7 Brian De Palma films are explored in a new book. But ‘Scarface’ isn’t one.

• September 25, 2024

The bucket teeters, then dumps its load of pig’s blood on poor Carrie White. 

This iconic movie moment – so fraught with tension that soon explodes – is known even to people who never saw the film “Carrie,” and it captures much of what made Brian De Palma famous as one of the most visceral and visual directors of the 1970s and ‘80s. 

The story behind that horror classic, with details about everything from how Sissy Spacek almost didn’t audition because she was scheduled to shoot a commercial and De Palma’s camera work during Carrie’s slow dance during the prom scene, comes alive in “The De Palma Decade: Redefining Cinema with Doubles, Voyeurs and Psychic Teens,” by Laurent Bouzereau. 

SEE ALSO: Bestsellers, authors, books and more can be found in the Books section

Bourzereau focuses on seven De Palma movies released from 1973-1981: “Sisters,” “Phantom of the Paradise,” “Obsession,” “Carrie,” “The Fury,” “Dressed to Kill” and “Blowout.” The author, who has written previously about De Palma, Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg, has also made dozens of behind-the-scenes documentaries about classic films and interviewed De Palma about his work.

The author recently discussed De Palma and this new book during a video call. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Q: Why did you choose to write about De Palma?

There is a need to remember these founding fathers of modern cinema from the 1970s. And with everything else available today to watch, they fade a bit. De Palma got put in a box and suffered from that after this decade but these films influenced so many people. 

And even though your question is completely legitimate, my process is also selfish in that I want to write about what I like. 

Q: Why did you make the choice to skip his early films and stop before “Scarface” and “The Untouchables”?

This was a very defining era for Brian’s career, going from social satires early on to the genre that still defines him. And after “Blowout,” it’s a different De Palma. 

But also, it’s purely a taste thing. Those are the movies that I discovered him through growing up in France – discovering American cinema and the visual language he was using really spoke to me. And those are the films that I know best. I’m not a historian or looking to be definitive, I write from the heart about what interests me, with my perspective on those films along with the interviews with people who worked on them. 

Q: Which of these seven films would you tell a young movie viewer, “This is the one you need to see”?

“Carrie.” Without betraying Stephen King’s book, he made it cinematic and made it his own. There are breakthrough performances from these actors who became famous, which speaks to his eye as a casting director. There’s a lesson here in how to make more with less. And you can watch this movie with today’s short attention span and still get sucked in. It’s a timeless film and one that really defines so much about De Palma.

I have to tell you, my mom hates horror movies but she loves Carrie and cries during it, which confirms to me that it is still an emotional film about being different. 

With the exception of “Carrie,” “Blowout,” is the one most often cited by filmmakers as influencing them. 

Q: I watched “Sisters” before I read that chapter and really liked it, but I was unimpressed by “Obsession.” Did you try to balance your impressions from when you were young with a more objective view or with critical consensus about the films?

I watch “Obsession” religiously at least three or four times a year. And I have never gotten tired of it.

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I understand that a lot of people have problems with it because it is an exercise in style rather than a story really. So I don’t look for logic, I don’t look for anything but that dreamlike world that he creates. And I feel that it still works.

Q: You quote De Palma saying he later realized Bernard Herrmann’s score is melodramatic and obtrusive, which I agree with. De Palma and co-star John Lithgow both are critical of leading man Cliff Robertson – you call him old Hollywood “for better or worse.” He is miscast and drags the film down. Did their quotes make you reevaluate?

I still see it the way I see it. Robertson got very bad reviews but to me, he works because the film is a dream, so he is out of place in a dream and the fact that he’s very artificial and self-conscious and tanned all the time works. 

I’m totally at peace with people not liking “Obsession” but it’s hard to distance myself from a first love – I remember everything about the night I first saw that movie, that the color of the theater’s walls were red and there was neon on the walls and the curtains were blue. It’s about how this movie spoke to me then.

Q: After “Blowout” failed commercially despite rave reviews, De Palma’s career was erratic for 15 years: “Scarface” was panned but became a classic, “The Untouchables” was slick but a big hit, “Bonfire of the Vanities” was a notorious disaster. Despite another Hollywood-style hit with “Mission Impossible,” he has directed seven films that were panned or were flops or both. What happened?

Making the most successful movie and the least successful movie requires the same amount of love and dedication. And knowing how hard it is to make a film, especially at that level, it’s heartbreaking. 

I’ve known Brian for a long time. He is a deep thinker and very emotional, which is surprising because his films don’t appear that way. But he is a truly romantic guy. He is Carrie at the prom, even though most people would say, he’s the one who pulls the rope because he wants the blood. He’s Angie Dickinson in “Dressed to Kill” and Nancy Allen in “Blowout.” He’s not the hero. He is the person who is misunderstood and who suffers.

