"Bragging rights for 'Howard Stern Comes Again' really do go to Donald Trump, who is far and away its most arresting subject.

"Stern has interviewed him many times, and the conversations leap out as if in neon. Some have already been well publicized, as when Trump remarked that dating in the age of AIDS was his personal Vietnam. But there’s so much more. His extreme richness; his treatment of the 'girls' he dates; his easily debunked lies; his excitement about hot new projects (Trump World magazine, Trump University): All are matters of record here. And the transcript of his 2001 radio brawl with the gossip columnist A. J. Benza, with Stern presiding 'like Solomon,' must be read to be believed. Trump: 'I won your girlfriend, A. J. You know it.' Benza: 'He sends things to her, newspaper clippings with him mentioned, circles his name and writes "billionaire." You have no idea. He’s out of his mind.'"

From "Howard Stern Can Talk. This Book Shows He’s Also a Good Listener" by Janet Maslin (NYT). The book, a collection of interviews, is "Howard Stern Comes Again" (available May 14th). Maslin likes the book but warns you not to read it straight through: "That will make it seem long and repetitive, with Stern frequently hitting on his favorite themes — which is to say, the ones that have the most to do with him. He likes asking about masturbation, money, making it big and psychotherapy, all of which demonstrate more narcissism than curiosity."

In NYT fit-to-print style there's this sentence: "[Gwyneth] Paltrow’s helpful hint on how to quiet an obstreperous husband will be one of the book’s big takeaways, even though these radio interviews aren’t technically news." The quote in the book — as I know from reading about it just about anywhere else — is: "One of the things you can do to make your man happy, ladies, is, like, sometimes in the middle of a fight, I just blow him. It ends everything."

ADD: Here is audio of that A.J. Benza/Donald Trump interview. Incredibly entertaining. Thanks to J. Farmer (in the comments) for pointing to that. I don't know how it looks in the transcript (in Stern's book), but in the audio Trump dominates brilliantly and hilariously and Benza is reduced to a pool of beta. Maslin presents it as if maybe Benza got the better of Trump. That's what you call fake news.

Whose leg felt that thrill?

The NYT book review of Gabriel Sherman’s biography of Roger Ailes, "The Loudest Voice in the Room," is written by Janet Maslin, who trashes the book, but not because she likes Ailes. It's that Sherman failed to get the goods on Ailes.

I just want to focus on one sentence:

The second half of “The Loudest Voice in the Room” is mostly devoted to recent and familiar news, beginning with the moment Fox began getting thrills up its leg over Bill Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky debacle. 

Come on. MSNBC owns the expression "thrill up my leg." Even though the Bill-and-Monica story had lots of sex and Fox News may have been eager to cover it, the eagerness didn't arise out of a vector of thrill going toward the groin. The journalistic enthusiasm described as a "thrill up my leg" came from Chris Matthews and he was titillated not by anybody's sexual activities but by the speechifying of Barack Obama.



That's on the list of nominees for most ridiculous, embarrassing thing ever said on a TV news show, and we're never going to forget it. Have at Fox News, perhaps by mocking some schoolboy furtively masturbatory outburst if you can, but if you talk of thrills up a leg, that leg is attached to MSNBC.

Etymological sidenote: The original meaning of "debacle" — used above in the phrase "getting thrills up its leg over Bill Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky debacle" — was, according to the (unlinkable) OED "A breaking up of ice in a river; in Geol. a sudden deluge or violent rush of water, which breaks down opposing barriers, and carries before it blocks of stone and other debris." The figurative meaning is: "A sudden breaking up or downfall; a confused rush or rout, a stampede." Yes, it's a dead metaphor, but it goes nicely with blowjobs, don't you think? Not that Bill ever was icy.

"In truth, Ms. Chua’s memoir is about one little narcissist’s book-length search for happiness."

"And for all its quotable outbursts from Mama Grisly (the nickname was inevitable), it will gratify the same people who made a hit out of the granola-hearted 'Eat, Pray, Love.'"

CORRECTION: Lord knows how I changed "Eat, Pray, Love" into "Hat, Pray, Love." Corrected. But laughing. I hate crap like "Eat, Pray, Love." "Hat, Pray, Love"? Shoulda been "Hate, Pray, Love."