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Weekend Butler: Roe & Mother’s Day: Three strikes and you’re not out. A must-see film. Nantucket goes topless. The easiest great dinner ever.
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Published: May 04, 2022
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Weekend
“THREE STRIKES, AND YOU’RE NOT OUT. THERE IS ALWAYS ONE MORE THING YOU CAN DO. AND ONE THING AFTER THAT.”
On Tuesday night, the reaction to the leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade was shock. And despair. And disgust. One line on my Twitter feed summed it up: “Roe v. Wade going down during the Gilded Age-themed Met gala … whew!” The texts from friends were just as dour: “I’m going to move to a Mexican border town so that I can help American women get reproductive care, and I will become a drug mule for abortion pills and burner phones.”
I wish I could say: “What a difference a day makes.” But as the news sunk in on Wednesday, analysts did the math. Alito’s misogynist prose might be tempered in the final draft, but the votes were the votes – Roe is soon to be history. Some friends took to the streets to protest. I sympathize, but demonstrations won’t make a difference. Two more Senators with D after their names and stronger Democrat control of the House will. The midterms are key.
I am the son of a woman who never gave up and taught me never to give up, and as a result I have often triumphed when that seemed impossible. This philosophy — “Three strikes and you’re not out” — was also the reason Harold Moore’s troops weren’t slaughtered in the first confrontation of American troops with the North Vietnamese. (His book is We Were Soldiers Once… and Young, and it’s much more than a great war story — it’s the best book on leadership I’ve ever read.) Watch this inspiring video. It’s solid wisdom.
I’m as pissed off as my friends. And I have no smart response to the abomination ahead. But on the eve of Mother’s Day, I recall this about Pearl Kornbluth:
In 1958, for reasons unknown, I was flunking ninth grade Pennsylvania history. Pearl made an appointment with the teacher. “Mr. Lyshon, Jesse says you don’t even know who she is.” He said, “Of course I do, I can picture her right now.” Pearl, sweetly: “But Mr. Lyshon, Jesse is a boy.” That spring, I got the history prize. In 1970, my brother, a philosophy major, found out he was next in line to be drafted. Lacking any bone spurs, he suddenly remembered his love for a microscope and decided to apply to medical school — just two months before the school year started. Only one med school would consider accepting him so late, but the admissions officer rejected him because, he explained, they had already filled the class. Pearl went to see the dean, who said, “We don’t even have a chair for him.” And with that, she went out to the hall and dragged in a chair. Thus was launched my brother’s brilliant career. Just another repetition of the mantra that she learned early and drilled into us: “There’s always something more you can do.”
The best line I’ve read in the last few days: “It’s remarkable what you can achieve when you stop worrying about your weaknesses and start doubling down on your strengths.” I won’t be surprised if there are unlikely victories ahead, and that they’ll be conceived and executed by women. Why? Because I’ve seen the strength, courage, resilience, and cunning of the women in my life. I would never bet against them — or the collective strength, courage, resilience, and cunning of their sisters.
MUST SEE MOVIE: BEN FOSTER, ON HBO, IN “THE SURVIVOR”
Barry Levinson (“Rain Man,” “Good Morning, Vietnam,” “Diner,” and “Bugsy”) directed the remarkable story of Harry Haft, who survived Auschwitz by boxing his fellow prisoners for the amusement of his captors. Think “Raging Bull” meets “The Pawnbroker.” Ben Foster lost 60 pounds for the role. The trailer is haunting.
There’s another great Ben Foster movie: “Leave No Trace,” directed by Debra Granik, who made “Winter’s Bone” and gave Jennifer Lawrence her first Oscar nomination. Here he’s a PTSD-afflicted vet who has chosen to flee our current national nightmare by living in the woods with his daughter. Here’s the trailer. To stream the film on Amazon Prime, click here.
NANTUCKET GOES TOPLESS
At the annual town meeting, Nantucket voted 327 to 242 to allow all people to go topless at any island beach.
Numerous island residents spoke out in favor of the proposal.
“Not only is it a matter of equality, it’s a matter of normalizing,” said Marjory Trott. “A lot of time the only female breasts people see are their own, their partners, or pornography on the internet. It’s there, kids are going to find it. We see men’s bodies all the time whether we want to or not. If you allow female bodies to become normalized in all their shapes and sizes, as men’s are, everyone becomes safer.”
But it was far from unanimous. “Call me a baby boomer, call me on the dark side of 60, but when I first read this, I was outraged for my six grandkids,” Linda Williams said. “If I have to go topless to prove I’m equal to a male, there’s something wrong with that.”
THE EASIEST GREAT DINNER I KNOW
It’s from Marcella Hazan: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
Roast Pork with Vinegar and Bay Leaves
For 6 servings
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 pounds boneless pork loin roast
l teaspoon whole black peppercorns
salt
3 bay leaves
½ cup good red wine vinegar
In a heavy-bottomed or enameled cast-iron pot, put in butter and oil. Turn stove on to medium-high; when the butter foam subsides, put in the pork. Brown deeply, turning when each side is done.
Add salt, peppercorns, bay leaves and vinegar. Turn heat to low, cover the pot and cook, turning the meat occasionally. If liquid evaporates, add ¼ cup water.
When cooked through (40-60 minutes), transfer the pork to a cutting board. Let sit for a few minutes, then slice. Meanwhile, remove bay leaves, add 2 tablespoons of water, and heat the gravy. Pour over the pork and serve.
ANDREW TOBIAS
“The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need” rocketed up the Amazon chart yesterday, surely because of my Head Butler review. I left something out: his idiosyncratic daily dispatch. To sample it and subscribe, click here.
HOW GREECE IS ABLE TO GROW OLIVES
from Timothy Snyder, in The New Yorker
Southern Ukraine, where Russian troops are now besieging cities and bombing hospitals, was well known to the ancients. In the founding myth of Athens, the goddess Athena gives the city the gift of the olive tree. In fact, the city could grow olives only because it imported grain from ports on the Black Sea coast. The Greeks knew the coast, but not the hinterland, where they imagined mythical creatures guarding fields of gold and ambrosia. Here already was a colonial view of Ukraine: a land of fantasy, where those who take have the right to dream.
