Week beginning 12 October 2022

Two Australian authors’ books are reviewed this week. Catch Us The Foxes, by Nicola West, and Tricia Stringer’s Keeping up Appearances, are markedly different. However, both use the distinctive Australian landscape as part of their story. Thank you, Simon & Schuster (Catch Us The Foxes) and HQ Fiction (Keeping up Appearances) and NetGalley for these uncorrected proofs for review.

Nicola West Catch Us The Foxes Simon & Schuster 2021.

The prologue introduces Marlowe Robertson, ‘author, journalist and Co-creator of The Lily Foundation’.

She is interviewed on the seventh anniversary of Lily’s death, as the person who exposed her killer. Marlowe, colloquially known as Lo, dressed in clothing reminiscent of her past friendship with Lily, is asked to return to the moment she found Lily’s body. She finds it easy to talk about Lily, her death, the causes, and events because ‘she had been reliving them through her bestselling novel The Showgirl’s Secret.’ Books: Reviews

Tricia Stringer Keeping up Appearances HQ Fiction, Harper Collins, 2022.

Reading an Australian author is so often an experience of Australian landscape, geographical as well as cultural. Tricia Stringer brings a small country town, with a nearby larger coastal town, to life in this story of family, friends, secrets, and gossip. And, never far from the action, are the sausage rolls and freshly baked biscuits shared with tea and coffee over tables in various homes, the hall after an exercise class, at the beach, and in the bush.

Families are linked through long term residency in Badara, marriage, friendships and biology. Some family links are peripheral to the town but provide the impetus in developing friendships in the town. These and relationships within the families living in Badara create tension that, while uncomfortable at times, readers of Stringer will know will be resolved. Family links do not always mean that friendships flourish, quite often they are testy and difficult, harbouring problems that must be solved for the tenor of the community to continue. Books: Reviews

Articles and comment after the Covid Report: Cindy Lou Eats Out in London and Cambridge; Bob McMullan – US Senate prospects; Oxford Trip; Tom Nichols, The Atlantic Daily -Clowns and Charlatans.

Covid Report for Canberra

Cindy Lou’s eating out on London – a catch up

Mere, Fitzrovia

The peak of eating out in London was at Monica Galleti’s Mere in Fitzrovia. I had planned to eat there three years ago, but Covid prevented my doing so on that occasion. I was so pleased to be able to arrange this occasion with friends. My experience was so positive I expect to make Mere a feature of future visits to London.

The restaurant features a very pleasant bar area, with comfortable seating, efficient staff, and an attractive array of drinks. The dining area is downstairs, with a lift for people who need it – I plan to keep going to London and Mere until I need this assistance. There is a lovely skylight so that the downstairs nature of the dining area is open to the sky and trees.

What a delightful menu! Galletti has used her intimacy with Samoan flavours to enhance the menu that features an exciting range of choices. The courses we chose were interspersed with an amuse bouche and another chef’s choice, adding to the variety we were able to experience. Again, the staff were efficient and friendly, ensuring that the evening was perfect.

The Winter Garden, Landmark Hotel, Marylebone

The menu is exciting, and well prepared and presented. When we were living in London this restaurant had excellent offers, which we always enjoyed, and kept returning when there were none. The set menu (with several choices in each course) came with a champagne – a very good one.

Brick Lane – Taste of Jaipur

This was the first open restaurant we came across as we wandered into Brick Lane. It was not necessarily the best, but we had a good experience, with friendly and efficient staff, and a good range of dishes. There were some stand out features. The papadums and pickles and chutneys were generous and flavoursome. The vegetarian meal was deliciously hot – as that was wanted. On the other hand, I prefer a mild curry, and my butter chicken provided that option. It could have had more flavour, and was a little sweet for some reason. I was a little disappointed. The meat meal – lamb biriani, was good. As always, I enjoyed the mango lassi.

As we walked further after our meal we saw that there were many more restaurants open so there certainly is a wide choice.

Cambridge – eating at Fitzbillies and University Arms

Fitzbillies

Fitzbillies is familiar from when I lived in Cambridge several years ago. It is always nice to return. This time we all excelled ourselves, taking full advantage of the splendid menu and that it was time for brunch rather than just a coffee and a bun. This was the Fitzbillies in Dowling Street, a short walk from where I was staying at the Hilton.

The photos illustrate the generosity of the servings, and the variety of meal available.

The University Arms

This was a new experience – and one that we thoroughly enjoyed. As can be seen by the half-eaten meals below, I was so busy talking that I forgot to take photos. The salad was fresh and full of attractive components. My only complaint was that it was ordered by three of us, but was served all together. Compounding the problem was that it arrived with only two eggs! The meals were generous apart from that, and full of flavour.

Bob McMullan – US Senate prospects at 9 October

The contest for control of the United States Senate continues to be fascinating and many of the state contests look extremely close.

However, there appears to be a real chance that all the contests will amount to sound and fury signifying nothing (or very little). Shakespeare has something to say for all occasions.

Notwithstanding that there are 10 seats in which the margins are sufficiently narrow that the result is genuinely in doubt, current indications suggest that it may all result in little change in the make-up of the Senate.

The two poll aggregating websites, RCP and 538 both as at 9 October indicate that there may be little change. RCP averages suggest that the Republicans would win Nevada from the Democrats while losing Pennsylvania.

538 agrees with the Nevada and Pennsylvania possibilities but its averages suggest that the Republicans could lose Ohio.

Both these outcomes would leave the Democrats in control of the Senate.

However, I am not convinced that that the current averages will be reflected in the final outcomes. On the basis of current trends the ten key seats look likely to break like this:

Strong for Democrats : Arizona; Colorado; New Hampshire
Strong for Republicans: Florida
In doubt: Georgia; Nevada; North Carolina; Ohio; Pennsylvania; Wisconsin.

