“Mr. Lion, Mr. Lion!” says the monkey. “If you’re the king of the jungle, why is it you’re down there and I’m up here?”
-Joel, at South Station
Editor’s Note: Read while listening to Jethro Tull’s Aqualung.
Too much caffeine; too little sleep. South Station in Boston, just coming back from the New Hampshire primaries. Nice guy, name of Joel. Don’t know his story, but he likes a good joke. We got to talking.
Joel was worried about me; saw me dozing off (more…)
I’ve got upwards of 37,000 words assembled thus far and there’s an end in sight. So far so good, right? Time to take a quick step back from the task and survey the whole, to see if there’s any major adjustments that ought to be made before it goes too far to recover. On any other project I might instead be looking to see if it’s worth finishing, but this one’s gone too far for that. It’s got momentum of its own, and I wouldn’t dare try to stop; the book would devour me.
Which is a problem, because I’m thinking book, and events are going too fast (more…)
It seems like everywhere you turn in New Hampshire, there’s another Common Man property. There’s restaurants, diners, at least one honest-to-goodness pub, a couple of resorts, and on and on. And yet, for some reason, it never occurred to me that I might stop. After all, there were other places with better neon; McDonald’s may be crap but it’s familiar crap. But then random chance took a hand, and I stopped.
And then I went back. And did it again the next day.
Right. So, first and foremost: Cracker Barrel? A bunch of poseurs. You only think they (more…)
New Hampshire, by state law, has the first primary contest in the nation. Yes, I know; Iowa comes before New Hampshire — but that’s a caucus, not a primary. It’s a fundamentally different sort of contest, at least in a technical sense. And technicalities are the soul of the law.
(Ideally we’d have a legal system based on right and wrong, but you end up with squabbles over which is which. Technicalities is the best we can do. Anyway.)
Now that New Hampshire and Iowa are both over with, it’s somewhat remarkable that the so-called “Party of Inclusivity” has ended up with four old white people (more…)
I have a strange urge to start this with melodrama: “The Manchester streets are quiet today…”
Except they’re not. From the broken-down mill town of Hunter S. Thompson’s heyday, this has become the most populous city north of Boston. Local small businesses prosper year-round; primary season is still important, but far less (more…)
It’s past midnight. Primary Day has come and gone in New Hampshire, and (unlike in Iowa) we have a clear winner: Bernie Sanders.
We actually have three winners, if we include the Mayor In Waxwork. Amy Klobuchar’s come-from-behind resurgence to a 20% return is enough to get her taken seriously going forward, which makes her the real story of today. If she can sustain that momentum through either South Carolina or Nevada, she’s suddenly a top contender. (more…)
“Manchester, New Hampshire, is a broken down mill town on the Merrimack River with an aggressive Chamber of Commerce and America’s worst newspaper. There is not much else to say for it, except that Manchester is a welcome change from Washington, D.C.”
Hunter S. Thompson, “Fear and Loathing ’72”
“You’re here because of America.”
Mitt Romney, Manchester, 2012
“I’m here because I love my country, and I care very much for our future.”
Tulsi Gabbard, Manchester, 2020
Ever since the Fear and Loathing 2020 Tour first descended on New Hampshire (more…)
Just spilled my Coke on Hunter S. Thompson.
I think he’d have been happier about it if (more…)
We started today with an oh-dark-early run up to the ancient Town Hall in Hopkinton for a Yang event. It was nine degrees when we left the hotel; the rented Impala didn’t want to move. My diet Coke was a mass of ice.
Walking across the crusted snow toward the event, I sounded like a marching regiment. One particular grave (more…)
“What do you perceive as problems that need to be solved and how would you, as President, go about solving them?”
Clark McNaughton
As I write this, Tulsi Gabbard is polling at 6% among New Hampshire likely-to-vote Democrats — but nearly 30% among independents, and fairly strongly even with Republicans. More detailed questions reveal that a lot of people have her as their first choice, but instead are voting for a different candidate because they think she’ll lose — not in the General against Trump, but in the Primary.
Leaving aside the inanity of such a statement — if you all vote for her, she’ll win, you morons! — let us instead consider (more…)
The Not Fake News 
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