1 December—Just a reminder: Advent starts today. A good Christian word, it comes from the Latin (God’s language) “advenire,” meaning “to come to.” And, as everybody knows, it’s shorthand for “shopping days until Christmas,” being less cumbersome than “dies emptionis usque ad nativitatem domini.”

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I was accosted a couple of days ago, as I was approaching my car in the PriceRite parking lot, by a man of middle age whom I didn’t recognize, who had just got out of a Mercedes-Benz SUV with a New Hampshire license plate (perhaps two plates—sorry, markers). No idea how he recognized me, since I’ve been camera shy for decades. He didn’t introduce himself. Our conversation went something like this:

“Mordecai?”

“Yes?”

“Got a minute?”

“Sure. Shoot.” Happily, he didn’t take me literally.

“Why do you have to pick on Trump? Why can’t you just give the guy his due?”

“Beg pardon? I certainly do give Trump his due. I’ve been doing it since he ran the first time. That’s why you and other gullible suckers think I pick on him.”

“No, I mean we need him to fix everything everyone’s been fucking up. Who else can do it?”

“And you believe he’ll really keep all his promises? You don’t think he’s at least as full of shit as all the other pols? You don’t think all he cares about is himself and doesn’t give a shit about anybody else?” As I recall, I did actually pepper my retort with “all.”

“All I know is that I was better off when Trump was president.”

“Okay. How?”

“I made more money and paid less in tax.”

“That’s all that matters to you?”

“Well, it’s important. Why shouldn’t it be?”

“Of course it’s important. But doesn’t it bother you that Trump is a crook and a scumbag? And I’m not talking about the tax crap he was convicted of or his treatment of women. He’s been a disreputable con man for most of his life. Okay, so they’re all crooks. But he’s also an unstable and narcissistic dick-head dictator. The others may want to be dictators but they can’t pull it off. Lucky for us.”

“He’s a businessman and a successful . . .”

“He’s not and never has been a businessman. His father and Roy Cohn taught him how to be a con man and a bully and how to get away with it by intimidating everybody and he’s been doing it for 50 years. Not that the big asshole wasn’t a bully as a kid. That’s why he was kicked out of prep school and sent to a military academy. And as for being successful, if he had taken all the money old Fred gave him and just put it in common stocks or index funds or ETFs he’d be a lot richer than he is now. And he wouldn’t have had to fuck so many people to do it. And half the time he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about but he just likes to mouth off because he probably thinks he does. That’s what narcissists like Trump and Hitler are all about.”

“I’ll bet you voted for him anyway. How could you vote for her?”

“We have a secret ballot for a reason. But I can say—in fact, I may have written—that Kamala pulled another Hillary. They’re both absolutely awful. And we have the Dems in 2016 to thank for Trump in 2024. And what the Dems want to do with the country is every bit as irresponsible as what Trump wants to do.”

“But it’s not just Trump, it’s the Republicans and that’s why I voted for him.”

“Of course it’s Trump and the party is now the Trump Party. He says shit and they all shit. And they don’t even bother taking down their pants. Remember what I wrote about the Trump Party?”

“See? You pick on the guy.”

“So you’ll be happy as a pig in shit come January, until . . .”

Then the Mercedes horn honked.

“Gotta go . . .”

Not even a goodbye or nice talking with you. When ya gotta go, ya gotta go . . .