By Jack Engelhard
The Obama administration has found the enemy and it is Fox News. The New York Times and CNN got it straight from the lips of White House communications director Anita Dunn who revealed that, “We’re going to treat them [Fox News] the way we would treat an opponent.”
Hello Lady? The press is SUPPOSED to be an opponent! That’s why it’s called the Fourth Estate, to keep a sharp eye on the other three Estates, executive, legislative, judicial. Nowhere is it written that the press shall collaborate with the government; quite the opposite if my reading of Thomas Jefferson is correct: “The only security of all is in a free press.”
Ms. Dunn, obviously speaking for Mr. Obama, accuses Fox News of being a branch of the Republican Party. This can only mean that the White House finds no such sinfulness among all the other networks, which suggests that the rest of them are branches of the Democrat Party. I’m not saying this, she is (if not in so many words).
Apparently, Fox News simply refuses to cheer this White House, a White House that has grown accustomed to unconditional admiration. Behold the petulance.
Fox News keeps turning to the wrong page in the hymn book.
Speaking as a recovering journalist and as a viewer who monitors most of the channels, I find Fox News to be the only place where all sides are given a voice. This is also the place where – well, does anyone remember checks and balances, or has this notion become old-fashioned?
Except for the press, or rather, except for Fox News, who else is around to keep tabs on a Party that dominates the White House and the Congress? Someone has to find out what’s going on behind closed doors – and it sure won’t be a network that qvells and thrills every time Mr. Obama speaks (as in Chris Matthews).
Mr. Obama has spoken out against Fox News several times, if obliquely, but I suspect that the peeving was refreshed when Glenn Beck ousted Van Jones.
Was that the bridge too far?
We the people expect the news media to be our guardians against government excess and misdeeds (Democrat or Republican). It’s a dirty job (like umpiring), but somebody has to do it, and frankly, few besides Fox News are on the job. Yes, my fellow journalists will argue that they too are “fair and balanced,” and yet it is quite clear that too often they are Democrats first and journalists second.
This all began with Woodward and Bernstein, who, in bringing down a flawed president, proved that journalism was not simply a means to report the news.
Journalism can change the world.
A generation of idealists – the Peace Corps generation – joined the nation’s newsrooms to “make the world a better place.”
But that is not the duty of journalism. Journalism serves the nation when it seeks facts and pursues truth and (in the phrasing of JFK) lets “the chips fall where they may.”
Ms. Dunn was correct, after all. Journalists should be treated as “opponents.” Too bad she could only find Fox News as being so troublesome.
About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com Engelhard’s latest book, the newsroom thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline” is now available in paperback. http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255629656&sr=8-1
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Toronto Hate-Fest, Starring Jane Fonda
By Jack Engelhard
Then, in 2001, is was Durban, where a pretext of human rights was turned into a Conga Line of Israel bashing. Now it’s Toronto. This cause is also good, on the surface. There’s an international film festival going on even as we speak – and who can complain about something so artistic? Well, there’s a problem.
Organizers decided to honor Tel Aviv and Israeli filmmakers and as we know, no good deed goes unpunished.
Immediately after word got out about this (City to City) Tel Aviv connection to Toronto, a group of artists devoted to replacement politics went ballistic and called for a freeze on anything that honors Israel’s contribution to film – or anything that honors Israel, period. Replacement Politics? That’s the endeavor to replace Israel with any population that isn’t Jewish.
The protest against Israel began slowly enough, but then grew into near-Biblical proportions. E-mails tell me that more than a thousand members of the filmmaking community have rushed in to sign up for a petition tagged “The Toronto Declaration” – which declares, “No Celebration for Occupation.”
Durban was likewise hysterical about the “occupation.” This word, occupation, is used politely in lieu of “No Jews Allowed.”
Who knew that so many in the film industry would be so quick to sign us onto the Book of Doom – on the eve when we pray for the Book of Life?
We’ve gone from screenwriter Ben Hecht who wrote “A Flag Is Born” to screenwriter Tony Kushner who said, “I wish modern Israel hadn’t been born.” Somewhere within a single generation blessings have been turned into curses. There is no Frank Sinatra (a true friend of Israel) to shame these petitioners for their open-faced treachery.
Who are these people and what do they want? We know what they want, and no amount of smooth talk, double-talk and rewrite can hide the message that they want Israel sliced and devoured. They say “apartheid” where there is no apartheid. They demand a “freeze on settlements,” which picks up language even before Durban.
We are now back further and into the covens of Wannsee and Nuremberg, where Jews were given restrictions and parameters.
Jane Fonda, who won two Oscars for being the daughter of Henry Fonda, well, she sure signed up for this petition, as did scores of other B-List actors and filmmakers, including Julie Christie, Harry Belafonte, someone named Viggo Mortensen, Danny Glover, of course, and somehow or other, Noam Chomsky, who can always be counted on when it’s time to slur the Jewish State.
This crowd only needs a place an event and an excuse to denounce Zion. Name the occasion, and they will come. (I’ve heard of novels and screenplays being turned down for being “too Jewish.” Here’s a case of an entire country being turned down for being too Jewish.)
Fonda and others in her sphere of influence declare that they love Israel, even as their aspirations differ not in the slightest from (the late) Yasser Arafat to (the latest) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They speak in smooth tongues from crooked hearts, so they will never straightly say that they want Israel wiped off the map. That would be so crude.
No, that wouldn’t be liberal and it wouldn’t be progressive and it wouldn’t be artistic, so they speak in code. Any Israeli act of self-defense is called a “massacre.” Any act of deterrence against terrorism, any action to protect and preserve Jewish life, is an affront to these high-minded elites.
How is it that our luminaries of refinement and poetry collude with Jihad tyranny, yet defame Israel’s liberty -- freedoms that are shared by Arabs and Jews alike?
Tel Aviv is the showplace of this!
They may speak in parables, Fonda and the lot, but I know the taunt “Dirty Jew” when I hear it, and even when it is not spoken I can smell it – miles away from Toronto.
Remember, it was Bilam who was ordered to curse the Children of Israel. He ended up with blessings, which from 3,000 years ago serve us to this day:
“How goodly thy tents, O Jacob; thy dwelling places O Israel.”
Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest thriller, The Bathsheba Deadline, which centers on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252969607&sr=8-1
Engelhard can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
Then, in 2001, is was Durban, where a pretext of human rights was turned into a Conga Line of Israel bashing. Now it’s Toronto. This cause is also good, on the surface. There’s an international film festival going on even as we speak – and who can complain about something so artistic? Well, there’s a problem.
Organizers decided to honor Tel Aviv and Israeli filmmakers and as we know, no good deed goes unpunished.
Immediately after word got out about this (City to City) Tel Aviv connection to Toronto, a group of artists devoted to replacement politics went ballistic and called for a freeze on anything that honors Israel’s contribution to film – or anything that honors Israel, period. Replacement Politics? That’s the endeavor to replace Israel with any population that isn’t Jewish.
The protest against Israel began slowly enough, but then grew into near-Biblical proportions. E-mails tell me that more than a thousand members of the filmmaking community have rushed in to sign up for a petition tagged “The Toronto Declaration” – which declares, “No Celebration for Occupation.”
Durban was likewise hysterical about the “occupation.” This word, occupation, is used politely in lieu of “No Jews Allowed.”
Who knew that so many in the film industry would be so quick to sign us onto the Book of Doom – on the eve when we pray for the Book of Life?
We’ve gone from screenwriter Ben Hecht who wrote “A Flag Is Born” to screenwriter Tony Kushner who said, “I wish modern Israel hadn’t been born.” Somewhere within a single generation blessings have been turned into curses. There is no Frank Sinatra (a true friend of Israel) to shame these petitioners for their open-faced treachery.
Who are these people and what do they want? We know what they want, and no amount of smooth talk, double-talk and rewrite can hide the message that they want Israel sliced and devoured. They say “apartheid” where there is no apartheid. They demand a “freeze on settlements,” which picks up language even before Durban.
We are now back further and into the covens of Wannsee and Nuremberg, where Jews were given restrictions and parameters.
Jane Fonda, who won two Oscars for being the daughter of Henry Fonda, well, she sure signed up for this petition, as did scores of other B-List actors and filmmakers, including Julie Christie, Harry Belafonte, someone named Viggo Mortensen, Danny Glover, of course, and somehow or other, Noam Chomsky, who can always be counted on when it’s time to slur the Jewish State.
This crowd only needs a place an event and an excuse to denounce Zion. Name the occasion, and they will come. (I’ve heard of novels and screenplays being turned down for being “too Jewish.” Here’s a case of an entire country being turned down for being too Jewish.)
Fonda and others in her sphere of influence declare that they love Israel, even as their aspirations differ not in the slightest from (the late) Yasser Arafat to (the latest) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They speak in smooth tongues from crooked hearts, so they will never straightly say that they want Israel wiped off the map. That would be so crude.
No, that wouldn’t be liberal and it wouldn’t be progressive and it wouldn’t be artistic, so they speak in code. Any Israeli act of self-defense is called a “massacre.” Any act of deterrence against terrorism, any action to protect and preserve Jewish life, is an affront to these high-minded elites.
How is it that our luminaries of refinement and poetry collude with Jihad tyranny, yet defame Israel’s liberty -- freedoms that are shared by Arabs and Jews alike?
Tel Aviv is the showplace of this!
They may speak in parables, Fonda and the lot, but I know the taunt “Dirty Jew” when I hear it, and even when it is not spoken I can smell it – miles away from Toronto.
Remember, it was Bilam who was ordered to curse the Children of Israel. He ended up with blessings, which from 3,000 years ago serve us to this day:
“How goodly thy tents, O Jacob; thy dwelling places O Israel.”
Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest thriller, The Bathsheba Deadline, which centers on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252969607&sr=8-1
Engelhard can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Trade In Grandma and Other Clunkers (Save Obama’s Healthcare)
By Jack Engelhard
Hello, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
Our “cash for clunkers” has proven to be so successful that we’ve decided to extend the program for cars – and for people. Of course there is no place to trade in your elderly, people, in other words, that have too much mileage on them. You cannot simply dump and deposit seniors in some lot, get cash for them, and then go home.
So as part of our new and improved healthcare bill, we’ve inaugurated a set-up where people over the age of 65 will be – speaking frankly – at the mercy of the government. Since we know best, we the government will decide who shall live and who shall die. If, for example, a person begins to stutter, or if, for example, a man or a woman has already served his or her purpose in life, well, it’s time to go.
Some people simply aren’t worth the bother.
Americans (old or even young) who walk too slow or suddenly need help tying their shoelaces are unnecessary and disposable. The fine print in our Bill takes care of such useless individuals. We will, in a word, refuse to provide the proper remedies to whatever ails these people. That’s in the program even in bold print.
We have heard rumors that some people are against this new and improved system. These people are obviously malcontents. We have no room for such people. In this America, there is no place for differences of opinion. We must all think alike! We urge you to tune in and learn from the experts, people like Al Gore and Bill Maher and Bill Moyers. They have all the answers.
Pay no attention to real doctors, like Dr. Zane F. Pollard who wrote an article online for the American Thinker. This is what he said in connection to the Obama/Congressional Healthcare Bill, “For those of you who are over 65, this Bill in its present form might be lethal for you. People in England over 59 cannot receive stents for their coronary arteries. The [American] government wants to mimic the British Plan.”
This doctor (along with many other doctors) disagrees with our Plan and therefore he must be crazy and therefore he must be reported.
We hope that you paid attention to what our Linda Douglass had to say about malcontents. She said, “If you get an email or see something on the Web about healthcare insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag/whitehouse.” Linda Douglass used to be a member of the press (ABC) and now she is a member of the government, which is actually the same thing.
The government and the press are all in this together. We are a team. This helps us all – all Americans -- to think alike.
Notice that when our beloved leader needs to make another speech the mainstream networks quickly hop-to. We are one nation under Obama.
We are happy to inform you that this administration is determined to stamp out any form of interference and discord. Can we do this? Yes we can!
The doctor who spoke up against us, please be sure to heed Ms. Douglass and report him immediately.
He and millions like him are a threat to the Collective. They are counter-revolutionaries. Please remember that we voted for Barack Obama to revolutionize America. We voted for this. We voted for change. Change is what we got. Be happy about this. Do not complain. In this America there is no place for dissent and there is no tolerance for individualism. Never mind Emerson and Thoreau. We do not need and we do not want free speech, not in this makeover.
People who complain about this program or any other program will have to answer to Linda Douglass, and that’s just for starters. We do not want to talk about what comes next. We will not mention other plans in the works, like sending malcontents to re-education camps and re-conditioning centers. These Americans must be re-programmed and re-tooled. (This is only for people who disagree with us.)
Obviously, they must be sick.
You, the American voter, have given us a fail-safe form of government. (Thank you, by the way, for letting us run the whole show with no possibility of checks and balances. We are liberals and this is our country! We barely allow others to visit so please shut up.) We are one Party and we can do whatever we want and if we want to pass this healthcare bill, we will do so even above the complaints of the contrarians.
We know exactly what to do with clunkers.
About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest thriller, on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249567759&sr=8-1
He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
Hello, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
Our “cash for clunkers” has proven to be so successful that we’ve decided to extend the program for cars – and for people. Of course there is no place to trade in your elderly, people, in other words, that have too much mileage on them. You cannot simply dump and deposit seniors in some lot, get cash for them, and then go home.
So as part of our new and improved healthcare bill, we’ve inaugurated a set-up where people over the age of 65 will be – speaking frankly – at the mercy of the government. Since we know best, we the government will decide who shall live and who shall die. If, for example, a person begins to stutter, or if, for example, a man or a woman has already served his or her purpose in life, well, it’s time to go.
Some people simply aren’t worth the bother.
Americans (old or even young) who walk too slow or suddenly need help tying their shoelaces are unnecessary and disposable. The fine print in our Bill takes care of such useless individuals. We will, in a word, refuse to provide the proper remedies to whatever ails these people. That’s in the program even in bold print.
We have heard rumors that some people are against this new and improved system. These people are obviously malcontents. We have no room for such people. In this America, there is no place for differences of opinion. We must all think alike! We urge you to tune in and learn from the experts, people like Al Gore and Bill Maher and Bill Moyers. They have all the answers.
Pay no attention to real doctors, like Dr. Zane F. Pollard who wrote an article online for the American Thinker. This is what he said in connection to the Obama/Congressional Healthcare Bill, “For those of you who are over 65, this Bill in its present form might be lethal for you. People in England over 59 cannot receive stents for their coronary arteries. The [American] government wants to mimic the British Plan.”
This doctor (along with many other doctors) disagrees with our Plan and therefore he must be crazy and therefore he must be reported.
We hope that you paid attention to what our Linda Douglass had to say about malcontents. She said, “If you get an email or see something on the Web about healthcare insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag/whitehouse.” Linda Douglass used to be a member of the press (ABC) and now she is a member of the government, which is actually the same thing.
The government and the press are all in this together. We are a team. This helps us all – all Americans -- to think alike.
Notice that when our beloved leader needs to make another speech the mainstream networks quickly hop-to. We are one nation under Obama.
We are happy to inform you that this administration is determined to stamp out any form of interference and discord. Can we do this? Yes we can!
The doctor who spoke up against us, please be sure to heed Ms. Douglass and report him immediately.
He and millions like him are a threat to the Collective. They are counter-revolutionaries. Please remember that we voted for Barack Obama to revolutionize America. We voted for this. We voted for change. Change is what we got. Be happy about this. Do not complain. In this America there is no place for dissent and there is no tolerance for individualism. Never mind Emerson and Thoreau. We do not need and we do not want free speech, not in this makeover.
People who complain about this program or any other program will have to answer to Linda Douglass, and that’s just for starters. We do not want to talk about what comes next. We will not mention other plans in the works, like sending malcontents to re-education camps and re-conditioning centers. These Americans must be re-programmed and re-tooled. (This is only for people who disagree with us.)
Obviously, they must be sick.
You, the American voter, have given us a fail-safe form of government. (Thank you, by the way, for letting us run the whole show with no possibility of checks and balances. We are liberals and this is our country! We barely allow others to visit so please shut up.) We are one Party and we can do whatever we want and if we want to pass this healthcare bill, we will do so even above the complaints of the contrarians.
We know exactly what to do with clunkers.
About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest thriller, on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249567759&sr=8-1
He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Report Your Neighbors If They Dissent on Obama’s HealthCare Package
By Jack Engelhard
The White House is asking us to inform on people who disrespect the current bill on health care, a bill which nobody has read in full – but never mind. According to reports in the news media, Americans are to be on alert for anything that sounds “fishy” in connection to this proposed legislation. In other words, if you, a walking-talking citizen, voice any sort of objection, you are to be reported.
As the official word has it, if you, an upstanding liberal loyalist find any email message that is deemed as “disinformation,” you are to notify the White House immediately. Some might refer to this sort of tattling as “White Terror” – a system once employed by the KGB to have neighbor spy against neighbor, in which case nobody can be trusted, hence the term “White Terror.”
This system is still in operation in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and has proved to be so successful that 100 radio stations have already been silenced and shut down.
George Orwell spoke about this in “1984” even though this is “2009.”
Some may refer to this as a chilling infringement on free speech but so what, the government knows what’s good for us, so please shut up.
Who needs free speech anyway?
If you complain about this or any other government legislation, or proposed legislation, then obviously you must be crazy or be some part of an organized conspiracy. Only the government is legitimate and only the government has all the answers. The news media will tell you all you need to know, from the government’s point of view.
Remember the new slogan – In Obama We Trust.
So as for you, a citizen – you are permitted to have no point of view (except maybe in private), so just shut up, please.
(Be careful even when you whisper. Someone may be listening.)
Town Hall meetings are set up for the single purpose of allowing your lawmakers to state their case WITHOUT INTERRUPTION. Your job is to listen and pay attention respectfully, even reverentially, even if you have no idea about what’s being said – and if you object to what’s being said then obviously you are part of a mob or part of some lunatic fringe.