The Republicans will need to win five of the six seats in doubt to win a majority in the Senate, unless they can break through in one of the stronger Democrat seats.

Current poll trends suggest they are ahead in three of the four “in doubt” seats they hold: North Carolina (by 1-1.5%); Ohio (by 1-2%) and Wisconsin (by2-3%). They also appear to be ahead in the Democrat state of Nevada (by 1-2%).

See article from The Atlantic Daily about the Senate Candidate for Ohio, JD Vance -RR

Visit to Oxford

This was just a day trip rather than the few days that we had planned to stay in Oxford. The train trip was fast, and there is a bus outside the station that goes into the city centre. One ticket covers both forms of transport. This was a day for revisiting familiar places, such as Blackwell’s Book shop and the Alice Shop; walking down ‘the Broad’ and ‘the High’; passing what was the Bodleian and the new library; and walking through the gardens.

Blackwell’s remains a marvellous bookshop, but the independent coffee shop is now part of a chain, and rather ordinary. However, the barista was able to make a flat white which was a change from other UK coffee outlets.

Tom Nichols Staff Writer TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2022 ∙ SUPPORTING SPONSOR: PwC

Clowns and Charlatans Ohio’s U.S. Senate candidates, Tim Ryan and J. D. Vance, held their first debate last night in Cleveland. I wrote last year about why I find Vance so execrable, but my friend Jim Swift, a native Ohioan, argued today that while “Ryan gave a serviceable performance,” he “didn’t beat Vance into the ground, and given how far Ohio has gone in a MAGA direction, that’s what he needed to do.” One moment, however, struck me. At a rally in Ohio last month, Donald Trump declared, “J. D. is kissing my ass, he wants my support so bad”—while Vance was standing right by the stage. Last night, Ryan slammed Vance for selling his dignity:I don’t know anybody I grew up with—I don’t know anybody I went to high school with—that would allow somebody to take their dignity like that and then get back up onstage. We need leaders who have courage to take on their own party. And I’ve proven that. And he was called an “ass kisser” by the former president. I understood Ryan’s exasperation. I’m not from Ohio, but I was raised in a working-class neighborhood. Where I grew up, if you sneered that a man was kissing your ass—and said it to his face—that other fellow might react by knocking you on that particular part of your anatomy. But Vance’s reaction to Trump calling him out as a spineless loser at his own rally was to run up to Trump like a puppy that just got a treat, wagging his tail for another tasty biscuit. It is possible, even likely, that Vance will gain a Senate seat. But he can never regain his dignity. He doesn’t seem to care—and neither, apparently, do voters. Americans once expected politicians to carry themselves with a seriousness that indicated their ability and willingness to tackle problems, whether poverty or war, that were too difficult for the rest of us. We elected such people not because we wanted them to be like us but because we hoped that they were better than us: smarter, tougher, and capable of being leaders and role models.We often failed, and sometimes we even enjoyed electing scoundrels, such as James Traficant and James Michael Curley. Democracies always welcome a certain amount of playacting and mischief as reassurance that our leaders are not too far removed from our own experiences as citizens. And yes, many politicians have used that as cover for their misdeeds. But even some of the most flawed people we elevated to high office at least pretended to be better people, and thus were capable of inspiring us to be a better nation. Today, we no longer expect or even want our politicians to be better than we are. The new American right, however, has blown past the relatively innocuous populism of the past 40 years and added a fetid cynicism about almost everything related to public life. Not only are the MAGA Republicans seemingly repelled by the idea of voting for someone better than they are; they support candidates who are often manifestly worse people than the average citizen, so that they may slather their fears about their own shortcomings and prejudices under a sludgy and undifferentiated hatred about almost everyone in public office. These populists not only look past the sins of their candidates but also defend and even celebrate them. Let us leave aside the cult around Trump, which has now reached such levels of weirdness that the specter of Jim Jones is probably pacing about the netherworld in awe. Instead, consider how many people cheer on unhinged cranks such as Marjorie Taylor Greene or allow themselves to be courted by smarmy opportunists such as Vance and Ted Cruz.This new populism, centered in the modern Republican Party, has no recognizable policy content beyond the thrill of cruelty and a juvenile boorishness meant largely to enrage others. The GOP’s goals now boil down to power for its elected royalty and cheap coliseum pleasures for its rank and file. Republicans, therefore, are forced to lower their—and our—standards for admission to public office, because the destruction of dignity is the only way they can find the candidates who will do what decent men and women will not, including abasing themselves to Donald Trump.The same Republicans who claim to venerate the Founders and the Constitution have intentionally turned our politics into a scuzzy burlesque. Last night, Fox News—home to some of the loudest carny barkers on the freak-show midway—played a snippet of a 2018 phone call from Joe Biden to his son Hunter. The message revealed a father’s love and worry; the Fox host Sean Hannity tried to make it seem scandalous. Meanwhile, GOP leaders continue to defend the Georgia candidate Herschel Walker, whose callousness to his own children (and their mothers) is on full display. They ridicule Biden—a decent and good man who was worried that his son was going to die from addiction—and make excuses for Walker, who seemingly forgot about multiple children he’s fathered and has made incoherent responses to charges from the mother of one of those children that he financed an abortion for her. She has also said that he later asked her to undergo a second abortion; Walker continues to deny all of these claims. I’m an adult. I get it. Our elected officials aren’t saints, and only rarely are they heroes. But must they now be a cavalcade of clowns and charlatans, joyously parading their embrace of vice and their rejection of virtue? The Republican Party seems to think so. This article was edited to omit the photo of JD Vance – a most unappealing candidate, indeed.