Mayo 30, 2026

"[Jill] Biden is a longtime English professor who casually uses the correct group noun for starlings ('murmuration')."

"She quotes many writers here — Albert Camus, Robert Frost, Nikki Giovanni, James Salter — but the author the book recalled most vividly to me, in its careful catalog of small details, was William Carlos Williams, who in his epic poem 'Paterson' wrote 'no ideas but in things.' This tracks, because Biden acknowledges the help of Ada Calhoun, the author of [a book] about Frank O’Hara. Indeed, Biden’s description of being hustled for security reasons through the service entrance to hotels made my O’Hara stand on end, so cleanly could it be broken into stanzas, if you’ll forgive the liberty: 'right by garbage cans/ reeking of rotting room service leftovers/mixed with discarded mini shampoos/ — an odor so sour and pungent/that it almost knocks you down.'"

So writes Alexandra Jacobs in "Jill Biden’s New Memoir Shows Off a Sharp Eye, if Not a Sharp Elbow/Beyond a few pointed digs at her husband’s successor, 'View From the East Wing' largely sticks to the head-spinning details of first lady-hood" (NYT).

Speaking of "no ideas but in things," we're told that, in her new memoir, her second, Jill Biden "marvels at the perks of the office, the masses of flowers, attentive staff and fine art, such as 'Morning on the Seine, Good Weather,' the oil painting that Angela Merkel said Trump called 'my Monet.' ('Our Monet,' Biden corrects, meaning the American people’s.)"

I looked it up. Here's "Our Monet":


According to The White House Historical Association's Facebook page: "On December 4, 1963, the family of John F. Kennedy donated the painting 'A Morning on the Seine; Good Weather' to the White House collection in memory of the late president." That was 2 weeks after the assassination. I'm only noticing this painting now, because I'm reading about Jill and Donald verbalizing possessively about it. And now I feel as though I can see, in that fuzzy image, 2 profiles yelling at each other. And both look like Trump.

Oh! The derangement! An odor so sour and pungent....

ADDED: Did Trump say "my Monet"? It's hearsay — at least double hearsay. Jill Biden is asserting that Angela Merkel said that Trump said something. There's room for mishearing, misquoting, misinterpreting, and lying from Merkel (supposedly hearing Trump) and Biden (supposedly hearing Merkel) and from anyone else who's passed this statement along.

Interestingly, Trump has used the phrase "my Monet," but not to refer to an artwork by Claude Monet. Trump has called one of his golf courses "my Monet": "I have friends who buy Monets. Turnberry is my Monet and it’s far more beautiful." But that quote too is hearsay. Eric Trump wrote it in a book, it says here: "Donald Trump: Turnberry is my Monet — and it’s more beautiful/US president ‘obsessed’ with details about his golf courses in Scotland and continually makes suggestions to improve them, according to his son Eric’s book" (London Times).

Googling for more reporting of Trump's use of the phrase "my Monet," I got a good laugh:

 
I'd like to hear the "Apprentice" theme song with "Monet!" taking the place of "Money!":

74 (na) komento:

Tina Trent ayon kay ...

At least mentioned is John O'Hara, a sadly forgotten but amazing author. About the only fiction I'm interested in reading again.

Craig Mc ayon kay ...

It must be tough being a ghost-writer.

gspencer ayon kay ...

"An odor so sour and pungent,"

Like when Biden soiled himself in public. Now, Jill, err DOCTOR Jill (w/the pathetic doctorate in education), tell us about all the private episodes.

tim maguire ayon kay ...

A starry-eyed thumbsucker about how a woman with a PhD has a greater than average understanding of her field…and yet, for all the worshipful coverage, maybe 5 people will pay full price for this “memoir.”

mezzrow ayon kay ...

Dr. Biden can likely clear up something I have been wondering for years, then. I have considered this my favorite word to describe the Biden admin, but I have a problem with the spelling.

Is it spelled caddywhompus or cattywhompus? If I'm wrong, it'll be the only thing they talk about.

Michael Fitzgerald ayon kay ...

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cattywampus

Dave Begley ayon kay ...

Are we supposed to be impressed about Dr.Jill Biden?

PSUfan ayon kay ...

Who the heck is reading that book?

Bob B ayon kay ...

Not going to bother reading the book. But since it addresses art, what does it say about Hunter’s contributions to the Biden crime family fortunes.

Maynard ayon kay ...