Don’t be silly. That is, don’t be so silly as to expect your lawmakers to sign a bill and ACTUALLY read what they are signing – never mind the small print, even the big print is too much to ask. Rep. John Conyers says it’s ridiculous to expect congressmen to actually read legislation. Here is Conyers in his own words:
“I love these Members [of Congress] that get up and say ‘read the bill.’ Well, what good is it reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill.” There you go, citizens, – it’s ridiculous to expect our lawmakers to know what laws they are making.
In the face of all this, there is absolutely no chance that you may have honest questions, concerns or grievances. You must be a bigot. You must be crazy. Or, you must be an old man or an woman who is afraid that under this proposed health care legislation – well, you will not necessarily be put to death BUT, the government will decide whether you may live or die.
Do not let this trouble you. You are in the hands of the government and the news media which means you are in good hands.
Who needs old people anyway?
How dare you speak up? Democrats control the entire White House and the entire Congress and we, we voted for this, a system without checks and balances, which means that this is the government we got and this is the government we deserve. Some might say that by voting for a single party to control EVERYTHING we have installed a tyranny. Not so. We elected people to speak for us and our job is never to talk back.
If anybody does talk back, be a good citizen, be a spy, and report on your neighbor. Make us proud.
About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest thriller, on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249519055&sr=8-1
He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
The White House is asking us to inform on people who disrespect the current bill on health care, a bill which nobody has read in full – but never mind. According to reports in the news media, Americans are to be on alert for anything that sounds “fishy” in connection to this proposed legislation. In other words, if you, a walking-talking citizen, voice any sort of objection, you are to be reported.
As the official word has it, if you, an upstanding liberal loyalist find any email message that is deemed as “disinformation,” you are to notify the White House immediately. Some might refer to this sort of tattling as “White Terror” – a system once employed by the KGB to have neighbor spy against neighbor, in which case nobody can be trusted, hence the term “White Terror.”
This system is still in operation in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and has proved to be so successful that 100 radio stations have already been silenced and shut down.
George Orwell spoke about this in “1984” even though this is “2009.”
Some may refer to this as a chilling infringement on free speech but so what, the government knows what’s good for us, so please shut up.
Who needs free speech anyway?
If you complain about this or any other government legislation, or proposed legislation, then obviously you must be crazy or be some part of an organized conspiracy. Only the government is legitimate and only the government has all the answers. The news media will tell you all you need to know, from the government’s point of view.
Remember the new slogan – In Obama We Trust.
So as for you, a citizen – you are permitted to have no point of view (except maybe in private), so just shut up, please.
(Be careful even when you whisper. Someone may be listening.)
Town Hall meetings are set up for the single purpose of allowing your lawmakers to state their case WITHOUT INTERRUPTION. Your job is to listen and pay attention respectfully, even reverentially, even if you have no idea about what’s being said – and if you object to what’s being said then obviously you are part of a mob or part of some lunatic fringe.
Don’t be silly. That is, don’t be so silly as to expect your lawmakers to sign a bill and ACTUALLY read what they are signing – never mind the small print, even the big print is too much to ask. Rep. John Conyers says it’s ridiculous to expect congressmen to actually read legislation. Here is Conyers in his own words:
“I love these Members [of Congress] that get up and say ‘read the bill.’ Well, what good is it reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill.” There you go, citizens, – it’s ridiculous to expect our lawmakers to know what laws they are making.
In the face of all this, there is absolutely no chance that you may have honest questions, concerns or grievances. You must be a bigot. You must be crazy. Or, you must be an old man or an woman who is afraid that under this proposed health care legislation – well, you will not necessarily be put to death BUT, the government will decide whether you may live or die.
Do not let this trouble you. You are in the hands of the government and the news media which means you are in good hands.
Who needs old people anyway?
How dare you speak up? Democrats control the entire White House and the entire Congress and we, we voted for this, a system without checks and balances, which means that this is the government we got and this is the government we deserve. Some might say that by voting for a single party to control EVERYTHING we have installed a tyranny. Not so. We elected people to speak for us and our job is never to talk back.
If anybody does talk back, be a good citizen, be a spy, and report on your neighbor. Make us proud.
About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest thriller, on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249519055&sr=8-1
He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
Monday, July 27, 2009
Yo, Glenn Beck, Cool It On New Jersey!
By Jack Engelhard
I caught your show on Fox the other day, the one where you removed New Jersey from the map and I guess I was supposed to laugh but I didn’t. This is where I live and it’s as fine a place as any other in the Unites States of America – and maybe even better. Yes, I scan the headlines, too, so I know about all the arrests. I know there’s corruption.
Hello? From state to state, where isn’t there corruption? I could pick any state – the rest of the 49 – and name names but I won’t so as not to insult the good people who live there and who have nothing to do with pay-to-play. Where to begin? Pennsylvania, which just got through sentencing that man Fumo? New York? Does the name Eliot Spitzer ring a bell? North Dakota? How about Rob Blagojevich?
Let’s not even talk about Louisiana and Illinois.
Sorry to be mentioning some names but I just couldn’t help myself – though, if pressed, I could mention even more.
While you’re deleting New Jersey from the map, you may as well delete Enrico Caruso, the world’s greatest opera tenor, who recorded most of his music in Camden, yes, Camden, New Jersey, and be sure to erase Albert Einstein, the world’s greatest scientist, who taught at Princeton, NEW JERSEY!
Did I mention that New Jersey was the first state to sign the Bill of Rights? No big deal, you say, as you sit there laughing about our turnpike. Yes, we have the finest road in the world, policed by the nation’s finest State Troopers, but along with that we’ve got the Jersey Shore, 127 miles of coastline. Where else does this happen?
We’ve also got as much farmland as any of the other 49 great states – 10,000 farms, east, west, north and south.
We’ve got the fastest horses in New Jersey (Monmouth Park, the Meadowlands) and the most beautiful women. (I’ll take anyone’s bet on this.)
Did I mention Walt Whitman? If not, then I also forgot to mention a thousand other men and women who nourished the nation from New Jersey. In no particular order, here’s Jon Stewart, Yogi Berra, Norman Mailer, Denzel Washington, Eva Marie Saint, Jack Nicholson, Sarah Vaughan, Meryl Streep, Philip Roth – lest we forget Bruce Springsteen and FRANK SINATRA, for crying our loud.
Speaking of Hoboken (where Sinatra was born), yes I know that just the other day the mayor of that town was taken away in handcuffs for alleged corruption as part of that big FBI sweep. But Hoboken also made news in 1846. That is where and when the first organized baseball game was played.
There would be no United States if not for New Jersey. Check your history where you’ll find the Battle of Trenton, George Washington’s greatest triumph against all odds. New Jersey is still known as “the pathway of the Revolution.” More than 100 battles were fought on New Jersey soil.
So knock it off, Glenn. We are proud of our state. We are not amused when removed from the map.
The “Soprano” James Gandolfini (Ringwood, New Jersey) can’t be happy with what you did.
We, here in New Jersey, keep taking our lumps and yet, gee, I wonder why our trains, buses and turnpikes are so packed with people heading in our direction? Over the weekend I couldn’t even find a spot in the sand for all the crowds – from around the nation and world – using up our beach.
Did I mention Sinatra?
About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engelhard’s latest published books are “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
I caught your show on Fox the other day, the one where you removed New Jersey from the map and I guess I was supposed to laugh but I didn’t. This is where I live and it’s as fine a place as any other in the Unites States of America – and maybe even better. Yes, I scan the headlines, too, so I know about all the arrests. I know there’s corruption.
Hello? From state to state, where isn’t there corruption? I could pick any state – the rest of the 49 – and name names but I won’t so as not to insult the good people who live there and who have nothing to do with pay-to-play. Where to begin? Pennsylvania, which just got through sentencing that man Fumo? New York? Does the name Eliot Spitzer ring a bell? North Dakota? How about Rob Blagojevich?
Let’s not even talk about Louisiana and Illinois.
Sorry to be mentioning some names but I just couldn’t help myself – though, if pressed, I could mention even more.
While you’re deleting New Jersey from the map, you may as well delete Enrico Caruso, the world’s greatest opera tenor, who recorded most of his music in Camden, yes, Camden, New Jersey, and be sure to erase Albert Einstein, the world’s greatest scientist, who taught at Princeton, NEW JERSEY!
Did I mention that New Jersey was the first state to sign the Bill of Rights? No big deal, you say, as you sit there laughing about our turnpike. Yes, we have the finest road in the world, policed by the nation’s finest State Troopers, but along with that we’ve got the Jersey Shore, 127 miles of coastline. Where else does this happen?
We’ve also got as much farmland as any of the other 49 great states – 10,000 farms, east, west, north and south.
We’ve got the fastest horses in New Jersey (Monmouth Park, the Meadowlands) and the most beautiful women. (I’ll take anyone’s bet on this.)
Did I mention Walt Whitman? If not, then I also forgot to mention a thousand other men and women who nourished the nation from New Jersey. In no particular order, here’s Jon Stewart, Yogi Berra, Norman Mailer, Denzel Washington, Eva Marie Saint, Jack Nicholson, Sarah Vaughan, Meryl Streep, Philip Roth – lest we forget Bruce Springsteen and FRANK SINATRA, for crying our loud.
Speaking of Hoboken (where Sinatra was born), yes I know that just the other day the mayor of that town was taken away in handcuffs for alleged corruption as part of that big FBI sweep. But Hoboken also made news in 1846. That is where and when the first organized baseball game was played.
There would be no United States if not for New Jersey. Check your history where you’ll find the Battle of Trenton, George Washington’s greatest triumph against all odds. New Jersey is still known as “the pathway of the Revolution.” More than 100 battles were fought on New Jersey soil.
So knock it off, Glenn. We are proud of our state. We are not amused when removed from the map.
The “Soprano” James Gandolfini (Ringwood, New Jersey) can’t be happy with what you did.
We, here in New Jersey, keep taking our lumps and yet, gee, I wonder why our trains, buses and turnpikes are so packed with people heading in our direction? Over the weekend I couldn’t even find a spot in the sand for all the crowds – from around the nation and world – using up our beach.
Did I mention Sinatra?
About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engelhard’s latest published books are “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Who Will Be Our First Trillionaire?
By Jack Engelhard
Those who have read the book or seen the movie “Indecent Proposal” know what it’s about – what would you do for a million dollars? At the time that I wrote and published the novel back in the mid-1980s, a million dollars was real money. That’s how we defined RICH, by the millions.
Larry King (when I appeared on his radio show) asked me why I chose the figure a million dollars for a night of infidelity and before I could answer he agreed. He said, “That’s right. A million dollars is the magic word.” That was then and this is now, and how times have changed!
Suddenly, you are nothing if you are not a billionaire with a b. (I’m not changing a thing. A million dollars is still plenty in my book.)
Donald Trump is actually suing a man, a writer, who claims, in a book, that Trump is a mere millionaire. Trump says it’s ruining his image and his business.
Imagine that – we’ve arrived at a moment when being called a millionaire is an insult. (The rest of us should be so insulted.)
If you’ve been following the men who play with our money – Congress – you’ll recall that a generation ago when they discussed roads, dams and deficits (were there bailouts back then?) the talk was always in terms of millions, and the same was true of banks, which bragged about the millions they had in deposits.
Why – there was even a time when a thousand dollars was money. Your grandparents and maybe even your parents called it “a grand.”
Today, in all this talk between Congress and President Obama about who’s going to pay for this and that boondoggle they’ve pretty much agreed that “the rich” ought to pay for everything and that rich begins at a million dollars, maybe. They’re not sure and still deciding how to divvy up our blood, sweat and tears.
Well, it might help to remember that the man who sells me newspapers and tobacco most likely makes a million dollars a year a nickel at a time – but not personally. It’s the business. He spends almost as much as he takes in and he is not a bad man just because he makes a living and puts his kids through college. He also employs people, gives charity. We used to call this the economy, stupid.
There really is no defining wealth unless we agree with the Talmud that the person who is rich is the person who is happy with whatever he’s got.
That makes most of us poor. We can never be too rich or too thin – right?
Lottery winners don’t go jumping up and down unless they’ve hit a jackpot amounting to hundreds of millions, soon to be billions and finally trillions. That’s the trend. Almost every project now being discussed by our lawmakers suddenly costs trillions of dollars. This happened practically overnight. I never heard the word “trillion” until about three months ago. Suddenly it’s all over the place and we’re waiting for our first trillionaire.
My dictionary still has no definition for “trillionaire.” The word doesn’t exist, but it’s coming.
It does define trillion as, “The cardinal number represented by 1 followed by 12 zeroes.”
We’ve come a long way from Tevye who asked God to make him a rich man. Rich? Half an acre to plant his potatoes was rich for Tevye (and for most of our grandparents). .
A decade ago a leading New York magazine surveyed Manhattan bluebloods to find out where rich begins; it begins at $50 million.
Peanuts, right?
Trump, in suing about that book, is fuming that according to writer Timothy O’Brien, he, Trump, ONLY has $250 million tucked away. That same survey, then, if taken these days, would define wealth as beginning with a billion dollars with a b. (“The cardinal number represented by 1 followed by 9 zeroes.”) Less than that and you’re a bum, also beginning with a b.
Bill Gates is worth around $60 billion last time I checked. (Actually, what is the difference between $60 million and $60 billion? I cannot fathom the one from the other.) Some say that Gates is really our first trillionaire and more power to him for all the money he’s giving up for charity.
He is so busy being truly generous that I doubt he’ll sue me for calling him a mere billionaire – which is always a good start toward real wealth.
About the author: Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit against America and Israel with a Biblical twist, is available in paperback at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248629852&sr=8-1
Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
.
Those who have read the book or seen the movie “Indecent Proposal” know what it’s about – what would you do for a million dollars? At the time that I wrote and published the novel back in the mid-1980s, a million dollars was real money. That’s how we defined RICH, by the millions.
Larry King (when I appeared on his radio show) asked me why I chose the figure a million dollars for a night of infidelity and before I could answer he agreed. He said, “That’s right. A million dollars is the magic word.” That was then and this is now, and how times have changed!
Suddenly, you are nothing if you are not a billionaire with a b. (I’m not changing a thing. A million dollars is still plenty in my book.)
Donald Trump is actually suing a man, a writer, who claims, in a book, that Trump is a mere millionaire. Trump says it’s ruining his image and his business.
Imagine that – we’ve arrived at a moment when being called a millionaire is an insult. (The rest of us should be so insulted.)
If you’ve been following the men who play with our money – Congress – you’ll recall that a generation ago when they discussed roads, dams and deficits (were there bailouts back then?) the talk was always in terms of millions, and the same was true of banks, which bragged about the millions they had in deposits.
Why – there was even a time when a thousand dollars was money. Your grandparents and maybe even your parents called it “a grand.”
Today, in all this talk between Congress and President Obama about who’s going to pay for this and that boondoggle they’ve pretty much agreed that “the rich” ought to pay for everything and that rich begins at a million dollars, maybe. They’re not sure and still deciding how to divvy up our blood, sweat and tears.
Well, it might help to remember that the man who sells me newspapers and tobacco most likely makes a million dollars a year a nickel at a time – but not personally. It’s the business. He spends almost as much as he takes in and he is not a bad man just because he makes a living and puts his kids through college. He also employs people, gives charity. We used to call this the economy, stupid.
There really is no defining wealth unless we agree with the Talmud that the person who is rich is the person who is happy with whatever he’s got.
That makes most of us poor. We can never be too rich or too thin – right?
Lottery winners don’t go jumping up and down unless they’ve hit a jackpot amounting to hundreds of millions, soon to be billions and finally trillions. That’s the trend. Almost every project now being discussed by our lawmakers suddenly costs trillions of dollars. This happened practically overnight. I never heard the word “trillion” until about three months ago. Suddenly it’s all over the place and we’re waiting for our first trillionaire.
My dictionary still has no definition for “trillionaire.” The word doesn’t exist, but it’s coming.
It does define trillion as, “The cardinal number represented by 1 followed by 12 zeroes.”
We’ve come a long way from Tevye who asked God to make him a rich man. Rich? Half an acre to plant his potatoes was rich for Tevye (and for most of our grandparents). .
A decade ago a leading New York magazine surveyed Manhattan bluebloods to find out where rich begins; it begins at $50 million.
Peanuts, right?
Trump, in suing about that book, is fuming that according to writer Timothy O’Brien, he, Trump, ONLY has $250 million tucked away. That same survey, then, if taken these days, would define wealth as beginning with a billion dollars with a b. (“The cardinal number represented by 1 followed by 9 zeroes.”) Less than that and you’re a bum, also beginning with a b.
Bill Gates is worth around $60 billion last time I checked. (Actually, what is the difference between $60 million and $60 billion? I cannot fathom the one from the other.) Some say that Gates is really our first trillionaire and more power to him for all the money he’s giving up for charity.
He is so busy being truly generous that I doubt he’ll sue me for calling him a mere billionaire – which is always a good start toward real wealth.
About the author: Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit against America and Israel with a Biblical twist, is available in paperback at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248629852&sr=8-1
Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Cronkite’s 15 Minutes of Fame for our Infamies
By Jack Engelhard
Walter Cronkite’s TV presence was so powerful that when he made some off-hand remark critical of our war in Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson knew that losing the support of Cronkite was the same as losing the support of the American people. LBJ had met his match; journalism that provokes.
Back then (going here strictly from memory) we were still reading newspapers and TV News was nothing more than a daily 15 minute roundup and recap – but such was the authority of these men, Cronkite, Huntley/Brinkley, Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, that we began to trust broadcasting nearly as much as print. (“Murrow’s Boys” dominated CBS for some time.)
Today’s obits on Cronkite show him momentarily forgetting his journalistic stoicism in favor of a touch of emotion at the announcement of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. This may be a proper highlight but we should remember that 15 minutes at a time, TV News grew into the monster that it is today.
I say monster because from my years as editor at KYW all-news radio (Philadelphia), I knew that round-the-clock news was a goliath that had to be fed minute by minute and thank goodness for commercials. There must be no dead air. Gradually, then, TV Network News was expanded to half an hour a day and soon that wasn’t enough, for along came Ted Turner and the rest of Cable. For a time CNN ruled but now it’s Fox (which in my view is the only place to find news truly fair and balanced).
Some may remember that at the strike of midnight all television went dark. The national anthem came on and we were told good night and good luck.
