Monday
As 40,000 people passed the body of Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, I found myself thinking more about Barbara Walters. I have mixed feelings about Walters.Walters may be a damn old reactionary in some of her interviews, but she has shown Donald Trump’s feet more than anyone in the 30 years since their encounter. It was comprehensively set on fire.
Two interviews of note, for full scope and entertainment, are the amazing Trump interview in 1990 and the even more amazing interview with Katharine Hepburn 10 years ago. In Trump’s case, he was the spitting image of his sullen eldest son at the time – Walters berating him for the wild claims made in his book about the size of his wealth. “You say I’m on the brink of bankruptcy, Barbara…” Trump begins, relieving a reflexive weasel. Walters doesn’t have it. Walters retorted with a stiff face and aggressive blinks. “The deal I arranged is on the way,” Walters flatly says when Trump refutes his one of his nonsensical snippets. Be accurate. Shockingly to modern audiences, Trump appears to fall to the floor for a moment. “Go ahead,” he said in a tone akin to meekness. How much he must have hated her.
Walters’ arrogance occasionally backfired, and was sidetracked by even higher altitudes, as in the case of his meeting with Hepburn. Walters says when talking about earning and living as a man. “I just wear pants because they’re comfortable.”
“Have you ever worn a skirt?” the journalist persists.
“I have,” replies the movie star.
“One?” Walters said, apparently opening his mouth for a third follow-up question. Suddenly Hepburn got bored. “I will wear it to your funeral,” she said.
Tuesday
We’re dealing with the canon history of 1980s children’s films, causing cultural turmoil. I load up on his 1985 Spielberg-produced classic caper film, The Goonies, and watch it with her two children, who just turned eight. The Goonies once had a PG rating, but at least Amazon classifies him as suitable for ages 12 and up.
The first joke is a fat joke, forbidden in my child’s grade school in the same way as lighting a cigarette. Then comes the oath. Both take a deep breath and look back at me in surprise. “He said the word sh!” By the time we get to the suggestive torture scene where Chunk’s hands are hanging over an open food processor, they both see the 1980s as the last days of Rome. But I’m straining to remember what an impact Gremlins, Princess Bride, and Beetlejuice made… drop in on them.
Wednesday
It wasn’t someone muttering the word “shit” that shocked us as kids in the mid-1980s. With the death of Faye Wheldon this week, long-buried memories torpedoed the surface of a very specific Generation X horror: during his 1986 television adaptation of Wheldon’s novel, Life and Love. In , I was locked in front of the TV with my parents. she devil.
I love Faye Weldon. I interviewed her in her early 20s, and her coolness and lack of emotion was described as “most careers are people engaged in doing things that mean nothing to anyone.” she said with perfect accuracy. But oh, that show. is my memory wrong? Was it really that scary? It vaguely reminds me of a scene with Patricia Hodge and Dennis Waterman, but it was clearly the sex scene with Julie T. Wallace that returned this week in accidental slow-motion graphic. I remember hitting and seeing a 10-year-old sandwiched between my parents and thinking that death would be a welcome liberation by any means. Weldon, the S&M scene, managed to traumatize an entire generation of me.
Thursday
I struggle with coherence regarding Prince Harry, the deep sympathy, the skepticism, and the conviction that ten years later he’s back in Gloucestershire with his rugby buddies and this whole episode seems like a dream. Among this week’s most impressive reporting feats, beyond the embargo-breaking excerpt from the newspaper’s Spare, is the Mail’s selection of a book from its failed early release in Spanish. What we translated in the evening, and the prospect of this weekend’s rival Sunday night interview: Tom Bradby enthusiastically sympathizes with Harry on ITV, while Anderson Cooper is boring on CBS. I’m demoting the way I do it. All of this looks ahead to the coronation in anticipation of the White Lotus finale.
Friday
In the US where I live, it’s almost impossible for kids to quit all forms of math until they’ve reached college age. And the implicit devaluation of every other subject reveals the philosophy of government. Still, there’s probably something to be said about those extra few years of forced learning to tackle a lifelong math and economics phobia. serve you
