Reunions and Rebel Princesses
Happy Tuesday, darlings, I hope you all had a restful weekend. My face is still recovering from smiling too much at my Princeton 10th reunion, which was three days of standing and talking and laughing and dressing up in costumes, because that’s how we do. We were so tired after the flight back from Newark on Sunday night that all I wanted to do yesterday for my birthday was sleep in, take the dogs to the park, and then sit around reading. Fear not, Amy Birthday Observed will be Friday when we go and see the final Point Break Live at DNA Lounge with Lillia and Miles.
But back in the real world, the 2016 primary slogs towards its inevitable end. While the NRA officially endorses Trump to the chagrin of some of its members, and Lindsay Graham may or may not have privately asked Republican donors to support him, the Dem battle continues.
Both Sanders and Clinton have been hitting California hard (psst: I’m moderating a Millennials for Hillary panel on Women and Girls this evening in San Francisco,) with rallies and fundraisers and tickets to the Warriors game. Since you know I am biased - see psst above - I have no qualms directing you to this excellent piece by Rebecca Traister that my classmate Xander Djerassi shared today, Hillary Clinton vs. Herself. Read for the prelude alone, in which Clinton meets the family of a child killed at Sandy Hook and discusses gun control. It’s a brief moment in a grueling schedule portrayed as equally wonky, thoughtful, heartfelt, and fiery.
The idea that, at this point, there is some version of Hillary Clinton that we haven’t seen before feels implausible. Often, it feels like we know too much about her. She has been around for so long — her story, encompassing political intrigue and personal drama, has been recounted so many times — that she can seem a fictional character. To her critics, she is Lady Macbeth, to her adherents, Joan of Arc. As a young Hillary hater, I often compared her to Darth Vader — more machine than woman, her humanity ever more shrouded by Dark Side gadgetry. These days, I think of her as General Leia: No longer a rebel princess, she has made a wry peace with her rakish mate and her controversial hair and is hard at work, mounting a campaign against the fascistic First Order.
See you tomorrow, my doves.