Fifteen years is a long time. In life, in a marriage, and in a job.
This week, I had the opportunity to attend the farewell do for a colleague who shall remain unnamed. After fifteen years with the company, he has decided to move on. And I think he has done the right thing.
Somebody else who will soon be moving on, even if after only eight years in the job and not of his own accord, is POTUS. In a refreshingly candid interview, Barack Obama recently admitted what he would miss most was Air Force One. Can’t blame him.
And after only three years with Bayern Munich, megastar football coach Pep Guardiola is moving on in summer to “seek a new challenge” with Manchester City. Interestingly, between now and then he may still be playing with his current club against his new team in the final of the European Champions’ League. I guess that’s what you call a conflict of interest, although I’m sure he is professional enough to be focused only on winning that one game – if only to cement his legacy with his current employer, the crown of European club football having eluded him in the first two years of his three-year tenure there. Not good for his ego.
Don’t you love it when semi-literate football professionals (and I do not include Mr Guardiola in this category, far from it) claim the only reason they move on to a new club abroad for at least twice the outrageous money they are already paid is to learn a new language, sample a new cuisine, and get to know a new culture.
I remember Lothar Matthäus who, when quizzed about his next club, famously said: “Madrid or Milan. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s Italy.” He eventually joined Inter Milan in 1988 and captained Germany to victory in the 1990 FIFA World Cup played in – Italy. Home ground advantage no doubt since he already knew the language, the cuisine, and the culture.
But show the man some respect: He is the all-time record German international with 150 appearances (and 23 goals) for his country spanning twenty years.
At age 55 now, he has also been married five times (with four children) to women of five different nationalities. Who needs geography for moving on?
Coming back to us mere mortals, what is it that makes moving on after a while in the same situation a positive, a plus, and a portal to bigger and better things?
Well, there’s the obvious advantage of getting the chance to do something different, learn something you didn’t know yet, and make new friends (and enemies).
Then, there’s the golden opportunity to leave people behind, no longer be reminded of disappointments, and stop ruing mistakes.
Finally, if you played your cards right, you can hope to have built a legacy, left large footsteps to be filled by whoever follows, and be remembered fondly. Don’t bet on it though – most, if not all of our contributions tend to be ephemeral in nature, temporary in impact, and as a consequence quickly forgotten.
Ironically, we tend to be remembered as often as not for our blunders rather than what we may consider our successes. Sour grapes is what I say!
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
I think we can safely take the wisdom of this bona fide certified genius at face value. Do you know how he explained his General Theory of Relativity that changed the world in laymen’s terms? “If you’re in the presence of a beautiful girl, ten minutes will pass relatively quickly. If you spend them sitting on a hot stove, they will pass relatively slowly.” I told you, a genius.
Synthesise, synthesise, synthesise.
If you want to get to know another side of him, read Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein’s Letters to and from Children (2002), a small sampling of the amusing, touching, and sometimes precocious letters sent to him by children from around the world whose exasperated teachers, unable to answer their questions, told them to “ask Dr Einstein”, and his often witty and very considerate responses. It also has wonderful photos of him from various stages in his life.
The question raises itself when is a good time to move on – always provided we can determine the moment ourselves of course. In a nutshell, I would suggest do it while you’re ahead.
Which brings me neatly to the story of one David Cameron, Member of Parliament for Witney in Oxfordshire, Leader of the British Conservative Party, and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2010.
Much to his own and the pollsters’ surprise, Dave as his friends call him won the general election last September quite comfortably, with a resulting Conservative parliamentary majority in the House of Commons for the first time since 1992. For the statistics wonks among you, Cameron is also the first Prime Minister to be re-elected immediately after serving a full term with an increased popular vote share since Lord Salisbury in 1900, and the only Prime Minister other than Margaret Thatcher to be re-elected immediately after a full term with a greater share of the seats.
