WWW.WEDNESDAY

 WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.

1. What are you currently reading? Murder at the Movies by Alicia Malone. A 30-something Hollywood publicist named Audrey inherits a house and an old movie theater on an island just off the coast of Maine. So she pulls up stakes and heads off to make the theater a success as a revival house, showing the classic films she loves. Unfortunately, on the night of the grand reopening, someone dies. Was it an accident, or murder? (The title answers that for us.)

 

This is the first of a "Movie Palace Mystery" series by my girl Alicia Malone. (There's another coming out this summer.) Alicia is one of my favorite hosts on TCM and has authored non-fiction about film so I know she can write. As cozy mysteries go, she's avoided some potholes. Example, what makes Audrey think she's qualified to investigate anything, much less a murder? Alicia addresses this rather neatly. Also, this book is filled to the brim with movie references, so I'm captivated. I especially like how when she introduces a new character, she says who should play them in the movie.

 

So I'm enjoying this thoroughly. Of course, I'm the target audience. I mean, cozy mystery series AND old movies? I'm so in! 

 

2. What did you recently finish reading? Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency by Nigel Hamilton. This book is devoted to the Bush-Clinton transition and the first four years of the Clinton Presidency. I found it fascinating, illuminating, and ultimately very upsetting.

 

Hamilton gives us a Bill Clinton who is highly intelligent and empathetic, who wants to do good, but doesn't know how accomplish it. Hamilton – a Brit – repeatedly blames this on Clinton's lack of military experience. Bill simply didn't have the training or experience to be a chief executive. I'm a Clintonista and willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I don't buy it. He was Governor of Arkansas for more than a decade. He had no excuse for the chaotic start to his presidency except that (in my humble opinion) he trusted the wrong people and didn't want to make anyone close to him unhappy. Compulsive people pleasing is the flipside to all that empathy. 

 

Once he got the hang of being President, he was good at it. Better even than I recalled. I knew the economy was gangbusters and I credited his approach to deficit reduction. I forgot how he shored up Social Security and Medicare. In real time I was proud of the FMLA and remain so today. But I forgot how influential the US was on the American stage, and the affection/trust world leaders had for Bill Clinton. He was key to peace in Northern Ireland and the Bosnia and made us a trusted partner in international environmental issues. (Remember, we're still only in the first term here, too.)

 

But his first term was scandal plagued, and here's where it gets tricky. Hillary Clinton was greedy and not always scrupulous with the family finances. Whitewater was all her, and she didn't cover herself with glory. But it also happened when the Clintons were still in Arkansas, and the amount of money involved always was small. (The initial investment was $20,000; $60,000 adjusted for inflation.) Compare that to the grift going on now. From the White House. In broad daylight. The Trump family has monetized everything from Don Jr.'s wedding reception to the President's social media posts. 

 

Then there were the sex scandals. Remember, this is the first term. At this point, the press was unaware of Monica Lewinsky. But there was Bill's offhand harassment of Paula Jones – yes, I believe her and not him – and Troopergate. I'd completely forgotten Troopergate. But Bill Clinton was personally involved with trying to silence the Arkansas state troopers who once protected him by offering federal positions so they wouldn't talk about him getting blow jobs in pick-up trucks (among other places). It was tawdry. It was shameful. It's unseemly how unable he was to control his appetites. But still, shall we talk about Stormy Daniels? Is it time to mention Epstein yet? 

 

While we were unaware of Monica, the affair took place during Bill's first term and so Hamilton covers it.* I feel for her. It's a story as old as time: she was in love and he got laid. A man with Bill Clinton's ability to read people knew she was vulnerable and damaged and he took advantage of her because for no greater reason than that he could. The power differential is completely unacceptable. But she was 22 years old. By her own admission, she made the first move, flashing him her thong. How I wished he had responded to that not with a kiss but with a transfer to another federal building. As appalling as the Lewinsky story is – yes, I believe her, too – it doesn't hold a candle to Epstein. Monica Lewinsky was in the White House by choice. She was not trafficked or seduced. She was not a minor. (My mom had two kids at 22 years old.) 

 

So strangely enough, as I read about the lowest points in Clinton's first term, I felt like defending him and Hillary because they are nowhere near as appalling as Donald Trump. This book was written as George W. Bush was beginning his Presidency, when Donald Trump was still a developer, so my reaction was not Hamilton's intent, but there it is. I'm outraged by our lack of outrage today. What has happened to us?

 

Also, this book made me long for a time when the world liked us. So yes, in spite of it all, as the Fifth Dimension once sang, "Bill! I love you so, I always will ..."

3. What will you read next? I don't know.

 

  

 

*Though not the impeachment.

The Lovely Linda joins Sir Winston

 

What do Linda McCartney and Winston Churchill have in common? They are two of the only Brits to be honored by the USPS with a stamp. Though Linda was born in Scarsdale, at the time of her death she was Lady McCartney, a Subject of the Crown.

Buying these stamps today made me happy. I was so mean about her for so long! She was too plain for Paul. Her speaking voice was so flat. I hated her voice even more when she adopted that fakey English accent. She couldn't sing. She didn't shave her armpits. I knew she'd slept with Warren Beatty and Mick Jagger before she married Paul.

What I was too young, too immature, too silly to see is that a great 20th century love story was unfolding before my eyes. As the three other Beatles battled drugs and alcohol, Paul avoided all that. (OK, maybe not all that. We know the Macs loved their weed.) Together they raised four children. They were married more than 30 years, seldom spending a night apart. I believe part of why he's with us today, still performing at 84, is because he had Linda when he needed her most.

Of course, he was the bigger star. I realized while watching Stephen Colbert's last show, he's now probably the biggest star in the world. (Always kind of shocking because I forget he's not just mine.) But she wrote cookbooks, was a tireless environmental and animal right activist, and her photos were exhibited all over the world. In watching the documentary on Wings, Man on the Run, I learned that those who worked with her in those days had good things to say about her. Perhaps she took the heat publicly so that he could be forever lovable.

They're like characters from a Victorian novel: She was born into money and prestige, he was a slum kid. They improbably meet and build a celebrated life together. It's through the lad from the lower classes that the black sheep of an upper class American family ends up in the peerage. C'mon, tell me this wouldn't be a great Netflix series.