woodward or Costa had any insight, they would have recognized Trump as right out of Goebbels’ playbook and the Hitler-Putin mold of dictators. Political columnist Jessie Seigel had a long career as a government attorney in which she honed her analytic skills. She has also twice received an Artist’s Fellowship from the Washington, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities for her fiction, and has been a finalist for a number of literary awards. In addition, Seigel is an associate editor at the Potomac Review, a reviewer for The Washington Independent Review of Books, and a dabbler in political cartoons at Daily Kos. Of this balance in her work between the analytic and the imaginative, Seigel jokes, “I guess my right and left brains are well-balanced.” More on and from Seigel can be found at The Adventurous Writer, https://www.jessieseigel.com.

By Andy Borowitz September 22, 2021 PALM BEACH (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump filed a hundred-million-dollar lawsuit after finishing a New York Times story that he started reading in 2018, the former President has confirmed. “When I started reading the story three years ago, I saw my name in the headline and it made me happy,” Trump told reporters. “It said ‘Trump.’ I thought, This is probably going to be a good story.” As he continued reading the story in 2019, he said, “It still didn’t seem so bad to me. I spent that year reading three or four paragraphs, and I didn’t really get the entire gist of the article.” In 2020, Trump said, “I was busy with the election, so I didn’t get to read as much of the article as I would’ve liked. I maybe got through five, six more sentences. It mentioned my name a lot. ‘Trump.’ Still seemed O.K.” Though Trump was ultimately able to finish the Times article this week, he accused its authors of making it intentionally difficult for him to read. “Those so-called writers used many, many long words that I didn’t know—and Jared didn’t, either,” he said. “We had to ask Ivanka what they meant, and, quite frankly, she had to look a lot of them up. And those jokers won the Pulitzer for this crap? That should never be allowed to happen in this country.” Andy Borowitz is a Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes The Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news.

The Insider: Hi Travis. We’ve agreed not to use your real name for professional reasons. I’d like to ask you a few background questions before we start. Where do you live? Travis: New York City. The Insider: How old are you? Travis: 48. The Insider: What kind of work do you do? Travis: I’m a consultant The Insider: I’m so sorry that you have Covid! When did you find out? Travis: Last Friday morning, September 17th. The Insider: Did you get tested? Travis: Yes, I had both the rapid and PCR tests the night before. The rapid test was negative, the PCR positive. The Insider: Is that unusual? Travis: Apparently not. They say the rapid test is not as accurate. The Insider: What made you go for the Covid tests? Travis: I had an upcoming event that required testing. The Insider: What kind of an event? Travis: Dinner on a boat. The Insider: Were you surprised by the results? Travis: Definitely. The Insider: Had you been feeling sick? Travis: Not at all. The Insider: Nothing? Not even a sniffle? Travis: Zero. The Insider: What did you do at that point? Travis: Called the NYC hotline and my doctor to confirm the results and the proper course of action going forward. The Insider: What were you told? Travis: Isolate for 10 days. The Insider: Did they say anything about informing people you had been in contact with? Travis: I already did that. The NYC Test & Trace program called me on Friday morning after I received my positive result and asked for all of my close contacts’ info so they could follow up with them. The Insider: Are you expected to stay in touch with the Test & Trace program? Travis: They text me daily. Until my isolation period is over. The Insider: In addition to them contacting the people you interacted with, do they ask you to contact those people too? Travis: No. The Insider: How much contact are they talking about? A quick face-to-face conversation, for example? Travis: Close contact is defined as anyone you’ve come in contact with, within 6 feet for 10 minutes or longer, over a 24-hour period, for the 3 days prior to the positive test and throughout 10-day isolation period. The Insider: I would imagine that in a busy city like New York that would be difficult to remember. Travis: Not for me, I didn’t interact with anyone outside of work who met that criteria, except for one friend. The Insider: Had