We’ve become a nation of news junkies and I know when it started and (full disclosure) I cover this in two books “The Days of the Bitter End” and “The Bathsheba Deadline.” We became fixated on the news the day JFK was shot. From that moment onward, November 22, 1963, we tuned in and turned on to what some called medium cool. Early on, Marshall McLuhan spoke about our ascent or descent as a “global village.”
Before that our culture was Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. We read Hemingway and cheered DiMaggio. We waited for Lucy to make us laugh. All that changed abruptly.
We demanded, through television, to be shown LBJ being sworn in on Air Force One as Jackie stood by still shaken and covered in her husband’s blood. We had to be there for a glimpse of Baby John John saluting his father’s coffin (at the urging of his mother) and we insisted on bearing witness to the entire funeral, Charles de Gaulle towering at the head of the procession.
How can we forget the sounds of those drums!
If we lapsed back into Patti Page and Ozzie and Harriet and Perry Mason, here came Watergate and the Watergate hearings to provide true life drama. (Hollywood couldn’t make this up.) Step by step, practically page by page, we followed the decline and fall of a president as no screenwriter could imagine. If we weren’t hooked on TV News before, we were hooked now.
Always – always there was Vietnam, the generals, the coffins, the numbers, the fighting itself. Yes, anyone can argue that it was Vietnam that turned us onto TV.
Vietnam was our War and Peace right before our eyes. We needed no Tolstoy. Cronkite was plenty.
Fast forward to the arrival of Cable News and here too we have that moment when it all came together. Cable news came of age at the trial of O.J. Simpson. We couldn’t get enough of this and neither could Cable, which gave us the plot, the script, the heroes (what heroes?), the villains and everything else that makes Good Television.
Cable is still in search of the Trial of the Century but it’s just not happening, not like O.J.
Still, here we are, plugged in as never before, through television and other technological devices, and still, are we better informed?
We never knew (until later) where Cronkite stood politically. Never (as I recall) did he go in for manipulation. He gave it straight.
In losing Cronkite, we’ve also lost, in too many instances, “the way it is” factually and honestly.
About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit with a dramatic Biblical twist, is available in paperback at Amazon. He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
Walter Cronkite’s TV presence was so powerful that when he made some off-hand remark critical of our war in Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson knew that losing the support of Cronkite was the same as losing the support of the American people. LBJ had met his match; journalism that provokes.
Back then (going here strictly from memory) we were still reading newspapers and TV News was nothing more than a daily 15 minute roundup and recap – but such was the authority of these men, Cronkite, Huntley/Brinkley, Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, that we began to trust broadcasting nearly as much as print. (“Murrow’s Boys” dominated CBS for some time.)
Today’s obits on Cronkite show him momentarily forgetting his journalistic stoicism in favor of a touch of emotion at the announcement of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. This may be a proper highlight but we should remember that 15 minutes at a time, TV News grew into the monster that it is today.
I say monster because from my years as editor at KYW all-news radio (Philadelphia), I knew that round-the-clock news was a goliath that had to be fed minute by minute and thank goodness for commercials. There must be no dead air. Gradually, then, TV Network News was expanded to half an hour a day and soon that wasn’t enough, for along came Ted Turner and the rest of Cable. For a time CNN ruled but now it’s Fox (which in my view is the only place to find news truly fair and balanced).
Some may remember that at the strike of midnight all television went dark. The national anthem came on and we were told good night and good luck.
We’ve become a nation of news junkies and I know when it started and (full disclosure) I cover this in two books “The Days of the Bitter End” and “The Bathsheba Deadline.” We became fixated on the news the day JFK was shot. From that moment onward, November 22, 1963, we tuned in and turned on to what some called medium cool. Early on, Marshall McLuhan spoke about our ascent or descent as a “global village.”
Before that our culture was Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. We read Hemingway and cheered DiMaggio. We waited for Lucy to make us laugh. All that changed abruptly.
We demanded, through television, to be shown LBJ being sworn in on Air Force One as Jackie stood by still shaken and covered in her husband’s blood. We had to be there for a glimpse of Baby John John saluting his father’s coffin (at the urging of his mother) and we insisted on bearing witness to the entire funeral, Charles de Gaulle towering at the head of the procession.
How can we forget the sounds of those drums!
If we lapsed back into Patti Page and Ozzie and Harriet and Perry Mason, here came Watergate and the Watergate hearings to provide true life drama. (Hollywood couldn’t make this up.) Step by step, practically page by page, we followed the decline and fall of a president as no screenwriter could imagine. If we weren’t hooked on TV News before, we were hooked now.
Always – always there was Vietnam, the generals, the coffins, the numbers, the fighting itself. Yes, anyone can argue that it was Vietnam that turned us onto TV.
Vietnam was our War and Peace right before our eyes. We needed no Tolstoy. Cronkite was plenty.
Fast forward to the arrival of Cable News and here too we have that moment when it all came together. Cable news came of age at the trial of O.J. Simpson. We couldn’t get enough of this and neither could Cable, which gave us the plot, the script, the heroes (what heroes?), the villains and everything else that makes Good Television.
Cable is still in search of the Trial of the Century but it’s just not happening, not like O.J.
Still, here we are, plugged in as never before, through television and other technological devices, and still, are we better informed?
We never knew (until later) where Cronkite stood politically. Never (as I recall) did he go in for manipulation. He gave it straight.
In losing Cronkite, we’ve also lost, in too many instances, “the way it is” factually and honestly.
About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit with a dramatic Biblical twist, is available in paperback at Amazon. He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Ogling The News (Blondes Invade TV)
By Jack Engelhard
[News Flash! A few days after I wrote this commentary and was still polishing it, the UK Telegraph, coincidentally, reported that "Blondes Dull Men's Brains." (I'm not making this up.) The article goes on to say, "Researchers concluded that men performed worse after they were shown pictures of fair-haired women." So, it's scientifically proven that blondes are coming to take over the world and turn the rest of us into mutants. Terrifying! We, men, may have to hide in caves to hide from the glare. I've already begun wearing sunglasses.]
--
How did the news get to be so blonde? This is not a complaint. In fact, this is a tribute, I think.
Back in the old days, when we thought only men can handle the truth, TV news was delivered by Serious White Males, like Walter Cronkite, which is not to say that the blondes who've taken over are not serious. I'm sure they've got the requisite gravitas, but they make the going so much sweeter. Wars, earthquakes, forest fires come and go. The blondes endure.
If you're thinking Katie Couric, fine, but I'm not. I'm thinking mostly cable, CNN, MSNBC and Fox - mostly Fox. That's where blondes have more fun. By this I mean nearly everyone, from the anchors to the guests, are blonde! The political commentators, the psychologists, the historians who arrive for sound bites- they're all babes, but babes with brains.
If you're thinking Megyn Kelly over at Fox, I agree. The news from around the world, and closer to home, is usually so awful that, yes, I'd rather have leggy (and brainy) Megyn break it to me gently rather than, say, Rather, who exemplifies the disappearance of the White Male Anchor - truly an endangered species.
That's a favorable development. Over there at PBS, there's Jim Lehrer, and he scares me. He's so somber. Every day it's Armageddon all over again.. Public Broadcasting still hasn't figured it out, that we don't want to worry about the bomb in Iran. You'll notice that President Bush spoke about an oncoming World War Three (yikes!) and, coming as it did with a smile from E.D. Hill on Fox, nobody jumped off a cliff.
That used to be called "a woman's touch" and with all that's going on out there in this awful world we can use all the nurturing we can get. If there's a hurricane coming my way, I prefer that it come from Fox's Janice Dean. ABC's Charlie Gibson is all right, but I'm happier fighting our War On Terror with Laurie Dhue.
Even the stiff upper lip BBC has a blonde, Katty Kay. Some observers tell us that the BBC is anti American, anti Israel and even anti-Semitic. That may be so, but if I have to take that medicine, I'll take it like that, with the honey, or rather, from the honey. (Am I being sexist here?) The same BBC's Barbara Plett is openly hateful toward Israel (she wept at the loss of Arafat) so that's a different story. Now it becomes a slur. She is not blonde.
The Invasion Of The Blonde Anchors possibly began with Lesley Stahl and Diane Sawyer. They were America's first blondes, I think, anchorwise. They proved that blonde need not be a synonym for bimbo and that, in fact, it would be unwise for male chauvinists, like myself, to challenge these babes intellectually. We'd lose. (Megyn Kelly has a law degree and the others have similar credentials.)
Okay, Couric. Word has it that she's not making it on CBS because she's a woman and women are never taken seriously unless they're our wives, daughters, mothers, supervisors, editors, doctors, lawyers, judges and governors. That's baloney. The women are doing just fine over at Fox. Roger Ailes, who heads Fox's news operation, knows exactly what he's doing. He knew it from the moment he packed the house with blondes and said to America - news can be sexy.
In a world so bizarre, so chaotic, so bloodthirsty, we need it nursed to us and spooned with sweets.
We have it from Thomas Hobbes that life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." That's journalism in a nutshell. (That's everything, really.)
So who's complaining if all that is delivered to us with sugar and spice.
About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel "Indecent Proposal" that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engelhard's latest thriller, "The Bathsheba Deadline," which centers on news media deceit with a Biblical twist, has been termed "a towering literary achievement" by reviewer Letha Hadady and "a courageous, rousing thriller" by author Robert Spencer. "The Bathsheba Deadline" is available in paperback at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247971597&sr=8-1
[News Flash! A few days after I wrote this commentary and was still polishing it, the UK Telegraph, coincidentally, reported that "Blondes Dull Men's Brains." (I'm not making this up.) The article goes on to say, "Researchers concluded that men performed worse after they were shown pictures of fair-haired women." So, it's scientifically proven that blondes are coming to take over the world and turn the rest of us into mutants. Terrifying! We, men, may have to hide in caves to hide from the glare. I've already begun wearing sunglasses.]
--
How did the news get to be so blonde? This is not a complaint. In fact, this is a tribute, I think.
Back in the old days, when we thought only men can handle the truth, TV news was delivered by Serious White Males, like Walter Cronkite, which is not to say that the blondes who've taken over are not serious. I'm sure they've got the requisite gravitas, but they make the going so much sweeter. Wars, earthquakes, forest fires come and go. The blondes endure.
If you're thinking Katie Couric, fine, but I'm not. I'm thinking mostly cable, CNN, MSNBC and Fox - mostly Fox. That's where blondes have more fun. By this I mean nearly everyone, from the anchors to the guests, are blonde! The political commentators, the psychologists, the historians who arrive for sound bites- they're all babes, but babes with brains.
If you're thinking Megyn Kelly over at Fox, I agree. The news from around the world, and closer to home, is usually so awful that, yes, I'd rather have leggy (and brainy) Megyn break it to me gently rather than, say, Rather, who exemplifies the disappearance of the White Male Anchor - truly an endangered species.
That's a favorable development. Over there at PBS, there's Jim Lehrer, and he scares me. He's so somber. Every day it's Armageddon all over again.. Public Broadcasting still hasn't figured it out, that we don't want to worry about the bomb in Iran. You'll notice that President Bush spoke about an oncoming World War Three (yikes!) and, coming as it did with a smile from E.D. Hill on Fox, nobody jumped off a cliff.
That used to be called "a woman's touch" and with all that's going on out there in this awful world we can use all the nurturing we can get. If there's a hurricane coming my way, I prefer that it come from Fox's Janice Dean. ABC's Charlie Gibson is all right, but I'm happier fighting our War On Terror with Laurie Dhue.
Even the stiff upper lip BBC has a blonde, Katty Kay. Some observers tell us that the BBC is anti American, anti Israel and even anti-Semitic. That may be so, but if I have to take that medicine, I'll take it like that, with the honey, or rather, from the honey. (Am I being sexist here?) The same BBC's Barbara Plett is openly hateful toward Israel (she wept at the loss of Arafat) so that's a different story. Now it becomes a slur. She is not blonde.
The Invasion Of The Blonde Anchors possibly began with Lesley Stahl and Diane Sawyer. They were America's first blondes, I think, anchorwise. They proved that blonde need not be a synonym for bimbo and that, in fact, it would be unwise for male chauvinists, like myself, to challenge these babes intellectually. We'd lose. (Megyn Kelly has a law degree and the others have similar credentials.)
Okay, Couric. Word has it that she's not making it on CBS because she's a woman and women are never taken seriously unless they're our wives, daughters, mothers, supervisors, editors, doctors, lawyers, judges and governors. That's baloney. The women are doing just fine over at Fox. Roger Ailes, who heads Fox's news operation, knows exactly what he's doing. He knew it from the moment he packed the house with blondes and said to America - news can be sexy.
In a world so bizarre, so chaotic, so bloodthirsty, we need it nursed to us and spooned with sweets.
We have it from Thomas Hobbes that life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." That's journalism in a nutshell. (That's everything, really.)
So who's complaining if all that is delivered to us with sugar and spice.
About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel "Indecent Proposal" that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engelhard's latest thriller, "The Bathsheba Deadline," which centers on news media deceit with a Biblical twist, has been termed "a towering literary achievement" by reviewer Letha Hadady and "a courageous, rousing thriller" by author Robert Spencer. "The Bathsheba Deadline" is available in paperback at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247971597&sr=8-1
Friday, July 17, 2009
Sotomayor, Fox News and GOP Malaise
By Jack Engelhard
Those of us who tuned in for a slugfest were disappointed and went back to cutting the lawn. This was no Ali versus Frazier. There were no thrills. Even Fox News abruptly turned off, literally, and returned to regular programming so that Shepard Smith could get himself excited about the Murder of the Day. Only one person gave it some spice, on Fox, and it wasn’t a senator; it was anchorwoman Megyn Kelly. I’m nuts about this lady.
Yes, I know the howls at the mention of Fox News, but come on, Roger Ailes knows how to pick the right people (except for Geraldo) and how to keep stories moving.
Obviously, ratings were taking a dive. CNN took the hint from Fox and began easing off those hearings as well. News – especially on television – needs a plot, needs a narrative, needs good guys and bad guys, needs to entertain, needs drama and this simply wasn’t good television, never mind good theater.
There’s nothing to say about Democrat questioning since those guys are already sold on Sonia Sotomayor. (Amazingly, Al Franken was best of the rest.)
But just for the fun of it, we wanted some action from the Republicans.
When a hockey game gets dull, there is always someone from the stands who yells –“Hit somebody!”
Well, nobody got hit in this panel’s deliberations on whether Sotomayor qualifies for the Supreme Court. The GOP went limp. One reason: the fix is in. They’re without numbers, these Republicans, and they’re without clout. So, except perhaps for Jeff Sessions, they gave up. The surrender began when they picked a sure loser to take on Barack Obama and so it continues.
Here in microcosm, what we saw was a Republican Party really down in the dumps. This country is operating under a one Party system. I don’t think that’s smart. This wouldn’t work even if it were all Republicans. I already said all this in a piece I wrote titled “Kremlin America,” which is about the dangers facing America when we lose the charms of checks and balances. Without that we are Russia.
Given the defeatism, despair and malaise that we saw from the GOP at these hearings, we’re in for another eight to 80 years of single Party Democrat dominance.
Anyway, I don’t think Sotomayor meant what she said about “a wise Latina woman” being more capable than white men. What she meant, I think, was that the high court ought to be a portrait of America. We’re not all men in this country, certainly not all white men, therefore we need different points of views while maintaining the spirit and the letter of the law as established by our Constitution. I’m on her side on this.
Does she really have the cajones for the Supreme Court? Well, she certainly proved herself capable under some (not much) -- but some fire. What she did was, well, she gave such longwinded and convoluted and legalistic responses to each question that she withered and wore out the competition – and us. She answered her enemies and even her friends into submission.
As for me, I did not find her sharp or brilliant and maybe that’s good. Maybe, to be a good judge, you need to be slow and deliberative. Maybe she is brilliant.
She was on her best behavior as is any person applying for a job. The real person comes later.
Yes, I said the fix is in but I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. Like the double jeopardy business, once a person has been acquitted, it’s over! In this case, once Sotomayor has been approved, she can thumb her nose at Congress. She can say, “So long, suckers.” She can say, “Oh by the way, I didn’t mean anything I said at those stupid hearings. I’m a Supreme Court Justice and you’re not.”
She can add – “I just proved, didn’t I, that a Latino woman is wiser than a roomful of white men.”
Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” centers on media deceit against America and Israel and is available in paperback at Amazon. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. He can be reached, and his Works can be viewed, at www.jackengelhard.com
Those of us who tuned in for a slugfest were disappointed and went back to cutting the lawn. This was no Ali versus Frazier. There were no thrills. Even Fox News abruptly turned off, literally, and returned to regular programming so that Shepard Smith could get himself excited about the Murder of the Day. Only one person gave it some spice, on Fox, and it wasn’t a senator; it was anchorwoman Megyn Kelly. I’m nuts about this lady.
Yes, I know the howls at the mention of Fox News, but come on, Roger Ailes knows how to pick the right people (except for Geraldo) and how to keep stories moving.
Obviously, ratings were taking a dive. CNN took the hint from Fox and began easing off those hearings as well. News – especially on television – needs a plot, needs a narrative, needs good guys and bad guys, needs to entertain, needs drama and this simply wasn’t good television, never mind good theater.
There’s nothing to say about Democrat questioning since those guys are already sold on Sonia Sotomayor. (Amazingly, Al Franken was best of the rest.)
But just for the fun of it, we wanted some action from the Republicans.
When a hockey game gets dull, there is always someone from the stands who yells –“Hit somebody!”
Well, nobody got hit in this panel’s deliberations on whether Sotomayor qualifies for the Supreme Court. The GOP went limp. One reason: the fix is in. They’re without numbers, these Republicans, and they’re without clout. So, except perhaps for Jeff Sessions, they gave up. The surrender began when they picked a sure loser to take on Barack Obama and so it continues.
Here in microcosm, what we saw was a Republican Party really down in the dumps. This country is operating under a one Party system. I don’t think that’s smart. This wouldn’t work even if it were all Republicans. I already said all this in a piece I wrote titled “Kremlin America,” which is about the dangers facing America when we lose the charms of checks and balances. Without that we are Russia.
Given the defeatism, despair and malaise that we saw from the GOP at these hearings, we’re in for another eight to 80 years of single Party Democrat dominance.
