OUR NIXON

"The last six Roman emperors were fags"--Nixon in the White House tapes

I've finished the latest Lapham's Quarterly, and the new one hasn't yet been published!  I'm ahead of the game for once.

Now I've turned to two books I'm likely to read at ROLT's banned books event.  I borrowed J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye from the Spadina library.  None of the libraries have a copy of Tomi Ungerer's No Kiss for Mother, so I bought it at the World's Biggest Bookstore. (They had a couple of copies at the Bay & Bloor Indigo, but their graphic novels section was such a mess I couldn't find it there!) It's really funny.

Last night I saw Our Nixon at the Bloor.  It's a documentary made from the home movies Watergate figures Erlichman, Haldeman and Chapin filmed at the White House during the Nixon presidency, along with TV news reports and recordings from the White House tapes. (They show Phil Donahue interviewing Haldeman.  Boy, do I miss Donahue's show!)

Paradoxically, people with the most power seem to have the greatest insecurities, as when Nixon worried about the United States becoming "a pitiful, helpless giant." (Mother felt sorry for Nixon, though she disapproved of the Christmas Bombing.) I suppose they have nobody willing to hold their insecurity in check.    Oddly, the documentary made no mention of the invasion of Cambodia, the Nixon decision I think had the most important legacy.

This film reminded me that I want to see the 1999 Watergate comedy Dick again. (We should try the Hello Dollies recipe.)