Luck All Around

The indictments of Jeffrey Epstein on sex-trafficking must have a few politicians and celebrities on edge. If found guilty, will he roll on them? This may get as interesting as it is ugly. The tabloids must be chomping at the bit.

Here’s what stood out today at nypost.com: In NYC mayor Red Billy’s government, males earn an average of $58,400 a year more than female colleagues, women earning just 81 cents for every dollar earned by the men. That gap is nearly double the one that exists across the state, where women earn an average of 90 cents for every dollar earned by men. Someone should invent a new word to define the hypocrisy of politicians… A new UN report says government forces in the socialist paradise of Venezuela have killed at least 6854 people since the start of 2018, and cites accounts by independent groups that put the total above 9000.

From foxnews.com: A new poll by the Washington Post and ABC News finds that 47% of registered voters approve of President Trump’s work, 50% disapprove. At the same point in Obama’s presidency, his approval rating was 46%. The same poll has Trump losing by a significant margin in 2020 to whichever Democrat wins the nomination. I would be as surprised by that as I was by Trump’s win, and I would be deeply saddened rather than jubilant.

The luck was good in all aspects for the floating book shop. I snared the most favorable parking spot, which minimized the toil. It was refreshingly cool. The scaffold protected the wares from the light rain. I received dynamite donations from three sources, and several people made purchases. My thanks to Alice, who bought a dictionary, and to Angelo, who overcompensated me for a Betty Crocker cook book; and to the young woman who did the same for three works for her boyfriend: an instructional on shelving and swings and the huge, beautifully illustrated Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower both by Stephen King; and to the sisters who selected two from Mary Higgins Clark: Pretend You Don’t See Her and My Gal Sunday; and to Wolf, who chose a book in Russian on the clandestine volunteers Stalin sent to the Spanish civil war. And, in a neat coincidence, he returned awhile later with a hardcover edition of Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls he purchased from the library. That novel influenced me a great deal, and is the basis for the graduate thesis of the protagonist of Five Cents. The local branch will be closing soon for renovation. One of its volunteers has been bringing me books regularly. I wonder if my sales will increase while the work is being done.

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