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Weekend Butler: Anthony Bourdain on Henry Kissinger. Acting your age (How beautiful is Judi Dench?). A first-class writing retreat in Montana. Help wanted at the Met Museum (gun required). Making Paul Newman’s day. One-pan chicken. And more.

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Nov 30, 2023
Category: Weekend

In the Senior Boomer set, there’s been much excitement about the Golden Bachelor, an aging but well-preserved gent who is still mourning his deceased wife but hoping for one more great love. Small problem: this made-for-prime-time stud is not nearly as pure as he claims. This piece blows the whistle on his girlfriends, his well-rehearsed lines, and his checkered job history. In other news, AARP has partnered with The Rolling Stones — average age of the band members: 68 years and 297 days — for early access to tickets. In happier news, look at the photo of Judi Dench (above). She’s 88. I think she’s just gorgeous.

“MAKE WHAT’S MISSING”

Before Lin-Manuel Miranda created award-winning musicals, he was a substitute teacher whose dream, from an early age, was to star in Broadway musicals. In college, he studied the musical theater canon, looking for potential acting roles. For Latinos, he found few: “West Side Story” and a couple of parts in “A Chorus Line.” He saw that as an opportunity, a gap to be filled:  “I decided to make what I saw was missing, I didn’t realize it at the time, but that’s the best advice you could give anyone: make what’s missing. So I wrote a musical full of scenes where people are rapping outside of bodegas and doing the stuff that me and my Latino friends used to do.” He set his musical near where he grew up, filled it a majority-Latino cast, and he titled it “In The Heights.” The writing took five years, mostly on nights and weekends, while he was a substitute teacher. In 2008, it premiered on Broadway, won a Grammy (Best Musical Show Album) and four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and he went “from broke substitute teacher to award-winning Broadway composer.”

A FIRST-CLASS WRITING RETREAT

(I’ve known the founder for30 years. She’s the real deal. How do I know? We disagree often, and passionately. And yet her books are beautiful and thrilling.)

There are a lot of writing workshops and retreats out there. But you can’t argue with 1,000 alums of Laura Munson’s acclaimed Haven Writing Programs. Laura  is now booking her 2024 calendar. Next one is in March, and she’s offering a special discount to Head Butler readers who are accepted into the program! You don’t have to be a writer to come. Just a “word-wanderer” as she puts it. “Whether you want to write and publish a book, or simply find your words…I’ve seen Haven change lives. It’s not about me. It’s about the program, how it wakes up the muse, the people who let Haven give itself to them, and of course…Montana.” For more information, and to set up an introductory call with Laura, go here. Suggestion: Don’t tell her that Jesse’s theory of fiction — lots of dialogue, precise description, in essence: Hemingway’s style in the 1930s — makes a lot of sense to you.

MAKING PAUL NEWMAN’S DAY

My friend Steve Hanan is a Broadway vet who approaches show biz legends with ease. At a play, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were seated in the same row. Steve tried to get Newman’s attention. Newman sensed Steve was a fan. He turned away. Then intermission arrived. Newman braced himself for a short conversation about a favorite film.

“I can’t imagine my life without your oil and vinegar dressing,” Steve said.

Newman brightened.

“Have you tried our new Caesar?” he asked.

HELP WANTED AD

Metropolitan Museum Seeks an “Incident Response Manager” (Pistol Permit Required). The long list of the Response Manager’s Primary Responsibilities and Duties includes:

Engage with suspicious persons

Use appropriate escalation of force level up to and including armed response as dictated by the situation and protocol

Carry a firearm for de-escalation and defensive purposes

Identify, monitor, record details of suspicious behaviors and patterns by unknown individuals, to include unusual or prolonged interest in the Security Departments Frontline Security Force deployments; probing questions of Security personnel about capabilities; penetration tests of security systems or screening procedures; observing security patterns or procedures; and suspicious vehicles entering, leaving, or parking in the Museum garages.

“The successful candidate will obtain ‘long-term disability coverage,’  a 25% discount for staff in Museum shops and a “subsidized staff cafeteria.”

KURT VONNEGUT WISDOM 

November 28, 1967

To Draft Board #1,
Selective Service,
Hyannis, Mass.

Gentlemen:

My son Mark Vonnegut is registered with you. He is now in the process of requesting classification as a conscientious objector. I thoroughly approve of what he is doing. It is in keeping with the way I have raised him. All his life he has learned hatred for killing from me.

I was a volunteer in the Second World War. I was an infantry scout, saw plenty of action, was finally captured and served about six months as a prisoner of war in Germany. I have a Purple Heart. I was honorably discharged. I am entitled, it seems to me, to pass on to my son my opinion of killing. I don’t even hunt or fish any more. I have some guns which I inherited, but they are covered with rust.

This attitude toward killing is a matter between my God and me. I do not participate much in organized religion. I have read the Bible a lot. I preach, after a fashion. I write books which express my disgust for people who find it easy and reasonable to kill.

We say grace at meals, taking turns. Every member of my family has been called upon often to thank God for blessings which have been ours. What Mark is doing now is in the service of God, Whose Son was exceedingly un-warlike.

There isn’t a grain of cowardice in this. Mark is a strong, courageous young man. What he is doing requires more guts than I ever had—and more decency.

My family has been in this country for five generations now. My ancestors came here to escape the militaristic madness and tyranny of Europe, and to gain the freedom to answer the dictates of their own consciences. They and their descendents have been good citizens and proud to be Americans. Mark is proud to be an American, and, in his father’s opinion, he is being an absolutely first-rate citizen now.

He will not hate.
He will not kill.
There’s no hope in that.
There’s no hope in war.

Yours truly,
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

WEEKEND POEM

“Scaffolding,” by Seamus Heaney

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.

WEEKEND RECIPE

Chicken Breasts With Lemon

In this recipe, which Pierre Franey brought to The Times in 1992, two teaspoons of lemon zest are added to a simple sauce of lemon juice, thyme, garlic and shallots. It is, at once, lively and elegant. To round it out, it needs a sturdy accompaniment. Mr. Franey suggested mashed potatoes with herbs.  

4 servings

½ cup flour for dredging

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts, about 6 ounces each

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried

2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots

2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons lemon juice

½ cup chicken broth, fresh or canned

2 tablespoons butter

Season flour with salt and pepper, and dredge the chicken all over. Remove the excess flour.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet large enough to hold the chicken pieces in one layer. Add chicken and cook, uncovered, over medium heat for 5 minutes or until lightly browned.

Flip the chicken and cook for 5 minutes more, or until cooked through. Carefully remove the oil from the skillet, leaving the chicken. Discard the oil.

Add the thyme, shallots and garlic, and cook for about a minute. Do not burn the garlic. Add the lemon rind, the lemon juice and the broth.

Scrape the skillet to dissolve the brown particles that cling to the bottom. Add the butter, and cook for 3 minutes longer. Serve immediately.