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Weekend Update: Weekend Butler, plus…Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, died today. The publisher called this a Young Adult book. It’s better than that: a National Book Award finalist that will thrill — and challenge and enrage — adults as well as kids. Read my review. Buy the book for your kids and grandkids — and for you. Discuss (you can’t not).

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Jun 15, 2023
Category: Weekend

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THIS WEEK IN BUTLER: Boz Scaggs.  The Good Earth. A Walk in the Woods

“DEATH? NO BIG DEAL. JUST A CHANGE OF CLOTHES.” 

That’s the quote at the beginning of “The Next Dalai Lama,” my recently completed novel, soon to be submitted to publishers. It’s from Tenzin Gyatso, the 14^th Dalai Lama, now 87 years old. Several early readers have asked if that’s the way I feel about death — that death is just a passage from this incarnation to the next. It’s certainly the way I’d like to feel about death. But knowledge? Of course not. As I often find myself saying these days, “I don’t know.”

And yet….

This weekend marks the third anniversary of my mother’s death. At 103, Pearl Kornbluth had outlived her life.  When my brother and I got the call, we simultaneously texted one another: “Amen.” Then I settled myself and wrote a piece that placed our lives in the context of our mother’s. It resonated, especially for the message Pearl incessantly hammered into us: “There’s always something more you can do.” I republish it here. 

Last week, Julia Bradford called. Julia’s the wife of my dear friend Charlie Warner, who had been sick and in rehab for months. There was only one reason for her call: Charlie died. He was 91, he had a big life, and he too had outlived it.  Friends are preparing a brief tribute; I’ll publish it.

 A few weeks ago, Martin Amis died. This was a shock to many of his friends — he was “only” 74. He was Ronald Fried’s favorite contemporary writer, and Ron wrote a gorgeous piece for Butler. It wasn’t enough: “I think expressing one’s love clearly is somehow a balm to the wound, but the ache remains — I believe this is what the professionals call ‘the healing process.’” And he published a second piece.

This week Robert Gottlieb died. He edited every major writer, but he’s become widely known for editing Robert Caro, starting with “The Power Broker” and then Caro’s five-decade project, the multivolume study of Lyndon Johnson. Caro wrote an excellent short book, Working. Gottlieb’s daughter made a very enjoyable documentary about his editing relationship with Caro, Turn Every Page, which is streaming on Amazon Prime Video. In the New Yorker, David Remnick remembers Gottlieb.

Gottlieb’s obit was immediately followed by the obit for Cormac McCarthy.

Death. Just to put a button on the cliché: it’s relentless. It always was, but the blade seems wider and sharper now. And as my friends and I are of a certain age, we’re paying more attention, courtesy of the Canadian fires, which were of great concern to everyone who looked into a noon sky and saw blood-red darkness but not, it seemed, important to any politicians. A great many air purifiers were sold, but as soon as the air cleared, the problem was forgotten. Until next time.

The fire-and-smoke is especially concerning to me because it underscored, yet again, that we are on our own. At any age, that’s grim. As you age, it’s scarier. I’ve found it’s useful to — don’t laugh — pray. I don’t know where my prayers go. The important thing, for me, is to acknowledge my lifeboat friends: the people who are dearest to me. It’s a longer list than I’d tell you if we were chatting; in the dark, late at night, it turns out I have quite the community in my head… and, actually, in my life. Do I include my dead parents? Believe it.

The through line in my prayers is that I never ask for help. My prayer guide is Shantideva (685 – 763): “All the suffering there is in this world arises from wishing our self to be happy. All the happiness there is in this world arises from wishing others to be happy.” This is not headline news. But at this point, knowing that you’re still capable of loving and being loved is like… oh, it’s like a personal oxygen mask, it sustains me for a day. And the battle we’re in now… we fight it a day at a time. You’ve get a better idea than forming and invoking personal communities? Please share: HeadButlerNYC@AOL.com.

WHO WANTS TO CARRY BRYAN CRANSTON’S LUGGAGE? GET IN LINE!

Bryan Cranston has announced his plan to retire in 2026 and relocate to France. “I want to go for day trips and have the fire in the fireplace and drink wine with new friends and not read scripts.”

QUESTION: DID THE KGB CULTIVATE DONALD TRUMP? ANSWER: YES.

Craig Unger and I are friends, and that is why I can’t ethically review “American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery.” I was a source, I’m briefly quoted, and I’m thanked. As the title suggests — “Kompromat” is Russian for “compromising information”— Trump is nothing less than a Russian “asset.” Not officially, of course. But from the beginning of his real estate career, he eagerly did business with the Russians, most of them shady and connected to the KGB. This relationship started small, with television sets for the Hyatt Hotel. An American immigration reform allowed hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews to immigrate to the United States. Lo and behold, 1,300 Trump condos were sold in “secretive, all-cash transactions that enabled buyers to avoid legal scrutiny by shielding their finances and identities.” And then, because Trump needed money and liked sex, we meet a grotty bunch, including, of course, Jeffrey Epstein. I knew a lot of this story, and it wasn’t hard to figure out why Trump was so fond of Putin, but it’s still mind-blowing to read how the President put his needs above his country’s. [To buy the book of “American Kompromat” from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.]

GOOD NEWS: DRINKING IN MODERATION IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEART

From the Harvard Gazette: “Light to moderate drinking was associated with nearly double the cardiac-protective effect in individuals with a history of anxiety compared with others.” BUT BUT BUT…. “While light/moderate drinkers lowered their risk for cardiovascular disease, the study also showed that any amount of alcohol increases the risk of cancer. And at higher amounts of alcohol consumption — more than 14 drinks a week — heart attack risk started to increase while overall brain activity started to decrease.”

WATCH PAUL McCARTNEY WRITE “GET BACK” IN 2 MINUTES 30 SECONDS

January 7, 1969. The Beatles got together at a studio in London, with the deadline for “Let It Be” looming. McCartney improvises. “GET BACK” emerges.  How? McCartney: “When The Beatles were starting out, there were no recording devices… no such thing as cassettes to put the idea down on, so you just had to remember. This was actually a good thing. We said, ‘If we forget it tomorrow, it’s no good.’ How can we expect the public to remember it if we can’t, and we only wrote it yesterday? So we realized that we were writing songs that were memorable not because we wanted them to be memorable, but because we had to remember them.” In the clip, McCartney mumbles and blurts out words and sounds. The song emerges. Watch.  

THE WEEKEND POEM

“If I Could Tell You,” by W.H. Auden

Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

There are no fortunes to be told, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

Suppose the lions all get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away;
Will Time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know.

THE WEEKEND RECIPE

Gazpacho  

Makes 6-8 cups

2 pounds ripe tomatoes, halved and cored
1 small (1/2 lb) cucumber, peeled and seeded
1 medium green bell pepper, cored
1/2 small red onion, peeled
2 small garlic cloves (or 1 large clove), peeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly-cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
A few inches of a baguette, or 1 thick slice of white bread, soaked, crusts removed (soak bread/baguette under the faucet for few seconds, wring out the extra water)
optional garnishes: homemade croutons, chopped fresh herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, or any leftover chopped gazpacho ingredients

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Puree for 1 minute, or until the soup reaches your desired consistency.

Taste and season with extra salt, pepper and/or cumin, if needed.

Refrigerate in a sealed container for 3 to 4 hours, or until completely chilled. Serve cold, topped with your desired garnishes.