The Writer's Life 6/9 - Dictating

Regarding Comey's testimony, I suppose Trump's supporters will crow there's no there there, and his detractors will continue to insist there is. As far as I can see, it's now in the hands of special investigator Mueller, former director of the FBI. I have no background in law, but I don't see how obstruction of justice can be gleaned from the President's hope that the Michael Flynn case would be dropped. Regardless, I expect the mainstream media, despite the desertion of Chris Matthews, to continue to attack. Recall that one of the country's great legal minds, liberal icon Alan Dershowitz, has said Trump did not violate any laws. On his radio show this morning, Mark Simone said the president has the power and legal right to halt any investigation, and then played an example of a taped Nixon phone call ordering the investigation into a large corporation to cease. Does Trump's denial of what he said to Comey mean he has him on tape, or is he shooting his mouth off because there are no tapes and, hence, no evidence that would damage the presidency? The latter would not be surprising, as the President just doesn't know when to let go. I support his policies almost to the letter, but his sensitivity is grating.

A blurb in today's NY Post cites that Romania is in steep population decline due to low birth rate and outward migration. Budapest politicians have voted to offer $615 per baby born in a city hospital, provided one of the parents is a resident. I don't recall having ever heard calls for population growth, even in Spain and Italy, where the replacement rate is incredibly low. The fear of overpopulation has ruled the issue for so long.

I found two fraudsters on a list of ten at listverse.com. I single them out because of the literary angle. In 1917 Emily Grant Hutchings wrote Jap Herron: A Novel Written From the Ouija Board. She claimed the ghost of Mark Twain dictated it to her. The New York Times gave it a scathing review. The owners of Twain’s intellectual property rights sued, and the publisher had to stop printing and selling the book. Still, Hutchings had had the work reviewed by a prestigious newspaper, and was able to make money from the controversy that surrounded it. Perhaps she inspired Albert Houghton Pratt, who in 1918 wrote a book called My Tussle with the Devil and Other Stories by O. Henry’s Ghost. He claimed that if it didn't seem like it was written in the same style as the famous author's, it was because O. Henry's style has matured in the afterlife. He too claimed it was dictated via Ouija. Some folks who knew me long ago might believe my work has been dictated to me in the same way.

It was a quiet session of the floating book shop. My thanks to Ira, who purchased a Jimmy Stewart bio and The Destruction of Hillary Clinton by Susan Bordo, the latter of which had been on display only a few hours. I expected it would go quickly. Sometimes it's obvious.

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