Anyway, I don’t think Sotomayor meant what she said about “a wise Latina woman” being more capable than white men. What she meant, I think, was that the high court ought to be a portrait of America. We’re not all men in this country, certainly not all white men, therefore we need different points of views while maintaining the spirit and the letter of the law as established by our Constitution. I’m on her side on this.
Does she really have the cajones for the Supreme Court? Well, she certainly proved herself capable under some (not much) -- but some fire. What she did was, well, she gave such longwinded and convoluted and legalistic responses to each question that she withered and wore out the competition – and us. She answered her enemies and even her friends into submission.
As for me, I did not find her sharp or brilliant and maybe that’s good. Maybe, to be a good judge, you need to be slow and deliberative. Maybe she is brilliant.
She was on her best behavior as is any person applying for a job. The real person comes later.
Yes, I said the fix is in but I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. Like the double jeopardy business, once a person has been acquitted, it’s over! In this case, once Sotomayor has been approved, she can thumb her nose at Congress. She can say, “So long, suckers.” She can say, “Oh by the way, I didn’t mean anything I said at those stupid hearings. I’m a Supreme Court Justice and you’re not.”
She can add – “I just proved, didn’t I, that a Latino woman is wiser than a roomful of white men.”
Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” centers on media deceit against America and Israel and is available in paperback at Amazon. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. He can be reached, and his Works can be viewed, at www.jackengelhard.com
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Inventing J. D. Salinger
By Jack Engelhard
The upstairs literary crowd, Eustace Tilley types, are already sharpening their pencils for Dan Brown’s next book, “The Lost Symbol,” even though it won’t be birthed until September. I’m not here to defend Dan Brown except to say that he delivered as promised. His big book, “The Da Vinci Code” was exactly about that, the Da Vinci code.
Dan Brown is not adored by the literati and the sniping has already begun as meanwhile Haruki Murakami, one of their favorites, keeps getting embraced.
Murakami’s latest gem is titled “Kafka on the Shore” and I happen to be a huge fan of Kafka and nearly went ahead to buy the book until, doing the usual online searches, I found that this book about Kafka is not about Kafka. It’s about a character Murakami has named Kafka with no connection to the great writer Franz Kafka.
Cute trick and I’m all for clever marketing but someone should point out that warning labels ought to be attached to certain books. I almost fell for this cleverness. I should learn from it at the very least and perhaps my next book ought to be titled “Hemingway on the Beach” except that it won’t be anything about Hemingway or a beach.
In practically all the reviews about this book named Kafka but which is not about Kafka, there is only praise from penthouse reviewers and no mention that perhaps there is something non-kosher about this. Yet this is how it goes once the literary mavens have established a particular writer as “literary” as opposed to “commercial,” though I have never known the difference. Can’t a writer be both? Is Hemingway literary or commercial?
We can learn marketing tricks from Amy Holden Jones as well. This screenwriter wrote a movie titled “Beethoven” and those of us who tuned in for a film about the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven were stricken with disappointment. Dog lovers were happy because it was about a dog named Beethoven. The rest of us wanted our money back (though I also like dogs, really).
More recently, a writer of unknown pedigree tried to pull a fast one by updating J. D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.” Salinger, as we all know by now, stopped this from happening. I say kudos to Salinger for halting at least one phony from getting away with deception. Salinger is all about the sanctity of the novel and as for me, I admire this about him. He insists that it’s only the written word that counts, not the writer, and that’s why he went into hiding.
Is Salinger literary or commercial? I’m saying that he’s simply a damn good writer who writes strictly for himself because only his own characters can understand him. He sought no acclaim. The same goes for John W. Cassell, a brilliant writer who ought to be read by millions but is happy enough to have created his own private universe.
In “The Bathsheba Deadline” a newsroom novel otherwise about international intrigue and news media deception, I devote several chapters to Salinger to find, through him, what is real and what is fake. In writing about him (through the eyes of fiction) I found myself reconstructing him until I created an image of a man who left the world because so much of it is run by tricks, gimmicks and deceit.
Salinger took the cue from God Himself who looked around, saw enough, and left us to our own devices.
(Salinger is mystical. That’s for sure and that’s why the novel’s Lyla Crawford is gung-ho after him, body and soul, for the scoop of the century.)
Further into the writing about Salinger in “Bathsheba” – and letting my imagination fly --I began to understand why so many of us are in pursuit of this reclusive novelist and though the epiphany is incomplete, this much I take for truth: We send rockets to scale the moon and the planets and yet the most undiscovered planet is ourselves.
We don’t even know what truth is when we can’t trust a book by its cover.
Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest published works are “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached, and his Works can be viewed, at www.jackengelhard.com
The upstairs literary crowd, Eustace Tilley types, are already sharpening their pencils for Dan Brown’s next book, “The Lost Symbol,” even though it won’t be birthed until September. I’m not here to defend Dan Brown except to say that he delivered as promised. His big book, “The Da Vinci Code” was exactly about that, the Da Vinci code.
Dan Brown is not adored by the literati and the sniping has already begun as meanwhile Haruki Murakami, one of their favorites, keeps getting embraced.
Murakami’s latest gem is titled “Kafka on the Shore” and I happen to be a huge fan of Kafka and nearly went ahead to buy the book until, doing the usual online searches, I found that this book about Kafka is not about Kafka. It’s about a character Murakami has named Kafka with no connection to the great writer Franz Kafka.
Cute trick and I’m all for clever marketing but someone should point out that warning labels ought to be attached to certain books. I almost fell for this cleverness. I should learn from it at the very least and perhaps my next book ought to be titled “Hemingway on the Beach” except that it won’t be anything about Hemingway or a beach.
In practically all the reviews about this book named Kafka but which is not about Kafka, there is only praise from penthouse reviewers and no mention that perhaps there is something non-kosher about this. Yet this is how it goes once the literary mavens have established a particular writer as “literary” as opposed to “commercial,” though I have never known the difference. Can’t a writer be both? Is Hemingway literary or commercial?
We can learn marketing tricks from Amy Holden Jones as well. This screenwriter wrote a movie titled “Beethoven” and those of us who tuned in for a film about the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven were stricken with disappointment. Dog lovers were happy because it was about a dog named Beethoven. The rest of us wanted our money back (though I also like dogs, really).
More recently, a writer of unknown pedigree tried to pull a fast one by updating J. D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.” Salinger, as we all know by now, stopped this from happening. I say kudos to Salinger for halting at least one phony from getting away with deception. Salinger is all about the sanctity of the novel and as for me, I admire this about him. He insists that it’s only the written word that counts, not the writer, and that’s why he went into hiding.
Is Salinger literary or commercial? I’m saying that he’s simply a damn good writer who writes strictly for himself because only his own characters can understand him. He sought no acclaim. The same goes for John W. Cassell, a brilliant writer who ought to be read by millions but is happy enough to have created his own private universe.
In “The Bathsheba Deadline” a newsroom novel otherwise about international intrigue and news media deception, I devote several chapters to Salinger to find, through him, what is real and what is fake. In writing about him (through the eyes of fiction) I found myself reconstructing him until I created an image of a man who left the world because so much of it is run by tricks, gimmicks and deceit.
Salinger took the cue from God Himself who looked around, saw enough, and left us to our own devices.
(Salinger is mystical. That’s for sure and that’s why the novel’s Lyla Crawford is gung-ho after him, body and soul, for the scoop of the century.)
Further into the writing about Salinger in “Bathsheba” – and letting my imagination fly --I began to understand why so many of us are in pursuit of this reclusive novelist and though the epiphany is incomplete, this much I take for truth: We send rockets to scale the moon and the planets and yet the most undiscovered planet is ourselves.
We don’t even know what truth is when we can’t trust a book by its cover.
Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest published works are “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached, and his Works can be viewed, at www.jackengelhard.com
Friday, July 3, 2009
Won’t Have Palin To Kick Around Anymore
By Jack Engelhard
Sarah Palin resigned as governor of Alaska pretty much taking the cue from Richard Nixon that we won’t have her to kick around anymore. So she’s out, though we don’t know where she’s going. My guess? This moment starts her run for the presidency – and this is the one and only candidate that has a real chance of upsetting the incumbent. If so many people hate her, it must be because they fear her.
What has she done wrong – really, what has this woman done wrong except run for the number two spot as a Republican, if you’ll pardon the expression. Other than that, how many commandments did she trespass? Did she rob, steal, kill? You’d think she’d done all that from all the nasty coverage that has dogged her from the moment her name was announced.
Her farewell speech was a mixed bag of political oratory together with restrained anger at all those who’ve mocked her and she sure did attract the worst of what this country has to offer. Think Letterman. Think Vanity Fair. Think of McCain insiders who blamed her for his defeat, never mind that Republicans picked a heroic soldier but the lamest of all candidates. McCain never had a shot, with or without Palin. He had no ideas. He was dull. He ran against his own Party. No shot at all.
Palin livened it up. She connected with ordinary Americans and for that reason alone she was disdained. Politicians, comedians, commentators, all ganged up on her and wouldn’t let up even when she left the spotlight. During the Letterman fiasco, readers at the New York Times blamed HER for imposing herself on the public when she did no such thing. It was Letterman who brought her out of hiding.
These past six months must have been a nightmare for her and they’ve been and continue to be a nightmare for anyone who trusted America as the land that gives everyone a fair shot – who trusted America as a land of good folks and gentle people. That may still be the case generally but from the lofty penthouses of this land we saw the Ugly American up close and personal, and yes, it was Letterman who condensed it all, summed it all up, with that one crack.
The backbiting against this woman was relentless and brutal and did not and does not reveal us at our best. No, we should be better than this. Rapists and murderers get off with lighter sentences. Their punishments end at one point or another, but Palin kept on being punished out of sheer meanness and hatefulness – such as I did not even know existed in this truly good land and within the reservoir of our culture.
There is still no end in sight. Recently the National Society of Newspaper Columnists gave her a razzy award as the most ridiculed American newsmaker – which only added to the ridicule and which only proved her point, that they were after her hide. Is there really such an organization of columnists and who are they anyway and what do they want and why are they organized? Isn’t one at a time enough?
Is it because she’s a woman? That’s for the sociologists but my guess is that yes, but only partly. Is it because she’s a Republican awash in a world of Democrats? That’s for someone from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists to explain, but here’s my try. I think it’s because she dared to challenge Barack Obama and this is the age of Barack Obama. He’s been sainted and no one shall trifle with a saint.
I wish I could say that the ugly pursuit and backstabbing of Sarah Palin came from the cruel streak of left-wingers except that right-wingers also have their cruelties. But this was special. This was ugly. This was brutal. This was cruel – and do not think it’s over. For sure, Letterman’s writers have already gathered for the next round of jokes and jabs and we’ll be hearing more from Bill Maher and all the rest of them who live to scoff and to trash.
This is no longer about Sarah Palin and it is no longer about politics. It is about us, how we respond to those who differ from us.
If we can’t be civil, if we can’t be respectful, if trashing is all we’ve got, if we can only resort to hatefulness, then something is wrong deep within ourselves.
Sarah Palin is the symptom. We are the disease.
Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback at Amazon. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engelhard can be reached, and his Works can be viewed, at www.jackengelhard.com
Sarah Palin resigned as governor of Alaska pretty much taking the cue from Richard Nixon that we won’t have her to kick around anymore. So she’s out, though we don’t know where she’s going. My guess? This moment starts her run for the presidency – and this is the one and only candidate that has a real chance of upsetting the incumbent. If so many people hate her, it must be because they fear her.
What has she done wrong – really, what has this woman done wrong except run for the number two spot as a Republican, if you’ll pardon the expression. Other than that, how many commandments did she trespass? Did she rob, steal, kill? You’d think she’d done all that from all the nasty coverage that has dogged her from the moment her name was announced.
Her farewell speech was a mixed bag of political oratory together with restrained anger at all those who’ve mocked her and she sure did attract the worst of what this country has to offer. Think Letterman. Think Vanity Fair. Think of McCain insiders who blamed her for his defeat, never mind that Republicans picked a heroic soldier but the lamest of all candidates. McCain never had a shot, with or without Palin. He had no ideas. He was dull. He ran against his own Party. No shot at all.
Palin livened it up. She connected with ordinary Americans and for that reason alone she was disdained. Politicians, comedians, commentators, all ganged up on her and wouldn’t let up even when she left the spotlight. During the Letterman fiasco, readers at the New York Times blamed HER for imposing herself on the public when she did no such thing. It was Letterman who brought her out of hiding.
These past six months must have been a nightmare for her and they’ve been and continue to be a nightmare for anyone who trusted America as the land that gives everyone a fair shot – who trusted America as a land of good folks and gentle people. That may still be the case generally but from the lofty penthouses of this land we saw the Ugly American up close and personal, and yes, it was Letterman who condensed it all, summed it all up, with that one crack.
The backbiting against this woman was relentless and brutal and did not and does not reveal us at our best. No, we should be better than this. Rapists and murderers get off with lighter sentences. Their punishments end at one point or another, but Palin kept on being punished out of sheer meanness and hatefulness – such as I did not even know existed in this truly good land and within the reservoir of our culture.
There is still no end in sight. Recently the National Society of Newspaper Columnists gave her a razzy award as the most ridiculed American newsmaker – which only added to the ridicule and which only proved her point, that they were after her hide. Is there really such an organization of columnists and who are they anyway and what do they want and why are they organized? Isn’t one at a time enough?
Is it because she’s a woman? That’s for the sociologists but my guess is that yes, but only partly. Is it because she’s a Republican awash in a world of Democrats? That’s for someone from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists to explain, but here’s my try. I think it’s because she dared to challenge Barack Obama and this is the age of Barack Obama. He’s been sainted and no one shall trifle with a saint.
I wish I could say that the ugly pursuit and backstabbing of Sarah Palin came from the cruel streak of left-wingers except that right-wingers also have their cruelties. But this was special. This was ugly. This was brutal. This was cruel – and do not think it’s over. For sure, Letterman’s writers have already gathered for the next round of jokes and jabs and we’ll be hearing more from Bill Maher and all the rest of them who live to scoff and to trash.
This is no longer about Sarah Palin and it is no longer about politics. It is about us, how we respond to those who differ from us.
If we can’t be civil, if we can’t be respectful, if trashing is all we’ve got, if we can only resort to hatefulness, then something is wrong deep within ourselves.
Sarah Palin is the symptom. We are the disease.
Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback at Amazon. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engelhard can be reached, and his Works can be viewed, at www.jackengelhard.com
Helen Thomas, of All People, on Media Love-Ins
By Jack Engelhard
I’ve never been a fan of Helen Thomas (her rants against Israel, for starters) but this time she’s got me on her side. Good for her! While the rest of her colleagues in the press keep fawning over the Administration, Thomas literally stood up against all the media manipulation going on when, in a heated exchange with press secretary Robert Gibbs, she said that she’d never seen anything like this – this sort of “management” of the news.
Thomas, who’s been a White House correspondent since the days of JFK, came straight out with it in follow-up interviews, saying, “What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Well, yes, judging from all the giggling that usually occurs at what are supposed to be press briefings but which sound more like press Love-Ins.
“It’s blatant,” said Thomas, speaking also about those town-hall set-ups that appear to be so rigged.
Speaking of blatant, as well as corruption, here comes the Washington Post. Yes, the Washington Post that we used to admire since the days of Woodward and Bernstein. Well forget that. The word is out that elements within that newspaper were selling access to White House power brokers at a price ranging from $25,000 to $250,000. Buy a cabinet member, a congressman?
This news is still breaking but it appears that lobbyists were invited to attend a “salon” at those prices to mix and mingle with the Administration’s high and mighty. On top of that, these well-heeled lobbyists were being enticed to schmooze with the Post’s journalists at the home of publisher Katherine Weymouth. Where have you gone, Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee?
The Post – after all this was revealed by Mike Allen, once a reporter for the same newspaper – has since ditched that party, but we still don’t know if it was stopped only because of the embarrassment. Was the publisher herself in on this? Did editors and reporters know what was going on, and did they approve?
Would the party still have been a go if word hadn’t leaked out about this latest romance among the press, the Administration and the lobbyists?
Lobbyists – wasn’t that a dirty word when Barack Obama was still a candidate?
Some may recall the good old days when the press worked for the facts, the truth, and yes, for the people, and not for the government. What happened? My guess is that it did indeed all start with Woodward and Bernstein, whose dogged and courageous reporting brought down a president. Following that, a generation that would otherwise have chosen social services entered journalism to “change the world.” How exciting and how romantic!
So we have dreamers instead of reporters. We have lobbyists pretending to be journalists. They lobby for the White House. That’s what fills our newsrooms today.
The Washington Post is not alone in selling its brand for a price, even the price of non-partisanship. (See “The Bathsheba Deadline” for HALF THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT.) The list of newspapers that have forgotten their duty as a free and adversarial Fourth Estate – the list is long. There no time or space to mention all the media corruption going on as we watch ourselves being manipulated eyes wide open.
But Helen Thomas has been there, done that, and has had enough, and for once, she merits our attention, for without a free press we risk being a free people no more.
Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback at Amazon. He can be reached, and his Works can be viewed, at www.jackengelhard.com
I’ve never been a fan of Helen Thomas (her rants against Israel, for starters) but this time she’s got me on her side. Good for her! While the rest of her colleagues in the press keep fawning over the Administration, Thomas literally stood up against all the media manipulation going on when, in a heated exchange with press secretary Robert Gibbs, she said that she’d never seen anything like this – this sort of “management” of the news.
Thomas, who’s been a White House correspondent since the days of JFK, came straight out with it in follow-up interviews, saying, “What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Well, yes, judging from all the giggling that usually occurs at what are supposed to be press briefings but which sound more like press Love-Ins.
“It’s blatant,” said Thomas, speaking also about those town-hall set-ups that appear to be so rigged.
Speaking of blatant, as well as corruption, here comes the Washington Post. Yes, the Washington Post that we used to admire since the days of Woodward and Bernstein. Well forget that. The word is out that elements within that newspaper were selling access to White House power brokers at a price ranging from $25,000 to $250,000. Buy a cabinet member, a congressman?
