Foggy
My brain and the weather. Some brief thoughts just before Christmas.
I had irrational anxiety ahead of procuring a modest Christmas tree this year. I even for the first time in my life thought about buying a fake one, mostly because it is no trouble to dispose of later. One kid wasn’t back home yet, another kid was out shopping, the third was studying for an exam (school still isn’t over yet in Austria which is adding to the holiday stress), so it was just me and my legs and a short walk to the Christmas tree seller. I cannot tell you all how happy I was when I noticed the little cart parked next to the special machine which they use to wrap all the trees up, and I could have hugged the tree seller when he told me I could borrow the cart as long as I promised to bring it right back. Then out of nowhere a kid of about 13 popped up and seemed to be helping the tree seller (I honestly could not tell from his work ethic if it was a volunteer or for compensation position), trying bravely to hammer something into the bottom of my wooden tree stand. The tree seller asked the kid to walk with me and bring the cart back so I would not have to, to which the boy replied “I’m not so good at finding my way back in the dark”.
Reader, it was 4pm and the walk was no more than five minutes. I laughed, silently, and maneuvered the little cart out of the lot on my own. On my way back I ran into my neighbor whose muscles I had intended to put to use carrying my tree, who hadn’t seen my text in time, and he exclaimed, “you look like you are somewhere in Finland!” which I didn’t really understand at first, but then I realized that white puffer coat with a giant furry hood pulling a cart with a tree was rather festive except that there is no snow and we haven’t seen the sun in weeks. I do not exagerate when I say that. I delivered the tree to my apartment, walked the cart back, and met my neighbor for a coffee, feeling a huge sense of relief that sometimes the little things that stress you out the most actually only take like five minutes to complete and are totally straightforward.
I don’t have a lot of news for you all this week. I assume most of you already saw and read the Vanity Fair “hit job” articles, along with the now infamous photos. If you didn’t, Philipps O’Brien shared links to both articles here, bypassing the paywall:
I don’t actually think the piece was a hit job per se — the journalists likely published many of the things said on record while omitting context. I cannot imagine that Wiles would have forgotten she was on the record. She may have never overly naive about her ability to manage a glossy spread like this, and the whole team seems to have been so enamored by the idea of having their photos in the famous magazine that they appeared to have nearly all unanimously (except for Miller, who reportedly asked questions) assumed the photographer was trying to present them in their Sunday best. As for the photo with the lip filler injections, as someone who has had those injections — she needs to find a new injector. There is never a need for that many injection spots, and the scarring should never be like that. I did though find it a bit uncomfortable to go after people whose politics you don’t like on account of physical flaws. If it was done to politicians on the left, that same left would be upset. The photos themselves are brilliant. I am still rather stunned the photographer, Christopher Andersen, got away with it. He gave an interview here explaining the process.
My one tangible take-away from the piece was the admission that Trump believes Putin wants all of Ukraine. I would agree with this. This week in Russia, Putin performed his hours-long, annual call in show in which “ordinary people” from all over the country are permitted to ask questions of the president, and a select few journalists are also allowed to pose their pre-approved questions in a conference room setting. One of the most seasoned journalists covering Russia, Max Seddon of the FT, observed that it did not sound at all like Russia is done with its war in Ukraine. Quite the opposite:
A Ukrainian told me this week it seems reasonable to imagine that Russia takes what it wants of Ukraine (Kyiv, the Black Sea coast in its entirity including Odesa), and central European nations like Poland and Hungary annex the border western regions which are of little economic interest to Russia. It sounds completely outlandish, but then again so did a Russian invasion of Ukraine before February 2022.
Meanwhile, the situation on the ground in Ukraine’s cities right now is really precarious. This, by Anasasia Lebedenko, writing from Odesa, is an excellent description of what day-to-day life is like, in winter, when you only have electricity for a handful of hours a day.
I don’t have any insights other than a gut feeling that the Trump administration will soon lose interest in even trying to get Russia and Ukraine to negotiate, despite the news of “talks” in Miami. The location alone…can you imagine, the fate of torn-up Donetsk and other regions in Ukraine absolutely destroyed already being decided at white fusion restaurants in the shade of palm trees next to sandy beaches? It just feels so wrong, a metaphor for everything wrong with this present moment in time.
Europe and Ukraine are not in Florida. This all feels like backdoor scheming, but a peace deal to end a war is not a real estate project negotiation. And for that reason, I remain deeply skeptical that anything fruitful will come of this, perhaps primarily because Russia is showing no signs of being merciful towards Ukraine’s civilian population this winter. The ongoing attacks are of course designed to cause even more fatigue and exhaustion, both mental and physical, in the hopes that Ukrainians will turn on their government and demand peace at any cost. Which is also a naive assumption on the part of Russia. Ukrainians are exhausted, yes, but that does not mean they are all ready to become Russian citizens. I have no idea how anyone expects that to actually work — Kyiv is not Mariupol. I suspect there are still very few people, perhaps none, who actually question Putin on any of this. So far, his war is running on inertia, and despite the indicators that Russia’s economy is not as rosy as it once was, and sanctions are biting, if slowly, the war has become the new status quo, and it does not look like Russia’s leadership has any plans to stop in the near future without something they can declare a decisive victory.
I mean, they are still talking about “Nazis”?!
On the subject of Russia but not really, I stumbled across a new TV show on TikTok which, when I read the description, I really could not imagine I would enjoy, but I am so glad I gave it a shot and before I could understand what was happening I had lost five hours in real time and was preparing to rewatch the fifth episode for a second time in 24 hours (and I never rewatch anything). The show is called Heated Rivalry and is the story of two professional hockey players, one Canadian, one Russian, who develop a secret relationship and fall in love. Gay hockey love story was certainly not on my bingo card but it is the most uplifting show I have watched in FOREVER and the acting is incredible. The actor who plays the Russian is actually American, didn’t know any Russian before he was cast, and absolutely nails the lines he has to deliver in Russia, better pronunciation and intonation than any non-native speaker I have ever seen on camera. The show was made in Canada (thankfully), then bought by HBO Max. I managed to watch it on one of those websites you can google. It is based on a series of books written by a woman and then optioned after the show’s creator read an article about the gay hockey romance novels in the Washington Post, and optioned them for film the next day. There is an entire podcast here by Post Reports about how the show and how it came to be.
The sixth and final episode is coming out on December 26 and for once I am relieved that everything will be closed in Austria and I can tune out the world and tune in. I really don’t have words, but perhaps in these dark times, this show is sort of a fairy tale of sorts, and although I have never watched any kind of gay romance before, I think the acting and the story (which is not really at all about hockey, thankfully) are somehow universal and therefore there are people of all ages and sexual orientations now completely obsessed with what was probably a relatively low-budget Canadian production of romance novels. Heated Rivalry was not on my bingo card but I am so grateful.
With that I had better get back to last minute Christmas preparations. We now have a full house which is lovely but also I am feeling a little bit anxious about not having actually purchased all the Christmas gifts yet. This year some unnamed teenagers are learning the hard lesson that if you didn’t share the link in time…not a real problem of course but I would still like to make Christmas morning special, and in this case special will have to be a surprise. I just hope I can turn on enough positivitiy to go out and find some magic. Or sparkle. Sparkly magic. Preferably for under €100.
Wishing you all a lovely Christmas week! I know America is still working; Europe is pretty much already checked out, with the exception of the poor schoolkids…