Make More Pie

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nancyrommelmann.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nancyrommelmann.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nancyrommelmann.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nancyrommelmann.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nancyrommelmann.substack.com/subscribe

If you think journalists sit around talking about the failures of other journalists, you are correct! Perhaps no more than in the past two years, when watching the chattering classes and their publications soft pedal President Biden’s mental and physical decline and/or tell people who grew increasingly alarmed that they were liars, in the bag for Trump, deep fakers, “what are you, a doctor?” etc. etc.

I would like to say there is succor for those of us who insisted, in print and on podcasts, that the president was failing and, as a duty to the American people and a kindness to Biden himself, this needed to acknowledged, but there is not. There is some contempt, which I think it deserved. It is interesting to try to figure out why, for instance, Biden senior advisor Mike Donilon agreed, in 2024, to help Biden run his reelection campaign. (Does his asking for, and receiving, $4 million make it any clearer?) With the release this week of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin (which I listened to on audio - Tapper narrates - and recommend), you may already be marinating in some of the details. It’s scummy, and it’s sad.

Thompson was reporting on Biden’s failings early and often. Did his fellow pressman herald his doing so? Wait hahahahaha…

Drew Holden is another journalist who cited the press’s failings when it came to bringing clear eyes to whatever was going on with Biden. Was it tribalism? Job security? An anybody-but-Trump attitude that had journalists prizing ideology over being frank with citizens? A $4 million payday?

In our short discussion, Drew and I cover the above, as well as the sliming of Robert Hur after he wrote Biden was “an elderly man with a poor memory,” the delusions the Biden family have been pushing for decades, and whether anyone is going to apologize to the American people - who knew what they were seeing - for shoving the wrong stories down our throats… and are still shoving. (The timing of announcing Biden’s cancer diagnosis, anyone?)

Follow Drew on Twitter https://x.com/DrewHolden360, subscribe to his Substack, Holden Court.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nancyrommelmann.substack.com/subscribe

I know I promised not to post new stuff, and I’m not, but some of you may enjoy today’s episode of the Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em podcast, which I cohost with Sarah Hepola and which we started to do in video last week. (YouTube channel coming; please subscribe, it’s free!)

Nick, poet and author of the memoir Another B******t Night in Suck City - which became the movie Being Flynn - is a great friend and delightful in every way.

This is the first 20 minutes of the episode. For notes and links and hot box picks (mine this week is my favorite book in a long while), head over to the Smoke ‘Em site and become a subscriber. Or click the clicky, which will take you there xx

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Hopefully looking somewhat less bedraggled than during last night’s live muffin tutorial, if on a subject less sweet: sociopaths - the charming ones, the murderous ones - and those with other personality disorders that, based on experience and comments in the scroll, many many of us deal with. Some tips, some solace, some links. Questions/comments, fire away - you people are so quiet over here!

Related matter:

The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout

Destination Gacy: A Cross-Country Trip to Shake the Devil’s Hand, by Nancy Rommelmann

To the Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and Murder, by Nancy Rommelmann

“Sacrificing Rebecca: For 14 years, Laurie Recht struggled with her daughter's illness. At least, that's what she wanted people to believe,” by Nancy Rommelmann (Willamette Week)

“No Exit Plan: The Lies and Follies of Laura Albert, a.k.a. JT LeRoy,” by Nancy Rommelmann (LA Weekly)

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For those who joined the live feed, thank you for hanging out with me. (NB: Not sure why we lost the first three minutes of the video but we got the recipe in there so.) Any questions, fire away. I am good at very few things and baking is one of them. No questions too silly!

For those who did not join, you might give the recipe a try. As mentioned below, these will be more popular than you anticipate. Pro tip: toast and slather with butter.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nancyrommelmann.substack.com/subscribe