Displeased! Never realized what an awesome word that could be. I mean, it just exudes sarcasm and the like. Like: The judge was displeased by the threats against their lives incited the defendant.
Also: Somewhat displeased that Roy is obsessed with Noonan -- don't deny it -- while ship, among others, Whitmer and Sara Nelson. Just saying, FWIW.
BTW: The wine was awful in every way but color. But, you know, the tradition must be respected.
Only because she's just starting to get a feeling that the morning tea delivered by the help to her on the silver tray has been tasting a little...skeevy recently.
One whirlwind weekend in NYC some decades back we were surfing the restaurants before deciding where to dine, and we got between 2 guys on opposite sides of the street tryna talk folks into their establishments. One guy was all about the Beaujolais that had hit town that afternoon, and the other was flogging truffles. We ended up eating at both places because what the hell, and had truffles in scrambled eggs (literally the only dish we could afford – tasted exactly like eggs 'n dirt) washed down with a pretty good bottle of wine.
“Onward to further greatness, Taylor Swift. Onward Travis Kelce. Win the Super Bowl this year, make an impossible catch, jump a man’s height to snatch the ball from the air with 10 seconds to go, score the winning touchdown, hold the ball up to your girl in the stands as the stadium roars and the confetti rains down.” Onward vomit, fly free across the room to your fated destination, the divan.
McArdle two years ago on the evils of the Scandinavian welfare state: “You live in Denmark, you don't worry about healthcare expenses or schooling, also your home is small and poorly heated by US standards and you use your family friendly work schedule to do the household chores that a US UMC family would pay to outsource. That's the deal.”
Geez, healthcare or doing the vacuuming? Decisions, decisions.
There's a fun book which I love just for it's title: "The Year of Living Danishly" that was written by a woman from the UK whose husband got a job at LEGO. She liked it just fine, and at the end of the book they've decided to stay. Big factor in the decision was getting pregnant and deciding the world the Danes have built is just a much more humane place to raise a child.
Also, about that "poorly heated by US standards", here's a nice (fact-based!) account of how Norway is now leading the world in electric heat-pump installations, just like they lead the world in electric-car usage (Even though in Conserva-World, neither of those things are supposed to work worth a damn when it's cold.) It includes a quote from one Brit expressing amazement that, in the middle of winter, you can just walk around your home in a t-shirt:
As we established yesterday WITHOUT FEAR OF SUCCESSFUL CONTRADICTION all names with "Van" in them are better than all names that do NOT have "Van" in them.
Huh. To each his own, I guess. I found the verisimilitude haunting, and reminiscent of her piece about the time Ronnie beat Moondoggie in the big surfing contest so the kids got to keep their beach shack, and then Ronnie gave Nancy her first kiss out by the bonfire.
That isn't his job. Tight ends don't "leap through the air", they make tough catches in traffic. This betrays that she hasn't watched football since Lynn Swann was playing, and he last played forty years ago. (Besides, in that vodka-sponged mind, all those wide receivers look the same, don't they?)
"jump a man’s height to snatch the ball from the air"
Yes, one often sees wide receivers slip the surly bonds of earth to jump more than six feet into the air. While aloft, they frequently touch the face of God.
You are made of sterner stuff than I. I took me three tries before I could get all the way through Noonan's last sentence. Do you hark back to a better and stronger American, while I am just a sad and pathetic liberal? Only time will tell.
Pegs harkens back to the good ole America wherein Joltin’ Joe slapped Marilyn around for any old insubordination, and her reference to fathers-and-daughters brings to mind America’s most famous daddy-Princess duo who tried to bring the superstructure toppling down on Jan. 6. It’s decompensating indeed.
The DiMaggio/Monroe thing was hands down the weirdest thing in the piece. If only today's female celebrities got knocked-around by their spouses before overdosing on drugs, like in the good old days!
Was gonna chime in thusly, and yeah. If TS was a genius musician but only a modest wage-earner no conservative would give a rat's patoot. Since she Brings It By The Billions the cons pretty much MUST be on board, if only on the off chance they score a little on the side.
Really, anytime you spend money you are engaging in capitalism*, and are therefore conservative.
*Yes, capitalism is far more than the mere existence of markets and "I'll give you twenty bushels of wheat for your sheep." The clue is right there in the first seven letters of the word.
It’s slim pickings for conservatives trying to find someone in the entertainment industry who hasn’t looked at Trump and rightwing policies and said “AH,HAHAHAHA, fuck you.” But Swift doesn’t have tattoos, she doesn’t say “fuck” a lot, she doesn’t visibly stump for liberal politicians or causes. And she has a boyfriend, not a girlfriend. She’s white and blonde. So she’s about as close to wholesome and non-confrontational as a pop star can get.
I can see Peggy half a bottle in, desperately surfing the internet for inspiration, stumbling across a picture of Swift at a football game, and giving a boozy shriek, “Eureka! A column!”
Good points. But I'll be honest: I don't share the confidence of most other Noonan critics that she's a big drunk, though I understand the utility of the device. She certainly isn't lazy or inept (though she is shameless and mendacious). I think her drugs of choice are privilege and prestige, which is why she puts out such intensely establishment-friendly nonsense and has invented such a complete (and childish!) fantasy to support it. Think of getting your ass kissed your entire adult life for that!
