If you read yesterday’s post, you may remember that I was very mixed up as to the day of the week since we got back from vacation on Wednesday. I hope to straighten myself out soon, and I know that, as I write this, it is Saturday night. Other than a visit to see Michelle, we stayed home today, the telephone didn’t ring (none of the telephones), and it was very quiet.

A couple of accomplishments:

(1) I heard a podcast with Gillian Tett, a trained cultural anthropologist who writes for the Financial Times talk about Donald Trump (she was speaking with Ezra Klein). She seems very bright, speaks very well, and believes that Donald Trump is motivated, pure and simply, by POWER.

(2) Then I watched a video of an author presentation at Politics and Prose with Michael Wolff, speaking about his fourth book on Donald Trump, All Or Nothing. Wolff, who has been (most surprising to himself) writing about Trump now for a decade, knows all about Trump and believes that Donald Trump is motivated, pure and simply, by a craving for ATTENTION.

There you have it. Two experts, two different Trump motivations. And clearly neither of the motivations have to do with the good of America or Americans.

(3) Then I watched another podcast, this time a conversation between two MSNBC legal analysts, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, and former FBI General Counsel, Andrew Weissman. This one was basically just an enjoyable conversation between two friends. They really didn’t talk about Trump. They talked about the first time they met, about their admiration for former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, about how much wine Andrew Weissman drank over the course of the pandemic, about Joyce Vance’s 12 week old German Shepherd puppy, Elsa, and mainly about the book that Vance is now writing about what to do now that we are in so much trouble in order to restore democracy. I learned that Andrew Weissman thinks he is a bad dinner guest because all he does it ask too many questions of the other guests, and that neither of them are natural book writers. As Weissman said regarding his book, when he describes a meeting, he says something like: “We had a meeting and three things were decided.” His editor then says: “And how did you feel about that?” And Weissman says “Huh? How did I what?”. [obviously, I paraphrase]. It is a remark I identified with. He says it’s the result of legal training. I say it’s a characteristic of someone who decides to become a lawyer.

What else happened today? I did watch the Capitals/Sharks hockey game. Alex Ovechkin scored one of the Caps’ five goals, and is now only eight goals shy of Gretzky’s record. Final score: 5-1.

What else? I made a pasta dinner, and did not burn the spaghetti. Actually, my biggest dinner accomplishment was finding the oregano. I did not wash the dishes.

I spent about 45 minutes on our exercise bike, and we ended the evening by watching Episode 4 of Who Is Erin Carter? My guess is no one else has watched that series. We now know who she is, which is more than I can say for her husband, unless he has seen the series himself.

And, oh yes, I started a book. The first one that I started since we got home. I did read one short book while we were away, Alejandro F. Pascual’s Key West: Passion for Cuba’s Liberty. Yesterday, I started A City So Grand: The Rise of an American Metropolis: Boston, 1850-1900 by Stephen Puleo. I read the first four chapters of the book (101 pages). They were about: Abolitionism and the Fugitive Slave Law in Boston; The coming of the Railroads, Clipper Ships, and horse drawn street cars; The arrival of the Irish to Boston; and Filling in the Back Bay. Having spent four years in Boston, I find it all very interesting.

But now to bed.