He said to me he starts crying when he listens to music. And you should see Brian and his dog – it’s the most touching thing ever and you would never think this is the guy who scared me to death with his movies when I was a kid.

The ups and downs of the career have to do with the reality of the business and how you are able to process the hills and valleys of your career emotionally. It can destroy a person. So to some degree, I applaud him for keeping on going.

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​ Orange County Register 

Falling mortgage rates trigger big wave of refinancing

• September 25, 2024

By Molly Smith | Bloomberg

Applications to refinance mortgages surged for a second week as more Americans capitalized on the cheapest borrowing costs in two years.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s refinancing index jumped 20.3% in the week ended Sept. 20 to the highest level since April 2022, the group said Wednesday. The contract rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage eased 2 basis points to 6.13%, the eighth straight weekly drop and the longest stretch of declines since 2018-2019.

That helped boost the group’s home-purchase applications index by 1.4% last week to the highest level since early February. The fifth straight weekly advance in the measure points to burgeoning demand in a housing market that’s gradually finding some footing.

At the same time, home financing costs may start to stabilize. Yields on the 10-year Treasury note have edged higher in the last week as traders debate the magnitude of Federal Reserve’s expected interest-rate cut in November as well as the path for reductions.

The average contract rate on a 15-year mortgage and the five-year adjustable-rate mortgage ticked up last week after sharp declines in the prior two weeks.

The MBA survey, which has been conducted weekly since 1990, uses responses from mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. The data cover more than 75% of all retail residential mortgage applications in the US.

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​ Orange County Register 

Orange County football: Michael Huntley’s players to watch in Week 5

• September 25, 2024

Orange County is filled with talented high school football players, but it takes a special player to earn a spot on our list of the 11 players to watch each week.

These are the players expected to have a big impact and possibly lead their team to victory.

Here are the selections for Week 5:

The Huntley 11

Los Amigos’ Isaac Galindo (30) races past Nogales’ Jordan Cook (44) during a football game at Nogales High School in La Puente on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

Isaac Galindo, Los Amigos: Galindo ran for 206 yards with three touchdowns in Los Amigos’ win over Nogales last week. The Lobos’ opponent, Western Christian, allowed 200 yards rushing in a game earlier this season and over 100 in its last game against Calvary Chapel.

Tyler Schmaltz, Trabuco Hills: The senior defensive lineman had two sacks last week in a win over El Toro. Schmaltz had four tackles and one for a loss last season when Trabuco Hills played its Week 5 opponent, Corona del Mar.

Dorsett Stecker, Corona del Mar: The Sea Kings’ opponent this week, Trabuco Hills, allowed an opposing receiver to tally 166 yards last week. Stecker has had two 100-yard games this season and has five touchdowns through four games.

Daniel Joya, Century: Century coach Lance Neal led this week’s opponent, Loara, to a CIF championship in 2021. Centurions quarterback Daniel Joya threw for 182 yards and ran for 131 last week and could have another big game against Loara.

Troy’s Vander Ploog, hauls in a pass during the game between Sonora vs. Troy in a Freeway League football game at La Habra High on Friday, October 20, 2023. (Photo by Michael Kitada, Contributing Photographer)

Vander Ploog, Troy: The Washington commit averages nearly 130 yards receiving per game and has six touchdowns through four games. This week Troy plays Segerstrom, which allowed 510 total yards in its last game.

Lee Puka Fuimaono, San Clemente: Fuimaono has had at least nine tackles in three games for the Tritons this season. The Arizona State commit had 11 tackles last season when San Clemente played its Week 5 opponent Murrieta Valley.

Jake Dorsi, Savanna: Dorsi has averaged 137 yards rushing in his last three games and has a touchdown in each of those games. This week Savanna plays Pioneer, which allowed over 200 yards in a loss to Kennedy two weeks ago.

Jaden Williams on the Mission Viejo High School football team. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Jaden Williams, Mission Viejo: Chaparral’s offense struggled only once this season and that was when San Clemente put pressure on sophomore quarterback Dane Weber. Williams has 13.5 sacks and Mission Viejo will try to use him to pressure Weber this week.

Charlie Eckl, Dana Hills: St. Margaret’s has a very young offensive line and struggled to protect its quarterback in two losses this season. Eckl has five sacks this season for Dana Hills and is bigger than any edge rusher the Tartans have faced this season.

Devan Parker, Servite: Servite’s opponent, St. Paul, has struggled to defend the pass in its last two games against Damien and Los Alamitos. Parker leads Servite in receiving and is dangerous when he gets the ball in space.