you met with a lot of clients? Travis: About 15. Thankfully, it was a slow week. The Insider: I would imagine that it’s very unpleasant to have to give a client that kind of news. Travis: Yes, but everyone has been very understanding, supportive. The Insider: That’s good! Do they have to get tested now or quarantine themselves? Travis: The Test & Trace program doesn’t tell anyone to get tested. I’m not sure what they say about quarantining. The Insider: Did your clients call you directly after they were contacted by the program? Travis: No. The Insider: Had you been vaccinated? Travis: Yes. The Insider: How long ago? With which vaccine? Travis: Moderna. I received my second shot on February 4th. The Insider: Do you have any idea how your got exposed to Covid? Travis: Not really, The only thing I can think of is that I ride the subway daily, and there are still people--seems like usually a few per car--that are not wearing masks or wearing them improperly. The Insider: Please describe the other pandemic lifestyle choices you’ve made. Travis: I stopped eating indoors at restaurants in the past few weeks. I’ve worn a mask at work the past few weeks as well, anywhere indoors actually. I haven’t returned to the gym throughout the pandemic The Insider: I think that it’s common in NYC right now for people to be more worried about the Delta variant. For a while, it seemed like Mardi Gras on the streets--everyone was outside living it up. Travis: Right. The Insider: You’ve been very careful--does it seem kind of unfair that you got Covid anyway? Travis: I think it’s just the world we live in now. The Insider: True! Do you have any symptoms at all now? Travis: Nothing at all The Insider: That’s amazing! Are you allowed to go for a walk or leave your apartment? Travis: According to the doctors, yes, if I stay far away from everyone, and wear a mask. According to the Test & Trace program, no, except for medical assistance or emergencies. The Insider: So there’s a split of opinions about what quarantining means. Travis: I guess so The Insider: This may be silly, but can they tell if what you have iis Delta? Travis: They didn’t say. The Insider: Last question: any advice to readers based on your experience? Travis: I encourage people to get tested regularly, especially if they’re going to be around people who are elderly or immunocompromised, or children too young to be vaccinated. You may not know you have Covid and spread it inadvertently. The Insider: Thanks so much and best wishes. I hope you continue to have no symptoms. Travis: Thanks! Take good care too. NEXT DAY The Insider: Hi Travis! How are you feeling? Travis: I’m still feeling okay. I had a headache and a minor sore throat last night and today, but both are pretty much gone now. The Insider: Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that you were vaccinated? Travis: The vaccine is definitely working. The Insider: In what way? Travis: I barely have any symptoms. The Insider: How many more days of quarantine do you have left? Travis: Four more days, I’ll be finished quarantining after Saturday. The Insider: What’s it been like to be quarantined? Travis: It’s not too bad, I’m just obviously missing work and money, and not able to go about life normally. I have to have groceries delivered instead of just going out to get whatever I want whenever I want. The Insider: Have you gone outside? Travis: Yes, just for walks and to sit in the park, far away from anyone. The Insider: It’s really remarkable that you haven’t gotten any sicker. So fortunate! Travis: Modern science., if you believe in that sort of thing. Conspiracy theories are pretty compelling these days! The Insider: Seriously, if you weren’t vaccinated, you might have ended up on a ventilator. Travis: Who knows? So much we don’t know about this virus—how and why it affects people so differently. The Insider: It’s certainly in your favor that you’re otherwise healthy. Travis: Yes, but I do hear instances where people are healthier than me and don’t do well. The Insider: Have the Test & Trace people been calling every day? Travis: They text me every day until the quarantine isolation period over. The Insider: Is it very pro forma, or do they ask real questions? Travis: Same set of questions each day: Any symptoms? Did you go outside? The Insider: Is your family worried about you? Travis: My mom checks on me with FaceTime. The Insider: Is it true that even if you’ve recovered, you’ll still test positive for a while? Travis: So they say. I’ve heard possibly from one to two weeks after to up to three months. The Insider: You’re a good sport, Travis. Thanks! Travis: You’re very welcome.

