The one thing an aspiring writer must understand is that it’s hard. If you think it’s not hard, you’re not doing it right.
GENE WEINGARTENThe one thing an aspiring writer must understand is that it’s hard. If you think it’s not hard, you’re not doing it right.
GENE WEINGARTENI once found myself driving, smoking a cigar, taking notes, and talking on the phone at the same time. I only became completely aware of this when I had to shift, and realized something had to give.
GENE WEINGARTENWhen my daughter was a senior in high school, I remember noticing, almost in passing, that her friends were very cute. Which made me realize her friends’ fathers probably found Molly very cute.
GENE WEINGARTENMy preference would have been a school that was totally diverse – half and half, or close. I wouldn’t have hesitated at all if they would have been in the racial minority. But to be the only white kids: I don’t think that would have been fair to them.
GENE WEINGARTENSo, when this kind of thing happens to other people, we need to put them in a different category from us. We don’t want to resemble them, and the fact that we might is too terrifying to deal with. So, they have to be monsters.
GENE WEINGARTENThe odd thing is that Trump’s hand movements don’t seem to coordinate with the topic at hand. Most pols manage to make their hand movements correspond with the message, so a slash will accompany emphasis, etc.
GENE WEINGARTENWe want to believe that the world is understandable and controllable and unthreatening, that if we follow the rules, we’ll be okay.
GENE WEINGARTENBeing “Jewish” is way stronger culturally than it is religiously.
GENE WEINGARTENYou know, I am not a particular Kennedy apologist or an awed fan – I was 12 when he was murdered – but I have discussed Kennedy with historians. For his incredibly short tenure, he was a very important president.
GENE WEINGARTENOn Twitter, people like me regularly get called “sore losers” by Trumpeters. It just makes me roll my eyes. This is not about winning and losing. We all lost, even them, they just don’t know it yet.
GENE WEINGARTENI believe that sensitivity to issues of race and ethnicity is important, and nuanced, even more so when it intersects with the issue of free speech.
GENE WEINGARTENI don’t see a point in advertising my marital status when men don’t. Completely ridiculous.
GENE WEINGARTENAllowing a non-lawyer to be on the Supreme Court strikes me as a very American thing, in a good way. Another is that the speaker of the house doesn’t have to be a member of congress.
GENE WEINGARTENDonald Trump is a boor, and cannot stop being a boor.
GENE WEINGARTENI think Trump is simply inept, incapable of rescuing himself.
GENE WEINGARTENI think I might prefer women without makeup. Though I don’t really know, because I am not good at identifying makeup.
GENE WEINGARTEN