For whatever reason, my brain has been rather disjointed this week. It seems everything I have observed and experienced bears little resemblance to each other—no commonality collectively pointing to some larger truth or understanding. Rather a kind of juxtaposition of random events that I have no inclination to delve into beyond a surface interest.
So I’ll just place these little nuggets on the table, and leave it for someone more enthusiastically curious to see what they mean, or if they mean anything at all.
Well, if all goes according to plan, Kimberly Guilfoyle will be the next U. S. ambassador to Greece. Perhaps she is the fiancée of Donald Trump, Jr., perhaps not. Perhaps this is part of her severance package from Trump world, perhaps not. Although nothing about her and her public demeanor and rumors of her private misbehavior while at Fox News, including assertions of sexually oriented misconduct, says “diplomat” to me, let’s send her to Greece. In this crazy world, it seems like a fit.
Then there is the arrest of the suspect in the New York murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which sparked a rather strange conversation about the health insurance industry. Dumping on our inefficient and expensive healthcare system is a national pastime, and Mr. Thompson’s cold-blooded killing ramped it up a notch or three.
Some of the reaction indicated that there was a Greek chorus commenting on the scene and likely to break into song at any moment. Of course, the song would start, “He had it comin’, he had it comin’, he only had himself to blame.” But instead of Velma Kelly, a fellow named Luigi Mangione was arrested.
The first thing that registered was the name. I felt like every anti-Italian trope I’d ever heard would likely surface for someone named Luigi Mangione. It sounds like a character out of The Godfather, but it isn’t. In fact, the suspect is from a wealthy Baltimore family who graduated as valedictorian from the Gilman School, a pricey/private all-boy school before getting both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Ivy League and privileged to the nth degree. Oh, well.
But this particular story gets stranger as it goes along. There are those who see Mangione as some kind of aberrant folk hero. Over 1,500 of them have already contributed to a fundraising site to help pay for his legal defense. (Did I mention he comes from a wealthy family?) Comments on the site reported by Newsweek are confounding. “I believe you are a good person Luigi…” “From the bottom of my heart, thank you.” “You are not a villain.” See what I mean about the Greek chorus.
Then there is the story of his identification and arrest. A random customer at a random McDonald’s in one of America’s random small cities—Altoona, Pennsylvania—recognized the suspect from the images released by the New York Police Department. The customer told an employee, the employee called the police, and they came and arrested the suspect.
All of this at McDonald’s. It’s an ill wind that blows no good, and McDonald’s is being referenced in the best publicity it’s received in years. But what I want to know is why was this guy at McDonald’s in the first place.
Shouldn’t he have been at Starbucks? Lord knows, no one would recognize anyone there. Or maybe Chipotle? With all that money, surely he wouldn’t balk at the cost of a $16 burrito. For the love of God, why in the world did he go to McDonald’s?
Then there has been random beauty that I’ve observed. A rather large tree with all its leaves turned fire red, before seemingly any of them have fallen to the ground. A pale white full moon hanging in a pale blue, cloudless, almost winter sky. And most poignantly, a squirrel curled up on the driveway, seemingly asleep, but sadly more than that, yet affording me the opportunity to observe his beauty at close distance compared to the remove at which I am usually kept.
To quote an old Madonna song, “Beauty’s where you find it.” So is humor. So is brewing trouble. And, if you look for it, so is the McRib.
Goodness gracious me. If Luigi Mangione had only left the gun and taken the McRib, he might still be a free man.