This news is still breaking but it appears that lobbyists were invited to attend a “salon” at those prices to mix and mingle with the Administration’s high and mighty. On top of that, these well-heeled lobbyists were being enticed to schmooze with the Post’s journalists at the home of publisher Katherine Weymouth. Where have you gone, Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee?
The Post – after all this was revealed by Mike Allen, once a reporter for the same newspaper – has since ditched that party, but we still don’t know if it was stopped only because of the embarrassment. Was the publisher herself in on this? Did editors and reporters know what was going on, and did they approve?
Would the party still have been a go if word hadn’t leaked out about this latest romance among the press, the Administration and the lobbyists?
Lobbyists – wasn’t that a dirty word when Barack Obama was still a candidate?
Some may recall the good old days when the press worked for the facts, the truth, and yes, for the people, and not for the government. What happened? My guess is that it did indeed all start with Woodward and Bernstein, whose dogged and courageous reporting brought down a president. Following that, a generation that would otherwise have chosen social services entered journalism to “change the world.” How exciting and how romantic!
So we have dreamers instead of reporters. We have lobbyists pretending to be journalists. They lobby for the White House. That’s what fills our newsrooms today.
The Washington Post is not alone in selling its brand for a price, even the price of non-partisanship. (See “The Bathsheba Deadline” for HALF THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT.) The list of newspapers that have forgotten their duty as a free and adversarial Fourth Estate – the list is long. There no time or space to mention all the media corruption going on as we watch ourselves being manipulated eyes wide open.
But Helen Thomas has been there, done that, and has had enough, and for once, she merits our attention, for without a free press we risk being a free people no more.
Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback at Amazon. He can be reached, and his Works can be viewed, at www.jackengelhard.com
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Kremlin America
By Jack Engelhard
The news is never good, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, and I’m losing track of what’s going on so far as health care and a thousand other items that are spinning out of the control. Don’t know much about the economy either, except that this too is in the tank – reaching 10 percent unemployment.
So please don’t come asking me for details. That’s why we have experts who, by the way, are the ones who got us into this fine mess – but never mind.
What I do know is that we – Mr. and Mrs. America – well, we all got together and installed a government that speaks in one voice, along with a news media that whistles the same tune. What have we done? We have installed a system of government that has no checks and balances. Repeat, no checks and balances.
One party runs the whole shebang – the White House and the Congress, with, as I said, the news media tagging along.
Our Founding Fathers were hot on the Separation of Powers, which is why we have three branches of power, the Legislative, the Executive, the Judicial, and then a Fourth Power, the news media, sometimes known as the Fourth Estate. Dissent is expected and even encouraged to keep us safe from tyranny.
America was invented to keep us apart from Big Brother.
Mel Brooks jokes that “it is good to be the king.” Our Founding Fathers were not joking about this. They wanted no part of kings and that’s why they gave us a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution so that, in the words of Micah the prophet, “Each shall rest under his vine and fig tree, and none shall make him afraid.”
Through our votes, we have created a government that operates like the Kremlin. We all remember the Kremlin. This is where one party decides everything. In the Kremlin there is no place for dissent. There is no tolerance for another point of view. There are only orders from headquarters. In the Kremlin, the government decides what is good for you, and if it turns out to be bad for you – too bad. Too damn bad.
In the Kremlin it is all about control. The men at the top set rules and regulations and then there is something like a Parliament whose only task is to rubber stamp those rules and regulations – because it is all one single Party. This is what we have wrought for ourselves freely at the ballot, while in Russia, this system was forced upon the people. They had no say. We did, and this is what we chose.
This may sound like a knock on the Democrat Party but it is not that at all. This is a knock on ANY single Party endowed with absolute power to run our lives. The One Party system is what they’ve got in Iran, North Korea among a hundred other countries and it never works out well except for the people in power. They’ve still got it in Russia. The little people, the ordinary people, don’t have it so good in those other places. That’s why they come here, where we have checks and balances.
Or rather, once upon a time we did. Do we still have Republicans? I have not seen any. I sure have not heard any. Do we still have Independents? Where are they? Suppose the government does something that we don’t like? Tough. There is no place to go when one Party rules everything, every aspect of our lives. There is the Party and only the Party.
In the Kremlin the news media is free to ask questions of the leader – as long as those questions adhere to the Party line. Others are not welcome. The news media functions as part of the Kremlin apparatus. They are cheerleaders. In Russia, this is mandatory, still. In this country, the news media cheerleading was done by consent and popular acclamation.
We – we the people – did not vote for the press but we did vote for a one Party government. We got what we asked for.
Perhaps it’s time to ask – what have we done!
Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback at Amazon. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engelhard can be reached, and his Works can be viewed, at www.jackengelhard.com
The news is never good, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, and I’m losing track of what’s going on so far as health care and a thousand other items that are spinning out of the control. Don’t know much about the economy either, except that this too is in the tank – reaching 10 percent unemployment.
So please don’t come asking me for details. That’s why we have experts who, by the way, are the ones who got us into this fine mess – but never mind.
What I do know is that we – Mr. and Mrs. America – well, we all got together and installed a government that speaks in one voice, along with a news media that whistles the same tune. What have we done? We have installed a system of government that has no checks and balances. Repeat, no checks and balances.
One party runs the whole shebang – the White House and the Congress, with, as I said, the news media tagging along.
Our Founding Fathers were hot on the Separation of Powers, which is why we have three branches of power, the Legislative, the Executive, the Judicial, and then a Fourth Power, the news media, sometimes known as the Fourth Estate. Dissent is expected and even encouraged to keep us safe from tyranny.
America was invented to keep us apart from Big Brother.
Mel Brooks jokes that “it is good to be the king.” Our Founding Fathers were not joking about this. They wanted no part of kings and that’s why they gave us a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution so that, in the words of Micah the prophet, “Each shall rest under his vine and fig tree, and none shall make him afraid.”
Through our votes, we have created a government that operates like the Kremlin. We all remember the Kremlin. This is where one party decides everything. In the Kremlin there is no place for dissent. There is no tolerance for another point of view. There are only orders from headquarters. In the Kremlin, the government decides what is good for you, and if it turns out to be bad for you – too bad. Too damn bad.
In the Kremlin it is all about control. The men at the top set rules and regulations and then there is something like a Parliament whose only task is to rubber stamp those rules and regulations – because it is all one single Party. This is what we have wrought for ourselves freely at the ballot, while in Russia, this system was forced upon the people. They had no say. We did, and this is what we chose.
This may sound like a knock on the Democrat Party but it is not that at all. This is a knock on ANY single Party endowed with absolute power to run our lives. The One Party system is what they’ve got in Iran, North Korea among a hundred other countries and it never works out well except for the people in power. They’ve still got it in Russia. The little people, the ordinary people, don’t have it so good in those other places. That’s why they come here, where we have checks and balances.
Or rather, once upon a time we did. Do we still have Republicans? I have not seen any. I sure have not heard any. Do we still have Independents? Where are they? Suppose the government does something that we don’t like? Tough. There is no place to go when one Party rules everything, every aspect of our lives. There is the Party and only the Party.
In the Kremlin the news media is free to ask questions of the leader – as long as those questions adhere to the Party line. Others are not welcome. The news media functions as part of the Kremlin apparatus. They are cheerleaders. In Russia, this is mandatory, still. In this country, the news media cheerleading was done by consent and popular acclamation.
We – we the people – did not vote for the press but we did vote for a one Party government. We got what we asked for.
Perhaps it’s time to ask – what have we done!
Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback at Amazon. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engelhard can be reached, and his Works can be viewed, at www.jackengelhard.com
Friday, June 26, 2009
This is Getting Ghoulish (Michael Jackson)
By Jack Engelhard
Jonas Salk was never mourned like this – and he cured the world of polio.
No disrespect to Michael Jackson the pop star, pay him whatever tributes you wish, but I wonder how many other Jacksons live and die good ordinary lives and yet we do not call out their names. I wonder how many Michael Jacksons there are in our military, in harms way right this minute in Iraq and Afghanistan, who serve without recognition.
This wall to wall coverage, these mobs bewailing an entertainer, all of it, in such excess, approaches ghoulishness. The last time this happened was when silent screen idol Valentino died young and, as H.L. Mencken tells it, Valentino was startled by his fame and uncomfortable in his skin as a sex symbol -- so surely he would have been horrified by the multitudes who grieved his death.
Obviously many of us lead lives of “quiet desperation” (Thoreau), so we live vicariously, through the lives of others, mostly entertainers and athletes. Nathanael West covered this in his Hollywood novel “The Day of the Locust,” about those lonely people who have turned fetish in their adoration of celebrities, alive or dead. Their sorrow becomes dangerous when it marches as a mob.
Let’s not dwell on the value of Pop to our culture, nor of the public crotch grabbing (simulated masturbation) that taught us to accept and even to welcome vulgarity. Never mind all that, though it’s true that another entertainer of that same period, Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) was actually arrested for doing something like that in private. We get it from Wikipedia that “In July, 1991, Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure while masturbating during an adult theater performance in Sarasota, Florida.”
Let’s not touch on whatever urged Jackson to make song from such lyrics as, “Jew me, sue me, kick me, kike me.”
There’s that other business as well that is best left alone.
Let’s give him his due that he was an entertainer blessed and cursed by an overabundance of talent – to borrow from what the writer John W. Cassell told me over the phone, “That he could never live up to what was expected of him. That’s what destroyed him.” I’m buying that because what Jackson is to others, Elvis was to me. Only I began to appreciate Elvis when it was too late, after he was gone.
At the time, back then, I thought he was all wrong. How I’ve changed about Elvis! Maybe one day I’ll change about Michael Jackson.
Elvis came along when there was a cultural void to fill and I guess the same goes for Jackson.
But this is not about either of them. This is about adoration and adulation that gets out of hand. This is about idol-worship.
There is something sick in our culture when the earth stands still for a man who could sing and dance.
There is something misplaced in our priorities when our news media goes gaga over one Jackson above all the other Jacksons.
About the author: Novelist Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback at Amazon. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. The book version of “Indecent Proposal,” that inspired the movie, is a microcosm of the Arab/Israeli conflict. Engelhard can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
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Jonas Salk was never mourned like this – and he cured the world of polio.
No disrespect to Michael Jackson the pop star, pay him whatever tributes you wish, but I wonder how many other Jacksons live and die good ordinary lives and yet we do not call out their names. I wonder how many Michael Jacksons there are in our military, in harms way right this minute in Iraq and Afghanistan, who serve without recognition.
This wall to wall coverage, these mobs bewailing an entertainer, all of it, in such excess, approaches ghoulishness. The last time this happened was when silent screen idol Valentino died young and, as H.L. Mencken tells it, Valentino was startled by his fame and uncomfortable in his skin as a sex symbol -- so surely he would have been horrified by the multitudes who grieved his death.
Obviously many of us lead lives of “quiet desperation” (Thoreau), so we live vicariously, through the lives of others, mostly entertainers and athletes. Nathanael West covered this in his Hollywood novel “The Day of the Locust,” about those lonely people who have turned fetish in their adoration of celebrities, alive or dead. Their sorrow becomes dangerous when it marches as a mob.
Let’s not dwell on the value of Pop to our culture, nor of the public crotch grabbing (simulated masturbation) that taught us to accept and even to welcome vulgarity. Never mind all that, though it’s true that another entertainer of that same period, Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) was actually arrested for doing something like that in private. We get it from Wikipedia that “In July, 1991, Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure while masturbating during an adult theater performance in Sarasota, Florida.”
Let’s not touch on whatever urged Jackson to make song from such lyrics as, “Jew me, sue me, kick me, kike me.”
There’s that other business as well that is best left alone.
Let’s give him his due that he was an entertainer blessed and cursed by an overabundance of talent – to borrow from what the writer John W. Cassell told me over the phone, “That he could never live up to what was expected of him. That’s what destroyed him.” I’m buying that because what Jackson is to others, Elvis was to me. Only I began to appreciate Elvis when it was too late, after he was gone.
At the time, back then, I thought he was all wrong. How I’ve changed about Elvis! Maybe one day I’ll change about Michael Jackson.
Elvis came along when there was a cultural void to fill and I guess the same goes for Jackson.
But this is not about either of them. This is about adoration and adulation that gets out of hand. This is about idol-worship.
There is something sick in our culture when the earth stands still for a man who could sing and dance.
There is something misplaced in our priorities when our news media goes gaga over one Jackson above all the other Jacksons.
About the author: Novelist Jack Engelhard’s latest thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” which centers on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback at Amazon. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. The book version of “Indecent Proposal,” that inspired the movie, is a microcosm of the Arab/Israeli conflict. Engelhard can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
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Sunday, June 21, 2009
The Art of Pushing Books
By Jack Engelhard
The trick is to get yourself a good publicist, a publicist, as I was once told, who would kill for you. Well, that’s going too far, don’t you think? I haven’t had a publicist since that one time back then. After that it’s been me and you and where are you? I must learn the art of persuasion, public relations, backslapping. I should go to the right parties. I should do lunch at Elaine’s. I should get out more. Must get on TV. Better yet, get my own show.
My guess is that I’ll become rich and famous after I die. That’s how it usually happens. Success (for artists) usually happens after it too late.
I have no idea why I’m complaining. Most people have it worse. My gripe, I guess, is why we need all that marketing and the trickery that goes with it and why it is that TV personalities have all the apparatus and all the luck – when real writers are stuck at their computers without a paddle.
That was today when that host on TV begged his guest to read his book – which, incidentally, is already up there on the charts. Still not enough – aye? There’s this other TV guy who always ends his show by pimping his book. Shouldn’t there be a law against this? Isn’t that advertising? You and me, we’d have to pay for such a plug.
Is it really a book anyway when it’s written by committee? Don’t tell me those celebs are actually sweating away at the typewriter. My guess is that they “approve” what’s handed to them by the team of writers who’ve been bought and paid for. Maybe you know those personalities, the ones I’m talking about, but I won’t mention them for fear of being blacklisted.
No, please don’t make me name names. They’ll never invite me. I’ll never get on. I must behave so that the NY Times will notice me as it notices Dave Eggers and the rest of that crowd that they love so much whether they write well or not – all of them geniuses of the month. So I must learn to behave or learn to sell, sell myself, sell my books, do Oprah.
I’ll get on it right after this nap.
I suggest that the finest writing – even great writing – is untapped, unpublicized, unread, even unpublished.
King Solomon said that “there is no end to the publishing of too many books” – and that was 3,000 years ago, before Gutenberg and before they all got on TV.
I do notice that books that become bestsellers are generally non-fiction – about golf or losing weight, mostly all about success and improving yourself and the world, millions of such books are being bought and sold though strangely as of yet I have seen no improvement in behavior as to individuals or the world.
Real literature is not about the world but it is about a corner of the world. That’s the most a writer can do is write about his corner and believe it, often enough that corner, small as it is, speaks for the universe. Each person is a universe and so is each book. When writer and reader meet at the same corner, that’s the magic of literature.
If you’re reading this you’re not watching TV, some TV host or TV guest pushing his books. Well, that’s a start.
Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international best-seller “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novels are “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
The trick is to get yourself a good publicist, a publicist, as I was once told, who would kill for you. Well, that’s going too far, don’t you think? I haven’t had a publicist since that one time back then. After that it’s been me and you and where are you? I must learn the art of persuasion, public relations, backslapping. I should go to the right parties. I should do lunch at Elaine’s. I should get out more. Must get on TV. Better yet, get my own show.
My guess is that I’ll become rich and famous after I die. That’s how it usually happens. Success (for artists) usually happens after it too late.
I have no idea why I’m complaining. Most people have it worse. My gripe, I guess, is why we need all that marketing and the trickery that goes with it and why it is that TV personalities have all the apparatus and all the luck – when real writers are stuck at their computers without a paddle.
That was today when that host on TV begged his guest to read his book – which, incidentally, is already up there on the charts. Still not enough – aye? There’s this other TV guy who always ends his show by pimping his book. Shouldn’t there be a law against this? Isn’t that advertising? You and me, we’d have to pay for such a plug.
Is it really a book anyway when it’s written by committee? Don’t tell me those celebs are actually sweating away at the typewriter. My guess is that they “approve” what’s handed to them by the team of writers who’ve been bought and paid for. Maybe you know those personalities, the ones I’m talking about, but I won’t mention them for fear of being blacklisted.
No, please don’t make me name names. They’ll never invite me. I’ll never get on. I must behave so that the NY Times will notice me as it notices Dave Eggers and the rest of that crowd that they love so much whether they write well or not – all of them geniuses of the month. So I must learn to behave or learn to sell, sell myself, sell my books, do Oprah.
I’ll get on it right after this nap.
I suggest that the finest writing – even great writing – is untapped, unpublicized, unread, even unpublished.
King Solomon said that “there is no end to the publishing of too many books” – and that was 3,000 years ago, before Gutenberg and before they all got on TV.
I do notice that books that become bestsellers are generally non-fiction – about golf or losing weight, mostly all about success and improving yourself and the world, millions of such books are being bought and sold though strangely as of yet I have seen no improvement in behavior as to individuals or the world.
Real literature is not about the world but it is about a corner of the world. That’s the most a writer can do is write about his corner and believe it, often enough that corner, small as it is, speaks for the universe. Each person is a universe and so is each book. When writer and reader meet at the same corner, that’s the magic of literature.
If you’re reading this you’re not watching TV, some TV host or TV guest pushing his books. Well, that’s a start.
Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international best-seller “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novels are “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Naked Without a Teleprompter
By Jack Engelhard
This may come as a shock to readers who think I’m exceedingly smart or stupid, but listen, I do it my way, all on my own.
I have no staff to hand me material. Like other civilians, I walk through life entirely spontaneous. I even write books all by myself – wrote them all without help.
I take full responsibility for this column and for the thousands I’ve written throughout the years.
But David Letterman makes $35 million a year reading off cue cards?
This man Letterman, as I understand it, now blames his writers for the Palin jokes that went over like a lead balloon.
Whom can I blame when I go wrong?
When I speak in public (like going out to buy a paper or get gas) I have no cue cards or teleprompter to serve up repartee.
I know it works for comedians and Community Organizers. We even have proof that a good teleprompter CAN fool all the people all the time.