But in 2013, stuck in an awkward coalition government with the notoriously pro-European Liberal Democrats, when things were not looking all that rosy and in order to secure the ongoing support of his own less-than “Brussels”-friendly backbenchers, Cameron promised an “In / Out” referendum on the UK's membership in the European Union before the end of 2017, after a period of renegotiation of its terms of staying in, if the Conservatives were to gain a majority in the 2015 general election. They did, the referendum was legislated following their victory, and it is to take place coming 23 June. And Cameron has been to the other 27 Member States and back on his renegotiation mission, bringing home mostly minor meaningless concessions that self-imploded in the perception of pundits, politicians, and the public within 48 hours of their pompous publication.
And this tactical move made at a time of perceived weakness (I don’t believe for a moment the above-mentioned backbenchers would have risked a coup against their leader and thereby endangered in an early election their own return to Westminster and the perks enjoyed by MPs when the opposition Labour Party was viewed to be “neck and neck” with them in the electorate’s favour) is now coming back to bite him BIG TIME. In addition, it didn’t help when he volunteered last year – was it a slip-up or was it the only truthful sentence uttered in the course of the election campaign? – that he would not be seeking a third term if returned to power.
Dave, one of the Golden Rules when dealing with the media: Never lie, but don’t always say everything you know.
The net result now is a bloody fratricide not just within his party, but among his Cabinet members over the question of “Remain” or “Leave” that makes for great TV and newspaper headlines, presided over as it is by a Prime Minister who one way or another has reduced himself to that most pitiful of governing political animals, a Lame Duck.
If the referendum results in the UK’s unceremonious departure from the EU, generally labelled “Brexit” – remember the much-discussed original version of not so long ago, “Grexit” that has been overtaken and relegated to the backseat of public, political, and media attention by the dramatic events of the more recent past? – Dave’s days (or just hours) in the Prime Minister’s residence at Ten Downing Street are numbered anyway. And if he limps over the finish line having secured his nation’s continued membership in the community of 28 European countries, people will quickly turn to the excitement of the struggle for succession, political patricide in terms of the Ancients’ legends.
Either way, Boris Johnson (and I think I will write more about him another time; for now, let’s just describe him as the current mayor of London, notoriously in need of a haircut, and an opportunist extraordinaire) is ante portas, as he himself, permanently prone to public pronouncements in ancient Greek or Latin, just because he can, would put it.
Of course, one should not underestimate Dave’s ability to survive, a must-have instinct in a successful politician, and his unfailing luck that has never let him down yet. But many observers who know much more than I do say this is the first time in his career he is not going to be lucky. And most of his dilemma is of his own making, remarkable for one so shrewd.
I mean, Dave, why not sit things out without making any silly commitments and then move on when in the driver seat.
In tennis, it’s what you call an unforced error.
Speaking of luck, this is maybe the most important and least recognised prerequisite of a leader – political, military, or indeed as coach of a football team. I guess it also applies to CEOs, but I will spare you the analogies, if any, to the contemporary corporate world, referring you to the libraries of business books written on what it takes to be A Great Industry Leader. All the while await the advent of The Great American Novel with much more ardour.
Instead, just a couple of stories from history to illustrate my point.
In Ancient Rome, to indulge Boris Johnson some more, home to all sorts of superstitions as it was – in fact, one could claim the Romans invented and institutionalised this fatalistic take on Life, leaving it as their signature legacy along with their language; codified law; underfloor heating and aqueducts; and military strategy together with the roads for the armies to march on – Luck was emblematic of successful public personalities. Sulla, the Civil War general and politician of the first century BC, went by Sulla Felix.
Of Julius Caesar, the following tale was told and oft-repeated: On his way back to Rome from an Eastern province, he was carried across the Adriatic Sea in a small fishing boat. A huge storm gathered, and everybody on board was convinced they would not survive. Caesar – quietly reclining, as noble Romans would, against the mast – called the captain over and said the following timeless words: “Fear not, for you carry Caesar and his luck.” Needless to say, the storm died down and everybody lived to see another day. Caesar’s proverbial luck eventually did run out on the Ides of March 44 BC – maybe by then he had simply pushed it once too often.
