Pat Taub
Unhinged President
Trump is no longer a laughing matter. Everyone I know has gone from making jokes about him to genuine worry that he’s seriously unhinged. Referring to a recent interview with Fox, one pundit called Trump, “as high as a giraffe,” for making ridiculous charges, like saying California’s water shortage is because the state directs all its water to the ocean “to save the little fish.” I feel like I’m living in a post -modern version of Shakespeare’s Richard The lll.
My Father’s Diary
This week I uncovered a small worn leather diary that my father had written in 1928 when he was 15. My grandson, Max is now 15, making it almost 100 years later. Thinking Max would be intrigued by reading about what life was like for his great grandfather at the same age, I mailed the diary to him. Can’t wait to get his reactions. Guessing Max will find it incomprehensible to have lived without iPhones and computers.
My father at 12 or 13, a few years before his diary written at age 15.
Misbehavior
Recently I watched the lively British film (on Pay for View), Misbehavior, portraying the true story of the disruption of the 1970 Miss World pageant by women from London’s Women’s Liberation chapter. The rebellious young women were protesting the objectification of women’s bodies. The film moves along, and while it was fun to revisit that era, it felt too simplistic.
Young Women’s Libbers at a strategy meeting in Misbehavior
Lore Segal
A friend gifted me with the book, Lore Segal: The Journal I Did Not Keep: New and Selected Writing. It’s a collection of Segal’s writings over the ages, including some of her New Yorker stories, dating back to 1961. Segal has won multiple literary awards, including being a Pulitzer finalist in 2008. Today she is 92 and continues to write from her Manhattan apartment. I plan to dive into Segal’s writings this weekend with a big wink to an old lady who remains zesty.
Lore Segal in thoughtful mode
Louise Gluck
Louise Gluck, an American poet, won the Nobel Prize in Literature this past week. Gluck, 77, has been writing poetry and receiving accolades for decades. How wonderful to see her receive this recognition after a lifetime as a poet. Dwight Gardner, in a recent New York Times piece about Gluck had this to say about her poetry:
Yet it’s part of her greatness that her poems are relatively easy of access while impossible to utterly get to the bottom of. They have echoing meanings; you can tangle with them for a very long time.
Louise Gluck at her writing desk