Is being an artsy pretentious twit a requirement to write for the NYT?

gilbar ayon kay ...

speaking of "correct" terms..
the correct term for an instructor at a community college is:
INSTRUCTOR
not "professor"
"doctor" Jill didn't receive her EdD "degree" until 2007,
she retired the next year. For the majority of her "career" she "taught" at high schools, not even starting teaching at the community college until 1993 (at which time she had a MA in el ed.. just like my high school teachers did).
And What did she "teach" at community college?
"remedial writing, with an emphasis on instilling confidence in students"
in other words.. High School English for people that flunked English
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Biden#Education_and_career,_marriages_and_family

imTay ayon kay ...

One of the reasons that people hate AI is that it makes it hard to tell who is really educated and cultured, and who is heading over to Grok for the right word or quote or historical incident. We should compare this text to the text of the paper she wrote to get her "doctor" title, because, IIRC, it wasn't exactly a literary masterpiece.

gilbar ayon kay ...

but let's give "dr" Jill her credit where the credit is due.

as an attractive high school student, got a job as a cocktail waitress..
as that cocktail waitress, secuced the bar owner..
forced the bar owner to marry her (over fake pregnancy claim?)
babysat for a young politician the bar owner was supporting
seduced the young politician..
causing his wife to commit suicide by truck..
divorced the bar owner, Nearly winning half of the successful bar..
MARRIED the young politician
rode the young politician's career for the next FIFTY years.
pretended to Like the (now old) politician for much of that time

gilbar ayon kay ...

ALL young girls in highschool, should aspire to BECOME "dr" Jill

imTay ayon kay ...

"Casually..." I bet. That "casually" is doing a lot or work.

Mike (MJB Wolf) ayon kay ...

The problem with Jill Biden’s book is the fantastic lies made the headlines undermining any credibility the rest of her (did she really write it?) rememoir, my term for a memoir that is constructed of reimagined “memories.”

Douger ayon kay ...

What a perfect post from Ann: A beautiful picture in which I see a dance of literature and political commentary with a skip and hop of witty insights…

Dave Begley ayon kay ...

Jill Biden is a complete idiot. While trying to continue the cover story that Joe was sharp as a tack, she reminds the country before the midterms of his disastrous presidency and the insane idea that he could have served another four years. Jill is helping the GOP and that’s why the Dems are so mad.

If Biden would have been re-elected, Iran would have a nuclear weapon today.

Mike (MJB Wolf) ayon kay ...

Let’s hear a big round of applause for this overcredentialed English instructor who, after 70 years of daily practice, can “casually” use English words in a sentence! As reported by a superfan! Who may or may not know who really wrote the phrase he quoted.

Ann Althouse ayon kay ...

Thanks Douger.

Breezy ayon kay ...

I don’t see Trumps. Instead, I see Bluto and the Grinch. Ugh, thanks for ruining a beautiful painting for me…;)

Humperdink ayon kay ...

Let’s not forget brain dead Whoopi Goldberg wanted Dr. Jill to be the Surgeon General of the United States.

rehajm ayon kay ...

…the whole episode is crafted so the reader gets that little hit when jill corrects the president. I suspect it’s fake though it reminds me of the time Martha Coakley called it the ‘Kennedy seat’ and was corrected by her opponent, who went on to make it his own…

Dave Begley ayon kay ...

Why hasn’t Jill Biden had plastic surgery like Hillary Clinton?

Fritz ayon kay ...

Alexandra Jacobs is wrong about murmuration. It is not just a collection of starlings, which on the ground would be a flock, but an aerial mass movement of starlings, where they swirl together. That's what happens when literary folk attempt to feign knowledge of biology. It's not clear from the quote how Jill used the word, so I won't cast aspersions there.

Ralph L ayon kay ...

Remember to Count de Monet.

narciso ayon kay ...

Her skinsuit is showing

wildswan ayon kay ...

I think Melania gives a better picture of being the First Lady in our time. First, I think the details it focuses on are the things high fashion focuses on and that tracks with Melania's true interests. Second, I think it shows fashion being done right and that tracks with Melania's successful career. Third, I think the way it slips in the reality of the ever-present danger and the swarms of protectors is the way things are these days, especially if the President is not senile or lazy and being hidden at beach houses or resorts.

A true account of Jill Biden as First Lady would show her hiding her knowledge of a President's decline - the how and the why. It would be interesting in sour and pungent way. This book, (as described by Althouse and the NYT) is faux realism - but then so was that President and that First Lady. Is a lie rooted in a lie twice as false or, by being true to falsehood, does it become falsehood's mirror truth? "Mirror mirror on the wall - who was falsest of them all?" Dr Jill - and still is.

Aggie ayon kay ...