Since the early days of yore, Dame Peg has regally ruled her particular and specific roost with Verve, Panache and Burgundy. As the End Times approach, perhaps it is wise to consider complementing her crusade thru expanding the stable of Serious Writers Who Might One Day Amount To Something Under Her Prodigious Influence. Thus, please note the collected writings of one Claire März, whose purposeful wit and style, tho yet to rise to Pegworthiness, still and all should be considered among the NextGen dreaming of gracing your hallowed pages. She's young (I mean REALLY young – see her photo) yet holds the promise of glories to come. In a world driven by the vast economic engine that is Chicago Economical Theory (Ha ha, I laugh – we all know it ain't theory, it's FACT!), Ms März brings it! No one digs a gig economy more than she.
Please consider this not a mere request, more a moral imperative, as all such concepts are in WSJ-land.
Yours,
Bern
PS – You still up for the Beaujolais-Fest? I hear this year's young class are tasty, if you know what I mean.
You're too kind. As for my avatar pic, it's my favorite portrait of moi. Unfortunately for you, it appears so tiny that you don't see the substantial stream of drool hanging off my lips. I aspire to recreate the insouciance of those better days.
Yeah, I’m probably influenced by her resemblance to one of my aunts on the Irish side of the family, who started genteelly tippling at 5 p.m. every day (never earlier, my goodness) and was completely sauced, but in a very dignified way, by bedtime. It’s probably more accurate that Noonan is mostly sauced on her Old Guard status and enjoys coasting on her Ronnie-bestowed laurels from 40 years ago.
Interesting. Never had a relative quite like that, tho a couple of them had a penchant (or was that two individual penchants?) for laughter after but a minute or two of the early evening libations.
There used to be a distinction back in the day -- and I'm not sure if it was regional to the Northeast or NYC, or if it was used nationwide -- between "lace curtain" Irish and "shanty" Irish. My aunt definitely fancied herself as lace curtain, but how she married into our family, which was shanty all the way, remains a mystery lost to the mists of time, lol.
Might very well have started there, yeah. But it drifted southwards to NYC as I heard those terms mentioned several times by older people when I was growing up
shack, hut, cabin, lean-to, shed; hovel; Scottish bothy, shieling, shiel; Canadian tilt; South African hok; in Brazil favela; North American dated shebang.
As an outside observer from the South Side, you had both kinds but they were separated by neighborhood--Bridgeport (upwardly mobile class with neat brick bungalows) versus Back Of The Yards (the working class neighborhood literally behind the Union Stockyards). Bridgeport produced mayors; Back Of The Yards produced sanitation engineers.
I think Noonan owes her entire career to 1.) being in the right place at the right time, and 2.) being completely daffy and literate. Had she not finagled her first speech-writing gig with Reagan, she'd be churning out copy for soap flakes and writing cranky letters to the editor.
More than plausible theory. She also strikes me as the type who likely enjoyed being the only girl in the boys' club back in the day. The kind that climbs the ladder and then pulls it up behind her.
Hoo boy. Yes. "Let me, a woman with a law degree who has left my six kids in the care of the help, travel all across this great land to tell you why you should have no rights, no education, and stay home raising your children."
It already exists and is called the Republican Party, no need for a third. Letting MTG and Boebert join merely shows that their standards for who is a Lady are slipping.
Nov 24, 2023·edited Nov 24, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso
I always took "Noonan is a drunk" in the same spirit as "Johah Goldberg farts a lot" (Did you know the average person farts 10-20 times a day? It's true!) I don't really care what's true, I don't like these people enough to want to be fair to them.
I personally never much wondered nor cared if it was true. It’s a literary device that gave insight into their character and let us ridicule them as they deserved. (They deserve much worse, but if even occasionally they can be nettled by knowing what buffoons people think they are, I’ll take it.)
But "Noonan is a drunk" isn't arbitrary. Her writing supports and sustains that judgment. To be drunk (at least for many) is to live in a self-created bubble of euphoria, sentimentality, and not only indifference to the real world, but obliviousness of it. Also, to be drunk is to believe that nobody else knows you're drunk. Ain't all that Noonan to a T?
I think the perpetual drunk thing comes from her alleged penchant for "nooners" -- alcoholic not sexual -- hence the moniker. It didn't help for her to write more than once about her encounters in her local liquor store. Like this one during her pre-Iraq-invasion "age of anxiety" terror paranoia in New York that she totally made up:
"I went to the local liquor store and asked the clerk, "Are people buying liquor for their safe rooms, and if so what are they buying?" He started to laugh and said actually no one had mentioned that, but business sure was good. We talked about what alcohol might help one through a siege. We looked at brandies in pretty bottles but I chose a 10-year-old single-malt scotch. I have never had an expensive single-malt scotch, and under siege might be a good time to start."
I suspect that the clerk patronized Mad Peg about the "siege" business, especially since she'd already depleted his entire stock of Duggan's Dew Thirsty Man Gallons -- (sticking with the gag).
