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Thursday, June 23, 2005
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LETTERS? PLAQUES? Ever-vigilant for cultural moments that point up the importance people place on higher education, UD found something along those lines this morning while chewing through her pancakes. Jack Abramoff, a “high-rolling Republican lobbyist” now being investigated by the Senate for fraud, recently sent this email to “Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a prominent social conservative who runs Toward Tradition, an alliance of Jews and evangelical Christians,” reports the Washington Post: I hate to ask your help with something so silly, but I have been nominated for membership in the Cosmos Club, which is a very distinguished club in Washington, DC, comprised of Nobel Prize winners, etc. Problem for me is that most prospective members have received awards and I have received none. I was wondering if you thought it possible that I could put that I have received an award from Toward Tradition with a sufficiently academic title, perhaps something like Scholar of Talmudic Studies? Indeed, it would be even better if it were possible that I received these in years past, if you know what I mean. The Post continues: “The rabbi, conservative radio host Daniel Lapin, gave his blessing. ‘I just need to know what needs to be produced,’ he wrote. ‘Letters? Plaques?’” There’s quite a bit in the Abramoff narrative of interest to UD, in part because of her familiarity with its settings. The Cosmos Club, for instance, where the elite meet to eat, sits blocks from GW, UD’s university, and, due to a number of unforeseen and unforeseeable events over the years, UD has on about five occasions eaten at this moth-eaten establishment. All of her lunches there blur into a recollection of a lugubrious room peopled by elderly white males -- animated Washington Post obituary notices, UD remembers thinking, looking around her… Another familiar site prominent in the Abramoff saga is Rehoboth Beach, UD’s favorite ocean resort around these parts. Every summer UD, husband, and kid, rent a place on the ocean there for a week or two. It’s quiet, fashionably gay, and has great restaurants and shops a short walk from the beach. Rehoboth is also where Abramoff had a lifeguard friend of his set up a fake international organization in a rented beach house for money-funneling. --------------------------------- UPDATE: Among the ten commandments discussed in Rabbi Lapin’s recent book, Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money , this seems to UD the most, er, apposite: “Pursue constructive partnerships and alliances.” |