Please, not Roger.
Extremely attractive blonde woman looking out at the Columbia River with a wistful expression.
photograph Joseph Ivan Long ©2020
One of the wonderful things about living with somebody like I live with - and by that, I mean there is nobody else who lives quite like she lives - is that she keeps things interesting. In little ways and big;
a precious and precarious teeter-totter of of sweet and sass, wit and sincerity, banter and depth, love and objectivity.
I don’t know where her compliments come from sometimes. We recently watched Bombshell, the story of disgraced Fox executive Roger Ailes, who led the News division with an iron grip for two decades and built it into the (conservative) powerhouse it is today. Along the way, he sexually harassed and abused many women and was finally forced out in a stunning example of justice coming late, but at least coming. To some degree. These fictional renditions of actual happenings are hard to take sometimes; sometimes it’s difficult to see what the value is in a recreated scenario based on actual events, but still compressing and interpreting characters and time, and choosing what to put in and what to take out. Art from life. But this is done well. Charlize Theron disappears into being Megyn Kelly, (former) Fox News anchor and journalist.
Roger Ailes, hammed up by a heavily-jowled John Lithgow, makes several cracks throughout about his physical appearance and the fact that “…I didn’t always look like this.” We could have a long philosophical discussion about what constitutes beauty and the different standards of physical attractiveness we apply to people, but in this case…Roger Ailes is not an attractive man, inside or out.
Haggard-looking man in his early-40s looks at the camera with resigned expression.
photo by Countess Becca Long 2020
So Becca informed me, at the end of a long day, as she checked me out feet to head, then back down and up again, that:
“You know…”
she said, nodding in a moderately-approving manner as her eyes roved over my body and face,
“…you don’t look very much like Roger Ailes. Not too much.”
We all have our shallow vanities, and honestly it kind of made me happy that she didn’t find too many similarities between the two of us, physical or otherwise.
And sometimes, you get the compliment you didn’t know you needed. So, umm, thank you, Rebecca. Accepted. I hope there are many other dissimilarities between me and Roger as well. Thank you for finding me palatable to your taste and moderately attractive, roughly speaking.
I’m developing a good compliment to share with you on a rainy day.