One more anecdote from more recent times. Napoleon Bonaparte was once being told about a French general who had excelled in everything he had done during his military career to date and urged to give him an important command. Napoleon listened patiently as the man’s virtues and successes were extolled, until he interrupted and quietly asked: “Yes, but is he lucky?” A classic.
So, knowing when to move on is key to preserving your luck. The Ancient Greeks had a word for “the right moment” – kairos. To recognise it and act accordingly indeed makes all the difference in life. Seize the day! Opportunity knocks but once – or does it?
But then, there are those who just happen to be in the right place at the right time, with no need even to see and let alone seize the day. To quote Rod Stewart, “Some Guys Have All the Luck” indeed. Lady Luck, oft-serenated, is a capricious mistress.
Having mentioned the relatively (what would Dr Einstein say about it I wonder) humble abode of the UK Prime Minister, the famous property at Number Ten Downing Street, coming into office or leaving it, in addition to moving on, requires first moving in and then moving out again. That’s three moves all tied in with each other, and I know from my own experience that a lot can go wrong in the process. But while you can insure your household goods against damage for the physical moves, and of course realistically never have their true value replaced if they do come to harm, you can’t insure your life for moving on, or not, at the opportune and propitious time.
“Living above the shop”, as the saying goes, the same removals related to assuming office and then leaving it again that British heads of government go through also apply for American Presidents – first they take residence in the White House and then have to vacate it again after four or eight years, depending on their popularity at the end of the first term and subsequent re-election. Or is it rather their luck?
With every new arrival, a lot has always been made about what type of tenants POTUS and FLOTUS would be and eventually turned out to be. The Americans speak of a Presidency, the administration, and the First Couple’s immediate entourage as the “So-and-so White House”, consciously amalgamating the policies and politics with the social and private goings-on in the building. Just watch TV series like West Wing and House of Cards, and you will know what I mean.
In history, some of these have been more interesting, entertaining, and endearing than others, a reflection of the personalities, but given the average age of a newly sworn-in President, small children have generally been the exception – hence, for example, all the hype about John F. and Jackie Kennedy and the reincarnation of the mythical court of “Camelot” in and around the Oval Office. It turns out this was nothing but a clever PR stunt on the part of the coolly manipulative First Lady after her husband’s tragic assassination on 22 November 1963.
By the way, on Friday 20 January 2017, Inauguration Day for the next President, current forerunners Trump (born 14 June 1946) and Clinton (born 26 October 1947) will be 70 and 69 respectively. Grandchildren to the fore, and in this contest, Trump with eight clearly trumps Clinton with currently just one and another on the way!
In addition to children, a pet in the White House is always a nice touch. The most famous FDOTUS? Scottish Terrier Fala (7 April 1940 – 5 April 1952), the dog of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 – 1945), who captured the attention of people in the United States like no other before or since and followed the President everywhere, becoming part of his public image. Fala survived Roosevelt by seven years and was buried beside him at Springwood, the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park, New York overlooking the Hudson River valley. If you ever want to see a magical place of history, go visit what is now The FDR National Historic Site. Just take the commuter train from Grand Central Station in Manhattan to Poughkeepsie, NY and shuttle buses pick you up. And as for Fala, he is prominently featured beside Roosevelt in Washington, DC's Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the only presidential pet so honoured.
While we are still in the state of New York, the primaries there earlier this week do seem to make the duel for the Presidency between Donald “The Donald” Trump and Hillary “It’s my turn” Clinton ever more likely. If she moves back into the White House, accompanied by ex-POTUS Bill as First Husband of the United States (FHOTUS), it will be like coming home, the ultimate fulfilment of her sense of entitlement. If Trump, however, wins the election, it will be the first time in history that a billionaire moves into a public housing vacated by a black family. Savour the thought.