Taking on airs while airing out takes.

Iman ayon kay ...

Show me teh Monet…

narciso ayon kay ...

Meanwhile her ex bill stevenson in a wilmingto courthouse facing a rigged murder charge

Jamie ayon kay ...

I wonder how the author knows that J. Biden meant "the American people." It's nice, I guess, that the mind reading goes both ways, but it's less nice that Trump's mind is always assumed to be filled with evil and brutish thoughts whereas any Democrat's mind is a wonderland.

I casually use "huzzah" in everyday speech. Does that make me noteworthy in some way?

RCOCEAN II ayon kay ...

I looked at that list of authors Dr. Jill supposedly quoted and then i saw the name "James Salter". I thought why James Salter. The author of "The Hunters"? The fomer Korean War air ace?

And then I looked up Salter's bio and saw he was Jewish. OK, so she included Salter because she could hit all the notes in the diversity songbook. Giovanni is black, and female. Camus is Catholic and foreign, and the other Guy is just a plain ol' American. So its PC.

BTW, "The Hunters" is a great book.

RCOCEAN II ayon kay ...

Angela Merkel = always reminds me "Mr. Merckle Please dont squeeze the Charmin". Anyway, she's an awful person, a traitor to Germany and Europe. And no doubt hates Trump.

narciso ayon kay ...

Miss jacobs has an East German mindset

RCOCEAN II ayon kay ...

Dr Jill marvels at the perks of the office, but to Melanie the White House was a comedown. She was living in a mansion and married to a billionarie.

Mike (MJB Wolf) ayon kay ...

I would rather watch Melania the movie AGAIN than read the fake doctor’s fake memoir.

RCOCEAN II ayon kay ...

You know who loved Merkle? George Bush. He loved that she "Spent her political Capital" aka "told her voters to go fuck themselves", and let large numbers of foreigners and Syrians into the country.

Jersey Fled ayon kay ...

Is the appropriate appellation still Doctor Jill or is it Saint Jill now?

Curious George ayon kay ...

"Angela Merkel = always reminds me "Mr. Merckle Please dont squeeze the Charmin"."

Huh?

RCOCEAN II ayon kay ...

Here's my response to "Huh?" - Huh?

narciso ayon kay ...

Shes fat like a roll of charmin

RCOCEAN II ayon kay ...

BTW, Salter had a long successful career as a novelist, but like most 2nd rank writers wrote only 1 great book. His first. That's seems to be the pattern. Most writers just write what they know, and their entire life experience goes into their first novel.

That's not an original thought from me, I listened to E. Waugh say it in a BBC interview. He added "maybe two". He said the rest of a writers career was just "Professional Craftmanship". He claimed Dickens just kept writing the same characters after 1840 and just changed the names. I dunno if that's true.

Waugh's unusual in that his greatest book "Brideshead" came after he'd been publishing novels for 15-20 years.

TosaGuy ayon kay ...

“Long-time college professor”…..

The media left always has to elevate its people beyond what they actually accomplished and in the end it diminishes their subject.

Jill Biden had an ordinary education career, but the left has to elevate her to intellectual scholar status. For what purpose? Politically, it would be better for Dems to have her relate to ordinary people, they have the college faculty set locked up already.

Now a big part of this is Mrs. Biden’s Texas-sized ego in a Delaware-sized pond. But the media left always does this and all it does is make them more of a joke.

Left Bank of the Charles ayon kay ...

Is Althouse’s claim that Eric Trump wrote a book hearsay or a lie? The actual writer of Under Siege was Mike Loomis.

n.n ayon kay ...

Bill Biden. William in transition.

Marcus Bressler ayon kay ...

Jill Biden love u longtime

tommyesq ayon kay ...

Angela Merkel said Trump called 'my Monet.' ('Our Monet,' Biden corrects, meaning the American people’s.)"

By "our Monet," she likely meant "us Presidents and First Ladys," not the "American People" It was donated not to the Smithsonian, but to the White House collection, and it is held from view in the White House (when it is actually displayed, can't say for sure that all Presidents have had it up).

Iman ayon kay ...

“Si se padre!”

—— Jill Biden

Iman ayon kay ...

Per Jill Biden, Latinos are “as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio -- is your strength."

Si, se padre!

narciso ayon kay ...

Ay dios mio

Christopher B ayon kay ...

The phrase "his son Eric's book" is a direct quote from the London Times subhead, not our hostess's characterization.

But accuracy doesn't mean shit to Lefties.

J L Oliver ayon kay ...

This great post is SO associative but cogent. The Althouse Weave.

