The quality of reporting at the NYTIMES is irredeemably poor. I’m trying to read an article about Tonya Harding but it goes on and on in the following vein:

Ms. Harding swiped on her lipstick perfectly without a mirror: one coat of Wet n Wild 523B (Light Berry Frost) covered by a layer of Wet n Wild 530D (Dark Pink Frost). She laced up her tiny Harlick skate boots that she had painted pantyhose beige, which were attached to gold-plated MK Vantage blades, and put stirrups over her leggings and beneath the blades so that her lines would look longer and she would look taller.

What is this, product placement? And the whole article is like that. Lipstick, nail polish, pantyhose, brand names, and no substance whatsoever. I understand that the journalist feels justifiably disgusted by this vacuous, vapid narcissist. But why not let readers draw their own conclusions and not bathe them in your contempt for the subject so aggressively?

Just discovered there is a tradition called “freezer meal parties” that women practice before giving birth. They get together with friends – often in a large commercial kitchen – and prepare a bunch of meals that can be frozen and then eaten while the woman recovers from giving birth. The idea is beautiful and absolutely genius. And I had no idea this existed until now.

Bothsiderism is quite insidious in Michael Wolff’s book. He describes the chaos in Trump’s White House and then slips in that Obama’s administration was also extremely chaotic. They were dropping bombs completely indiscriminately, without even knowing what they were doing and why. Trump, at least, doesn’t destroy entire countries like Obama did, the book seems to suggest. 

Wolff describes Trump’s entourage as immoral, disgusting people. And then insists that Kushner and Ivanka (the real evildoers of the story) are Democrats. The Democrats who are the friends and relatives of Hope Hicks’s are a bunch of condescending morons:

Following the Trump victory and her move into the White House, her friends and intimates talked with great concern about what kind of therapies and recuperation she would need after her tenure was finally over.

And it goes on and on like this. The only conclusion one could draw is that they all stink and it makes no sense to vote at all. 

“I saw a photo of your book at the MLA expo. Congratulations! Which one of those books is yours?”

“Erm. The one with my name on the cover.” 

I never know if people are being passive aggressive or simply bad conversationalists.

Facebook is suggesting that I view a video explaining the amazing secret that helped Bruce Lee achieve great success and get everything he wanted in life. Given that Lee died at the age of 33 and I’m already over 40, I couldn’t imitate Lee’s life journey even if I really wanted to.

Few things are more ridiculous than targeted marketing.

It’s understandable, of course. The best cure for enmity is exposure. Writers go in to interview serial killers and come out feeling connected. And Bannon is nothing as bad as that. So how surprising is it that Wolff hung out with him a lot, started him as a human being and grew to like him. It would be great if he had some sort of an awareness of all this and especially of how this kind of exposure to different human beings could have benefited Bannon himself.

I detest Steve Bannon. He stands for everything I deeply dislike. But the author of Fire and Fury depicts Bannon in such a way that I have started harboring warm and fuzzy feelings towards him (or, rather, the character called “Steve Bannon” in the book). I need a reality check after each chapter because I don’t like where the book is taking me. And Wolff isn’t even a particularly good author. He’s wordy, he’s repetitive, he is extremely pompous. And yet 200 pages of reading about how Bannon is an idealist, a working-class fellow who is rejected by snobby, cynical elitists and how Trump is a big old softie whose heart is “a marshmallow” (that’s a direct quote from the book) and who feels deep compassion for Syrian children is starting to have an effect.

I’m still hoping to get to the end of the book but the moment I start developing warm feelings towards Kushner, that’s where I draw the line. There are places that I refuse to go, and that’s one of them.