By Emmy Serviss The first time I saw a drag show was in Portland, Oregon sometime around 2009. I can’t remember the club or specific performer’s names, but I do remember two of the performances. One was a comedic routine to the Tom Jones song “What’s New Pussycat?” that featured a peek-a-boo cat cutout as part of the costume. (Use your imagination…) The other was an incredible dance routine to the song “Be Italian” from the musical Nine. Since this was my first drag show, I was shy about interacting with the cast members. But after watching that mesmerizing dance performance, I couldn’t help myself. (I can’t remember this particular drag queen’s name, so I’ll call her Saraghina.) I fished a dollar out of my purse and crept up to the stage. When Saraghina saw me approaching, she crouched down and smiled at me. Now, I’ve met (and interviewed) numerous Broadway stars and celebrities, but I’ve never been tongue-tied before. As I held out the dollar, I stupidly babbled, “You’re beautiful.” I don’t know if she heard me, because the smile on her face didn’t waver as Saraghina gracefully took the dollar bill and glided offstage. I scampered back to my seat, slightly embarrassed but also in awe of this new world I’d found. That was over 10 years ago, and I’m still in awe. Sometimes, I even wish I were a drag queen. Not because of the clothes or the makeup or the hair, although all those are fabulous and I could definitely use an upgrade. No, I wish I had the confidence of a drag queen. I wish I had the confidence to walk into a room and command attention. The confidence to know that I am not cute, I am not pretty and I am not beautiful––I am drop-dead gorgeous. The confidence to be plus-sized and have my body celebrated. To know my self-worth and not accept anything less. I wish I could be like that. When I moved to Boston in 2011, I spent the first six months trying to find a new job. Needless to say, there was a lot of down time. One day while channel surfing, I discovered RuPaul’s Drag Race. It was the tail end of Season 3, so after they crowned Raja the winner, I went back to the beginning of the season and binged it from the beginning. Then I went back to watch Season 2. (Raven was ROBBED!) It was a while before I could find the oh-so-elusive Season 1 in all its soft-focus glory, but I got there eventually. Point is, I was in awe all over again. Season 4 premiered and I tuned in every week to root for my favorite queens. I was on #TeamLatrice, #TeamSharon and #TeamWillam. When Sharon was crowned as the season winner, I celebrated alone in my living room and booed my TV screen in glee. (According to the newly crowned Queen of Halloween, “If anyone boos you offstage, that is simply applause from ghosts.”) The turning point for me was when Jinkx Monsoon appeared in Season 5. Jinkx was a quirky, musical theater-loving oddball with an affinity for old Hollywood and theatrical characters. And yet, she didn’t quite seem to fit in with the flawless pageant queens who underestimated her every step of the way. When she won Season 5, I cried happy tears. I can’t find the right words to express the amount of SHEER JOY I felt in watching this beautiful weirdo be unapologetically herself, work hard and against all the odds win the crown. I saw so much of myself in Jinkx Monsoon. I still do. She could have listened to the voice in her head that says, “You’re not good enough” and believed it to be true. But she didn’t. She could have succumbed to the peer pressure to conform and be more like the other queens. But she didn’t. She could have been plagued by self-doubt and thrown in the towel when things got too hard. But she didn’t. Instead, she dug in her heels and believed in herself, and the entire world fell in love with her. What I would have given to have had a role model like Jinkx Monsoon when I was younger! When I learned that Jinkx would be coming to one of the Boston clubs to perform AND there would be a meet ‘n greet, I jumped at the opportunity. I arrived at Guilt Nightclub early and was second in line to meet Jinkx Monsoon and Ivy Winters. I was inexplicably nervous. I had so much to say and I didn’t know how to say it concisely in a 30-second window. I honestly don’t remember what I babbled to them before our picture was taken and I was ushered out of the way for the next fan. I wanted to say, “Thank you for standing strong in the face of bullying and never losing your sweetness. Thank you for being different and showing everyone that it’s okay for us to be different. Thank you for being true to yourself and showing everyone that we can be accepted as we are. Thank you.” After that night, I didn’t just want to watch drag queens on TV, I wanted to be a part of it. I started visiting the Boston drag clubs on a regular basis. I loved meeting the various alumni from RuPaul’s Drag Race as they came through town, but I also loved getting to know all the amazing drag queens right here in New England. I got to witness pure joy as Sapphira Cristal and Lili Whiteass performed with Dan Aykroyd while he was promoting Crystal Head Vodka. I frolicked in the fake snow and magic that Bang showered over the crowd in Provincetown. I couldn’t help giggling when Violencia Exclamation Point turned Mrs. Doubtfire into drag. And Kira Stone gave an emotional performance that I felt with every fiber of my being. I’m not a member of the drag community, but I love this community with all my heart. The amount of creativity is plentiful and the freedom of expression is abundant. Each queen lets that creativity shine in different ways. Whether it’s through fabulous hair and makeup, gorgeous handmade costumes, impressive dance routines and acrobatics or hilarious comedic performances – every drag queen brings her own unique flair to the stage. There was one brief moment in 2015 when I came this close to having my drag debut at a quasi “open mic night” for amateurs in the Boston area. In the end I didn’t