But, but...her Reaganitic shoe fixation certainly counts for something...? I mean, she could bring it when extolling footwears (footswear) upon the far-end appendages of a certain man-god she worshipped. Makes me wonder if Roy was takin' notes back then...
Nov 24, 2023·edited Nov 24, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso
If you thought the column was a hoot, read the comments. The gentlemen responding (and yes, they are most definitely men —serious if not very important men) naturally find any consideration of Taylor Swift beneath them.
She also took on Apple on behalf of all the other artists who were getting ripped off by iTunes. She demanded that ALL artists whose work is offered by iTunes be paid--Apple was basically selling their work and keeping all the cash while daring starving musicians to sue them. Given how huge a chunk of iTunes' revenue was and is tied to Swift's music, Apple had no choice but to capitulate.
For that alone, I have to admire Taylor Swift. She went to bat for thousands of people and got literally nothing for herself out of the deal. I'm sure if Noonan knew about this, she'd just declare Swift unAmerican.
Nov 24, 2023·edited Nov 24, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso
Peggy Noonan is still alive ? I hate that degenerate old whore. I really like this column because I really hate Peggy Noonan. Plus it's funny and well written.
Mostly the hate though.
I think there's a really good chance Taylor Swift is going to save the world. I think the permanent record will show that I was an early and ardent fan. On the basis of this information, I should be able to get tickets for the next concert tour. I have seen Beyoncé and I'm here to tell you she really is a goddess. I think her and Taylor will be benevolent rulers and I welcome the New Age they will bring.
You had to mention Joni Mitchell. In November. Now I have to tell The Joke.
I'm ashamed of The Joke. On the list of things I'm going to Hell for, The Joke is probably in the Top Five- so, with no further adeiu , regardless of the state of my immortal soul - The Joke.
Joni Mitchell's birthday is November 7th.
She turned 80 this month.
"Help me, I think I've fallen
And I can't get up!"
I'm old - someday I'm going to fall and I won't be able to get up and I'll have deserved it for telling this joke.
There's a Rolling Stones joke to go along with it- AARP is sponsoring their latest tour.( they really are!)
I guess since conservatives genuinely suck at producing popular art or music, they have no choice but to try to appropriate whatever is popular in order to claim it as their own. My favorite example is now a bit dated, but during the early Obama years, NRO created a list of the Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs. And one of those top songs was Sting's Englishman In New York--an ode to Quentin Crisp.
Noonan’s boosting of Taylor Swift and Raygun’s of Springsteen reminds me of tha Seinfeld episode when Elaine was sure that her latest boyfriend was pro-choice because he’s so good looking. TS must be conservative because she makes so much money. Springsteen must be a right wing flag humper because the one lyric we can actually hear confirms my bias!
I think I vaguely remember that list, and I laughed because one of my favorite movies, "Master and Commander" was on it because the film allegedly espoused "traditional conservative values."
I'm totally willing to concede England had "conservative values" during the Napoleonic Wars. Perhaps it was a partial compensation for the lack of clean water, electricity, computerized navigation, and penicillin. I would love to see the soft boys at NRO transported to life on the HMS Surprise. Hilarity would ensue.
100%, it wouldn't even be close. He doesn't even have the moxie to be like the poor guy who clutched a cannonball while stepping off the side of the ship.
I know I've said this before, but ... my daughter-in-law once called that movie "Hamster and Commander" and I've never been able to call it anything else since. I'd love to see those NRO idiots running on a wheel to keep the ship going when the wind died down.
That's hard to top, lol. It's the perfect title if they turned the series into an animated adventure show for children, and the officers and crew were all cute animals.
Do conservative blowhards* still make up lists of American Culture That Is Conservative Because We Said So? Probably not, considering the MAGA influence on conservatives meaning the list would have to be "things Daddy Trump likes" and, like Mikey, he hates EVERYTHING.
*"blowjobs" was suggested by autocorrect, and I'm not sure it wasn't wrong.
I think they've decided culture, as such and in toto, is bad. I don't think they even try to make a case for, e.g., Kid Rock or Mel Gibson -- they just promote them as House Brands, without the old absurd claims for their quality, because quality is now totally beside the point.
Noonan has the easiest gig this side of being a Boston "sportscaster." Also, just askin', did we ever get a definitive reaction from George Will about Springsteen after "American Skin (41 Shots)" was released?
While McCardle has been angling for Noonan's spot for years, Paul is making a hard charge on the outside as they come down the stretch. Every one of her columns is "I'm a good liberal and the kids today are doing it wrong." Her liberalism doesn't seem to include noticing the Republicans are flirting with National Socialism.
"It would be easy to write off DeSantis as a cartoon culture warrior or as racist, homophobic, transphobic and xenophobic. He may well be all those things, and so may some of his constituents. But he may not be, and either way, it would be foolish to characterize all his followers as such."
My respsonse:
Well, is he or isn’t he? Is the jury really out? Everything he is doing shows he is all those things and Pamela Paul knows it. So how can he “may not be?” But it’s worse, because for Paul, “either way,” even if DeSantis really is racist, homophobic, transphobic and xenophobic, liberals saying it insults his followers and we’re back to 2016 and “deplorables.” So even if someone is morally degraded because he is racist, homophobic, transphobic and xenophobic, merely pointing that out makes us condescending elitist liberals.