Coming back to JFK, I am currently watching the Fox TV mini-series 11/22/63 based on the brilliant – I’m sorry, but there is no other adjective to describe it, although I do declare my interest as the author’s biggest fan this side of the Atlantic – novel by Stephen King, published in 2011 that imagines a protagonist from our present visiting the early Sixties with the express mission of preventing the Dallas murder of JFK. Incredibly thoroughly researched, impressively intelligently structured, and grippingly well written, this book is one of King’s very best, and the TV adaptation does it justice. Please check it out.
As you know, I don’t do spoilers, but I can’t help quoting the following warning to all time travellers: “If you fuck with the Past, the Past will fuck with you.” Let me tell you, it’s not a smooth ride for our hero Jake Epping, played in the film by James Franco.
This is not the first time a novel by Stephen King has been turned to a TV series. Two other good ones are The Stand (1994) and Under the Dome, launched in 2013 and currently in its third season.
And then, of course, there are the adaptations to the Big Screen, too many really to go into here. I will, however, volunteer my Top Three, strictly in chronological order – and they are all film classics and among the best “book movies" ever.
Carrie, the story of a teenager with telekinetic powers and a repressive, religiously obsessed single Mom. The book was published in 1974, and the movie came out in 1976. Directed by none less than Brian de Palma, it stars Sissy Spacek in the title role as Carrie White and Piper Laurie as her mother, Margaret White. Both were nominated for Oscars, in the category Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (which doesn’t happen too often), but incomprehensively to me, neither won. – Look out for a very young John Travolta in a minor role.
The Shining, set in an isolated hotel in the Rocky Mountains closed for the winter and inhabited by the seasonal caretaker Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their psychic son Danny. The book of 1977 is a pretty frightening read already as we witness Dad’s mental unravelling, but it’s the brilliant acting of Jack Nicholson in the movie (1980) that imprints images on the viewer’s memory that will never leave you again. Normally, I find, it’s more the other way around as we all create our own pictures in our minds as readers. Anyhow, this is one of the outstanding works by director giant Stanley Kubrick and co-stars Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd. – Stephen King revisits Danny Torrance many years later as a seriously traumatised adult in his novel Doctor Sleep (2013), but there is no film adaptation to date.
Misery, a novel published in 1987, is almost a two-person piece, and conjures up horror without any supernatural elements involved. Author Paul Sheldon has a car accident and ends up, seriously injured, in the home of former nurse Anne Wilkes, his “number one fan”, who insists on caring for him in her remote house in the mountains of Colorado without telling anyone in the outside world. Little does he know of her issues, but temporarily helpless as he is, soon will he find out. The film was released in 1990, directed by Rob Reiner, and starred James Caan and Kathy Bates. And she did win the Oscar as Best Actress in a Leading Role for her truly memorable performance.
So, 11/22/63 is a must-see, for the fascinating premise, the well-crafted plot, and the authentic re-enactment of the times – the cars, the fashion, and the language. Maybe it’s because I’m an historian, but I always find stories of time travel into the past more appealing than those into the future. What fascinates me is the “What if?” question. What if Kennedy’s assassination had been prevented? Read the novel, watch the film.
There’s a very interesting book of that title that explores alternative scenarios – “counterfactuals” to the initiated – linked to a different outcome of major battles in History: Robert Cowley, ed., What If? Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (2001). As the editor writes, “milliseconds can influence centuries” and “the difference can be as slight as the path of a bullet”.
For example, what would have happened if Napoleon had won at Waterloo? Would there have been a British Empire? Would English still be the lingua franca of our time? Probably not.
And to finish fittingly with a military variation on our theme of moving on, here is how the American Civil War Union general and later U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant (1822 – 1885) summarised his take on strategy: “Find out where your enemy is, get him as soon as you can and strike him as hard as you can and keep moving on.”
In more contemporary and peaceful terms, and à propos of nothing, brewing giant AB InBev, a former employer of mine, has agreed this week to sell European lager brands Peroni and Grolsch to Japan's Asahi brewing group to allay competition concerns as part of its takeover of SABMiller. These brands are moving on, and while not partial to them, so will I now to find myself a well-deserved English craft beer. Writing blogs is a thirsty business, let me tell you.