But oratory and gags don’t work for me when done by committee.
Is it even legit?
I am not sure why we laugh at jokes that are delivered by a man who is only aping material that has been community organized.
Late news has it that, out of Kenya, the brother of our Community Organizer in Chief is working on a “book,” for which he will be paid $6 million. This will surely be a family saga of a child born to us who became President of the World. For certain (or it’s just my guess) a ghost writer has already been hired to do the “writing.”
As Truman Capote said of a competing novelist (Jack Kerouac), “That’s not writing. That’s typing.”
Back in school they called it cribbing.
How many writers does it take to screw in one joke? I ask because I watched one of those award shows where Jon Stewart got up to receive a citation for his humor, and no doubt he is a funny man, but marching up there with him, onto the stage, to share the acclaim, were more than a dozen of his gagsters.
I was surprised – and jealous. Where are MY writers? I would love to start a novel, or a column, and then turn to my staff and say, “Okay, you finish up.”
Actually I wouldn’t like that because then it wouldn’t be mine. It wouldn’t be true and it wouldn’t be original.
Most of us do our writing in captivity. Mark Twain was brilliant and hilarious as a writer and public speaker and far as I know he had no entourage.
When did original thinking die in America? The words for Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address came from his own mind, heart and pen.
Lincoln also relied on himself for oratory equally as great, his Second Inaugural Address, which did borrow from one source – the Bible.
King David, then, wrote all that sublime poetry – the Psalms – in private. No committee for him, unless you mean God.
But like the man said – “God is dead.”
Or as I say, God is alive but we’re dead.
Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest works are the newsroom thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline” and the love story/suspense novel “The Girls of Cincinnati,” all available in paperback at Amazon. His Works can be viewed and he can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
This may come as a shock to readers who think I’m exceedingly smart or stupid, but listen, I do it my way, all on my own.
I have no staff to hand me material. Like other civilians, I walk through life entirely spontaneous. I even write books all by myself – wrote them all without help.
I take full responsibility for this column and for the thousands I’ve written throughout the years.
But David Letterman makes $35 million a year reading off cue cards?
This man Letterman, as I understand it, now blames his writers for the Palin jokes that went over like a lead balloon.
Whom can I blame when I go wrong?
When I speak in public (like going out to buy a paper or get gas) I have no cue cards or teleprompter to serve up repartee.
I know it works for comedians and Community Organizers. We even have proof that a good teleprompter CAN fool all the people all the time.
But oratory and gags don’t work for me when done by committee.
Is it even legit?
I am not sure why we laugh at jokes that are delivered by a man who is only aping material that has been community organized.
Late news has it that, out of Kenya, the brother of our Community Organizer in Chief is working on a “book,” for which he will be paid $6 million. This will surely be a family saga of a child born to us who became President of the World. For certain (or it’s just my guess) a ghost writer has already been hired to do the “writing.”
As Truman Capote said of a competing novelist (Jack Kerouac), “That’s not writing. That’s typing.”
Back in school they called it cribbing.
How many writers does it take to screw in one joke? I ask because I watched one of those award shows where Jon Stewart got up to receive a citation for his humor, and no doubt he is a funny man, but marching up there with him, onto the stage, to share the acclaim, were more than a dozen of his gagsters.
I was surprised – and jealous. Where are MY writers? I would love to start a novel, or a column, and then turn to my staff and say, “Okay, you finish up.”
Actually I wouldn’t like that because then it wouldn’t be mine. It wouldn’t be true and it wouldn’t be original.
Most of us do our writing in captivity. Mark Twain was brilliant and hilarious as a writer and public speaker and far as I know he had no entourage.
When did original thinking die in America? The words for Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address came from his own mind, heart and pen.
Lincoln also relied on himself for oratory equally as great, his Second Inaugural Address, which did borrow from one source – the Bible.
King David, then, wrote all that sublime poetry – the Psalms – in private. No committee for him, unless you mean God.
But like the man said – “God is dead.”
Or as I say, God is alive but we’re dead.
Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest works are the newsroom thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline” and the love story/suspense novel “The Girls of Cincinnati,” all available in paperback at Amazon. His Works can be viewed and he can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Top 10 Reasons to Snub David Letterman
Top 10 Reasons to Snub David Letterman After the Palin Fiasco:
By Jack Engelhard
10: He’s not funny.
9: His jokes are written by 20 frat boys who have an IQ of 180 – combined.
8. His audience gets in for free – and even that’s paying too much.
7. On his best day he’s no Johnny Carson. Carson would never stoop for a laugh.
6. Letterman’s reference to Sarah Palin as “slutty” was an insult to all women.
5. Letterman’s routine on Monday took up the Palin family’s visit to New York, which included a trip to the ball park. Here’s Letterman in his own words: “During the seventh inning, her [Palin’s] daughter was knocked-up by Alex Rodriguez.” Todd Palin, the father, responded like this: “Any jokes about raping my 14-year-old daughter are despicable.”
4. A perverted crack like that, by Letterman, got on national TV.
3. But a quip like that against a 14-year-old girl would most likely require registration as a sex offender in my neighborhood.
2. Letterman and his staff of writers misunderstand the phrase – “Women and children first.”
1. On the pretense of contrition, Letterman denied that he was a “celebrity.” Now we know what he isn’t – and we know what he is.
--
Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novel is “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
By Jack Engelhard
10: He’s not funny.
9: His jokes are written by 20 frat boys who have an IQ of 180 – combined.
8. His audience gets in for free – and even that’s paying too much.
7. On his best day he’s no Johnny Carson. Carson would never stoop for a laugh.
6. Letterman’s reference to Sarah Palin as “slutty” was an insult to all women.
5. Letterman’s routine on Monday took up the Palin family’s visit to New York, which included a trip to the ball park. Here’s Letterman in his own words: “During the seventh inning, her [Palin’s] daughter was knocked-up by Alex Rodriguez.” Todd Palin, the father, responded like this: “Any jokes about raping my 14-year-old daughter are despicable.”
4. A perverted crack like that, by Letterman, got on national TV.
3. But a quip like that against a 14-year-old girl would most likely require registration as a sex offender in my neighborhood.
2. Letterman and his staff of writers misunderstand the phrase – “Women and children first.”
1. On the pretense of contrition, Letterman denied that he was a “celebrity.” Now we know what he isn’t – and we know what he is.
--
Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novel is “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Strange Deafness Afflicts Salinger Lawsuit
By Jack Engelhard
Salinger can’t hear? That’s hard to take.
Reports are coming in that JD Salinger “is now totally deaf.” That’s a quote being attributed to his agent, whose job it is to enforce his privacy.
As I wrote in an earlier piece (“Salinger Alleges Indecent Rip-off”), I don’t know much about the law, but here, as a novelist who names Salinger as one of his literary heroes, I can say what strangeness it is to blurt out such news. I don’t doubt the truth of this revelation, but I do wonder why it got out from his gatekeepers. They must have known it would make headlines – and not in a good way.
Already there are parodies of his aging (he’s 90) and headlines that term him “frail and deaf.” (Shades of Howard Hughes?) I hope we’re not gloating.
There’s this passage to consider about a man who’s been stricken by age and infirmity and because of this, becomes the object of laughter and sport: “Wait, he used to whisper to me. Everybody gets a turn.” That’s from my novel “The Girls of Cincinnati” about a salesman, Lou Emmett, but it could have been written about a novelist, JD Salinger.
Everybody gets a turn, kids.
This is a man, Salinger, who’s kept himself fiercely reclusive for an entire generation. We know almost nothing about him except for the writing. That’s been the deal. Salinger is all about the sanctity of the novel, which is why (through his lawyers) he’s going to court to stop publication and distribution of an alleged rip-off of “The Catcher in The Rye.”
Maybe it needed to be said for legal reasons, that he’s “now totally deaf.” Probably so. But Salinger must be cringing that he’s been made public – and pathetic.
His people couldn’t stop this from getting out? Maybe not. Still, I find it strange that an image so unflattering got divulged.
They couldn’t foresee the headlines and the mockery – if indeed that quote of his deafness is correct as received?
Salinger’s argument has always been that his writings do the talking. That is all we need to know about him.
He is Holden Caulfield (still) as Flaubert was Madame Bovary.
His revenge has been his silence. For that he’s been admired, and scorned.
As for me, what’s not to like? He’s a war hero. He was in action at Utah Beach on D-Day and in The Battle of the Bulge. Later, serving in counter intelligence, he interrrogated Nazi prisoners of war who'd been active in the death camps. He told his daughter, "You never get the small of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live."
Salinger hates people. He especially hates the uppity New York publishing scene – this, after years of rejection before some of his short stories and “Catcher” saw print. He wrote ONE novel that’s made him more beloved (and disdained) than novelists who’ve written them by the hundreds.
Yes, sometimes it takes but one great book to secure a reputation. That is true glory and blessedness.
Like Paul Newman, his father was Jewish, his mother was Catholic. I don’t quite get the message here except that the Almighty does indeed work in mysterious ways.
We ought to delight in the fact that (at 90) we still have him with us – “totally deaf” or whatever.
To those who envy him and rejoice in his affliction, here’s the wisdom of King Solomon:
“So remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come.”
Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novels are “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
Salinger can’t hear? That’s hard to take.
Reports are coming in that JD Salinger “is now totally deaf.” That’s a quote being attributed to his agent, whose job it is to enforce his privacy.
As I wrote in an earlier piece (“Salinger Alleges Indecent Rip-off”), I don’t know much about the law, but here, as a novelist who names Salinger as one of his literary heroes, I can say what strangeness it is to blurt out such news. I don’t doubt the truth of this revelation, but I do wonder why it got out from his gatekeepers. They must have known it would make headlines – and not in a good way.
Already there are parodies of his aging (he’s 90) and headlines that term him “frail and deaf.” (Shades of Howard Hughes?) I hope we’re not gloating.
There’s this passage to consider about a man who’s been stricken by age and infirmity and because of this, becomes the object of laughter and sport: “Wait, he used to whisper to me. Everybody gets a turn.” That’s from my novel “The Girls of Cincinnati” about a salesman, Lou Emmett, but it could have been written about a novelist, JD Salinger.
Everybody gets a turn, kids.
This is a man, Salinger, who’s kept himself fiercely reclusive for an entire generation. We know almost nothing about him except for the writing. That’s been the deal. Salinger is all about the sanctity of the novel, which is why (through his lawyers) he’s going to court to stop publication and distribution of an alleged rip-off of “The Catcher in The Rye.”
Maybe it needed to be said for legal reasons, that he’s “now totally deaf.” Probably so. But Salinger must be cringing that he’s been made public – and pathetic.
His people couldn’t stop this from getting out? Maybe not. Still, I find it strange that an image so unflattering got divulged.
They couldn’t foresee the headlines and the mockery – if indeed that quote of his deafness is correct as received?
Salinger’s argument has always been that his writings do the talking. That is all we need to know about him.
He is Holden Caulfield (still) as Flaubert was Madame Bovary.
His revenge has been his silence. For that he’s been admired, and scorned.
As for me, what’s not to like? He’s a war hero. He was in action at Utah Beach on D-Day and in The Battle of the Bulge. Later, serving in counter intelligence, he interrrogated Nazi prisoners of war who'd been active in the death camps. He told his daughter, "You never get the small of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live."
Salinger hates people. He especially hates the uppity New York publishing scene – this, after years of rejection before some of his short stories and “Catcher” saw print. He wrote ONE novel that’s made him more beloved (and disdained) than novelists who’ve written them by the hundreds.
Yes, sometimes it takes but one great book to secure a reputation. That is true glory and blessedness.
Like Paul Newman, his father was Jewish, his mother was Catholic. I don’t quite get the message here except that the Almighty does indeed work in mysterious ways.
We ought to delight in the fact that (at 90) we still have him with us – “totally deaf” or whatever.
To those who envy him and rejoice in his affliction, here’s the wisdom of King Solomon:
“So remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come.”
Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novels are “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Salinger Alleges Indecent Rip-Off
By Jack Engelhard
Someone has come along with a “sequel” to JD Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.” Salinger is suing to stop publication and distribution. He calls it a “rip-off.”
Don’t look at me to get into the legalities. But I do know how it feels.
I wrote nothing as popular as “The Catcher in the Rye” but popular enough to be translated into more than 22 languages and to be made into a movie starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore – “Indecent Proposal.” (The movie’s box office was about $260 million worldwide.) The novel’s concept (“what would you do for a million dollars?”) was mine and the title was mine. This was original and it was my baby.
My novel sold about 4 million copies worldwide and still sells (through Comteq Publishing) even after the movie has run dry.
Salinger’s novel is still going strong after sales of 70 million.
Around the house, following the publication of “Indecent Proposal,” we used to say, “No matter what happens, they can’t take that away from you.”
Really?
About a year ago a “writer” decided to rip-off my title. She calls her book “Indecent Proposal.” I haven’t read the rip-off (the “book” itself) and I cannot say if my theme was borrowed. I can only speak of the title. I am told, by lawyers, that titles are not protected. Okay, that’s the legality. But what about respect – the unspoken rules that govern the tenderness of literature?
When I found out about this rip-off of my title I was upset. Now I’m still upset. I felt mugged then and I feel mugged now. Comes to this, I guess, which is: “Why come up with your own title? Borrow the title from a novel already famous and you’re in business fast.” No, getting ripped off doesn’t get better with age.
Salinger is 90 years old now and he’s still zealous of his “intellectual property.” Good for him!
“Imitation,” we’re told, “is the highest form of flattery.” Speaking for Salinger and for myself, thanks anyway, but we can do without the flattery.
Maybe we should feel pity for “writers” who are so feeble that they have no choice but to go scavenging after other people’s books – in my case, true, only the title.
But the title has been my claim to fame – if fame is the word we want in the case of all writers whose dreams and struggles never end.
Salinger’s claim to fame is “The Catcher in the Rye.” Salinger is a recluse. He doesn’t want to be near people. (Who can blame him?) He wants his privacy but people keep pursuing him. All right, pursue the man if we must. That’s the lesser evil. But to pursue his novel, that is the greater evil. A true novel, like any true work of art, is as near to holiness as we’ll ever get.
Salinger did not make the novel. The novel made Salinger.
I can say the same as for me and for “Indecent Proposal.”
Novelists invest time and blood into the work of a book and after that we have to fend off publishers, editors, reviewers and even friends who wish us to go splat.
That ought to be enough. We don’t need copycats on top of it all.
I have since published other novels just waiting for the vultures.
Salinger is quoted as saying that there is a “marvelous peace in not publishing.”
That is so damned true. The pleasure is only in the writing. That’s the heaven. After that comes the hell.
Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novels are “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
Someone has come along with a “sequel” to JD Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.” Salinger is suing to stop publication and distribution. He calls it a “rip-off.”
Don’t look at me to get into the legalities. But I do know how it feels.
I wrote nothing as popular as “The Catcher in the Rye” but popular enough to be translated into more than 22 languages and to be made into a movie starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore – “Indecent Proposal.” (The movie’s box office was about $260 million worldwide.) The novel’s concept (“what would you do for a million dollars?”) was mine and the title was mine. This was original and it was my baby.
My novel sold about 4 million copies worldwide and still sells (through Comteq Publishing) even after the movie has run dry.
Salinger’s novel is still going strong after sales of 70 million.
Around the house, following the publication of “Indecent Proposal,” we used to say, “No matter what happens, they can’t take that away from you.”
Really?
About a year ago a “writer” decided to rip-off my title. She calls her book “Indecent Proposal.” I haven’t read the rip-off (the “book” itself) and I cannot say if my theme was borrowed. I can only speak of the title. I am told, by lawyers, that titles are not protected. Okay, that’s the legality. But what about respect – the unspoken rules that govern the tenderness of literature?
When I found out about this rip-off of my title I was upset. Now I’m still upset. I felt mugged then and I feel mugged now. Comes to this, I guess, which is: “Why come up with your own title? Borrow the title from a novel already famous and you’re in business fast.” No, getting ripped off doesn’t get better with age.
Salinger is 90 years old now and he’s still zealous of his “intellectual property.” Good for him!
“Imitation,” we’re told, “is the highest form of flattery.” Speaking for Salinger and for myself, thanks anyway, but we can do without the flattery.
Maybe we should feel pity for “writers” who are so feeble that they have no choice but to go scavenging after other people’s books – in my case, true, only the title.
But the title has been my claim to fame – if fame is the word we want in the case of all writers whose dreams and struggles never end.
Salinger’s claim to fame is “The Catcher in the Rye.” Salinger is a recluse. He doesn’t want to be near people. (Who can blame him?) He wants his privacy but people keep pursuing him. All right, pursue the man if we must. That’s the lesser evil. But to pursue his novel, that is the greater evil. A true novel, like any true work of art, is as near to holiness as we’ll ever get.
Salinger did not make the novel. The novel made Salinger.
I can say the same as for me and for “Indecent Proposal.”
Novelists invest time and blood into the work of a book and after that we have to fend off publishers, editors, reviewers and even friends who wish us to go splat.
That ought to be enough. We don’t need copycats on top of it all.
I have since published other novels just waiting for the vultures.
Salinger is quoted as saying that there is a “marvelous peace in not publishing.”
That is so damned true. The pleasure is only in the writing. That’s the heaven. After that comes the hell.
Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novels are “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Employees Must Wash Hands
By Jack Engelhard
I’m not perfect either but I’ve got to say, people are tough to take.
At the diner where I had breakfast this morning, the sign in the Gents room said, “Employees Must Wash Hands.” That’s a sign we find everywhere.
My cat knows to wash her hands after doing her business. People have to be told. We call this evolution? Maybe Darwin had it backwards.
In the doctor’s office the sign reads, “Always cover your mouth when you cough.”
Been on a train lately, or subway, or bus? Or the mall? So I don’t have to tell you that (generally) people do not adhere to this hygienic courtesy.
People cough and sneeze up close and personal – and they curse. I remember the F-word as something we uttered privately after getting cut off in traffic. Today, it’s gone public. We hear it everywhere and there’s no use saying, as we used to, “Hey, there are ladies present.” First, it’s so prevalent that there’d be no place to start or stop. Second, ladies do it, too.
