Mar 19, 2023·edited Mar 19, 2023Liked by Greg Olear
Fascinating, Greg Olear. But for you, I would've clung to the widely held belief that the king abdicated simply for love. Little did I know!
But today I want to express my gratitude to you for your advocacy of a woman's right to choose. Your humanity shines through in your every endeavor. I stan for you!
P.S. My husband and I are opening an account at Nunnzio Siccarelli's Bank of the Badda Bing. No Woke, No Wake...just reveling in the idea of earning a 4% interest rate! /s
Thanks, Lynell! I won't ever stop speaking out about that. I refuse to live in a society that subjugates half the population.
Edward VIII is a fascinating figure. He was really the first English prince to come to the USA and become a tabloid sensation. When I last stayed at the Waldorf, there was a framed photo of him and Wallis by the elevator. I'm sure I was the only Gen Xer to recognize him.
I love that it says WAKE and not WOKE in that ad. So funny!
I had the same reaction. Amazing how the sappy "what he did for love" trope defined our understanding of a significant historical event fraught with possibility of catastrophic outcomes had the coup succeeded. Thank you, Greg, for correcting the record. I had no idea.
Costello appeared on SNL early in his career. Just after the band started their second song he waved them to stop, saying something like, “there’s no reason to play that song here.” I believe the song they stopped playing was “Less Than Zero.”
That is correct, although that was about him not having faith that the song would be the big hit he wanted it to be, and less about politics, as I understand it.
Hoping that you take this as the compliment it's meant to be, Greg, you're like John Oliver in the way that can write about any subject and make it absolutely fascinating. His show is in its tenth season and every week, even without the side-splitting humor, he has been able to draw me in to anything he chooses to talk about and make me pay attention. So few have that gift.
This column sent me to Wikipedia to read some more about this -- I've really run out of words to describe these fuckers. I found two tidbits of interest that drives home your point that these kinds of people are irredeemable.
"Cynthia [Mosley's first wife] died of peritonitis in 1933, after which Mosley married his mistress Diana Guinness, née Mitford (1910–2003). They married in secret in Nazi Germany on 6 October 1936 in the Berlin home of Germany's Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. Adolf Hitler was their guest of honour."
AND
"In 2006, BBC History magazine selected Mosley as the 20th century's worst Briton."
These kinds of people never seem to learn from history. They try and eventually, they fail. ALWAYS. It won't be any different this time. They will try and they will fail. Like little toddlers, they don't believe their hands will get burned when they touch the hot stove when they're told that, they have to touch the stove themselves before they believe it. I think we're in the time of the babies touching the stove, and like always, they're going to get burned.
So much in the world that I didn’t know I didn’t know,if that makes sense. Greg thank you for sharing your vast knowledge of history, political and musical. I know who Elvis Costello is but I couldn’t name a song of his. I did know he is married to Diana Krall who my husband introduced to me. What I didn’t know about EC was he’s a great songwriter. God Give Me Strength performed by Bette Midler so beautiful! Anyway I love your work!
Elvis Costello is one of my favorites. Isn’t it odd, I listened to his music just last week! He married one of my fav jazz pianist Diana Krall. We first discovered Diana at a small town jazz fest, certain she would become famous.
We often listen to politically bent music thinking it’s funny, or somehow out of place in the current era of relative peace in North America. Songs created in war, or prewar are usually patriotic, we will “Prevail” lyrics; those songs that stir up feelings of love for country, love for a leader, teacher, fellow combatants. You can trace music, art, poetry and books written about ‘de guerre’ or the tragedy of losing folks we love, in every war ever fought, even cold wars, freedom from oppression and included several pieces of music almost hard to listen to, lyrics about suffering through slavery.
We must guard against the taking of women or children for slaves of any kind.
Well you just filled in what the Edward VIII biographies don’t focus on enough. The love story is having them run away from responsibility. The political story has them thrown out to protect the country. I wonder how many of the fabulously wealthy back then, who let these two stay in their French Chateaus for years on end, knew or even cared about politics? Does Jerry Hall? You’ve brought enquiring minds onto a whole new level of knowing. And we need to know these things to make stronger choices. I get braver reading these. 👍
Fascinating, Greg Olear. But for you, I would've clung to the widely held belief that the king abdicated simply for love. Little did I know!
But today I want to express my gratitude to you for your advocacy of a woman's right to choose. Your humanity shines through in your every endeavor. I stan for you!
P.S. My husband and I are opening an account at Nunnzio Siccarelli's Bank of the Badda Bing. No Woke, No Wake...just reveling in the idea of earning a 4% interest rate! /s
Thanks, Lynell! I won't ever stop speaking out about that. I refuse to live in a society that subjugates half the population.