Somebody else who will soon be moving on, even if after only eight years in the job and not of his own accord, is POTUS. In a refreshingly candid interview, Barack Obama recently admitted what he would miss most was Air Force One. Can’t blame him.
And after only three years with Bayern Munich, megastar football coach Pep Guardiola is moving on in summer to “seek a new challenge” with Manchester City. Interestingly, between now and then he may still be playing with his current club against his new team in the final of the European Champions’ League. I guess that’s what you call a conflict of interest, although I’m sure he is professional enough to be focused only on winning that one game – if only to cement his legacy with his current employer, the crown of European club football having eluded him in the first two years of his three-year tenure there. Not good for his ego.
Don’t you love it when semi-literate football professionals (and I do not include Mr Guardiola in this category, far from it) claim the only reason they move on to a new club abroad for at least twice the outrageous money they are already paid is to learn a new language, sample a new cuisine, and get to know a new culture.
I remember Lothar Matthäus who, when quizzed about his next club, famously said: “Madrid or Milan. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s Italy.” He eventually joined Inter Milan in 1988 and captained Germany to victory in the 1990 FIFA World Cup played in – Italy. Home ground advantage no doubt since he already knew the language, the cuisine, and the culture.
But show the man some respect: He is the all-time record German international with 150 appearances (and 23 goals) for his country spanning twenty years.
At age 55 now, he has also been married five times (with four children) to women of five different nationalities. Who needs geography for moving on?
Coming back to us mere mortals, what is it that makes moving on after a while in the same situation a positive, a plus, and a portal to bigger and better things?
Well, there’s the obvious advantage of getting the chance to do something different, learn something you didn’t know yet, and make new friends (and enemies).
Then, there’s the golden opportunity to leave people behind, no longer be reminded of disappointments, and stop ruing mistakes.
Finally, if you played your cards right, you can hope to have built a legacy, left large footsteps to be filled by whoever follows, and be remembered fondly. Don’t bet on it though – most, if not all of our contributions tend to be ephemeral in nature, temporary in impact, and as a consequence quickly forgotten.
Ironically, we tend to be remembered as often as not for our blunders rather than what we may consider our successes. Sour grapes is what I say!
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
I think we can safely take the wisdom of this bona fide certified genius at face value. Do you know how he explained his General Theory of Relativity that changed the world in laymen’s terms? “If you’re in the presence of a beautiful girl, ten minutes will pass relatively quickly. If you spend them sitting on a hot stove, they will pass relatively slowly.” I told you, a genius.
Synthesise, synthesise, synthesise.
If you want to get to know another side of him, read Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein’s Letters to and from Children (2002), a small sampling of the amusing, touching, and sometimes precocious letters sent to him by children from around the world whose exasperated teachers, unable to answer their questions, told them to “ask Dr Einstein”, and his often witty and very considerate responses. It also has wonderful photos of him from various stages in his life.
The question raises itself when is a good time to move on – always provided we can determine the moment ourselves of course. In a nutshell, I would suggest do it while you’re ahead.
Which brings me neatly to the story of one David Cameron, Member of Parliament for Witney in Oxfordshire, Leader of the British Conservative Party, and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2010.
Much to his own and the pollsters’ surprise, Dave as his friends call him won the general election last September quite comfortably, with a resulting Conservative parliamentary majority in the House of Commons for the first time since 1992. For the statistics wonks among you, Cameron is also the first Prime Minister to be re-elected immediately after serving a full term with an increased popular vote share since Lord Salisbury in 1900, and the only Prime Minister other than Margaret Thatcher to be re-elected immediately after a full term with a greater share of the seats.