Gunner Dahl, Villa Park: Dahl leads Villa Park in tackles and had a big interception last week against Ayala. Villa Park plays Mira Costa this week and the Mustangs struggled offensively in a loss to San Juan Hills last week.

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​ Orange County Register 

Creative cocktails and California cuisine spot Verde coming to Costa Mesa

• September 25, 2024

Koire Rogers and Anthony Laborin, former colleagues at Farmhouse at Roger’s Gardens and Arc Food & Libations, have teamed up to open a new concept in Costa Mesa. Focusing equally on a seasonal menu and a robust bar program, the industry veterans have created Verde (Spanish for “green”) set to open this fall inside the Ranch at Newport Bay.

Verde’s two-story location will feature a main restaurant, found on the upper level, and a lower-level space (christened Bar Verde) geared toward Rogers and Laborin’s bar program.

“We wanted to create a space that fills what we saw as a void in Orange County where a beverage program will not only complement incredible food but be a draw all on its own,” said Rogers in a written release.

Featuring roughly 70 seats, including 10 bar seats, the upper-level eatery will be open for lunch and dinner, while the lower level will boast 40 seats including a 16-person banquet.

SEE ALSO: Australian gelato brand to open two OC locations this fall

Paula Balderrama (former of Pizzeria Mozza, Fable and Spirit, and Puesto) takes on the role of executive chef, offering a seasonal menu of Neptunian bites and California fare. Some of her menu highlights will include salmon belly crudo with cucumber and Thai chili; a rotating selection of crudo; a verdant seafood stew of clams, mussels, shrimp and scallops bathed in a salsa verde; a little gem salad with heirloom vegetables and a Chartreuse green goddess dressing; and a frozen labneh chocolate custard.

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The ample cocktail selection will include both classics and original creations like the Old Man Trouble, a concoction of scotch, bittersweet Cynar, and Angostura. The bar area will also offer a handful of light bites, including cheese, charcuterie, a selection of tinned fish (which, thankfully, is having a moment) and other cold and raw dishes.

While an opening date has yet to be nailed down, they hope to open sometime in late October or early November.

Verde can be found at 2675 Irvine Ave., Costa Mesa; for more information, visit Verde’s Instagram page at instagram.com/verdeverjus.

​ Orange County Register 

Lee Miller photographed WWII. Kate Winslet tells her story in ‘Lee.’

• September 25, 2024

Kate Winslet loves a good table. Old ones, in particular, that have a good story.

Nine years ago, a friend at an auction house in Cornwall tipped her to a compelling one. This gnarled and uneven table had once been the centerpiece of the Farley Farm kitchen in East Sussex owned by the surrealist painter and art dealer Roland Penrose and his photographer spouse Lee Miller.

Winslet knew a little about Miller, an American-born expatriate who died at 70 in 1977.

“I knew who she was and I knew what she looked like,” Winslet says on a recent video call. “I was familiar with her work as a photographer.

“But what I could see very clearly was that, historically, she was in danger of getting defined for all eternity through the male gaze,” she says. “If I Googled her in 2015 when I bought the table, it said ‘Lee Miller, former lover and muse of Man Ray. Ex-Vogue cover girl. Ex-model.’”

“I just thought, no, no, hang on,” Winslet says. “Where’s all the other stuff? I just wanted to get to the bit that was when Lee became Lee. The modeling period of her life was a tiny, little sliver in her 20s, and she actually hated being a model. She was deeply uncomfortable doing that job. She’d learned photography from her father as a child, and she’d always been familiar with how a camera worked.”

Inspired by the rough-hewn, well-used table, Winslet started to look deeper into the life of Miller. The photographer and Penrose had hosted artists and writers and poets for decades at their home on the southern coast of England.

In doing so, Winslet found a woman frustrated by the limits placed on her, and a photographer whose iconic images of World War II might never have existed had not Miller ignored every man who told her a war was no place for a woman.

Winslet eventually ended up both producer and star of the new film, “Lee,” which opens Friday, Sept. 27 in theaters.

In addition to Winslet as Miller, the cast includes Alexander Skarsgård as Roland Penrose, Andy Samberg as Life magazine photographer David Scherman, and Marion Cotillard as Solange d’Ayen, Miller’s friend and fashion editor of French Vogue.

“I wanted to tell this story of a middle-aged, flawed woman who had the courage to take a risk, and the determination to make her way into those male-dominated spaces,” Winslet says. “To bear witness and to be that visual voice for the victims of conflict.”