“That’s a helluva reason to follow something for, what, 70 years — this time, will it be interesting, or will it be sound? I’m on pins and needles!”---Roy
Yes, it is a “helluva reason,” and clearly the delusions of a petty, delusional empty vessel, who has too much time on her hands, and nothing imaginative to fill it with; and tells you everything you need to know about Noonan.
As for Born in the US not being about patriotism? No doubt! However, there was another song on that album called “No Surrender.” Most people would believe it’s also about patriotism and US might and power.
Yet, it’s ultimately a song about compromise and defeat. Springsteen almost did t put the song on the album because he thought it too cynical. However, Van Zandt convinced him that the existence of cynicism is as imaginary as the illusion of darkness, which doesn’t exist; it’s just the absence of light.
And Therein lies the rub. People like Noonan and the rest of the conservative clown car, can only see the darkness; while unable to ever see or feel the light. They live in a dark, cold world, devoid of their own deluded reality.
Their world isn’t one of logic, reason or understanding , it’s of power and subjugation and ultimately control.
Just some thoughts! Great newsletter as usual. Have a great weekend all...:)
Displeased! Never realized what an awesome word that could be. I mean, it just exudes sarcasm and the like. Like: The judge was displeased by the threats against their lives incited the defendant.
Also: Somewhat displeased that Roy is obsessed with Noonan -- don't deny it -- while ship, among others, Whitmer and Sara Nelson. Just saying, FWIW.
BTW: The wine was awful in every way but color. But, you know, the tradition must be respected.
It’s a perfect word for someone who probably refers to herself in the third person when addressing the help.
That too!
Only because she's just starting to get a feeling that the morning tea delivered by the help to her on the silver tray has been tasting a little...skeevy recently.
Surely it's not something SHE said.
Earl Greywater.
Topped only by “not amused.”
Beaujolais nouveau, wasn't it? That's always a crap shoot. At least it had alcohol in it!
Exactly, but this year was bad in almost every way. And red wine is one of the dotard’s four food groups with vodka, caffeine and dark chocolate.
Displeased isn’t the word.
One whirlwind weekend in NYC some decades back we were surfing the restaurants before deciding where to dine, and we got between 2 guys on opposite sides of the street tryna talk folks into their establishments. One guy was all about the Beaujolais that had hit town that afternoon, and the other was flogging truffles. We ended up eating at both places because what the hell, and had truffles in scrambled eggs (literally the only dish we could afford – tasted exactly like eggs 'n dirt) washed down with a pretty good bottle of wine.
NYC is fun.
It’s been becoming less interesting and fun the last couple of decades, yet still much more fun than many places.
And yet, we had loads of fun this last road trip in a couple small towns...
I haven't had eggs and truffles. I have had and enjoyed eggs and brains
Breakfast of ...uhmm ... Jeopardy Champions!
“Displeased.” Understatement, thou art a true friend and companion.
Not bad.
“Onward to further greatness, Taylor Swift. Onward Travis Kelce. Win the Super Bowl this year, make an impossible catch, jump a man’s height to snatch the ball from the air with 10 seconds to go, score the winning touchdown, hold the ball up to your girl in the stands as the stadium roars and the confetti rains down.” Onward vomit, fly free across the room to your fated destination, the divan.
Not gonna lie, I’d give anything to take over Miss Noonan’s sweet sinecure when she finally shuffles of her coil. I’d do it for nothing.
Off. Sheesh. I may not qualify.
No worries, your editors would catch stuff like that. Ha ha, just kidding! Who's got editors these days? NOBODY.
You'll have to fight off a possessed Megan McArdle. She's had her eye on it for years.
McArdle two years ago on the evils of the Scandinavian welfare state: “You live in Denmark, you don't worry about healthcare expenses or schooling, also your home is small and poorly heated by US standards and you use your family friendly work schedule to do the household chores that a US UMC family would pay to outsource. That's the deal.”
Geez, healthcare or doing the vacuuming? Decisions, decisions.
And here is US (unlike Sweden?) there's always somebody for the UMC to outsource their housework *to.*
You're missing the meat: no McMansion.
The bigger they are the hotter they burn.
Keep a few, we can use 'em for cooperative housing.
McMegan Defends The McMansion
There's a fun book which I love just for it's title: "The Year of Living Danishly" that was written by a woman from the UK whose husband got a job at LEGO. She liked it just fine, and at the end of the book they've decided to stay. Big factor in the decision was getting pregnant and deciding the world the Danes have built is just a much more humane place to raise a child.
But NO MCMANSION!
Danish Lawyers have no foyers?
Also, about that "poorly heated by US standards", here's a nice (fact-based!) account of how Norway is now leading the world in electric heat-pump installations, just like they lead the world in electric-car usage (Even though in Conserva-World, neither of those things are supposed to work worth a damn when it's cold.) It includes a quote from one Brit expressing amazement that, in the middle of winter, you can just walk around your home in a t-shirt:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/23/norway-heat-pumps-cold-heating
2 marks for divan.
