Monday
Bad start to the week, with the introduction of the term “monkeypox” in the lexicon, and from there things are constantly getting worse. Then thank goodness for the Queen of the Chelsea Flower Show on Monday, cheerful in pink, aboard her open Queenmobile, smiling broadly and flawlessly as her avatar in Peppa Pig. I say this without any sarcasm: God bless you, ma’am.
This is not a line that fits well with my general feelings for royalty, but the queen, by limiting her public displays of good cheer, ensures that their appearance can still lift their spirits. At the age of 96, after a series of recent absences, there is only pathos in the fact that the monarch is engaged. We are nearing the end of an era and you don’t have to be a royalist to feel excited about it.
There is something else at work, given that the Queen is a good day, a dynamic that may descend on Prince Charles after his coronation, but I doubt it. Years ago, I stood in the crowd in front of Windsor Castle on the occasion of the Queen’s 80th birthday. I went with all my sour republican instincts, ready to cover the event and make fun of the royalty. But it was a beautiful spring day. People had got up before dawn to travel all over the country to be there. Some of them had brought their Labradors (well, not all the taunts were under control).
A few hours later, the Queen came out, a vision in a yellow daffodil. I can’t lie, it was exciting. Here she is! The Queen of England! Brave as brass and after a lifetime of practice, diligently avoiding eye contact, while making everyone feel seen. “Hello!” she said and “Thank you!” and “Oops!”, handing flowers to an assistant. We were all so overwhelmed, a reporter from the Press Association, with whom I had had fun a few minutes earlier, said, “Happy birthday, ma’am!” And immediately looked tired. “My God,” she said. “I don’t know what happened to me.” Call it the magic of royalty, our endless serfdom, or just an expression of good mood in the community, but as the queen moved on Monday, admiring the anniversary flowers, it was hard not to smile and enjoy the same mood.
Tuesday
A queen of all kinds, Margaret Atwood, who points a flamethrower at a fireproof copy of The Maid’s Tale on Tuesday, is the kind of publicity stunt we can all handle. The indestructible copy of the novel will go on sale at Sotheby’s, and the proceeds will go to the PEN America Writers’ Association. It took two months to make and can withstand temperatures of 650C (1220F). The starting offer at Sotheby’s will be $ 35,000 (£ 27,750).
Atwood, of course, is a famous game when it comes to PR stunts. She dresses in photo costumes and appears as a cameo in television adaptations of her books. The blowtorch, with which the 82-year-old man controlled the composure of a man who, if pushed, could probably raise a fast militia, is designed to shed light on the current appetite for a ban on books in US schools. According to PEN, of the more than 1,000 books currently banned by some American schools, 22 percent focus on racism, while 33 percent have LGBTQ topics. As the Supreme Court is ready to adjourn Rowe against Wade, some version of Gilead awaits.
It does not serve a high political purpose, but I still argue that even a flamethrower cannot remove the memory of LongPen, Atwood’s 2004 invention, a remote book signing device. Although it never appeared – as far as I know, the only other author who used it was Conrad Black in 2008, signing books remotely while he was arrested – he remains unsurpassed authorial eccentricity, which if you want to lean in the mythology of Atwood’s clairvoyance, awaited our distant lives in Zoom.
Boris Johnson: “This is Rebecca Vardy’s account.” Photo: Jessica Taylor / AP
Wednesday
Boris Johnson, covered with some amusing spray, remains apparently fireproof after the publication of Sue Gray’s report in Partygate. Maybe it’s a simple matter of physics; the fire cannot burn in a vacuum. Anyway, enough words have been spent this week on this moral black hole. Let’s turn to another man, Rudy Giuliani, who, with resistance equal to Johnson’s, refuses to escape and never returns. After sparking a panel release last month when his role in the Fox reality show, The Masked Singer, Giuliani appeared in New York this week to attend one of his usual audience meetings.
“You’re a scumbag,” he shouted at a woman who had just teased him during the Celebrate Israel parade. The former mayor of New York and an ally of Trump, who is accused of undermining the outcome of the 2020 election, took a few steps before the spirit of Oscar Wilde made him return. “You’re a brainwashed asshole,” he continued, rising to the pinnacle of his wit, and “you’re probably as crazy as Biden.” Spending eloquence, he staggered up Fifth Avenue, squeaking first, with all the sensation of metal drawn by a magnet.
Thursday
Another end of an era: Ellen DeGeneres celebrated the last day of her talk show on U.S. television on Thursday after 19 seasons and nearly 20 years. It was a wild ride. Fired from her comedy series for being gay, directed by conservative groups to reject her approval (JC Penney stood by her); positioned for years as the only visible lesbian on television during the day or at any time; and finally, exposed at the end of her term that she was probably not a frankly beautiful woman. The list of people on television who are not overtly beautiful is as long as the list of those on television itself, and if DeGeneres has contributed to a toxic workplace, one suspects that she has also received worse criticism than others. .
“Twenty years ago,” she told viewers before giving up for the last time, “no one thought it would work. Not because it was a different kind of show, but because I was different. When we started this, I couldn’t say “gay” on the show. I couldn’t say “we” because it meant I was with someone. I certainly couldn’t say “wife” because it was not legal for gays to get married. Now I say “wife” all the time. “Her false mantra” Be kind “may have died, but the lesson of her career – be visible – is still valid.
Friday
Good mood, where we can find it, to spend the week. “Manchester United is rubbish,” said the BBC’s breaking news program, where the counterfeit copy was mistakenly discarded. The Guardian, of course, is the leader in this kind of mistake, and those of us with decades of service, while grinning at the BBC, had in mind the greatest correction of all time. I will post it here again, to your delight. An inscription in the Guardian Weekend, page 102, November 13, read: “A pile of rotten travel magazines.” That, of course, had to be a bunch. But more precisely, he should not have been there at all. This was a mannequin that we could not replace with the real inscription. It didn’t have to be a comment on perfectly good travel brochures. Apologies. “
Boris Johnson: “He has never owed so much to so many, so few. Wait, that’s not right. Photo: Sue Gray report
Add Comment