But in 2013, stuck in an awkward coalition government with the notoriously pro-European Liberal Democrats, when things were not looking all that rosy and in order to secure the ongoing support of his own less-than “Brussels”-friendly backbenchers, Cameron promised an “In / Out” referendum on the UK's membership in the European Union before the end of 2017, after a period of renegotiation of its terms of staying in, if the Conservatives were to gain a majority in the 2015 general election. They did, the referendum was legislated following their victory, and it is to take place coming 23 June. And Cameron has been to the other 27 Member States and back on his renegotiation mission, bringing home mostly minor meaningless concessions that self-imploded in the perception of pundits, politicians, and the public within 48 hours of their pompous publication.
And this tactical move made at a time of perceived weakness (I don’t believe for a moment the above-mentioned backbenchers would have risked a coup against their leader and thereby endangered in an early election their own return to Westminster and the perks enjoyed by MPs when the opposition Labour Party was viewed to be “neck and neck” with them in the electorate’s favour) is now coming back to bite him BIG TIME. In addition, it didn’t help when he volunteered last year – was it a slip-up or was it the only truthful sentence uttered in the course of the election campaign? – that he would not be seeking a third term if returned to power.
Dave, one of the Golden Rules when dealing with the media: Never lie, but don’t always say everything you know.
The net result now is a bloody fratricide not just within his party, but among his Cabinet members over the question of “Remain” or “Leave” that makes for great TV and newspaper headlines, presided over as it is by a Prime Minister who one way or another has reduced himself to that most pitiful of governing political animals, a Lame Duck.
If the referendum results in the UK’s unceremonious departure from the EU, generally labelled “Brexit” – remember the much-discussed original version of not so long ago, “Grexit” that has been overtaken and relegated to the backseat of public, political, and media attention by the dramatic events of the more recent past? – Dave’s days (or just hours) in the Prime Minister’s residence at Ten Downing Street are numbered anyway. And if he limps over the finish line having secured his nation’s continued membership in the community of 28 European countries, people will quickly turn to the excitement of the struggle for succession, political patricide in terms of the Ancients’ legends.
Either way, Boris Johnson (and I think I will write more about him another time; for now, let’s just describe him as the current mayor of London, notoriously in need of a haircut, and an opportunist extraordinaire) is ante portas, as he himself, permanently prone to public pronouncements in ancient Greek or Latin, just because he can, would put it.
Of course, one should not underestimate Dave’s ability to survive, a must-have instinct in a successful politician, and his unfailing luck that has never let him down yet. But many observers who know much more than I do say this is the first time in his career he is not going to be lucky. And most of his dilemma is of his own making, remarkable for one so shrewd.
I mean, Dave, why not sit things out without making any silly commitments and then move on when in the driver seat.
In tennis, it’s what you call an unforced error.
Speaking of luck, this is maybe the most important and least recognised prerequisite of a leader – political, military, or indeed as coach of a football team. I guess it also applies to CEOs, but I will spare you the analogies, if any, to the contemporary corporate world, referring you to the libraries of business books written on what it takes to be A Great Industry Leader. All the while await the advent of The Great American Novel with much more ardour.
Instead, just a couple of stories from history to illustrate my point.
In Ancient Rome, to indulge Boris Johnson some more, home to all sorts of superstitions as it was – in fact, one could claim the Romans invented and institutionalised this fatalistic take on Life, leaving it as their signature legacy along with their language; codified law; underfloor heating and aqueducts; and military strategy together with the roads for the armies to march on – Luck was emblematic of successful public personalities. Sulla, the Civil War general and politician of the first century BC, went by Sulla Felix.
Of Julius Caesar, the following tale was told and oft-repeated: On his way back to Rome from an Eastern province, he was carried across the Adriatic Sea in a small fishing boat. A huge storm gathered, and everybody on board was convinced they would not survive. Caesar – quietly reclining, as noble Romans would, against the mast – called the captain over and said the following timeless words: “Fear not, for you carry Caesar and his luck.” Needless to say, the storm died down and everybody lived to see another day. Caesar’s proverbial luck eventually did run out on the Ides of March 44 BC – maybe by then he had simply pushed it once too often.
