My apologies for being absent over the last month. I’ve been healing. It was not by choice, but I did manage to prove another truism true: the older you are the harder you fall. I proved that when I took a plunge out of bed at 5:45 a.m. on July 2 and my petit 253 pounds came crashing down on the tile floor. I was trying to let the dog out in the near dark.
The 911 call made. Ambulance arrives. Another vain attempt to talk the first-responders out of taking me to the ER. Another bumpy, kidney-hammering ambulance ride to Hoag Hospital where they know me by my first name. Rolled onto my own gurney waiting on standby. Vital signs taken. Alive. X-rays. No bones broke. Good. Contusions many. Not so good. What’s red and pink and purple all over? Me, finally released to go home and heal. Opioids optional.
That’s what I’ve been doing since—healing...and watching with you our republic devolve into chaos under Mad King Trump. And what have I learned from my latest brush with mortality? Exactly, let the dog piss where she wishes.
Anyway, I’m back, and almost ready to guide you through Apocalypse Soon. First, though, let's take a last moment to relax and watch the rubles tumble in the dryer.
OK. Time to ease back into the turbulence. Let’s start with a little quiz that should be a breeze for you current events freaks, world literature majors, and movie buffs as well. As you know, “The Mooch” (as he calls himself) lasted only 10 days as President Trump’s director of communications before being fired, allegedly for using some heavy-duty profanity in a New Yorker magazine interview.
That given, your questions to answer: To what famous fictional character is The Mooch linked by name? And who was the famous novelist who described that character with one of the most memorable opening sentences in world literature? “He was born with the gift of laughter, and a sense that the world was mad.”
Hints: Think Darius Milhaud. Stewart Granger. Errol Flynn.
Answers on Wednesday.