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Writing this week in The American Conservative, Peter Tonguette described the reactions of coastal elites upon learning he lives in Ohio — by choice.
It is an exercise that requires what Tonguette calls “coping mechanisms.”
Tonguette writes about Hollywood, and at one point, the late director Bob Rafelson signed a book for him, writing, “To Peter T., who lives in an odd American place.”
“But which is stranger: Ohio, America’s seventh-most populous state, or the fact that it is regarded as an oddity by people who live and work in Hollywood, also known as the Dream Factory and La-la Land?” Tonguette wrote.
By beauteous coincidence, Tonguette raised that question on the same week that the Met Gala garnered more headlines than it is worth, which raises another question: Why?
The New York Times has to cover it, of course, and The Hollywood Reporter. But even The Wall Street Journal and NPR published photo galleries on Tuesday, as if this was an event of national significance and not the truly bizarre spectacle that it is.
Only the Academy Awards is comparable in its ratio of breathless coverage versus relevance to the lives of ordinary Americans. But at least the Oscars celebrate something accessible and occasionally relatable to the heartland. The Met Gala, by all appearances, celebrates wealth, with $100,000 tickets and gowns that cost upward of $10,000.
It also celebrates weirdness, but ordinary Americans are not supposed to remark upon that lest we be called out. Witness coverage of The Daily Beast, which said that “Triggered Republicans went low about high fashion.”
Yes, we get it: The event is a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, more specifically its Costume Institute. So, sure, there’s a case to be made that it’s simply Halloween in May. But instead of handing out candy, the haute culture hands out adulation for this couture, and the stars pose and posture on the red carpet as if all this means something, as if it matters in the grand scheme of anything.
There’s more meaning going on in Ohio right now, as people are planning weddings and having babies and being diagnosed with cancer and walking the aisles of Walmart looking for a Mother’s Day card that says just the right thing.
Better Call Dad
So, let’s talk about that New York Times interview. No, not the one with Tucker Carlson that has social media abuzz, but one that preceded that one, and got considerably less attention.
The one in which “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” star Bob Odenkirk talked up the joys of being a father.
The headline on the interview was “Bob Odenkirk would like to remind you that life is a meaningless farce,” which is not at all an accurate summary of what Odenkirk said.
For one thing, in conversation with the Times’ David Marchese, Odenkirk talked about the limitations of the world’s barometers of success when it comes to making us happy.
Of being a millionaire, he said, “It’s just not as much help as you think it should be. Yes, you can eat steak every night, I guess, but then you get sick of steak.”
Marchese also asked him about a previous interview, in which Odenkirk was asked if he was jealous of anyone, and replied that he was jealous of anyone who had young kids at home. (The actor has two children who are young adults.)
Odenkirk explained: “I absolutely knew this was the best time I’ll ever have in my life. No question. Also, it’s not just a sense of feeling valued and purposeful. It’s entertainment. There is nothing more entertaining than a little kid.”
Let that sink in: A guy who has achieved peak Hollywood success, who is currently starring in a film in theaters, is saying that the best part of his life was having kids, and having them still living at home. It would have been nice if the headline had hinted at this.
Recommended Reading
What demographic is responsible for the falling fertility rates in the United States? While there are some young liberals who are getting married and having children, or say they want to, the left has a messaging problem that is showing up in birth rates, write Brad Wilcox and Grant Bailey.
“No group of Americans is less likely to say marriage matters than liberals, especially the college-educated. Among college-educated liberals aged 18–55, only 30% agree that children are better off with married parents — barely 1 in 3. Even liberals without college degrees are only slightly more marriage-minded, at 36%.”
Read more here: The political left has a marriage problem. What’s the solution?
For Deseret Magazine, Ethan Bauer took a deep dive into youth sports to try to answer the questions confronting many parents: How much money and how much time is too much to invest in sports?
“Even just between 2019 and 2024, average family spending on their child’s primary sport rose 46 percent — a rate far exceeding inflation — as the U.S. youth sports industry’s total annual revenue reached $40 billion. And while it could be tempting to roll your eyes and blame the ‘crazy sports parent,’ a trope that certainly exists, the truth of today’s youth sports insanity is much more complicated.”
Jay Evensen looked at the first known attempted assassination of a U.S. president, and found that there were conspiracy theories swirling when an unemployed housepainter tried to shoot Andrew Jackson in 1835.
He writes: “Jackson’s supporters spread the rumor that the assailant had been seen recently at the home of Jackson-hater Sen. George Poindexter. They must have been plotting the attack, the story went. Not long after, the other side countered by saying the president staged the whole assassination attempt to make himself look good. That’s why the guns conveniently didn’t fire. Stop me if any of this sounds familiar.”
The futile search for a conspiracy
Reaction to Kimmel’s widow joke
Last week’s Right to the Point poll asked subscribers if late-night host Jimmy Kimmel should be fired for an inappropriate joke he made that became even more inappropriate after a gunman stormed the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
The majority of Right to the Pointers said yes, although a number of us are going about our lives just fine without paying any attention to Kimmel.
Despite social-media outrage, Disney has declined to take action, and Kimmel has not apologized, saying it was a “very light roast joke” focusing on the age difference between Melania and Donald Trump.
End Notes
A few years ago, I wrote about the family road trip for Deseret Magazine, recalling long drives with small children that seemed interminable at the time, but in hindsight, were short-lived and incalculably precious.
As such, I was delighted to come across a story about the road trip taken by the family of Cherie DeVaux, the trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo. (Golden Tempo, you may know, is the Thoroughbred giving Secretariat a run for his money in the short-film category of “best Kentucky Derby ending.”)
But before that happened, 10 or so members of DeVaux’s family piled into a white van to make the trip from New York to Louisville to see the race.
The 14-hour drive, broken up by visits to Burger King and the convenience store Wawa, was so chaotic and merry that DeVaux’s sister told Associated Press sports writer Stephen Whyno that she wasn’t sure how many people were in the van. “Nine? Ten? I don’t know. We lost count,” Adrianne DeVaux said.
They took photos along the way, even donning Burger King crowns at one meal stop, and using the hashtag “Are we there yet?”
At one point during the trip, Adrianne DeVaux posted on social media, “One Jolly Rancher thrown from the back to the front windshield and two Aleve taken already.”
It was, it appears, pretty much like every family road trip in history, except for there were no children, just children at heart.
So, Bob Odenkirk needn’t worry about not having as much fun as a parent now that his children are grown. All his family needs to do is hit the road.
And let’s hope the DeVaux family road trip features prominently in the movie that is surely already in the works, given the popularity of Disney’s heartwarming 2010 “Secretariat” movie.