One more anecdote from more recent times. Napoleon Bonaparte was once being told about a French general who had excelled in everything he had done during his military career to date and urged to give him an important command. Napoleon listened patiently as the man’s virtues and successes were extolled, until he interrupted and quietly asked: “Yes, but is he lucky?” A classic.
So, knowing when to move on is key to preserving your luck. The Ancient Greeks had a word for “the right moment” – kairos. To recognise it and act accordingly indeed makes all the difference in life. Seize the day! Opportunity knocks but once – or does it?
But then, there are those who just happen to be in the right place at the right time, with no need even to see and let alone seize the day. To quote Rod Stewart, “Some Guys Have All the Luck” indeed. Lady Luck, oft-serenated, is a capricious mistress.
Having mentioned the relatively (what would Dr Einstein say about it I wonder) humble abode of the UK Prime Minister, the famous property at Number Ten Downing Street, coming into office or leaving it, in addition to moving on, requires first moving in and then moving out again. That’s three moves all tied in with each other, and I know from my own experience that a lot can go wrong in the process. But while you can insure your household goods against damage for the physical moves, and of course realistically never have their true value replaced if they do come to harm, you can’t insure your life for moving on, or not, at the opportune and propitious time.
“Living above the shop”, as the saying goes, the same removals related to assuming office and then leaving it again that British heads of government go through also apply for American Presidents – first they take residence in the White House and then have to vacate it again after four or eight years, depending on their popularity at the end of the first term and subsequent re-election. Or is it rather their luck?
With every new arrival, a lot has always been made about what type of tenants POTUS and FLOTUS would be and eventually turned out to be. The Americans speak of a Presidency, the administration, and the First Couple’s immediate entourage as the “So-and-so White House”, consciously amalgamating the policies and politics with the social and private goings-on in the building. Just watch TV series like West Wing and House of Cards, and you will know what I mean.
In history, some of these have been more interesting, entertaining, and endearing than others, a reflection of the personalities, but given the average age of a newly sworn-in President, small children have generally been the exception – hence, for example, all the hype about John F. and Jackie Kennedy and the reincarnation of the mythical court of “Camelot” in and around the Oval Office. It turns out this was nothing but a clever PR stunt on the part of the coolly manipulative First Lady after her husband’s tragic assassination on 22 November 1963.
By the way, on Friday 20 January 2017, Inauguration Day for the next President, current forerunners Trump (born 14 June 1946) and Clinton (born 26 October 1947) will be 70 and 69 respectively. Grandchildren to the fore, and in this contest, Trump with eight clearly trumps Clinton with currently just one and another on the way!
In addition to children, a pet in the White House is always a nice touch. The most famous FDOTUS? Scottish Terrier Fala (7 April 1940 – 5 April 1952), the dog of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 – 1945), who captured the attention of people in the United States like no other before or since and followed the President everywhere, becoming part of his public image. Fala survived Roosevelt by seven years and was buried beside him at Springwood, the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park, New York overlooking the Hudson River valley. If you ever want to see a magical place of history, go visit what is now The FDR National Historic Site. Just take the commuter train from Grand Central Station in Manhattan to Poughkeepsie, NY and shuttle buses pick you up. And as for Fala, he is prominently featured beside Roosevelt in Washington, DC's Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the only presidential pet so honoured.
While we are still in the state of New York, the primaries there earlier this week do seem to make the duel for the Presidency between Donald “The Donald” Trump and Hillary “It’s my turn” Clinton ever more likely. If she moves back into the White House, accompanied by ex-POTUS Bill as First Husband of the United States (FHOTUS), it will be like coming home, the ultimate fulfilment of her sense of entitlement. If Trump, however, wins the election, it will be the first time in history that a billionaire moves into a public housing vacated by a black family. Savour the thought.
