I don't care for children. I view them the same way I view going to the gym, earning a college degree or (unless you're Jenny McCarthy or President Trump) inoculations: a necessary evil. I am (as usual) pretty much with Fran Lebowitz on this one, she who counseled us to "ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he's buying." To those of you who
have assumed the mantle of parenthood and perpetuating the human race, however, my congratulations (and, sympathies). Surely nobody better than you (except for those of us unfortunate enough to be seated at the table in the restaurant next to you and your little angel) knows there's nothing a kid loves more than for all the attention to be focused on him. Such is the situation with our petulant president, he with his daily acting out—but nobody to give him a time out, lock him in the dungeon or slip some Rohypnol in his sippy cup. But the Times yesterday came pretty damn close, generously stepping forward and agreeing to be the national grownup—and ignoring the impossible child in the White House for a whole day. "There are two words that didn't appear anywhere in yesterday's
Sunday Review articles: 'Donald' and 'Trump,'" op-ed columnist David Leonhardt writes this morning. The Times explained that it didn't intend to be punitive; rather, it merely sought to give props to topics that get less attention than they should these days because of the orange elephant in the room. Naturally, the dangerous part of that is that it's exactly what the president and his cronies want—for us (the people and the press) to get so annoyed and bored by his antics that we just ignore him, leaving him to his own, disastrous devices and wrecking the world at will. Noble as the Times's experiment was, it's a fantasy to think Trump will either shape up or get lost because of anything we do (if only). I am over him and want him to shrink back into his gilded shell as much as anybody else of good sense—but I'm not about to take my eye off him for a minute. Like that kid who demands so much attention, he's already grabbed the book of matches. Let's not let him burn the house down.
