12/7/2024

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

I missed our note yesterday because I was with the 4th graders. Two girls did remarkable things that won them awards – one got the creativity prize & the other one got the marvelous mistake trophy. Both exceeded expectations! Yeah!

Did you see today’s cringe-worthy headlines, “Biden shocks with long, wispy hair at WH Christmas tree lighting: ‘Ghosts of corruption past, present and future’” (NYP) & “Pictured: Joe Biden’s hair-raising moment at Christmas tree lighting ceremony” (Telegraph). Why do people have to be so mean?

Let’s both remember Michelle Obama’s advice, “When they go low, we go high.” Let’s ignore the haters & naysayers. Let’s stop trying to look good just to make other people feel comfortable around us. Let’s do as Jessica Grose suggests in the NYT & “go full crone.” Let’s be as ugly as possible for the fun of it.

How was “The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE Day?” It looks like the perfect show for me to watch before going to the WWII museum with my BFF in Jan.

Are you doing anything else to mark Pearl Harbor Day? Given my mantra, WINTA, commemorations of battles are tricky for me. I am sympathetic to folks like Bob Fernandez, one of the 16 remaining survivors. According to a feature on ABC he was a 17-year-old mess cook when the USS Curtiss was hit. I regret that our nation put him in a position to endure the traumas of that day. I wish we had a relationship with Japan in 1941, so Hirohito would not decide his best option was to destroy our naval base.

Speaking of maintaining relationships with sketchy foreign powers, that’s the kind of thing Burma expert, David Steinberg, wanted us to do with the junta. Did you hear that he just died? Please send condolences to his family. I feel an affinity for him because he had some things in common with my dad, including being a contrarian & graduating from Dartmouth.

BYBS,

RCA