As you can tell, I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. That’s because the neighbor’s dog woke me up six o’clock this morning – woke up the whole neighborhood. But I’m the only one who complained. Neighbors don’t talk anymore, not in this America. So I asked the neighbor to please do something about the dog.
He did – and we’ll see about tomorrow. They’re new neighbors so maybe they don’t know the rules.
You’d think, of course, that all of us would know certain rules. This is not a jungle, or maybe it is.
Wait. My bad mood began on the trip I took to New York, and back. The lady behind the counter was chomping on potato chips, with one hand, and was on the phone with the other hand, chatting about her son-in-law. Finally, she asked what I wanted. I wanted to buy tickets. Obviously, I was interrupting her personal life with business. She did the transaction with reluctance and annoyance. She was happy again when she got back on the phone, and back to her potato chips.
At the bus station in New York, the lady at the Information counter did not have information. I asked her about the schedule going back and everything she told me turned out to be wrong. But I did catch a bus and sat in front of someone who was snoring peals of thunder, mouth wide open.
Next to me a lady was on the phone. Maybe we ought to outlaw cell phones. Or maybe we ought to outlaw people using cell phones in public.
Or maybe we should outlaw people.
My cell phone loses contact after 12 seconds. Other people can talk for hours, like this lady on the bus.
She had a voice so loud that really, there was no need for a telephone. I caught her entire life’s history, like what the x-ray said, and what the babysitter did.
I missed one part and asked her to please repeat that part that I had missed. I was trying to be charming. There is no charm in this America.
When I got in the car I was on a road whose speed limit is 40. The car in front was doing 20. I was tempted to signal that I wanted to pass – as we used to do years ago. You signaled, and you passed (where it was legal and safe) and everybody got home as friends. Today, of course, in this America, if you pass someone, you never know who’s in that other car!
When I get rich, I’m staying home. But meanwhile, please wash hands before leaving.
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novels are the newsroom thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline” and the suspenseful love story “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
I’m not perfect either but I’ve got to say, people are tough to take.
At the diner where I had breakfast this morning, the sign in the Gents room said, “Employees Must Wash Hands.” That’s a sign we find everywhere.
My cat knows to wash her hands after doing her business. People have to be told. We call this evolution? Maybe Darwin had it backwards.
In the doctor’s office the sign reads, “Always cover your mouth when you cough.”
Been on a train lately, or subway, or bus? Or the mall? So I don’t have to tell you that (generally) people do not adhere to this hygienic courtesy.
People cough and sneeze up close and personal – and they curse. I remember the F-word as something we uttered privately after getting cut off in traffic. Today, it’s gone public. We hear it everywhere and there’s no use saying, as we used to, “Hey, there are ladies present.” First, it’s so prevalent that there’d be no place to start or stop. Second, ladies do it, too.
As you can tell, I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. That’s because the neighbor’s dog woke me up six o’clock this morning – woke up the whole neighborhood. But I’m the only one who complained. Neighbors don’t talk anymore, not in this America. So I asked the neighbor to please do something about the dog.
He did – and we’ll see about tomorrow. They’re new neighbors so maybe they don’t know the rules.
You’d think, of course, that all of us would know certain rules. This is not a jungle, or maybe it is.
Wait. My bad mood began on the trip I took to New York, and back. The lady behind the counter was chomping on potato chips, with one hand, and was on the phone with the other hand, chatting about her son-in-law. Finally, she asked what I wanted. I wanted to buy tickets. Obviously, I was interrupting her personal life with business. She did the transaction with reluctance and annoyance. She was happy again when she got back on the phone, and back to her potato chips.
At the bus station in New York, the lady at the Information counter did not have information. I asked her about the schedule going back and everything she told me turned out to be wrong. But I did catch a bus and sat in front of someone who was snoring peals of thunder, mouth wide open.
Next to me a lady was on the phone. Maybe we ought to outlaw cell phones. Or maybe we ought to outlaw people using cell phones in public.
Or maybe we should outlaw people.
My cell phone loses contact after 12 seconds. Other people can talk for hours, like this lady on the bus.
She had a voice so loud that really, there was no need for a telephone. I caught her entire life’s history, like what the x-ray said, and what the babysitter did.
I missed one part and asked her to please repeat that part that I had missed. I was trying to be charming. There is no charm in this America.
When I got in the car I was on a road whose speed limit is 40. The car in front was doing 20. I was tempted to signal that I wanted to pass – as we used to do years ago. You signaled, and you passed (where it was legal and safe) and everybody got home as friends. Today, of course, in this America, if you pass someone, you never know who’s in that other car!
When I get rich, I’m staying home. But meanwhile, please wash hands before leaving.
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novels are the newsroom thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline” and the suspenseful love story “The Girls of Cincinnati.” He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Sneak-Peek This Novel!
By Jack Engelhard
Sometimes it pays to get out of bed in the morning. THIS morning, there it was, Amazon’s “Look Inside This Book” feature for “The Girls of Cincinnati.” The book was published not even a month ago by Amazon (through its createspace subsidiary) but it takes some time to get that sneak-peek feature up and running, but here it was and here it is, something of a thrill for a writer and maybe (hopefully) for a reader.
I don’t mean to do any sucking-up, but I do so appreciate this quick, professional work. Where – reading and writing fans – would we be without Amazon?
Amazon came along just when writing and reading were dying. Book stores were closing and writers who were not Dan Brown had no shot.
Oh – yes, some call it Print on Demand. I don’t. I call it Bypass Literature. This lets writers bypass the snobs who pay Hillary Clinton Eight Million Dollars for a “book” of nonsense. Some bad books get published POD but here’s a secret – plenty bad books get published by so-called conventional publishers. Plenty good books get self-published, beginning with Walt Whitman.
The most famous small book of all time – Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style” – was first self-published by William Strunk, Jr.
We will never know how many great books never got published due to the clubby, chummy, clueless world of (conventional) editors and publishers.
I seldom get past page 12 of their Genius of the Month.
John W. Cassell is self-published by Inkwater, and if it gets any better than Cassell, let me know.
Books (by conventional publishers) are not written anymore. They’re marketed. They’re packaged for sales like Viagra and serve the same purpose.
Why, you ask, would a novelist who produced an international bestselling novel – “Indecent Proposal” – go this bypass route? I could give a hundred reasons.
Mainly, though, I got fed up with editorial water-boarding.
Most editors, over there at those big-time publishing houses, operate through an agenda. You’re in or you’re out. I’d rather be out.
I finally accept the proposition that I know as much as they do, when it comes to writing – and they know who they are, or rather who they were, since so many conventional publishers are suddenly out of business, their editors out in the cold. Sorry to say this but I’ll say it anyway – poetic justice. (Talk about rejection!) We who go it alone, we sing of ourselves as Whitman did. We tolerate no interference from middle parties whose judgments are pre-judged, arbitrary, prejudiced, small-minded and sometimes even corrupt.
If you can read Dan Brown from beginning to end, or if vampires are your game, “The Girls of Cincinnati” probably won’t do it for you. But if you care for hot love, mixed with thrills and suspense, “Girls” may be the read you need. Personally, I think it is just as good as “Indecent Proposal,” which sold about three million copies worldwide and was later turned into that Paramount movie starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore.
“The Girls Of Cincinnati” is the first novel I ever wrote and this includes all the innocence and all the missed chances and all the heartbreak of youth.
It’s a Coming of Age saga, though I doubt that we ever come of age.
That’s how writers are blessed. Every book is a new beginning. We’re young again.
We ask that our readers join us in this great adventure, the greatest discovery of all – the discovery of ourselves.
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of “Indecent Proposal” and “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Days of the Bitter End.” His latest novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” is now available on Amazon. He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
Sometimes it pays to get out of bed in the morning. THIS morning, there it was, Amazon’s “Look Inside This Book” feature for “The Girls of Cincinnati.” The book was published not even a month ago by Amazon (through its createspace subsidiary) but it takes some time to get that sneak-peek feature up and running, but here it was and here it is, something of a thrill for a writer and maybe (hopefully) for a reader.
I don’t mean to do any sucking-up, but I do so appreciate this quick, professional work. Where – reading and writing fans – would we be without Amazon?
Amazon came along just when writing and reading were dying. Book stores were closing and writers who were not Dan Brown had no shot.
Oh – yes, some call it Print on Demand. I don’t. I call it Bypass Literature. This lets writers bypass the snobs who pay Hillary Clinton Eight Million Dollars for a “book” of nonsense. Some bad books get published POD but here’s a secret – plenty bad books get published by so-called conventional publishers. Plenty good books get self-published, beginning with Walt Whitman.
The most famous small book of all time – Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style” – was first self-published by William Strunk, Jr.
We will never know how many great books never got published due to the clubby, chummy, clueless world of (conventional) editors and publishers.
I seldom get past page 12 of their Genius of the Month.
John W. Cassell is self-published by Inkwater, and if it gets any better than Cassell, let me know.
Books (by conventional publishers) are not written anymore. They’re marketed. They’re packaged for sales like Viagra and serve the same purpose.
Why, you ask, would a novelist who produced an international bestselling novel – “Indecent Proposal” – go this bypass route? I could give a hundred reasons.
Mainly, though, I got fed up with editorial water-boarding.
Most editors, over there at those big-time publishing houses, operate through an agenda. You’re in or you’re out. I’d rather be out.
I finally accept the proposition that I know as much as they do, when it comes to writing – and they know who they are, or rather who they were, since so many conventional publishers are suddenly out of business, their editors out in the cold. Sorry to say this but I’ll say it anyway – poetic justice. (Talk about rejection!) We who go it alone, we sing of ourselves as Whitman did. We tolerate no interference from middle parties whose judgments are pre-judged, arbitrary, prejudiced, small-minded and sometimes even corrupt.
If you can read Dan Brown from beginning to end, or if vampires are your game, “The Girls of Cincinnati” probably won’t do it for you. But if you care for hot love, mixed with thrills and suspense, “Girls” may be the read you need. Personally, I think it is just as good as “Indecent Proposal,” which sold about three million copies worldwide and was later turned into that Paramount movie starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore.
“The Girls Of Cincinnati” is the first novel I ever wrote and this includes all the innocence and all the missed chances and all the heartbreak of youth.
It’s a Coming of Age saga, though I doubt that we ever come of age.
That’s how writers are blessed. Every book is a new beginning. We’re young again.
We ask that our readers join us in this great adventure, the greatest discovery of all – the discovery of ourselves.
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of “Indecent Proposal” and “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “The Days of the Bitter End.” His latest novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” is now available on Amazon. He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Longshot Humbles KY Derby/ Teaches a Lesson
By Jack Engelhard
A 50 to one shot won the Kentucky Derby, which means that no one, or hardly anyone, expected this to happen. But that’s life at the track.
That’s life, period. We’re all 50 to one shots. Those are the odds (against us) at practically everything we intend to do with our lives.
Sometimes we win. Mostly, we lose. Here, I may be talking about writing, but I’m really talking about everything else as well.
This horse, Mine That Bird, broke dead last from the gate and as the saying goes, came from “out of the clouds” to finish first, owing to a brilliant ride from Calvin Borel. Isn’t that a dream we all share? – to be counted out by our enemies and even our friends and then, when all seems lost, here we come, dashing, to overwhelm them all!
That’ll teach ‘em.
This horse, with ordinary pedigree and so-so Past Performance, beat the bluebloods – blueblood horses matched by blueblood owners and trainers. He was purchased for peanuts, about $7,000. Compare that to the millions, yes millions, that were spent on those other 18 thoroughbreds that Mine That Bird vanquished so decisively.
Two of those horses that were beaten were owned by the prices of Dubai. This commoner beat royalty. This means that as of today, this horse IS royalty.
In other words, in racing as in life – anything can happen.
(Each of us has the spark of a champion, even of royalty. David, as we remember, was thought to be the least of his brothers.)
The racetrack is about horses and it’s about gambling but mostly it’s about dreams. Every man or woman with a horse has a shot. Every man or woman with a dream has a shot, inside racing and outside racing. We all have something inside us that may wake up one day and surprise. We may surely surprise our enemies and we may even surprise ourselves.
Winners don’t always win. Losers don’t always lose. So beware.
(Even Mine That Bird’s connections weren’t so sure. They bypassed the usual equine first-class plane ride; instead they vanned him from New Mexico to Kentucky.)
The backstretch – which I visited every morning while researching “The Horsemen” – is a place brimming with optimism.
In the morning every horse is a winner. In the afternoon, reality happens. So?
“We’ll get ‘em next time,” says the trainer.
Back to work. That’s the motto. Never give up.
People ask – “do horses know when they win or lose?” They sure do. I’ve seen horses who seem beaten come back with urgency at the wire to win by a nose.
They refuse to lose.
I once saw a horse take a bite out of another horse who had the nerve to pass him nearing the finish line.
The better question is this – “do PEOPLE know when they win or lose?”
I don’t know the answer. I do know that, at certain moments, we give in to despair. That certainly includes me.
This leads to – “what’s the use?” We keep trying and trying but what’s the use? Nothing good happens. It’s so hopeless!
This leads to the biggest question of all; should we give up or keep on fighting?
Horses have the answer, as the Kentucky Derby proved so emphatically -- when a thoroughbred thought to be a pauper turned out to be a king.
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of “Indecent Proposal” and “The Bathsheba Deadline.” His latest novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” is available on Amazon. He can be reached ay www.jackengelhard.com
A 50 to one shot won the Kentucky Derby, which means that no one, or hardly anyone, expected this to happen. But that’s life at the track.
That’s life, period. We’re all 50 to one shots. Those are the odds (against us) at practically everything we intend to do with our lives.
Sometimes we win. Mostly, we lose. Here, I may be talking about writing, but I’m really talking about everything else as well.
This horse, Mine That Bird, broke dead last from the gate and as the saying goes, came from “out of the clouds” to finish first, owing to a brilliant ride from Calvin Borel. Isn’t that a dream we all share? – to be counted out by our enemies and even our friends and then, when all seems lost, here we come, dashing, to overwhelm them all!
That’ll teach ‘em.
This horse, with ordinary pedigree and so-so Past Performance, beat the bluebloods – blueblood horses matched by blueblood owners and trainers. He was purchased for peanuts, about $7,000. Compare that to the millions, yes millions, that were spent on those other 18 thoroughbreds that Mine That Bird vanquished so decisively.
Two of those horses that were beaten were owned by the prices of Dubai. This commoner beat royalty. This means that as of today, this horse IS royalty.
In other words, in racing as in life – anything can happen.
(Each of us has the spark of a champion, even of royalty. David, as we remember, was thought to be the least of his brothers.)
The racetrack is about horses and it’s about gambling but mostly it’s about dreams. Every man or woman with a horse has a shot. Every man or woman with a dream has a shot, inside racing and outside racing. We all have something inside us that may wake up one day and surprise. We may surely surprise our enemies and we may even surprise ourselves.
Winners don’t always win. Losers don’t always lose. So beware.
(Even Mine That Bird’s connections weren’t so sure. They bypassed the usual equine first-class plane ride; instead they vanned him from New Mexico to Kentucky.)
The backstretch – which I visited every morning while researching “The Horsemen” – is a place brimming with optimism.
In the morning every horse is a winner. In the afternoon, reality happens. So?
“We’ll get ‘em next time,” says the trainer.
Back to work. That’s the motto. Never give up.
People ask – “do horses know when they win or lose?” They sure do. I’ve seen horses who seem beaten come back with urgency at the wire to win by a nose.
They refuse to lose.
I once saw a horse take a bite out of another horse who had the nerve to pass him nearing the finish line.
The better question is this – “do PEOPLE know when they win or lose?”
I don’t know the answer. I do know that, at certain moments, we give in to despair. That certainly includes me.
This leads to – “what’s the use?” We keep trying and trying but what’s the use? Nothing good happens. It’s so hopeless!
This leads to the biggest question of all; should we give up or keep on fighting?
Horses have the answer, as the Kentucky Derby proved so emphatically -- when a thoroughbred thought to be a pauper turned out to be a king.
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of “Indecent Proposal” and “The Bathsheba Deadline.” His latest novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” is available on Amazon. He can be reached ay www.jackengelhard.com
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Code
By Jack Engelhard
Over at the racetrack, on Sunday, two of us were talking about the Kentucky Derby, me, sipping vodka, and this horse player, drinking beer. This man was a professor, also a gambler. His choice for the Derby was a horse coming from Dubai. Maybe I’d had a vodka too many, and I said that plenty horses these days were coming from Dubai. In fact, our entire racing system, here in America, was being dominated by horses from United Arab Emirates.
Nothing wrong with that, I added, except that an Israeli tennis player was denied access to Dubai even after she qualified for some sort of tennis championship over there in the Emirates. The princes didn’t like the fact that she was Israeli. So maybe, I suggested – speaking as an American – we ought to return the favor and deny them access to our racetracks. Goodbye Dubai.
The gentleman said – “We need to change our policy in the Middle East.”
I caught the drift right away. I know the lingo. I know the code. So I knew what came next.
“We have to stop our unconditional support for Israel,” said the man. “That’s the cause of all our troubles.”
Oh hell – why did I even let this get started? It has become so tiresome.
I started to say that the Arabs have 22 countries; can’t the Jews have one? But I knew that this man, this professor, already had his mind made up. There’s no talking to people about Israel, especially when they tell you that they’re followers of Pat Buchanan. This man’s bottom line was that Israel is always at fault. In other words, blame the Jews, but not in so many words. That would be so rude!
Later that night, back home, I decided to behave. This means sports only. No news. I know the news. I know what’s coming. So this was my plan. Hockey! There’s this one player from Washington, named Ovechkin, who reminds me of Maurice Richard. That’s as good as it gets. Ovechkin did score a razzle dazzle goal and it gave me a thrill.
So between periods, I switched channels, and there I am at C-Span, the book talk segments, and it is good. The talk is about people who’ve recovered after being brought low. Everybody can identify with this. Certainly, I can, though I have been brought low but have not yet recovered.
The host of this panel was author Sara Davidson and she spoke well about her own recovery. Then there was the actor Mike Farrell and he also spoke well. The man in the middle was someone named Danny something (a Jewish last name) whose specialty was sports. They all spoke about being down in life, and getting back up again. I was really into this.
