Kickass, the doorstop dog, says the keeper is rarely at a loss for words—as a journalist he used them to provide life-long sustenance, and his recent interview with Doug Moe at Mystery To Me book store in Madison to promote the keeper’s novel Margaret’s War was no exception. An excellent interviewer, Doug pretty much stayed out of the way and allowed the keeper to expound on some of the details of his misspent life. If there is anything more ego-boosting and downright satisfying than talking about yourself to a full house of smiling listeners, the keeper has no idea what it might be. (Oh, there is that, but that doesn’t involve a crowd.) Of course it is one thing to go on and on about yourself just to sell a book, but it is quite another thing to do it if voters have chosen you to lead the free world from the White House podium. Then, it would seem, people have a right to expect you to forget about yourself and talk about them, like how they can stay healthy and housed and fed and benevolent toward the rest of the world. The keeper is glad he did not go into politics: it might have meant a guilty conscience in talking so much about himself. No danger of that, Kickass says. Maybe if enough people buy has damn book that will shut him up. Margaret’s War
