Here is a great article about Trump. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so damn tragic that people who are tired of the elites voted for a guy who is the embodiment of the elites. They think that some academic who is in constant fear for his job and struggling to pay the bills or a journalist whose newspaper is destined to die within a couple of years are elitist. But a fellow who was born with a platinum spoon encrusted with diamonds up his asshole is the man of the people.

1. If in the Midwest people are kind, here in Texas they are even more so. It’s overwhelming how nice everybody is.
2. At the conference lunch yesterday we were served a salad with fresh berries and roasted pecans that finally made me understand why people eat pecans. The Midwestern pecans are garbage. Or maybe it’s all in the way they cook them. 
3. Save for the palms and the Hispanics, I’m not seeing any difference from anywhere else. I’m not feeling any special Texanness. Not a single person in cowboy attire.
4. People are a lot more cosmopolitan than in St Louis. Houston is a cultured city, a lot more so than Baltimore, Philadelphia and Chicago. 
5. The stereotype of dumb, redneck Texans is stupid. 
6. Save for the climate and the bizarrely horrible roads, I could be very happy in Houston. That’s something I did not expect. 

People who write for fun are always bigger than their writing. I, for instance, am larger, more complex, more interesting in person than my writing in this blog.

But people who create art are always smaller than their writing. You meet the author of an incredibly powerful piece and it’s always a disappointment. The person is so much smaller, less profound than the writing.

I met some really fascinating people today, folks. I met a union organizer who, in this election, managed, together with her comrades, to turn an entire county in Texas completely blue. The sheriff, the mayor, two judges. Took them 15 years, but they did it.

I met an undergraduate student whom his professor brought to give his very first scholarly talk. He is such a curious young man, with such a complex intellectual life at such a young age that it’s a joy to see him.

I met a colleague who, at almost 60, has the intellectual agility of a very brilliant 25-year-old.

We had great conversations, and I feel very hopeful and happy right now. Trump, schmump, and a broken sump, whatever. For as long as we have people working, figuring things out, reading good books, talking, and living the life of the intellect, we’ll be fine.

So how do you, folks, feel about the petition for the electoral college to vote for Hillary because she won the popular vote?

I very much understand the sentiment, and I don’t judge the people who are doing it, but I have my baggage, and it makes me terrified of any subversion of the democratic process no matter how noble the goal. Trump won according to the existing rules, that’s it for me. Plus, imagine the backlash if all his voters are thwarted in their legitimate win. No, I can’t support.

I met one of the readers of this blog in person for the first time, and within 2 minutes I knew from the way she talked and comported herself that she was American aristocracy. And I was right.

I’m good. Maybe I should become a citizen if I get this kind of thing.

This is what is scaring people away from Democrats:

Some DNC staffers started to boo and some told him to sit down. Brazile began to answer, but Zach had more to say.

“You are part of the problem,” he continued, blaming Brazile for clearing the path for Trump’s victory by siding with Clinton early on. “You and your friends will die of old age and I’m going to die from climate change. You and your friends let this happen, which is going to cut 40 years off my life expectancy.”

If it’s not corrupt older people, it’s self-involved young hysterics. Who wants to be associated with this freak show? So people just sit it out.

I was just told I can apply for citizenship, by the way. I hope Democrats stop putting on such a ridiculous show by the time I get it. They need to know how off-putting they look.

I’ve just seen the most beautiful woman ever. Judging by the hands, she is about 70. It is incredible to have the kind of skin and hair that she has at her age. 

I’m like the fellow in that old joke about a Soviet engineer who says, “I tell my wife I’m with the mistress. I tell the mistress I’m with the wife. And in the meanwhile, I hide in a corner and work, work, work.”

All I’ve done in Houston is hide in dark corners to work on my book. Loving Houston so far.