But what can I do? It’s out of my hands. If we’d gone according to my schedule, it would have been out last summer and I’d be on to the second one.

But, if memory serves me correctly, Christine Keeler, with whom Profumo allegedly slept, was also allegedly sleeping with a Soviet naval attache to Britain. This also wasn’t cricket, given the Cold War.

It’s all coming back now……..Mandy Rice-Davies, Stephen Ward, Peter Rachman…….where are they now?

Incidentally, for lovers of film among the commentors on the HB, I recommend a just-released film, called “An Education”, set in the Britain of around the time of the Profumo Scandal.

“An Education” invokes the name of Peter Rachman, and deals with the issue of young women and education, and reminds us that until relatively recently, most mothers and fathers considered it a waste of money to send their daughters to university, because they would go there just to get their MRS (this used to be a joke in the times of the Profumo Scandal).

After all, he has a book contract and will be published. He’ll go on a book tour. Groupies will want his autograph and meaningful comments on their purchased books. ( I know because I have signed books from Amy Tan and Mignon Fogarty and Billy Collins who all said To Cheri…I wish you happy reading…blah…blah…)

You and I, Mr. C, two people who have read this blog– almost from its inception in an alley to this very wintery morning– now WE are the people holding up the patience sign ( Andreas 813.52 ) behind the goal posts.

By the time this book is published, you and I may have moved on…

I love this sort of thing. Let’s organize all of literature: obscure traits about obscure people, obvious traits about obscure faults, obvious faults in odd places, etc.

This is not to say that I’m not interested in your book (yawn) when your publisher gets around to it. Your patience is an inspiration.

Also, a friend who read this post just emailed me this:

Hey, Hannibal showed up on my Bloglines this morning and the fact that you wrote “young and immature genius” leapt out at me. It’s the second time I’ve read this; in an AP article in my local paper, Tiger’s agent asked reporters to “Give the kid a break.”

My point was not to correct you, but your your word choice triggered a question: do you think that Tiger’s locked-down brand machine has kept us imagining him as the same Wunderkind we were introduced to more than a decade ago? Do you think that some of this disappointment is based not on just new information about a man, but the shattering of the myth of a boy?

I like that: “shattering the myth of a boy”

So in purely human terms, what is going on with Tiger Woods? Is it schadenfreude on the part of all of us who cannot do what he does and earn the money he does? Is it because we (probably wrongly) assume that excellence in one aspect of life means excellence in all aspects? Is it because our lives are so boring and insignificant that we have to create an uber society of royalty/ celebrities to emulate and envy and delight in exposure of their foibles?

I wonder if a discussion of heroes should also include an exploration of our need to have heroes in our lives.

How about Sinclair Lewis? Loved Arrowsmith Your humor, Mr. C, would be tickled by <Arrowsmith.

What is interesting is how most famous people end up just like the rest of us (except they have special burial places with lots of adornments).

i think that is why i like this blog so much. people post my thoughts for me! indeed indeed had “his wife’s anticipation was justified”.

I feel strange passing judgement on people who are hugely successful? (and ‘lucky’)

I just realized (having made a Venn diagram in my brain about the qualities of characters in your book) that I am drawn to fiction that describes obscure traits about obscure people. People not in your book. Who writes such fiction, Ms. Sabraw? I’m thinking Cheever, Maugham, Waugh. My favs. Non fiction is another story.

I know a lot of people in the village who only talk about their profits and not their losses.

They knew how to make scandals look good in 1960s London.

Before Tiger Woods there was John Profumo (anyone remember him? or even heard of him? Hint: Profumo Scandal). As a result of his Tiger-like sexual transgressions, Profumo resigned in disgrace from being Secretary of State for War in the British cabinet. He had also belonged to the Privy Council, and had served with distinction as a Brigadier on various WW 2 battlefields, being mentioned in “dispatches”. In short, Profumo came from, and belonged to the highest echelons in British society.

After his fall he began his penance by cleaning toilets at a charity in the poorest part of London. In a self-effacing way, he devoted the rest of his life to charity, and eventually was awarded a medal at Buckingham Palace for his work for the poor, thus regaining his position in society.

Quite a story.

Manuscript change: find & replace of Tiger by Cheetah should be quick.