The Writer's Life: The Writer's Life 5/20

Why is anyone surprised George Stephanopoulos is in the tank for the Clintons? He wasn’t hired for objective reporting. He was hired for his name and because he is telegenic, which ABC hoped would increase ratings and in turn attract greater advertising dollars. The only reporter I hear regularly that seems completely unbiased is Jaime Dupree. Billed as “the most connected man in Washington,” he is interviewed most days on radio by Sean Hannity just after the four PM news. Dupree has frustrated Hannity, who constantly tries to get him to tip his hand. Dupree claims not to vote in elections so that he will never lose objectivity.

Those evil Koch brothers are at it again. Yesterday David donated $150 million to Sloan-Kettering. This brings their overall total to cancer research to 1.2 billion. Of course, this infuriates the left, who accuse them of all sorts of sins and say their donations are merely cover. Even if that were true, so what? I guess the only penance liberals accept is from their own.

Decades ago the press and NBA fans cried conspiracy when the Knicks got the luck of the draw and the first pick in the draft, which led to Patrick Ewing, which put the franchise on firm ground for a long time. There were no such accusations yesterday, as the team suffered the bad luck of falling to fourth in the pecking order, despite having finished with the second-worst record. Barring the unforeseen, it is a huge blow.

I enjoyed the surprises in the season finale of The Flash. Only trouble is, since they had to do with altering a timeline, they can all be undone. That would be manipulative, almost like cheating.

Everyone receives pleas for charitable contributions in the mail. Since I’m not making a lot of money these days, my giving is limited to Wounded Warriors, and it‘s not much. Yesterday I got a huge package from a veterans’ association I believe crosses the line. It included a calculator, notepad, date book and pen. The expected donation was circled, $15. It seemed coercion, arrogance. I put everything back into the envelope and wrote Return to Sender on it. Of course, it engendered guilt, which is its intent, but that’s all it raised.

Occupy Jack showed up with a bunch of posters he'd just picked up from the print shop across the street. He sells them in downtown Manhattan. I introduced him to Marie and Anell, who wish me well each time they pass the floating book shop. Each bought one of the posters. Jack was so happy he gave me a finder's fee, a buck. I wish he'd left it at that. He went into one of his lectures on the Middle East. He has it all solved. I didn't argue, hoping to get it over with as soon as possible. One of the posters was of a ballet dancer standing on one foot atop that famous statue of the bull. He mentioned that he a few cohorts had planned to remove its horns and cojones, but changed their minds at the last minute. "That's private property, a work of art," I said. "So what?" he replied. I told him it would be like me taking the posters away from him and tearing them to shreds simply because I disagreed with their message. He turned red, knowing he was got. Later, he gave Ol' Smoky a quarter in exchange for two pieces of rolling paper. My thanks for the show and the cash, and also to the kind folks who bought books on this blustery day.

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature