I've Seen That Movie Too

yes, I'm seriously considering the appropriation of Elton John song titles for my blog entries from here on out (next up: Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting)

so here's the thing: once again (and again and again and again) I possess a New York Public Library book (NYPL rocks!) that I have not completed reading that is due and, yes, cannot be renewed.

this week's book in question: Jimmy Carter's White House Diary.
(I'm just about halfway through and while, as a man, our 39th President remains nearly celestial in my estimation, I'm beginning to remember (vividly) his failings as a politician. a vast, glaring difference, say, between him and someone as accomplished as Lyndon Johnson)

this happened, pre-Texas, with Jonathan Franzen's Freedom (one of the last books I ever read and not as stellar as The Corrections unfortunately).
we settled that one by buying a copy through Amazon, returning both copies to the library and then sharing the single copy of Freedom (which is what allowed me to read Meghan McCain's Dirty Sexy Politics on the JetBlue flight to Austin (it's a quick read) before coming back to finish Freedom within the state of Texas while my spouse began reading Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man while waiting for me to finish Freedom; got it? (there will be a quiz later) but we will not be changing partners (dosey-do) with White House Diary as half of our partnership turned up her proverbial nose at the prospect (which isn't looking like the worst decision, to tell the truth))

so the most surprising (and disturbing passage) from one of the last books (though not really the last book) I ever read:

"I wasn't sure what was normal - or supposed to happen between a president's family and a vice president's. But I know what I wanted: for everybody to get along.

"My mom had a similar impulse. She reached out to the Palins and I don't think she always felt they had reached back. Words fell through the cracks. Offers to help - and bond - went unrecognized. My mom really hit if off with Todd, and liked her time with him, and both my parents were incredibly supportive of Bristol and Levi. My mom had even suggested that she and my dad would love to be godparents to their baby, if they were interested. But she never got an answer."

- Meghan McCain's Dirty Sexy Politics