As we established yesterday WITHOUT FEAR OF SUCCESSFUL CONTRADICTION all names with "Van" in them are better than all names that do NOT have "Van" in them.
Same goes for furniture.
Vanity. All vanity.
Are you Steve Van Buren?
Her description of the Football Catch in her feverishly imagined Sports Game is even less believable than the basketball dunking dog in Air Bud.
Huh. To each his own, I guess. I found the verisimilitude haunting, and reminiscent of her piece about the time Ronnie beat Moondoggie in the big surfing contest so the kids got to keep their beach shack, and then Ronnie gave Nancy her first kiss out by the bonfire.
Is this the one that ends with the entire cast dancing together to Surf Rock as harmony is restored and the credits roll?
Ronnie could really shake his booty!
That isn't his job. Tight ends don't "leap through the air", they make tough catches in traffic. This betrays that she hasn't watched football since Lynn Swann was playing, and he last played forty years ago. (Besides, in that vodka-sponged mind, all those wide receivers look the same, don't they?)
I stopped paying attention after Fred Biletnikoff. I know, end not tight, don't care.
"jump a man’s height to snatch the ball from the air"
Yes, one often sees wide receivers slip the surly bonds of earth to jump more than six feet into the air. While aloft, they frequently touch the face of God.
Forgot to mention the man was Billy Barty, who made a career out of playing mischievous infants in early Hollywood musicals.
Franklin Jacobs was the greatest leaper in history, being 5'8" and high jumping 7'7" and that is around 4' of jump
You are made of sterner stuff than I. I took me three tries before I could get all the way through Noonan's last sentence. Do you hark back to a better and stronger American, while I am just a sad and pathetic liberal? Only time will tell.
Pegs harkens back to the good ole America wherein Joltin’ Joe slapped Marilyn around for any old insubordination, and her reference to fathers-and-daughters brings to mind America’s most famous daddy-Princess duo who tried to bring the superstructure toppling down on Jan. 6. It’s decompensating indeed.
The DiMaggio/Monroe thing was hands down the weirdest thing in the piece. If only today's female celebrities got knocked-around by their spouses before overdosing on drugs, like in the good old days!
Ubi sunt the Black Dahlias of yesteryear?
Yeah, "I like my women celebrities drugged, degraded, damaged, and ultimately dead" is not the kind of Hot Take one would expect to hear from Noonan.
"DiMaggio/Monroe"
She's definitely not part of the Swiftian demo with that reference. Hell, I'm old and I wasn't even around for that celebrity coupling.
It makes me think of that ultra-creepy Christian thing of fathers and daughters "marrying" so the sprog stays chaste until actual marriage.
Whoa, hadn't heard of that before and I'm sure not glad to hear of it now.
Nope. Not gonna heart. Creepy does not begin to describe it.
In Nooner’s world, if it’s popular, it is, perforce, conservative.
In so far as Swift is an economic engine, an idol to many, of a not noticeably conservative demographic must hurt to make a stretch.
And Travis, be still my heart.
Democrat, pro vax, not homophobic... What’s America’s Gladiatorial contest coming to?
Thankful lolz have broken through the turkey bloat.
Noonan was always a jive turkey..
Was gonna chime in thusly, and yeah. If TS was a genius musician but only a modest wage-earner no conservative would give a rat's patoot. Since she Brings It By The Billions the cons pretty much MUST be on board, if only on the off chance they score a little on the side.
After all, she ain't George Soros.
Really, anytime you spend money you are engaging in capitalism*, and are therefore conservative.
*Yes, capitalism is far more than the mere existence of markets and "I'll give you twenty bushels of wheat for your sheep." The clue is right there in the first seven letters of the word.
You are Eugene V. Debs and I claim my five dollars.
Occam’s Razor: and Noonan was likely drunk.
It’s slim pickings for conservatives trying to find someone in the entertainment industry who hasn’t looked at Trump and rightwing policies and said “AH,HAHAHAHA, fuck you.” But Swift doesn’t have tattoos, she doesn’t say “fuck” a lot, she doesn’t visibly stump for liberal politicians or causes. And she has a boyfriend, not a girlfriend. She’s white and blonde. So she’s about as close to wholesome and non-confrontational as a pop star can get.
I can see Peggy half a bottle in, desperately surfing the internet for inspiration, stumbling across a picture of Swift at a football game, and giving a boozy shriek, “Eureka! A column!”
Good points. But I'll be honest: I don't share the confidence of most other Noonan critics that she's a big drunk, though I understand the utility of the device. She certainly isn't lazy or inept (though she is shameless and mendacious). I think her drugs of choice are privilege and prestige, which is why she puts out such intensely establishment-friendly nonsense and has invented such a complete (and childish!) fantasy to support it. Think of getting your ass kissed your entire adult life for that!
Exactly why I want the gig.
I feel a write-in campaign coming on.
I won't stop you.