Edward VIII is a fascinating figure. He was really the first English prince to come to the USA and become a tabloid sensation. When I last stayed at the Waldorf, there was a framed photo of him and Wallis by the elevator. I'm sure I was the only Gen Xer to recognize him.
I love that it says WAKE and not WOKE in that ad. So funny!
I had the same reaction. Amazing how the sappy "what he did for love" trope defined our understanding of a significant historical event fraught with possibility of catastrophic outcomes had the coup succeeded. Thank you, Greg, for correcting the record. I had no idea.
Having had a couple of interesting conversations with Costello, had I known of this, I would have dug deeper.
Love these Sunday morning threads, walk away enlightened thanks for sharing this gem Greg!!
Thanks, Patrick. But, um, you don't get to just tell us about more than one convo you had with EC and not elaborate...
Costello appeared on SNL early in his career. Just after the band started their second song he waved them to stop, saying something like, “there’s no reason to play that song here.” I believe the song they stopped playing was “Less Than Zero.”
That is correct, although that was about him not having faith that the song would be the big hit he wanted it to be, and less about politics, as I understand it.
Interesting.
However I did not know who Elvis Costello was until now.
Thanks have a great DAY!
Cal, you continue to surprise me every week...
ENGLISH DUDES:
Well i know a bit about Aldous Huxley and
Bertrand Russell.
Music:
And i know who Elvis Presley was but whom
i seldom listened too.
He did ok with religious black folks stuff.
The only time listened to the Beatles was on the Ed Sullivan show.
I do have a an old classmate, Peter Magadini
that is a well known Drummer.
"Keep scribbling"
Since its Sunday.
l learned to day that it seems god
was a MAN until he wasnt.
Per The NY review of the book: God: An Anatomy
Wonder what Madeline Murray would say?
Hoping that you take this as the compliment it's meant to be, Greg, you're like John Oliver in the way that can write about any subject and make it absolutely fascinating. His show is in its tenth season and every week, even without the side-splitting humor, he has been able to draw me in to anything he chooses to talk about and make me pay attention. So few have that gift.
This column sent me to Wikipedia to read some more about this -- I've really run out of words to describe these fuckers. I found two tidbits of interest that drives home your point that these kinds of people are irredeemable.
"Cynthia [Mosley's first wife] died of peritonitis in 1933, after which Mosley married his mistress Diana Guinness, née Mitford (1910–2003). They married in secret in Nazi Germany on 6 October 1936 in the Berlin home of Germany's Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. Adolf Hitler was their guest of honour."
AND
"In 2006, BBC History magazine selected Mosley as the 20th century's worst Briton."
These kinds of people never seem to learn from history. They try and eventually, they fail. ALWAYS. It won't be any different this time. They will try and they will fail. Like little toddlers, they don't believe their hands will get burned when they touch the hot stove when they're told that, they have to touch the stove themselves before they believe it. I think we're in the time of the babies touching the stove, and like always, they're going to get burned.
So much in the world that I didn’t know I didn’t know,if that makes sense. Greg thank you for sharing your vast knowledge of history, political and musical. I know who Elvis Costello is but I couldn’t name a song of his. I did know he is married to Diana Krall who my husband introduced to me. What I didn’t know about EC was he’s a great songwriter. God Give Me Strength performed by Bette Midler so beautiful! Anyway I love your work!
Amazing how fractal history is. I thought I knew some stuff about those periods and people — thanks for schooling me, Greg!
Elvis Costello is one of my favorites. Isn’t it odd, I listened to his music just last week! He married one of my fav jazz pianist Diana Krall. We first discovered Diana at a small town jazz fest, certain she would become famous.
We often listen to politically bent music thinking it’s funny, or somehow out of place in the current era of relative peace in North America. Songs created in war, or prewar are usually patriotic, we will “Prevail” lyrics; those songs that stir up feelings of love for country, love for a leader, teacher, fellow combatants. You can trace music, art, poetry and books written about ‘de guerre’ or the tragedy of losing folks we love, in every war ever fought, even cold wars, freedom from oppression and included several pieces of music almost hard to listen to, lyrics about suffering through slavery.
We must guard against the taking of women or children for slaves of any kind.
Well you just filled in what the Edward VIII biographies don’t focus on enough. The love story is having them run away from responsibility. The political story has them thrown out to protect the country. I wonder how many of the fabulously wealthy back then, who let these two stay in their French Chateaus for years on end, knew or even cared about politics? Does Jerry Hall? You’ve brought enquiring minds onto a whole new level of knowing. And we need to know these things to make stronger choices. I get braver reading these. 👍