The News of the Day

I found this poster hanging in Soho on my last visit -- it's called "MADe in America" by artist Ben Turnbull. The portrait of Donald Trump is a collage, created from images of Alfred E. Neuman, the famously gap-toothed mascot of Mad magazine. Apparently Turnbull had an art show in Bermondsey this fall, but I didn't hear about it until it was over. I might have gone had I seen this poster sooner!

As long as we're talking about Trump, there's also this:

It's a pillow I found on a carpeted bench beneath a staircase at school, where the high school kids hang out. I'm not entirely sure what the rodent signifies -- is it saying Trump is a rat? A mouse? Or is it just a fun portrait using his immediately recognizable coiffure? You got me.

I really don't want to get TOO political, because it exhausts me, but let me just gloat for a second over this headline from The New York Times, a few days ago:

It will probably all be a futile exercise, in terms of outcome -- because the Republicans aren't about to unseat him -- but golly, that headline was still wonderful to behold. The Times ran an interesting article comparing the situations facing Richard Nixon in 1974 with Trump now. Although their impeachable offenses are similar, Trump faces a much more forgiving constituency today, with partisan loyalty paramount and a weakened, less-trusted media to hold him to account. Not to mention a Supreme Court that probably tilts in his favor.

We can only hope voters remember all this turmoil in the next election cycle. It's fascinating to me how much support Trump still has, but let's face it -- there are a lot of rich and powerful people who see him as an asset, and they'll do all they can to keep him in the White House, including manipulate reality (via Fox News) to mobilize pro-Trump voters.

Olga's dog-sitter is coming to collect her this morning, and we've got to get ourselves ready for Egypt. We leave early tomorrow morning. (Our flight is at 7 a.m. -- ugh!) Dave bought a new suitcase -- his Christmas present to himself -- and I'm still wrestling with whether to bring along "David Copperfield." I've read about 625 pages, but I still have about 250 to go! It's really good but I don't think I ever realized how long it is.

I keep thinking about that scene in "Gone With the Wind" where Melanie begins reading "David Copperfield" aloud as the women wait for their husbands to return home from their vigilante raid on the squatters' camp outside town. If she were to read the whole book, I think they'd have wrapped it up just in time for the Nixon administration!