“Not photographing the soldiers and the gunfire and the bloodshed, but peeking behind the doors and seeing into the corners the suffering of those women and children, the missing,” she says. “I wanted to tell that version of Lee because I don’t even know how she had the courage to do what she did. She wasn’t fearless, and she talked about feeling great fear, but she continued nevertheless.

“She didn’t turn away, and it’s a phenomenal thing that she did.”

‘Born determined’

“Lee” opens just before World War II erupts in Europe. Miller and her friends are on semi-permanent holiday in the south of France but as she and Penrose fall in love, the restless Miller decides to make her home with him in London.

There, she talks her way into a job at British Vogue, and as the Nazis make nightly air raids on the city, she moves more and more into photojournalism, covering the war at home. When word of the Allies’ imminent invasion of France arrives, she talks her way into a credential as a war correspondent and photographer for Vogue.

On the ground in France, she eventually finds her way into combat despite the military’s best efforts to keep her behind the front lines.

“I think that Lee was born determined,” Winslet says. “I mean, I do. But I also think that what happened to her as a child meant that she had a very powerful sense of injustice in her. And whether or not she was aware of that propelling her or not, I believe it drove her forward.”

That childhood trauma, which “Lee” slowly reveals, turned pain into strength, Winslet suggests.

“Somehow, she wouldn’t let what had happened to her as a child define the outcome of her life and who she was,” Winslet says. “She lived her life her way, on her terms.

“In researching the film, I did meet with many survivors of abuse,” she says. “And some of the older women, who were perhaps a little closer to Lee’s generation, told me that when that happens to you as a child you see the world and humanity in a completely different way.

“That was also part of who Lee was,” Winslet says. “I think that her use of the Rolleiflex camera, being able to look down at what her image was, meant that she could raise her gaze and meet the eyes of people head on. So her ability to see souls, to really see people, was a superpower, and that’s what set her apart from other photographers at the time.

“It’s a very, very specific way of bearing witness that she had that was utterly unique to her and came from, I think, her past experience.”

‘What women do’

In the same way that Miller refused to accept that she could not cover the war, Winslet refused to accept that she could not get “Lee” made.

“There was a potential male investor who I sat with, and I was excited to take the meeting,” she says. “Then he said, ‘Just tell me this: Why should I like this woman?’

“I just thought, ‘Well, I’m not going to make the film with you,’” Winslet says. “Even if you offer me money to make it, I will be making it somewhere else.’ Because it was, first of all, a profound judgment. Secondly, he had already pigeonholed her as somebody who had been through trauma, who was messy and complicated, who had struggled with alcohol due to her extraordinarily, excruciating PTSD.

“The fact that that made her dislikable, it literally put the fire in me. I mean, I was just like, I’m actually grateful you’ve said that because it makes the fire burn even more.”

Six years into Winslet’s effort to get the production off the ground, a new momentum arrived when producer Kate Solomon signed onto the project, Winslet says.

“Absolutely incredible, incredible woman who was as multitasking as me,” she says of the producer whose collaborations with director Paul Greengrass included such films such as “United 93” and “Green Zone.” “I have three children, she has three children. And on most of our early Zoom meetings with other potential investors, she was nursing.

“I could see that below the screen, just by the shape of her arm,” Winslet says. “And I was like, ‘This is what women do. And this is who Lee was, that level of phenomenal resilience.’

“Our financing came together in the end, but boy was it complicated,” she says. “It didn’t always arrive on time when we needed to get people paid, so that was another challenge. But you know, you roll with it. You just keep going.”

Making pictures

Throughout “Lee,” Winslet as Miller is seen taking photographs: in London during the Blitz, at airfields in the English countryside, French villages and during the liberation of Paris, and later, in concentration camps as their horrors are finally revealed, and in one standout scene, inside Hitler’s Berlin apartment, where Miller took an iconic photo in the Nazi leader’s bathtub.

Most of those photographs are modeled on Miller’s own images – an online search of Lee Miller’s photography reveals just how closely the production staged and shot replicas of Miller’s actual pictures.

To ensure the verisimilitude of her performance, Winslet learned how to use the same kind of Rolleiflex box camera that Miller carried into combat, and during the film shoot made sure the camera had film loaded into it so she could actually take photographs as she acted on location.

“I absolutely learned how to use that camera,” Winslet says. “I had to get very good at it because I didn’t want it to feel like a prop. I wanted it to feel like an extension of my arm, and I wanted it to feel both present and yet also sort of disappear at the same time.”

The photographs she took were exhibited alongside Miller’s originals not long ago at Farley’s House and Gallery, where Miller’s archives are kept and Winslet’s table once anchored the kitchen.

“I recreated all of those images, and I have to say, mine are really good,” Winslet says. “I’m very proud.”