Wilbur ayon kay ...

Angela Merkle brings to mind Mr Whipple. Mmmkay.

Ampersand ayon kay ...

Having read Jill's Ph.D thesis, and heard her talk, I can confidently assert that any evidence of wide reading or deep thinking in her book is attributable to the ghost writer.

William ayon kay ...

Many people here are unaware that the correct porn term for a woman masturbating is "jilling'. It's a play on words: Jacking off versus jilling' off.....I don't know why, but that just occurred to me when reading about this memoir.

wsw ayon kay ...

Here she comes now, say Monet Monet

RCOCEAN II ayon kay ...

Wow wilbur, at least you wrote two sentences.

RCOCEAN II ayon kay ...

And Wilbur reminds me of Mr. Ed.

Dust Bunny Queen ayon kay ...

Murmuration is a process, a flying movement that birds will do. Starlings fly like that it in massive numbers but other birds do it as well. It is really impressive!

While really beautiful, that painting by Monet makes me think that he probably had some significant cataracts and viewed the world through blurry lenses.

Dust Bunny Queen ayon kay ...

Also while being silly....In my mind: Monet (the name as pronounced) will be forever associated with Harvey Korman in Mel Brooks History of the World Part 1....His name was often mispronounced as Count de Money. And it really made his character irritated 🤣.

Smilin' Jack ayon kay ...

“I looked it up. Here's "Our Monet"”

My second-grader could do better than that. (Someone had to say it.)

JAORE ayon kay ...

(Not that kind of Doctor), "Jill Biden "marvels at the perks of the office...". That rings true. In fact it appears she apparently loves those perks so much she would watch her husband die of a stroke in front of a nationwide audience. And that after four years of ignoring the public humiliation at his rapidly declining abilities.

rehajm ayon kay ...

I'd like to hear the "Apprentice" theme song with "Monet!" taking the place of "Money!"

C’mon and take a flea ride! yah yah yah…

Curious George ayon kay ...

The are lots of videos of murmurations but this one is by far the best. Two girls that were out canoeing filmed it. Almost no talking, and just a quick smile and giggle at the end. I think they were so amazed they couldn't speak. The music is perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRNqhi2ka9k

RCOCEAN II ayon kay ...

Korman (Kings Lackey) Sire, the preasants are revolting
Brooks (King Louis XIV) I'll say - they stink on ice.

imTay ayon kay ...

For some reason, after looking at that image, the algorithm figured I needed to seen image of John Candy water skiing, and there was something of a similarity.

imTay ayon kay ...

If you want to see something truly amazing, you should see a cyclone of thousands of snow geese rising off of the ice pack of a half frozen lake.

Bannedforselfcensorship ayon kay ...

Reminder: this woman made the military band create a special song for the First Lady, that was basically a version of Hail to the Chief.

"the Marine Corps band composed and debuted a similar, personalized entrance theme for former First Lady Jill Biden titled "Fanfare for the First Lady""

Lazarus ayon kay ...

More about the Kennedys' Monet here:

https://lacrank.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-5-monet.html

Is it really a Monet?

Lazarus ayon kay ...

Of course she didn't write the book herself. And of course we can't rely on the Times reviewer when she tells us the book doesn't have "sharp elbows."

donald ayon kay ...

In Band of Brothers, there’s a scene right after the liberation of Holland. Troops are marching through and being mobbed by grateful citizens and beautiful women are throwing them selves at them. A couple of minutes later, one of the Easy guys looks over and there’s a woman being stripped of their clothes and their hair is being cut out in chunks. Then another. And another. Most look like they’ve physically had their asses kick for good measure. Just sayin.

Ann Althouse ayon kay ...

“Iss Althouse’s claim that Eric Trump wrote a book hearsay…“

I wrote “Eric Trump wrote it in a book, it says here.” That’s only an assertion about what was written in the article I linked to. I never assert it as true. I simply assert that it was written. That’s how careful I am.

Assistant Village Idiot ayon kay ...

Groups nouns are 90% fraudulent, invented in the 18th and 19th C's to show off. They are fun. The real description is "terms of venery." Jill Biden doesn't know the "correct" group noun because she's an English professor, she knows something that claims to be accurate because she's a dabbler. I don't fault Jill Biden for that; we are all mostly dabblers in such things. I do fault Alexandra for being breathlessly impressed. Do some f-ing research when you are a professional writer, dammit! You aren't at a school lunch table.

I wonder how many Biden fans who just heard John McWhorter explain this this week nonetheless made excuses for her and sent it down the memory hole.

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