follow through with it. Mostly because the night owl life of a drag queen didn’t mesh with my toddler teacher lifestyle. (Most drag shows don’t BEGIN until 11 p.m. or later, and I was the opener at the school I worked at, which meant a daily 5 a.m. wake-up call) But also because…I chickened out. But in case anyone is curious, my performance would have been a mash-up of dialogue from Raiders of the Lost Ark and the campy title song from Snakes on a Plane. As the years went on, I became more involved with the Boston comedy scene. I began getting cast in shows, and then I started directing shows. Nights I had previously spent at the drag club, were now occupied by rehearsals. But when the world shut down in 2020 and I was suddenly faced with an ocean of free time after getting laid off, my first thought was “Oh, now I can start going to the drag shows again.” (I didn’t, of course, go back to seeing drag shows, because all the clubs were closed and performers were in lockdown.) Instead, I rewatched old seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race and The Boulet Brothers' Dragula online. I watched performances over Twitch and makeup tutorials over Instagram. At the height of my depression, and desperate for a creative outlet, I even started creating videos of my own. I wouldn’t necessarily call them drag, but they did have costumes, makeup and lip syncing. So, let’s say they were drag adjacent? Maybe I’ll never be a full-fledged drag queen, but that’s okay. The world is slowly opening back up, but I’m not quite ready to go back inside a club yet. And that’s okay too. Like so many others whose lives were turned upside down in the last 18 months, I’m trying to find my way back into the world. Some days are harder than others, but I try to remember all the important life lessons I’ve learned from drag. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Don’t waste energy on people who don’t appreciate you. Don’t be afraid to learn from your mistakes and start over. Be yourself. Love yourself. Express yourself. In the immortal words of RuPaul, “Everybody say love.” Emmy Serviss is a Boston-based writer, actor and video editor. Once it is safe to return to live theater, you can find her performing with ComedySportz Boston and the sketch group SUZZY. When not on the stage, Emmy enjoys indulging in her new pandemic hobbies, laughing way too loudly and counting the days until Halloween.

By Jessie Seigel / Washington, D.C. Larry Elder—the Republicans’ best chance to replace California Governor Gavin Newsom in last week’s recall election—was trounced. Perhaps his backers thought Elder, an African-American as well as a public personality, would fool enough minority voters to cut into Newsom’s votes despite Elder’s reactionary politics. If the votes against recalling Newsom had failed to reach 50 percent of votes cast, the challenger with the highest number, no matter how small, would have become governor. But the recall, a right-wing maneuver, was defeated by a whopping 64 percent. With that election over, aside from heaving a sigh of relief, why should I waste digital ink on Larry Elder? There are two reasons. First, though only 36 percent of all votes favored recalling Governor Newsom, 47 percent of those votes went to Elder, and he may well use this first foray into politics as a springboard to try again. After losing last Tuesday, Sept. 14, he told KMJ Radio in Fresno, “I have now become a political force here in California in general and particularly within the Republican Party. And I’m not going to leave the stage.” Though Elder’s political views and antics are abhorrently clownish, today’s clown may win tomorrow’s election. We’ve seen it before. If we discount the Larry Elders of the world, we do so at our peril. But I also have a more personal reason for writing about Elder. Larry and I were in the same class at the University of Michigan Law School. And though I did not know him well, we shared one conversation that always stands out strongly in my mind when I think of him. It was 1974. We were in our first year of law school, standing in a hallway, talking with another first-year classmate. I mentioned that I had two third-year friends who were about to graduate and were having trouble finding jobs. And I expressed fear, worrying what would happen if I spent three years there and couldn’t find a job. The classmate we were talking with said, crassly, “What’s the matter with them? Don’t they know how to sell themselves?” Larry retorted: “Some people can’t afford a suit. Some people have to go to an interview in blue jeans.” I loved Larry for that response. His comment about the plight of a person who could not afford a suit for an interview suggested a sympathetic understanding of the human condition—that not everyone has the wherewithal permitting them to “sell themselves.” That some people don’t have the support allowing them to get ahead, but that everyone needs it. How on earth did the fellow who seemed to understand that need become the man who wrote The Ten Things You Can’t Say in America, calling for abolishment of the IRS; passing a regressive national sales tax; and ending welfare, Social Security, Medicare, and corporate taxes? Not to mention Larry’s desire to eliminate affirmative action, even though he had benefited from it himself when he was admitted to Brown University under an early affirmative action program. One would expect the man who understood the plight of a person who could not even afford a suit for an interview to understand that anyone who succeeds in life needs help from someone along the way. Instead, according to Publishers Weekly in 2000, Larry claimed that people have become a nation of “victicrats,” blaming their problems on others, demanding special treatment, and refusing to accept personal responsibility. This attitude reeks of Ayn Rand’s extreme and phony doctrine of selfish individualism, so it should be no surprise that Larry