To: Wall Street Journal
Dear Wall –
Since the early days of yore, Dame Peg has regally ruled her particular and specific roost with Verve, Panache and Burgundy. As the End Times approach, perhaps it is wise to consider complementing her crusade thru expanding the stable of Serious Writers Who Might One Day Amount To Something Under Her Prodigious Influence. Thus, please note the collected writings of one Claire März, whose purposeful wit and style, tho yet to rise to Pegworthiness, still and all should be considered among the NextGen dreaming of gracing your hallowed pages. She's young (I mean REALLY young – see her photo) yet holds the promise of glories to come. In a world driven by the vast economic engine that is Chicago Economical Theory (Ha ha, I laugh – we all know it ain't theory, it's FACT!), Ms März brings it! No one digs a gig economy more than she.
Please consider this not a mere request, more a moral imperative, as all such concepts are in WSJ-land.
Yours,
Bern
PS – You still up for the Beaujolais-Fest? I hear this year's young class are tasty, if you know what I mean.
Cheers!
You're too kind. As for my avatar pic, it's my favorite portrait of moi. Unfortunately for you, it appears so tiny that you don't see the substantial stream of drool hanging off my lips. I aspire to recreate the insouciance of those better days.
You had me at "Dear Wall"
You're feeding my burgeoning fantasy that What I Smelt At The Devolution will be a NYT Notable Book of 2024.
„Peg“. Didn‘t Steely Dan do a song?...
Yeah, I’m probably influenced by her resemblance to one of my aunts on the Irish side of the family, who started genteelly tippling at 5 p.m. every day (never earlier, my goodness) and was completely sauced, but in a very dignified way, by bedtime. It’s probably more accurate that Noonan is mostly sauced on her Old Guard status and enjoys coasting on her Ronnie-bestowed laurels from 40 years ago.
Interesting. Never had a relative quite like that, tho a couple of them had a penchant (or was that two individual penchants?) for laughter after but a minute or two of the early evening libations.
There used to be a distinction back in the day -- and I'm not sure if it was regional to the Northeast or NYC, or if it was used nationwide -- between "lace curtain" Irish and "shanty" Irish. My aunt definitely fancied herself as lace curtain, but how she married into our family, which was shanty all the way, remains a mystery lost to the mists of time, lol.
Sounds like a Boston thing.
Might very well have started there, yeah. But it drifted southwards to NYC as I heard those terms mentioned several times by older people when I was growing up
Me mither's family is exactly the same -- ersatz lace curtain, but shanty in spirit.
"shanty"
[noun]
shack, hut, cabin, lean-to, shed; hovel; Scottish bothy, shieling, shiel; Canadian tilt; South African hok; in Brazil favela; North American dated shebang.
I'm partial to shebang, and tilt.
As an outside observer from the South Side, you had both kinds but they were separated by neighborhood--Bridgeport (upwardly mobile class with neat brick bungalows) versus Back Of The Yards (the working class neighborhood literally behind the Union Stockyards). Bridgeport produced mayors; Back Of The Yards produced sanitation engineers.
I think Noonan owes her entire career to 1.) being in the right place at the right time, and 2.) being completely daffy and literate. Had she not finagled her first speech-writing gig with Reagan, she'd be churning out copy for soap flakes and writing cranky letters to the editor.
More than plausible theory. She also strikes me as the type who likely enjoyed being the only girl in the boys' club back in the day. The kind that climbs the ladder and then pulls it up behind her.
The Phyllis Schlafly Method.
Hoo boy. Yes. "Let me, a woman with a law degree who has left my six kids in the care of the help, travel all across this great land to tell you why you should have no rights, no education, and stay home raising your children."
Could there be a new third party: Ladies Against Women?
It already exists and is called the Republican Party, no need for a third. Letting MTG and Boebert join merely shows that their standards for who is a Lady are slipping.
Isn't there already a Women For Trump?
Not new, and not an electoral party, yet LAW was inspired by the guy who gave Noonan her start. https://ladiesagainstwomen.com/about/
I always took "Noonan is a drunk" in the same spirit as "Johah Goldberg farts a lot" (Did you know the average person farts 10-20 times a day? It's true!) I don't really care what's true, I don't like these people enough to want to be fair to them.
I personally never much wondered nor cared if it was true. It’s a literary device that gave insight into their character and let us ridicule them as they deserved. (They deserve much worse, but if even occasionally they can be nettled by knowing what buffoons people think they are, I’ll take it.)
"Sir Farts-A-Lot" just captures Jonah's... um... essence.
But "Noonan is a drunk" isn't arbitrary. Her writing supports and sustains that judgment. To be drunk (at least for many) is to live in a self-created bubble of euphoria, sentimentality, and not only indifference to the real world, but obliviousness of it. Also, to be drunk is to believe that nobody else knows you're drunk. Ain't all that Noonan to a T?
That makes sense! Like the abovementioned Farting Jonah, it's an objective correlative to her work.
I think the perpetual drunk thing comes from her alleged penchant for "nooners" -- alcoholic not sexual -- hence the moniker. It didn't help for her to write more than once about her encounters in her local liquor store. Like this one during her pre-Iraq-invasion "age of anxiety" terror paranoia in New York that she totally made up:
"I went to the local liquor store and asked the clerk, "Are people buying liquor for their safe rooms, and if so what are they buying?" He started to laugh and said actually no one had mentioned that, but business sure was good. We talked about what alcohol might help one through a siege. We looked at brandies in pretty bottles but I chose a 10-year-old single-malt scotch. I have never had an expensive single-malt scotch, and under siege might be a good time to start."