Coming back to JFK, I am currently watching the Fox TV mini-series 11/22/63 based on the brilliant – I’m sorry, but there is no other adjective to describe it, although I do declare my interest as the author’s biggest fan this side of the Atlantic – novel by Stephen King, published in 2011 that imagines a protagonist from our present visiting the early Sixties with the express mission of preventing the Dallas murder of JFK. Incredibly thoroughly researched, impressively intelligently structured, and grippingly well written, this book is one of King’s very best, and the TV adaptation does it justice. Please check it out.
As you know, I don’t do spoilers, but I can’t help quoting the following warning to all time travellers: “If you fuck with the Past, the Past will fuck with you.” Let me tell you, it’s not a smooth ride for our hero Jake Epping, played in the film by James Franco.
This is not the first time a novel by Stephen King has been turned to a TV series. Two other good ones are The Stand (1994) and Under the Dome, launched in 2013 and currently in its third season.
And then, of course, there are the adaptations to the Big Screen, too many really to go into here. I will, however, volunteer my Top Three, strictly in chronological order – and they are all film classics and among the best “book movies" ever.
Carrie, the story of a teenager with telekinetic powers and a repressive, religiously obsessed single Mom. The book was published in 1974, and the movie came out in 1976. Directed by none less than Brian de Palma, it stars Sissy Spacek in the title role as Carrie White and Piper Laurie as her mother, Margaret White. Both were nominated for Oscars, in the category Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (which doesn’t happen too often), but incomprehensively to me, neither won. – Look out for a very young John Travolta in a minor role.
The Shining, set in an isolated hotel in the Rocky Mountains closed for the winter and inhabited by the seasonal caretaker Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their psychic son Danny. The book of 1977 is a pretty frightening read already as we witness Dad’s mental unravelling, but it’s the brilliant acting of Jack Nicholson in the movie (1980) that imprints images on the viewer’s memory that will never leave you again. Normally, I find, it’s more the other way around as we all create our own pictures in our minds as readers. Anyhow, this is one of the outstanding works by director giant Stanley Kubrick and co-stars Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd. – Stephen King revisits Danny Torrance many years later as a seriously traumatised adult in his novel Doctor Sleep (2013), but there is no film adaptation to date.
Misery, a novel published in 1987, is almost a two-person piece, and conjures up horror without any supernatural elements involved. Author Paul Sheldon has a car accident and ends up, seriously injured, in the home of former nurse Anne Wilkes, his “number one fan”, who insists on caring for him in her remote house in the mountains of Colorado without telling anyone in the outside world. Little does he know of her issues, but temporarily helpless as he is, soon will he find out. The film was released in 1990, directed by Rob Reiner, and starred James Caan and Kathy Bates. And she did win the Oscar as Best Actress in a Leading Role for her truly memorable performance.
So, 11/22/63 is a must-see, for the fascinating premise, the well-crafted plot, and the authentic re-enactment of the times – the cars, the fashion, and the language. Maybe it’s because I’m an historian, but I always find stories of time travel into the past more appealing than those into the future. What fascinates me is the “What if?” question. What if Kennedy’s assassination had been prevented? Read the novel, watch the film.
There’s a very interesting book of that title that explores alternative scenarios – “counterfactuals” to the initiated – linked to a different outcome of major battles in History: Robert Cowley, ed., What If? Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (2001). As the editor writes, “milliseconds can influence centuries” and “the difference can be as slight as the path of a bullet”.
For example, what would have happened if Napoleon had won at Waterloo? Would there have been a British Empire? Would English still be the lingua franca of our time? Probably not.
And to finish fittingly with a military variation on our theme of moving on, here is how the American Civil War Union general and later U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant (1822 – 1885) summarised his take on strategy: “Find out where your enemy is, get him as soon as you can and strike him as hard as you can and keep moving on.”
In more contemporary and peaceful terms, and à propos of nothing, brewing giant AB InBev, a former employer of mine, has agreed this week to sell European lager brands Peroni and Grolsch to Japan's Asahi brewing group to allay competition concerns as part of its takeover of SABMiller. These brands are moving on, and while not partial to them, so will I now to find myself a well-deserved English craft beer. Writing blogs is a thirsty business, let me tell you.
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