is a registered Republican who professes himself a libertarian in philosophy. It appears that, despite understanding the unfairness of the world—or maybe because he recognized it—Larry made a choice to take our crass classmate’s words to heart, selling himself to the public as an exotic attraction in the realm of the far right: an ultraconservative talk radio host who is Black. Larry developed his brand through his radio program, The Larry Elder Show; newspaper and online columns carried by far-right publications like World Net Daily and The Epoch Times, and a number of books promoting his ultraconservative political views. He also did a stint as a so-called judge handing down so-called moral judgments on the television series Moral Court, not to be confused or compared with shows like The People’s Court which, through application of real law to small claims cases educate the lay viewer about how the court system works. Currently, Larry works for Salem Media Group, described by NPR as one of the most powerful broadcasting companies in conservative media. According to NPR, Salem openly acted as Larry’s backer in the recall race. In his climb up the right-wing ladder, Larry has ensconced himself with, as well as promoting, the worst of the worst. He fostered the career of Stephen Miller, who became former President Trump’s architect of the Nazi-like separation of immigrant children from their parents. In a 2020 interview on NPR, journalist Jean Guerrero said Elder had told her that he had invited Stephen Miller on his radio show as a guest a total of 69 times before Miller was even out of high school. Larry was an early supporter of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy and follows the party line, claiming he does not believe Biden won the 2020 election fairly and that it is unfair to blame Trump for the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Becoming an opportunist who makes big bucks by tying his fortune to fascists and coup-mongers is reprehensible. But Larry’s positions about Black people amount to a denial that is pathological. It is hard to believe there is no element of self-hate in them or even some unconscious death wish. Despite the attacks on Black churches, police murders of unarmed Black people, and attacks on Muslims, Sikhs, Asians, Hispanics, and Jews, Larry opposes hate crime legislation. According to AP, he has said: “All they want Black people to think about is oppression, that you are under siege, that you are a victim. Really? In 2021, after we elected the first Black president?” But that first Black president, Barack Obama, was subjected to virulent racism while he was in office—much of it coming from members of Larry’s Republican Party as well as Donald Trump, the would-be dictator Larry supports. Furthermore, when you can’t walk down the street, drive a car, or call a police officer to your house without a fear that law enforcement will kill you, there is reason to feel “under siege,” and a need to take action. Yet Larry has called Black Lives Matter a “bogus” movement. I wonder what Larry thinks would happen if he got stopped by the police on a deserted road late some dark night. Does he think he will be exempt from the treatment given other Black men? Does he think the policeman will recognize him and say, “Oh—you’re one of us,” shake his hand and send him on his way? On a July 18 episode of The Candace Owens Show, Larry topped himself, saying of reparations for slavery: “When people talk about reparations, do they really want to have that conversation? Like it or not, slavery was legal. Their legal property was taken away from them after the Civil War, so you could make an argument that the people that are owed reparations are not only just Black people but also the people whose ‘property’ was taken away after the end of the Civil War.” In answer to Larry’s attention-seeking legal sophistry, one could easily respond that those who lost the Civil War were trying to overthrow the lawful government of the United States and should not only have lost their slaves, but should have lost their freedom—been prosecuted and sent to prison. But the real question is, even if one could make the theoretical argument Larry made, why did Larry choose to make it? Having tied himself to the far right, does Larry feels he must make the most of it and follow that line through to the end? Does he think that the right wing, which I presume currently pays him handsomely, won’t ultimately turn on him when they no longer have a use for him? Does he think he’ll just ride the wave and get his until then? Perhaps someone needs to tell him that when you sell away your soul—the essence of who you are—you no longer have a core to sustain you when that fall comes. I have no answer to my questions of how and why the Larry I remember from law school became a Trumpian caricature—only the speculation I’ve aired here. Larry’s mother was a Democrat and his father was a Republican. Maybe the two ways of being were at war within him and his father won out. Or maybe I misread one comment as speaking for the man’s character. Nevertheless, I can’t shake an affectionate respect for that young man of my memory and a regretful sorrow at what he became. Political columnist Jessie Seigel had a long career as a government attorney in which she honed her analytic skills. She has also twice received an Artist’s Fellowship from the Washington, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities for her fiction, and has been a finalist for a number of literary awards. In addition, Seigel is an associate editor at the Potomac Review, a reviewer for The Washington Independent Review of Books, and a dabbler in political cartoons at Daily Kos. Of this balance in her work between the analytic and the imaginative, Seigel jokes, “I guess my right and left brains are well-balanced.” More on and from Seigel can be found at The Adventurous Writer, https://www.jessieseigel.com.