Chapter 12 of The Unmaking of the President (a novel)

Addleman’s Last Tape

By W.M. Dean

[The novel is set in the 1970s of Watergate. Links to earlier chapters are provided at the bottom.]

UK life / US life

By Penelope Griffiths

[Editor’s Note: We are grateful to Penelope Griffiths for speedily answering a correspondent’s request to hear more from her.]

At the same time the United States is choosing its Presidential candidates, the United Kingdom is getting ready for a referendum that could have the potential to make or break not just the United Kingdom but also Europe and, even possibly, the rest of the world.

Bloomsday 2016

1961 edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses

Remembering its origins

By Jonathan Price

June 16 is the day Joyceans have designated “Bloomsday,” and it is one of the more erudite and celebratory holidays in the literary calendar. Compare Shakespeare’s birthday, which I suspect fewer people could name or remember (but that’s just a suspicion). It is not a birthday, and it is not called “Joyce’s Day,” or “Ulysses Day,” but “Bloomsday,” because the novel it celebrates gives us an intimate portrait of a key, but also typical, day in 1904 in the life of its central character, Leopold Bloom.

Voting commercial

Dreamsourcing

By Bob Boldt

The Dream. Our marketing firm had been hired to produce a commercial to encourage folks to take voting more seriously. We decided to audition some sample presentations to see if someone had a sufficiently innovative way to present the material in a new and catchy way. The first to audition was a troop of clowns who brought into the studio a huge cardboard cutout of a TV screen behind which they did a series of juggling and acrobatic acts.

An out-standing contribution

The story of our detached garage

By Geoffrey Dean

A couple of weeks ago we had a rep from the city’s home improvement program come by to give his opinions as to what needed improving about our home. My secret hopes of getting some logistical and financial help in tearing down and replacing our current garage were dashed by his overt enthusiasm when he saw it, a decaying wooden structure set about ten feet from the back of our house.

Has the Republican Party humped itself?

From recent correspondence

Edited by Morris Dean

Thank you, Jake Tapper! “Jake Tapper asked Donald Trump if his judge attack was racist — then followed up 23 times” [Callum Borchers, Washington Post, June 3]. Excerpt:

By popular request

J. Price

C. Smythe

W. Silveira

B. Sperry

P. Griffiths

From recent correspondence

Edited by Morris Dean

Since you are open to requests [“More politics, religion, and (by analogy) sex,” Friday June 10], I would like to request that we hear more from other members of your staff as well as from Kyle Garza. For example:

Delay (a sonnet)

By Eric Meub
 




 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
The plane has just left Denver, so they say
at six. At eight, The crew are on their way.
A surly rabble mills about the gate:
I’d lose my job if I was always late.

More politics, religion, and (by analogy) sex

From recent correspondence

Edited by Morris Dean

This would be good.“The media have reached a turning point in covering Donald Trump. He may not survive it” [Paul Waldman, Washington Post, June 3]. Excerpt:

Australia

Dreamsourcing

By Bob Boldt

The Dream. I was packing up some ten or twelve equipment cases of various sizes and descriptions with cameras, lights, cables, and costumes from a feature film shoot we had just completed in Australia. There just didn’t seem to be enough room for everything. I was in the process of collapsing a huge down jacket – compressing it to remove the air – when I thought of something I had left behind in the hotel.

Politics, religion, & sex

From recent correspondence

Edited by Morris Dean

Oh, to have been a political writer last month! Mike Webb, an army major drafted by the Repuglicans to run against Don Beyer for Congress in northern Virginia’s 8th District, accidentally posted porn links to his own campaign site [“Politicians, take note: Don’t post screenshots that show your porn tabs,” Justin Wm. Moyer, Washington Post, May 17].

Oops!

From recent correspondence

Edited by Morris Dean

We named our lock company “SURE-LOCK” so that any houses using our products could be called “SURE-LOCK HOMES.”
    One thing is certain:
Although things aren’t
as they should be,
they definitely are as they are.
    Did you hear about the Vampire Doctor? To repel him, you hold not a cross but an apple in front of him every day.

9/11

Dreamsourcing

By Bob Boldt

The Dream. I was nine years old, visiting New York with my mother on the morning of September 11, 2001. We went to the World Trade Center.

Notes from Paris: Plain kindness

By Morris Dean

Maybe we were too used to the sort of insincere Southerner who smiles big and speaks gushily in your presence and then, after you’ve left, eviscerates you, but we were gratefully surprised in Paris this April how often people there (who do not smile big or gush) came to our aid – by giving directions, helping with translations, offering physical assistance, or volunteering information.

Birds & bees & butterflies

From recent correspondence

Edited by Morris Dean

Didn’t you spend three weeks in Paris last month? Did you see many bees? “Bees Thrive in an Unexpected Paradise: Paris” [Aurelien Breeden, NY Times, May 24]. Excerpt: