Consider Yourself Informed

A rich and juicy combo platter of complaint, commentary and a plea for help

Hi everybody! Welcome once again to my newsletter, Crone Life, all about finding yourself again as you age. I’m not the girl I used to be, but I’m proud of the woman I’m becoming.

Dehumidified

Feeling quite perky now that the humidity index has temporarily gone down. I guess living here is easier, in some ways, than living in Brooklyn, but I miss being able to read while commuting on public transit and having walking as a principal means of transportation. I hate hate hate parking lots and parking and switching lanes in traffic and drivers who are assholes. I miss walking around and looking at things. Trees are not as much fun as people.

Compo Beach, Westport, Connecticut: wish I was there

The advantage of a car I suppose is that you have more roads to choose from. You’re not required to follow a prescribed route—you can choose your way. You can drive to the trailhead, try to find a parking space (did I mention I hate parking) and wander through the woods on trails that sometimes disappear. The woods are not as nice a place to be as you might think, it’s just tree after tree with an occasional rock. Sometimes the trees are lying down. I’m jaded because I grew up amongst trees. I much prefer the beach. Or Broadway.

I am less dissatisfied today, now the weather is tolerable, than I was earlier in the week, when it was unbearable. I drove my pregnant co-worker to a meeting a 10 minute walk away because I feared she might faint otherwise. Or I might. A headache hovered around my temples for several days in a row. My husband developed Lyme. On the upside I saw my doctor for my annual physical and I am in perfect health except for low vitamin D and, yk, the shoulder. Which is doing as well as expected, so why am I complaining? I’m wearing a long-sleeved shirt. My A1c even decreased!

I had a chat with the head of my division (now my temporary supervisor) about how things will be going forward and why I didn’t make it to the interview stage for two positions. He said, quite reassuringly, that I have a good resume but I need more experience at a senior level (... thanks?) for them to consider me. He also said they prefer to hire from outside. But if “the right position” comes up (“which we don’t have available right now”) I would be a strong contender. So I guess it’s back to trying to get my union position upgraded so I can make more money and also hoping that a local academic institution needs a new librarian. I really don’t want to move or have a long commute. I need to stay near my 90-something mom.

Please help

But I am lucky, lucky, lucky and privileged. A dear friend has been locked out of her apartment for two weeks now because she’s in arrears on her rent. Her name is Tanya. She and her son have been staying in hotels and are almost out of money. He has a job, just got his associate degree and wants to continue on to a bachelors. She left a bad marriage a while back and her beloved older brother just died. This is a tough place to be in your 50s. She is a certified personal trainer and wants to start a career as a social worker but she needs to finish her degree first. I’ve sent her some money but I don’t have a lot to spare, so I am posting her venmo, cash app and zelle info here, in hope some readers might be moved to help out

VENMO: @tanya-fly

CASH APP: $TheNuMethod

ZELLE: flylifeonline@gmail.com

Even a small amount will help.

The Epstein Follies

Another thing to feel bad about, but at least I don’t have to do anything: Jeffrey Epstein has resurfaced as a topic. I started following the case back in 2017-2018, when Julie K. Brown wrote her series, “Perversions of Justice,” for the Miami Herald. If you don't know all the ins and outs already, I will spare you, but the short version is Jeffrey Epstein was a mysteriously wealthy grifter who exploited young women for sex and also palled around with lots of rich and famous people like Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and many others. He was accused of sex trafficking in Florida in the early oughts and got off with a slap on the wrist and a sweet plea deal, arranged by then-US Attorney Alexander Acosta, who, fun fact, was later appointed Secretary of Labor in the first Trump administration. After the Herald series, Epstein was eventually brought up on Federal charges of trafficking and went to jail, where he killed himself. He had a private jet and a private Caribbean island and a fancy Manhattan townhouse. His rich and famous friends traveled on the plane, visited the island and went to parties at the townhouse, presumably mingling with Epstein’s cohort of underage girls. You get the picture.

• Heather Cox Richardson has a video explainer of possible political implications here.

• Ezra Klein does a deep dive here–going way down the rabbit hole with Will Sommers, author of Trust The Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Reshaped the World.

• John Ganz gets cerebral about it on his Unpopular Front podcast.

It’s not surprising that this juicy, contradictory, full of holes and things-that-just-didn’t-seem-to-add-up story became a favorite of conspiracy theorists. Then it became part of the MAGA/QAnon conspiracy lore that everyone famous in the world is involved in a pedophilic cabal and Donald Trump is the only person who can bring them down and save the young children of the world from exploitation and worse. I know, but a lot of people seem to believe this.

Trump AG Pam Bondi (also from Florida) said she was going to release the Epstein files and expose the pedophiles, but now supposedly the files don’t exist and Trump‘s supporters are in an uproar. Is this the beginning of the end? Is Trump going to lose his base? Will MAGA go back whence it came? Tune in tomorrow.

My personal opinion of Jeffrey Epstein is that he was a conman who scored big by attaching Leslie Wexner (of Victoria’s Secret fame) as an investment client and it grew from there. He didn’t have as much money as he claimed and he was not a genius. I doubt he was a mastermind on any scale, except for exploiting young and underage women. Much of my opinion is based on a 2020 article in Mother Jones, written by a reporter who called everyone in Epstein’s address book and had long conversations with more than a few of them. Although I don’t know how reliable these narrators are, it does paint a picture that Epstein was a grifter who got lucky and rolled with it. And injured hundreds and hundreds of lives in the process.

But the facts, what there are of them, of the Epstein story don’t seem to matter so much now (except to those involved. They mattered a lot to Virginia Giuffre). Now the real story is the conspiracy theory, why Trump has rebuffed his base, and what the base is going to do about it. Why did the DoJ suddenly walk this back? And so on. Who knows what will come out of it, but at least some of Trump’s diehard MAGA supporters are seeing him in a new light, if perhaps only temporarily.

Hello From Veronica

She’s still spending a lot of time in the basement, where it’s cooler and she can alternate between her favorite spots, but she’s also come upstairs to hang out with me and have her head scratched and eat sliced deli turkey. I’m grateful for the attention. She is very soft.

I wrote much of this yesterday. Today it’s hot and humid again, but later there’s supposed a big storm and temps and humidity will drop and we can all be happy (ish) again.

Farewell until that moment! Please click the little heart, to satisfy the algo and my ego. Please consider donating even a small amount to my friend, Tanya. She needs it.

As always, I welcome your questions and comments!