The weekend’s weather wasn’t welcomed by anyone, but the dog was especially bummed. Newly stripped for the warm season, he spent much of the last two days shivering pathetically. I considered popping out to Steve & Barry’s to get him a dog-sized maize-and-blue Michigan sweatshirt — or even a dog-sized green-and-white Ohio U. sweatshirt — but came to my senses. When you start buying clothes for your dog you pass a point of no return. Not going there yet.
Not going anywhere else today, either. I have an assignment to flog into the homestretch — on a warm-weather topic, dammitall — and globs of snow on the garage roof to contemplate as I do so. This must be what it’s like in the magazine business, where the Christmas issue is closed in July.
In the meantime, the day’s bloggage:
Lance, full of pith and vinegar, takes on Justice Sunday. (Warning: Liberal politics alert.)
Mitchgate went away quietly on Saturday, pretty much the way I expected. Meanwhile, in the L.A. Times, David Shaw expresses bafflement at the level of outrage directed at Mitch by his colleagues. David: Read this column and see if the truth doesn’t begin to penetrate. I don’t think I’ve seen such shameless self-promotion masquerading as humility since Bob Greene dropped to his knees weeping as Baby Richard was hauled away.
Or, to put it another way: It’s a gut thing. You wouldn’t understand.
One of the best speakers we enjoyed during my fellowship year at UM was Dan Okrent, the inaugural-and-now-departing public editor of the New York Times. I suppose I still have to abide by the Wallace House off-the-record agreement, but I can say this: The man was witty, long-suffering and more than up for the job. I thought this Boston Globe profile, while brief, captured him nicely.
Oh, and while I discovered this late, I thought Michael Kinsley’s valentine to Charles and Camilla was worth a mention: There’s no special magic about a prince approaching middle age who marries a young society beauty. And the more we learn about Princess Diana, the less magical that story seems. And, of course, the abdication tale remains far from inspiring. …Now, what about a prince who marries a young beauty out of his sense of duty, who waits for decades until a car crash frees him and then marries the woman he really loves — a woman whom almost everyone else in the world finds remarkably unattractive; a woman he didn’t need to marry in order to enjoy her companionship as he had for decades; a woman his family and the world didn’t want him to marry. And what about a woman who watched her longtime lover marry a much younger beauty; who married someone else herself out of some kind of bitter realism; who fell in love with a young future king but is marrying an old weirdo who very likely won’t ever occupy the throne; a woman who is inviting a lifetime of public mockery for every aspect of her public appearance. . . . Now that is a love story.
(Sniff.) Yeah.
brian stouder said on April 25, 2005 at 11:43 am
“full of pith and vinegar”..
hahahahaha!!
He was in a very “pithy” mood indeed, and full of something or other!
Maybe the Colossal Colan can drop into Lance’s neck of the woods…
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deb said on April 25, 2005 at 3:07 pm
re mitch’s comeback column: auuuuggggggghhh! a new nadir for self-promotion. and he even manages to work in his gig at the homeless shelter! sweet jesus!
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mrs. norman maine said on April 25, 2005 at 3:28 pm
Here’s the thing about Camilla: She’s actually a handsome woman, I think. Of course, my opinion is in the minority. So she must have a not inconsiderable reserve of strength to have endured all the physical comparisons to Diana — not to mention the “tampongate” tapes.
And, of course, she must be an absolute firecracker in bed.
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brian stouder said on April 25, 2005 at 3:51 pm
>”She’s actually a handsome woman”
Agreed!
She looks like a ‘real’ person, as opposed to an image-obsessed attention-addicted waif with an egg shell ego.
A born-into-it resident of the never-land world where Charles lives, but from the edges (such as Camilla), away from the genuinely disorienting royal center…. must be like a breath of fresh air
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Nance said on April 25, 2005 at 3:56 pm
Actually, Deb, that’s not his comeback column — it ran in January, I think. My point was, though, if you want to know why so many people, particularly the guy’s colleagues, find him insufferable, well, there’s a valuable clue.
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deb said on April 25, 2005 at 7:45 pm
yup. that’s the kind of stuff that sends other journalists outside the building to scream. i once worked with such a person who wrote similar tripe. and you know what? readers LOVED him. still do. there’s a certain demographic that eats that dreck with a spoon.
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mary said on April 25, 2005 at 8:19 pm
David in the LA Times admits his wife made a buck off Mitch’s books being turned into crappy TV movies. No shock he doesn’t have that big a problem with Mitch. The recent bad reporting at the LA Times has been remarkably underedited and fact checked. For all its awards, I still have a hard time taking the Times seriously. They have a few great reporters there, but it’s far too easy to spot the junk. Harry Shearer, the satirist, refers to it as the LA Dog Trainer.
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Jones said on April 30, 2005 at 10:48 pm
Holy shit. I never read Albom anymore but that WAS Bob Greene. I almost felt like I was back in college reading the C-J. Red Sovine could make that column into a song. “And then, a single tear come a-streamin’ down his face…”
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Brian Stouder said on May 20, 2005 at 9:27 am
HI Brian My name is also Brian Stouder.I live in St.Thomas PA.My family moved to pa from Newton Falls Ohio.I am a counselor by career and was surprised to see another NAME like mine on the web.From what i understand there are not a large number of Stouder families in this country.What have you heard or know.It would be great to hear from you,Thanks,Brian D.Stouder
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