I suspect that the clerk patronized Mad Peg about the "siege" business, especially since she'd already depleted his entire stock of Duggan's Dew Thirsty Man Gallons -- (sticking with the gag).
Thirsty Man Gallons goes on the shopping list
However, a useful formulation might be:
"Is it irresponsible to wonder if Peggy Noonan is drunk?
IT'S IRRESPONSIBLE NOT TOO!!"
I can‘t stop seeing that at the bottom of her calling card, in small-point Wedding Script: „Not Lazy or Inept, But Shameless and Mendacious“
But, but...her Reaganitic shoe fixation certainly counts for something...? I mean, she could bring it when extolling footwears (footswear) upon the far-end appendages of a certain man-god she worshipped. Makes me wonder if Roy was takin' notes back then...
Noonan's glass is maudlin sentimentality and nostalgia for a past that never was.
If you thought the column was a hoot, read the comments. The gentlemen responding (and yes, they are most definitely men —serious if not very important men) naturally find any consideration of Taylor Swift beneath them.
P.S. Totally *loved* the title —
Oh, I'm sure they've had a few moments for the consideration of Taylor Swift beneath them.
I've considered Ms. Swift beneath me.
Or sometimes on top, I'm open-minded.
Taylor Swift treats her employees well. That alone makes her a welcome alternative to rightwing assholes like Musk.
She also took on Apple on behalf of all the other artists who were getting ripped off by iTunes. She demanded that ALL artists whose work is offered by iTunes be paid--Apple was basically selling their work and keeping all the cash while daring starving musicians to sue them. Given how huge a chunk of iTunes' revenue was and is tied to Swift's music, Apple had no choice but to capitulate.
For that alone, I have to admire Taylor Swift. She went to bat for thousands of people and got literally nothing for herself out of the deal. I'm sure if Noonan knew about this, she'd just declare Swift unAmerican.
Peggy Noonan is still alive ? I hate that degenerate old whore. I really like this column because I really hate Peggy Noonan. Plus it's funny and well written.
Mostly the hate though.
I think there's a really good chance Taylor Swift is going to save the world. I think the permanent record will show that I was an early and ardent fan. On the basis of this information, I should be able to get tickets for the next concert tour. I have seen Beyoncé and I'm here to tell you she really is a goddess. I think her and Taylor will be benevolent rulers and I welcome the New Age they will bring.
You had to mention Joni Mitchell. In November. Now I have to tell The Joke.
I'm ashamed of The Joke. On the list of things I'm going to Hell for, The Joke is probably in the Top Five- so, with no further adeiu , regardless of the state of my immortal soul - The Joke.
Joni Mitchell's birthday is November 7th.
She turned 80 this month.
"Help me, I think I've fallen
And I can't get up!"
I'm old - someday I'm going to fall and I won't be able to get up and I'll have deserved it for telling this joke.
There's a Rolling Stones joke to go along with it- AARP is sponsoring their latest tour.( they really are!)
Hey
(Hey)
You
(You)
Get offa my lawn!
Liked for “degenerate old whore.” DOWager.
Nicely done !
Yes, let the hate flow through you!
Hate is useless unless shared near/far, hither/yon.
You been readin' too much Ted Gioia.
I guess since conservatives genuinely suck at producing popular art or music, they have no choice but to try to appropriate whatever is popular in order to claim it as their own. My favorite example is now a bit dated, but during the early Obama years, NRO created a list of the Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs. And one of those top songs was Sting's Englishman In New York--an ode to Quentin Crisp.
Ha.
Noonan’s boosting of Taylor Swift and Raygun’s of Springsteen reminds me of tha Seinfeld episode when Elaine was sure that her latest boyfriend was pro-choice because he’s so good looking. TS must be conservative because she makes so much money. Springsteen must be a right wing flag humper because the one lyric we can actually hear confirms my bias!
And isn't the one lyric simply "Born in the USA"? Wow, what a stirring tribute to our great country. People are literally born here.
Being born here is better than not being born here, or even being not born here, Commie.
I imagine our Unborn Babies are the envy of the world, when I see how frequently they are mentioned by the Ohio State Legislature.
Could be, I guess, tho I've never borne any myself.
Anchor babies!
Tie 'em to an anchor...
I also enjoy how they pulled a groin to call Sting’s song, a light jazz fusion of sophisti-pop and Branford Marsalis, as “rock.”
I think I vaguely remember that list, and I laughed because one of my favorite movies, "Master and Commander" was on it because the film allegedly espoused "traditional conservative values."
I'm totally willing to concede England had "conservative values" during the Napoleonic Wars. Perhaps it was a partial compensation for the lack of clean water, electricity, computerized navigation, and penicillin. I would love to see the soft boys at NRO transported to life on the HMS Surprise. Hilarity would ensue.
It's just on the list because they get an erection when they see the word "Master."
They'd certainly never admit to enjoyment of rum, sodomy, and the lash.
Openly admiring of the lash, a little quieter about the rum, and the sodomy is definitely on the down-low.