Then the Q and A began. A lady – a sweet young lady – got up and thanked Mike Farrell for being so forthright in his comments about Israel, specifically all the wonderful work he’s been doing in alerting America to all the money that’s being squandered on Israel, a nation that “suppresses the poor Palestinians.” She said (quoting from memory), “We have to do something about Israel.” (Translation: We have to do something about the Jews.)
I wondered how this got into the conversation – a conversation that, until that moment, has nothing to do with politics, certainly not Israel.
This involuntary reaction -- is this like Tourettes? Always Israel, and never anything good.
Farrell responded that yes, it’s time we stopped supporting Israel. I was about to switch back to hockey, but I was curious as to what Danny would have to say. Wouldn’t he be outraged? He’s Jewish, after all. But he agreed with Farrell and then he went on to list all the websites that are viciously anti-Israel, and urged people to visit those places for a second opinion, which is the same as Farrell’s first opinion.
Obviously, then, it is true that many American Jews have left Judaism and have adopted Leftist Liberalism as their religion.
Another member of the audience got up and really blasted Israel. I expected the host, Davidson, to step in to restore the original discussion, but she let it go so that Farrell got in more licks, until finally she did suggest that we get back to the topic at hand. But she did not defend Israel. No one defended Israel.
Of course, no one actually came out and said, “Kill the Jews.” But I am a grownup and I have heard it all and I have even been through it all, so I know the code.
Even the Nazis seldom came out and said, “Kill the Jews.” No, they used code – like “Final Solution.”
The Wannsee Conference, where Hitler’s top officials gathered in 1942 to work out all the details for the Final Solution, was never about a Holocaust. That word wasn’t being used. The men around the table knew that it was about killing Jews, but they spoke in parables. The Wannsee Conference was about TRAIN SCHEDULES.
We’re still there, even in 2009, even in America. We’re still back at Wannsee.
Remind me to stick to hockey, and the horses.
---
In horse racing, by the way, we trust breeding.
Even if the horse appears to be a loser, and the public keeps sneering at him, we know that eventually that horse will end up in the winner’s circle on the power of his lineage. Therefore, never underestimate a horse – or a people – that traces back 3,500 years and that throughout those years overcomes everything set in its path.
In that case, Israel is a safe bet, yes, a sure thing!
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of “Indecent Proposal” and “The Bathsheba Deadline.” His latest novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati” is available on Amazon. He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com.
Over at the racetrack, on Sunday, two of us were talking about the Kentucky Derby, me, sipping vodka, and this horse player, drinking beer. This man was a professor, also a gambler. His choice for the Derby was a horse coming from Dubai. Maybe I’d had a vodka too many, and I said that plenty horses these days were coming from Dubai. In fact, our entire racing system, here in America, was being dominated by horses from United Arab Emirates.
Nothing wrong with that, I added, except that an Israeli tennis player was denied access to Dubai even after she qualified for some sort of tennis championship over there in the Emirates. The princes didn’t like the fact that she was Israeli. So maybe, I suggested – speaking as an American – we ought to return the favor and deny them access to our racetracks. Goodbye Dubai.
The gentleman said – “We need to change our policy in the Middle East.”
I caught the drift right away. I know the lingo. I know the code. So I knew what came next.
“We have to stop our unconditional support for Israel,” said the man. “That’s the cause of all our troubles.”
Oh hell – why did I even let this get started? It has become so tiresome.
I started to say that the Arabs have 22 countries; can’t the Jews have one? But I knew that this man, this professor, already had his mind made up. There’s no talking to people about Israel, especially when they tell you that they’re followers of Pat Buchanan. This man’s bottom line was that Israel is always at fault. In other words, blame the Jews, but not in so many words. That would be so rude!
Later that night, back home, I decided to behave. This means sports only. No news. I know the news. I know what’s coming. So this was my plan. Hockey! There’s this one player from Washington, named Ovechkin, who reminds me of Maurice Richard. That’s as good as it gets. Ovechkin did score a razzle dazzle goal and it gave me a thrill.
So between periods, I switched channels, and there I am at C-Span, the book talk segments, and it is good. The talk is about people who’ve recovered after being brought low. Everybody can identify with this. Certainly, I can, though I have been brought low but have not yet recovered.
The host of this panel was author Sara Davidson and she spoke well about her own recovery. Then there was the actor Mike Farrell and he also spoke well. The man in the middle was someone named Danny something (a Jewish last name) whose specialty was sports. They all spoke about being down in life, and getting back up again. I was really into this.
Then the Q and A began. A lady – a sweet young lady – got up and thanked Mike Farrell for being so forthright in his comments about Israel, specifically all the wonderful work he’s been doing in alerting America to all the money that’s being squandered on Israel, a nation that “suppresses the poor Palestinians.” She said (quoting from memory), “We have to do something about Israel.” (Translation: We have to do something about the Jews.)
I wondered how this got into the conversation – a conversation that, until that moment, has nothing to do with politics, certainly not Israel.
This involuntary reaction -- is this like Tourettes? Always Israel, and never anything good.
Farrell responded that yes, it’s time we stopped supporting Israel. I was about to switch back to hockey, but I was curious as to what Danny would have to say. Wouldn’t he be outraged? He’s Jewish, after all. But he agreed with Farrell and then he went on to list all the websites that are viciously anti-Israel, and urged people to visit those places for a second opinion, which is the same as Farrell’s first opinion.
Obviously, then, it is true that many American Jews have left Judaism and have adopted Leftist Liberalism as their religion.
Another member of the audience got up and really blasted Israel. I expected the host, Davidson, to step in to restore the original discussion, but she let it go so that Farrell got in more licks, until finally she did suggest that we get back to the topic at hand. But she did not defend Israel. No one defended Israel.
Of course, no one actually came out and said, “Kill the Jews.” But I am a grownup and I have heard it all and I have even been through it all, so I know the code.
Even the Nazis seldom came out and said, “Kill the Jews.” No, they used code – like “Final Solution.”
The Wannsee Conference, where Hitler’s top officials gathered in 1942 to work out all the details for the Final Solution, was never about a Holocaust. That word wasn’t being used. The men around the table knew that it was about killing Jews, but they spoke in parables. The Wannsee Conference was about TRAIN SCHEDULES.
We’re still there, even in 2009, even in America. We’re still back at Wannsee.
Remind me to stick to hockey, and the horses.
---
In horse racing, by the way, we trust breeding.
Even if the horse appears to be a loser, and the public keeps sneering at him, we know that eventually that horse will end up in the winner’s circle on the power of his lineage. Therefore, never underestimate a horse – or a people – that traces back 3,500 years and that throughout those years overcomes everything set in its path.
In that case, Israel is a safe bet, yes, a sure thing!
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of “Indecent Proposal” and “The Bathsheba Deadline.” His latest novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati” is available on Amazon. He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Of Will Ferrell and Bullying and Bush
By Jack Engelhard
I don’t get to New York that often so I never caught Will Ferrell’s Broadway show on George W. Bush – an hour or so of “comedy.” But the one-man extravaganza – a big hit during its Broadway run – was given time on HBO and I was urged to watch it, which I did, for about 10 minutes. That was enough.
It wasn’t even funny, except that it lampooned Bush and that seems to delight so many of us.
I speak not as a Republican, nor as a Democrat, but rather as someone who knows the difference between humor and bullying. We all know about bullying in the schoolyard and that’s what this was, especially with the audience joining in with cheers and jeers. I know what it’s like when a mob sets itself upon a particular individual and begins to chase this individual with curses, taunts, derision and laughter. I call this mobism.
I know all about mobism. I know the hoots, the toots and the whistles – and I even know what results once such a mob gets out of hand.
I remember one time in summer camp a certain girl had epilepsy and this drew no sympathy from her fellow campers – but rather, mockery.
Mockery is not funny, not humorous; it is ugliness. What is it about us – us humans – that brings out this ugliness?
I watch Jay Leno now and then because I like his monologue but it’s time to switch when he gets on Bush and especially when the audience turns into a mob and contributes its derision of Bush. That isn’t laughter; it is mockery. There is no humor, either, when Bill Maher goes after Gov. Sarah Palin accompanied by the snickers, taunts and chants from an audience turned mob. That is not humor. That is scoffing. That is ganging up on a person and we all know about gangs.
I find all this to be repulsively un-American, by which I mean that we seem to have inherited a vestige of European bestiality. Over there, in Europe, they knew how to bully. They knew how to escort people into cattle cars while prodding them along with sticks, snickers, laughter, giggling and whistling.
We don’t do that here but some of us seem to delight in the sport of mockery. We enjoy kicking a man while he’s down – or a woman. We laugh, we cheer when that man or woman is being disgraced. Listen to the sounds, the sounds of hilarity. “Get him!” says the mob. “Get him!”
That’s mobism. That’s what I hear, that’s what I see is this eruption, this never-ending ridicule of George W. Bush.
All that is supposed to end in the schoolyard and as every parent knows, bullying shouldn’t even begin in the schoolyard. But there it is. It’s human nature. Kids bully. Adults? We can’t seem to grow ourselves up and out of this habit. Maybe we come from apes after all – and not that far. Animal Planet shows us what happens when a particular member of a species gets picked on. Cruelty happens. Members of the tribe, all the members, take turns tantalizing the cast-out.
Any man who isn’t a bully himself must have experienced some bullying in his lifetime. This man – or woman – should know better than to laugh when someone, anyone, is singled out for derision. We’ve all had this happen – schoolyard, workplace, neighborhood, and some, even at home.
So this is not about George W. Bush. This is about us. We should know better and we should be better.
We should be careful upon what we find so funny because the next joke – the next mob – can be on us.
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of “Indecent Proposal” and “The Bathsheba Deadline.” His latest novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” is available exclusively on Amazon. He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
I don’t get to New York that often so I never caught Will Ferrell’s Broadway show on George W. Bush – an hour or so of “comedy.” But the one-man extravaganza – a big hit during its Broadway run – was given time on HBO and I was urged to watch it, which I did, for about 10 minutes. That was enough.
It wasn’t even funny, except that it lampooned Bush and that seems to delight so many of us.
I speak not as a Republican, nor as a Democrat, but rather as someone who knows the difference between humor and bullying. We all know about bullying in the schoolyard and that’s what this was, especially with the audience joining in with cheers and jeers. I know what it’s like when a mob sets itself upon a particular individual and begins to chase this individual with curses, taunts, derision and laughter. I call this mobism.
I know all about mobism. I know the hoots, the toots and the whistles – and I even know what results once such a mob gets out of hand.
I remember one time in summer camp a certain girl had epilepsy and this drew no sympathy from her fellow campers – but rather, mockery.
Mockery is not funny, not humorous; it is ugliness. What is it about us – us humans – that brings out this ugliness?
I watch Jay Leno now and then because I like his monologue but it’s time to switch when he gets on Bush and especially when the audience turns into a mob and contributes its derision of Bush. That isn’t laughter; it is mockery. There is no humor, either, when Bill Maher goes after Gov. Sarah Palin accompanied by the snickers, taunts and chants from an audience turned mob. That is not humor. That is scoffing. That is ganging up on a person and we all know about gangs.
I find all this to be repulsively un-American, by which I mean that we seem to have inherited a vestige of European bestiality. Over there, in Europe, they knew how to bully. They knew how to escort people into cattle cars while prodding them along with sticks, snickers, laughter, giggling and whistling.
We don’t do that here but some of us seem to delight in the sport of mockery. We enjoy kicking a man while he’s down – or a woman. We laugh, we cheer when that man or woman is being disgraced. Listen to the sounds, the sounds of hilarity. “Get him!” says the mob. “Get him!”
That’s mobism. That’s what I hear, that’s what I see is this eruption, this never-ending ridicule of George W. Bush.
All that is supposed to end in the schoolyard and as every parent knows, bullying shouldn’t even begin in the schoolyard. But there it is. It’s human nature. Kids bully. Adults? We can’t seem to grow ourselves up and out of this habit. Maybe we come from apes after all – and not that far. Animal Planet shows us what happens when a particular member of a species gets picked on. Cruelty happens. Members of the tribe, all the members, take turns tantalizing the cast-out.
Any man who isn’t a bully himself must have experienced some bullying in his lifetime. This man – or woman – should know better than to laugh when someone, anyone, is singled out for derision. We’ve all had this happen – schoolyard, workplace, neighborhood, and some, even at home.
So this is not about George W. Bush. This is about us. We should know better and we should be better.
We should be careful upon what we find so funny because the next joke – the next mob – can be on us.
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of “Indecent Proposal” and “The Bathsheba Deadline.” His latest novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” is available exclusively on Amazon. He can be reached at www.jackengelhard.com
Sunday, April 12, 2009
When Fiction Becomes Fact
By Jack Engelhard
My latest paperback novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” is a work of fiction. It’s about a hot love affair that gets interrupted when a third party intrudes with the intent of doing damage. It’s true that I based the female lead on someone I knew, and knew warmly, in Cincinnati, back in the days of my youth. That would be Stephanie Eaton, as I have her in the novel – high-born and high-class. She is so rich and so beautiful that she feels that nothing can ever go wrong. (Life is full of surprises.)
From there, however, the resemblance ends with the real person – I made up all the rest. In fact, I made up Stephanie Eaton strictly from my imagination, though surely there are many women who can say that they are the prototype for MP (those are the initials of the girl I originally had in mind, but that I changed for the sake of fiction).
I do not know what happened to MP. Is she still in Cincinnati? (All this was so many years ago.) Is she a mother, a grandmother? Is she married? How many different men did she marry? Is she – and I hate to ask this – is she still alive? The prototype for Maishe (my dear friend Moishe, whom I also fictionalized) – turned up gone for good when I accidentally found a listing along the Web. This was a sad discovery.
All this is by way of saying that since the novel came up on Amazon I’ve been asked by several readers where the truth ends and where the fiction begins. The answer is –I don’t know. I mean, even fiction has roots in reality. Sure, I invented most of it, but Stephanie Eaton is such a strong feature in the novel that I must admit that I’ve lost my place – and some readers have even suggested that they knew the real woman that I had in mind; and they’re glad and grateful (and flattered) that I brought her “back to life,” speaking of MP.
But MP (all right, I’ll give away her first name – Melanie) was fantasy when I wrote about her as Stephanie, and she was fantasy even during our Cincinnati romance.
As every novelist knows, you may start off with a real person in mind, but then literature happens; a new person emerges straight from your subconscious.
Yes, Melanie made this novel happen. I wrote this novel before I wrote anything else and kept rewriting it over the decades, which is another reason why I can’t be sure where the truth ends and where the fiction begins. There have been quite a few revisions. As I say in the book itself, in my Note from the Author: “Over the years (decades actually) I kept polishing it, nursing it, and nourishing it, always mindful that I mustn’t tamper too much, otherwise I’d lose the innocence, the youthfulness and even the heartbreak in which it was first written.”
Heartbreak is the key word here – heartbreak for the youth and beauty that happens only once and never comes round again. We only get one chance at this.
So I don’t know where Melanie is, but I do know that Stephanie Eaton is alive, very much alive, in these pages.
Fiction is often truer than life itself and in this instance Stephanie doubles for nobody. She is a woman all her own.
If Melanie were to come back, in the flesh, she’d have to compete with Stephanie, in the book, as to which was real, which was invented.
Both, however, are equally dear to me.
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller (and later, movie) “Indecent Proposal” and “The Bathsheba Deadline.” His latest novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” is available exclusively on Amazon. He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
My latest paperback novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” is a work of fiction. It’s about a hot love affair that gets interrupted when a third party intrudes with the intent of doing damage. It’s true that I based the female lead on someone I knew, and knew warmly, in Cincinnati, back in the days of my youth. That would be Stephanie Eaton, as I have her in the novel – high-born and high-class. She is so rich and so beautiful that she feels that nothing can ever go wrong. (Life is full of surprises.)
From there, however, the resemblance ends with the real person – I made up all the rest. In fact, I made up Stephanie Eaton strictly from my imagination, though surely there are many women who can say that they are the prototype for MP (those are the initials of the girl I originally had in mind, but that I changed for the sake of fiction).
I do not know what happened to MP. Is she still in Cincinnati? (All this was so many years ago.) Is she a mother, a grandmother? Is she married? How many different men did she marry? Is she – and I hate to ask this – is she still alive? The prototype for Maishe (my dear friend Moishe, whom I also fictionalized) – turned up gone for good when I accidentally found a listing along the Web. This was a sad discovery.
All this is by way of saying that since the novel came up on Amazon I’ve been asked by several readers where the truth ends and where the fiction begins. The answer is –I don’t know. I mean, even fiction has roots in reality. Sure, I invented most of it, but Stephanie Eaton is such a strong feature in the novel that I must admit that I’ve lost my place – and some readers have even suggested that they knew the real woman that I had in mind; and they’re glad and grateful (and flattered) that I brought her “back to life,” speaking of MP.
But MP (all right, I’ll give away her first name – Melanie) was fantasy when I wrote about her as Stephanie, and she was fantasy even during our Cincinnati romance.
As every novelist knows, you may start off with a real person in mind, but then literature happens; a new person emerges straight from your subconscious.
Yes, Melanie made this novel happen. I wrote this novel before I wrote anything else and kept rewriting it over the decades, which is another reason why I can’t be sure where the truth ends and where the fiction begins. There have been quite a few revisions. As I say in the book itself, in my Note from the Author: “Over the years (decades actually) I kept polishing it, nursing it, and nourishing it, always mindful that I mustn’t tamper too much, otherwise I’d lose the innocence, the youthfulness and even the heartbreak in which it was first written.”
Heartbreak is the key word here – heartbreak for the youth and beauty that happens only once and never comes round again. We only get one chance at this.
So I don’t know where Melanie is, but I do know that Stephanie Eaton is alive, very much alive, in these pages.
Fiction is often truer than life itself and in this instance Stephanie doubles for nobody. She is a woman all her own.
If Melanie were to come back, in the flesh, she’d have to compete with Stephanie, in the book, as to which was real, which was invented.
Both, however, are equally dear to me.
Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller (and later, movie) “Indecent Proposal” and “The Bathsheba Deadline.” His latest novel, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” is available exclusively on Amazon. He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com
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