Kari, Kris Kringle and Coldplay bring their reputations to the Magic Three
Three is a Magic Number by Steven Uhles
Reputation is a tricky thing. It’s difficult to build and so easy to destroy. Once people have an impression, it is difficult to go back, call a do-over, and proceed unimpeded. The things we have done – for better or worse – precede us.
This week’s Magic Three features three figures whose reputation, at least in my book, is either spotless or stained. Perhaps, in some cases, my mind can be changed – but that will take either real effort of a colossal fall from grace. I present Kari Lake, Dick Van Dyke, and every scary mall Santa that scarred me as a child.
My take on Lake
On Wednesday evening, President-elect Donald Trump that he was appointing Kari Lake to lead Voice of America.
What a mistake.
For those unfamiliar with Voice of America it’s an outlet that, while funded and supported by the United States government, famously exists as one of the more intentionally unbiased news sources in the world. The idea is Voice of America, rather than espousing political opinion, instead serves as a demonstration of the First Amendment in action for the entire world. It might be the last bastion of pure journalism in the world. I’m a fan.
For those unfamiliar with Kari Lake, she is a former journalist, most notably occupying the anchor chair at the Fox affiliate in Phoenix, Arizona. She resigned her position in 2021, opting to run for governor later that year and for the United States Senate in 2024 – both times as an outspoken Trump Republican. She was unsuccessful in both bids.
It’s not Lake’s politics that bother me. The expectation of any President-elect is that appointees will be pulled from a pool of supporters and like-minded professionals. Would I love to see the mixed-bag Cabinet that pulls from both the Left and the Right? Most certainly, but I understand that’s a fairy tale. What concerns me about the Lake appointment is the acrimonious relationship she has cultivated with members of the media since she left its ranks. During her 2022 gubernatorial campaign she referred to journalists as “monsters,” and promised to be journalists’ “worst nightmare” if elected. She also rallied to, in her words, defund the press. I’m not exactly sure how that last one would work.
Lake’s comments fall into the easy habit of demeaning a large and diverse group as though it were I single entity. It’s like saying ‘I hate lawyers’ or ‘the insurance industry is evil.’ Can the media landscape prove frustrating? Absolutely. But the media is not a single thing. It’s thousands and thousands of people – each with their own beliefs and agendas and most, in my experience, just trying to do good work. Lake, having once been part of that pool, should understand that.
And that is the problem with the Lake appointment. While I’m not sure she has the specific experience required to run a large (2000 people and a $300 million budget, according to the New York Times) news organization, the fact that she would be arriving with that kind of acrimonious luggage wouldn’t exactly endear her to the people she is being charged to Lead. She’s a vegetarian hired to be a steakhouse chef, the proverbial surgeon that can’t stand the sight of blood. It just doesn’t work.
He knows when I am sleeping, and I knew when he’s a fake
I grew up as a Santa skeptic. Not a skeptic of the man himself – that would be ridiculous. I grew up as a skeptic of the Santa experience. Even as a young child, I had trouble believing that Santa was hanging out next to the food court at the Northwest Mall in suburban Houston. The cottage they called his house seemed a little small and not particularly well constructed. The snow surrounding it looked an awful lot like Styrofoam. The beard seemed very suspect. It irritated me that this somewhat shabby imitator was being passed off as the real deal.
I suspect that the children, naughty or nice, that come to whisper gift ideas into the big man’s ear at the Perkins-Cullum will not have that experience.
Santa visits at the historic house, located at 510 Greene Street in downtown Augusta, between noon and 8 P.M. December 16-19 and December 21-23. The house has been given the Winter Wonderland treatment and for $25, kids get a full five minutes with Santa and parents get to take as many photos as they can fire off while their enchanted offspring put a ribbon on this important holiday task.
No reservations are needed or accepted. Go forth and be jolly.
The Van Dyke Effect
I have, in my less kind moments, been known to accuse the British band Coldplay of being the only sure-fire cure for insomnia. That is, I admit, both unfair and inaccurate. What is true, however, is that I’ve never been able to engage with the band’s music in any meaningful way and I was sure there was nobody that could convince me otherwise.
I was wrong. There was somebody. Dick Van Dyke.
This week, Coldplay released a video for its ballad ‘All My Love.’ More than merely a promotion for the song, the video pays tribute to Dick Van Dyke, who turned 99 this month. In the video, Van Dyke is shown – still surefooted – dancing barefoot while Coldplay’s Chris Martin sits close by, playing the song on piano. The action is interspersed with interview segments, an attempted duet, and Van Dyke waxing philosophical on his family, career, and the nature of mortality.
Did the video make me love the song or Coldplay? Probably not. Did it make me love Dick Van Dyke? I’m pretty sure I already did. Did it make me love Chris Martin and Dick Van Dyke as collaborators? I’m not sure. I’ll have to watch the video for the 15th time to certain. I’ll get on it as soon as I clear these sentimental tears from my eyes.