Are you suggesting Ben Shapiro isn't tough enough for a life at sea in the 18th century?
I'd suggest Ben Shapiro isn't tough enough for life on land in the 21st.
He'd be the first one eaten in case of a shipwreck.
100%, it wouldn't even be close. He doesn't even have the moxie to be like the poor guy who clutched a cannonball while stepping off the side of the ship.
Many people are saying...
Transported back to the 19th Century, I'm sure Ben would find work in a carnival freak show as The Fastest-Talking Man on Earth.
"Dumb's the word and dull's the action!"
I literally LOL'd.
Like Maturin's first trip up the rigging.
I know I've said this before, but ... my daughter-in-law once called that movie "Hamster and Commander" and I've never been able to call it anything else since. I'd love to see those NRO idiots running on a wheel to keep the ship going when the wind died down.
That's hard to top, lol. It's the perfect title if they turned the series into an animated adventure show for children, and the officers and crew were all cute animals.
Which really should happen.
Do conservative blowhards* still make up lists of American Culture That Is Conservative Because We Said So? Probably not, considering the MAGA influence on conservatives meaning the list would have to be "things Daddy Trump likes" and, like Mikey, he hates EVERYTHING.
*"blowjobs" was suggested by autocorrect, and I'm not sure it wasn't wrong.
Autocorrect Knows.
I think they've decided culture, as such and in toto, is bad. I don't think they even try to make a case for, e.g., Kid Rock or Mel Gibson -- they just promote them as House Brands, without the old absurd claims for their quality, because quality is now totally beside the point.
No use for culture any more, except as a thing you point to after you've lost yet another election.
Noonan has the easiest gig this side of being a Boston "sportscaster." Also, just askin', did we ever get a definitive reaction from George Will about Springsteen after "American Skin (41 Shots)" was released?
We were probably onto Freedom Fries by then, and took no notice.
Peggy Noonan: The Maureen Dowd of Pamela Pauls.
While McCardle has been angling for Noonan's spot for years, Paul is making a hard charge on the outside as they come down the stretch. Every one of her columns is "I'm a good liberal and the kids today are doing it wrong." Her liberalism doesn't seem to include noticing the Republicans are flirting with National Socialism.
This must be some new meaning of 'flirtation' of which I was previously unfamiliar. Republicans now are the galley slaves of NSUSAP*
*I just made up acronym – feel free to illuminate.
n' is you sap? is how I'm readin' it.
Works.
Paul is truly awful: My piece on her from Feb.:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/11/2147681/-The-New-York-Times-has-a-new-contender-for-worst-columnist
She actually wrote this:
"It would be easy to write off DeSantis as a cartoon culture warrior or as racist, homophobic, transphobic and xenophobic. He may well be all those things, and so may some of his constituents. But he may not be, and either way, it would be foolish to characterize all his followers as such."
My respsonse:
Well, is he or isn’t he? Is the jury really out? Everything he is doing shows he is all those things and Pamela Paul knows it. So how can he “may not be?” But it’s worse, because for Paul, “either way,” even if DeSantis really is racist, homophobic, transphobic and xenophobic, liberals saying it insults his followers and we’re back to 2016 and “deplorables.” So even if someone is morally degraded because he is racist, homophobic, transphobic and xenophobic, merely pointing that out makes us condescending elitist liberals.
I wonder why her editor didn't say that ha ha just kidding
Opinions: Why do people even have them? (1500 words)
New subscriber here. Just wanna say hello!
Welcome!
Howdy,from Reddest Redneckistan!
Already I can see you're a man of great discernment
The minute he walked in the joint!
A real big spender.
Seven samolians a month!
And a man of wealth and taste
“That’s a helluva reason to follow something for, what, 70 years — this time, will it be interesting, or will it be sound? I’m on pins and needles!”---Roy
Yes, it is a “helluva reason,” and clearly the delusions of a petty, delusional empty vessel, who has too much time on her hands, and nothing imaginative to fill it with; and tells you everything you need to know about Noonan.
As for Born in the US not being about patriotism? No doubt! However, there was another song on that album called “No Surrender.” Most people would believe it’s also about patriotism and US might and power.
Yet, it’s ultimately a song about compromise and defeat. Springsteen almost did t put the song on the album because he thought it too cynical. However, Van Zandt convinced him that the existence of cynicism is as imaginary as the illusion of darkness, which doesn’t exist; it’s just the absence of light.
And Therein lies the rub. People like Noonan and the rest of the conservative clown car, can only see the darkness; while unable to ever see or feel the light. They live in a dark, cold world, devoid of their own deluded reality.
Their world isn’t one of logic, reason or understanding , it’s of power and subjugation and ultimately control.
Just some thoughts! Great newsletter as usual. Have a great weekend all...:)
How to Carve a Noonan.
Noonan on Swift is like my (late) grandma on Lady Gaga.
Ewwwwwwwwwww
That's what I come here for, the hot Grandma-on-Gaga action.
Awkward tho, when you see a couple of yer students there too (and everso much awkwarder if THEY see YOU).
Even more awkward than when they see me in the shebeen.
Yoicks!