"Happily Ever After"
Yes, it's been a strange ending to a strange year. I was reading a New Yorker article that talked about the phrase "happily ever after," which they could trace to its first time in print: 1410. So from there I looked up what our life expectancy was back then, and a song was born:
“Happily Ever After” by Noel Paul Stookey & Christine Lavin
https://www.facebook.com/christine.lavin.5/videos/1621445368482266
At the end of the video is a listing of who all the people are in the song/video. You may not need that, except for Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, who I added at the last minute. It's been interesting to hear all the testimonials given about the Carters, and one phrase that comes up again and again: he pledged to the American people: I will never lie to you. And yet our next president has made lying the centerpiece of his existence.
In 1994 I met an actor at a dinner party who regaled us all with the story of working for the caterer who catered Donald Trump's wedding to Marla Maples at The Plaza Hotel: how Trump boldly yelled at the caterer in front of her staff that he did her an enormous favor by choosing her to cater HIS wedding, how she will make more money than she ever dreamed when word spreads that she catered the great Donald Trump's wedding, and that when he does favors for someone like her, HE DOESN'T PAY.
This was back in 1994, years before he got serious about politics.
Nobody got paid, this actor told us. The caterer had thought she had won the lottery, then realized just the opposite when he added, "Try to sue me! It will cost you more than what I owe. Cut your losses. Walk away!"
We who live in NYC each know someone who has a story like that to tell. That is why when he ran against Hillary he only got 11% of Manhattan's vote. I can't imagine anyone who ever ran for president getting less than 50% of his hometown vote, but Donald Trump did -- way less than 50% of his neighbors voted for him. We know him all too well.
So as we forge headlong into this new year, let us hope he's duped all his MAGA devotees and shows a kinder and gentler side that some of us hope he has been saving to surprise us all with.
Wouldn't it be something if he was lying to his MAGA followers all along? Wouldn't that just beat all?
Let's begin this new year by taking time to think about the Carters, and how they lived and all they did since they left the White House.
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Here comes 2025.