Leon (“Our Calvin Trillin”)
\nFreilich<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>:<\/P>
\nGeorge W. Bush sometimes suggests that he abandoned reading newspapers when he
\nmoved into the Oval Office … [but he] is known for devouring the sports section. — USA Today
\n5\/13\/2004<\/I> <\/P>
\n
PRINCE GEORGE OF D.C. SOLILOQUIZES<\/B><\/P>
\n
To read or not to read: that is the question.
Whether ’tis more compassionate to
\nskip
The gloomy news from Iraq, with all attendant
Accounts of necessary prisoner
\n
Encouragements to join the Coalition
Of the Concerned; or to leave to
\nRummy,
My heart-close aide and even other self,
The ticklish task of scissoring the
\nclips
That ‘scape from my subjects’ baser element
And splash like thick, untreated
\nsewer blood
The already-toxic major newspapers
Of the land. To read; to come
\nacross
Nay-sayers who never had to bloat a budget
To keep my mighty armies in the
\nfield
Warring ‘gainst the Devil’s own brigades,
Heathen bands of misbegotten
\nbrothers,
Craven looters sans the decency
To contribute to my noble party’s
\ncoffers.
And who will side in the scurvy newspapers
With my fellow troops, my
\ncomrades in the trenches
And four-star hotels whose fate, long ‘twixt with mine
Since
\nmy salad days as a battle-ready fighter
Pilot in the time of my father-King’s
\nexcursion
Into the sandy landscape one bomby day
Of the still-perfidious
\nIraqians.
To read the newspapers? And risk the loss
Of action in their
\nhemisemidemi
Pile of gross inaccuracies? Why, look you,
Souvenir pictures — private,
\nand personal property —
Printed for all the merry moochers to moon
Over and
\ncriticize as if my soldiers’
Own sweet memories of a glorious time
Belonged to anyone
\nbut them. Shame!
Shame on the peeping Toms of the daily press;
Excepting, methinks,
\nthose sporting gentlemen,
Wholly innocent of the Eastern beau monde’s
Malevolent
\ntaint, who write about Barry Bonds.<\/I><\/P><\/B><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From Straight Up’s poet laureate, we received this message: “Ever consider running something critical of our president?” And so, per Leon (“Our Calvin Trillin”) Freilich: George W. Bush sometimes suggests that he abandoned reading newspapers when he moved into the Oval Office … [but he] is known for devouring the sports section. — USA Today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-bq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}