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​ Orange County Register 

In dueling speeches, Harris is to make her capitalist pitch while Trump pushes deeper into populism

• September 25, 2024

By JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — Derided by Donald Trump as a “communist,” Kamala Harris is playing up her street cred as a capitalist.

Attacked by Harris as a rich kid who got $400 million from his father on a “silver platter,” Trump is leaning into his raw populism.

The two presidential candidates are set to deliver dueling speeches on Wednesday that reflect how they’re honing their economic messages for voters in battleground states. Both are trying to counter criticism of them while laying out their best case for a public that still worries about the economy’s health.

Vice President Harris is set to speak at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, where she plans to stress a “pragmatic” philosophy while outlining new policies to boost domestic manufacturing, according to a senior campaign official who sought anonymity to describe the upcoming address. The Democratic nominee’s remarks come after she told a swanky audience of donors in New York City on Sunday that she would cut any “red tape” holding back growth.

Former President Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech in Mint Hill, North Carolina, about how he will protect workers. The Republican nominee made his reputation as a businessman, but he’s recently expressed a willingness to crack down on businesses and has proposed to cap interest rates on credit cards and slap a whopping 200% tariff on tractor-maker John Deere if it moves any jobs to Mexico.

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The candidates are each emphasizing the economy at a time when polls show that it is one of the most important issues for voters as they consider who to support. A recent AP-NORC poll found that neither candidate has a decisive edge with the public on the issue.

Both are eager to embrace an image as tax cutters and are accusing the other of backing massive tax hikes on the middle class. It’s a meaningful shift in messaging as inflation concerns have ebbed somewhat with the Federal Reserve cutting its benchmark interest rates last week.

Billionaire Mark Cuban said business leaders like him are backing Harris because she has taken considered stances that companies can understand even when they have a different perspective.

“I want a president that for business goes into details and has a policy team that understands all the ramifications of what’s been proposed,” Cuban said on a Tuesday call with reporters set up by the Harris campaign.

Trump initially stressed the importance of increasing oil production and cutting corporate tax rates and preserving tax breaks for the wealthy to spur economic growth. But in recent days, he’s been offering a host of other ideas. In addition to wanting no taxes on tips, Social Security or overtime pay, he wants to limit the interest rate on credit cards to 10% and set up low-tax zones on federal lands to lure employers. Trump also wants to ditch the cap on the deduction of state and local taxes that he put into the tax code in 2017 while president.

“Americans will no longer worry about losing their jobs to foreign nations, instead foreign nations will be worried about losing their jobs to America,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Both candidates see an opportunity to trash the other’s tax ideas. Trump recently dubbed Harris the “tax queen.” She wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% as well as tax the unrealized capital gains of people worth more than $100 million. She would use the revenue from that and other policies to sustain tax cuts for the middle class that are set to expire after 2025 as well as offer new tax breaks to parents and entrepreneurs. Many of her policies build on ideas initially proposed by President Joe Biden.

Trump claims her tax hikes would ultimately trickle down to the middle class.

“She’s coming for your money,” he told an audience on Monday. “She’s coming for your pensions, and she’s coming for your savings.”

A person waits in a line for a prospective employer at a job fair, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Harris has shown that two can play that game. She labeled his call for tariffs a “national sales tax,” as it could increase the cost of coffee, clothes, electronics, autos and almost anything that gets imported or depends on imported parts. Her campaign likes to cite an analysis that originated with Brendan Duke of the Center for American Progress that estimated a 20% universal tariff would cost a typical family almost $4,000 a year. For taxpayers in the middle-income range, that sum would effectively increase their total federal taxes by 50%, according to calculations based on Treasury Department data.

Speaking in Georgia on Tuesday, Trump singled out the word “tariff” for praise, calling it “one of the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard.” He said it would raise hundreds of billions in tax revenues and not cause inflation.

Most economic analyses say broad tariffs would worsen inflation. The investment bank Goldman Sachs suggested that the tariffs, accompanied by a crackdown on immigrants in the United States, would hurt growth.

Harris has made efforts to elevate the middle class her top priority, often talking about her own background in the middle class to suggest that her ideas emerged out of a personal journey.

But at a New York City event on Sunday, she also made a pitch aimed at corporations that want less drama when dealing with government.

“We will create a stable business environment with consistent and transparent rules of the road,” Harris said. “We will invest in semiconductors, clean energy, and other industries of the future. And we will cut needless bureaucracy and unnecessary red tape, all of which will create jobs, drive broad-based economic growth, and cement America’s leadership throughout the world.”

​ Orange County Register 

Frumpy Mom: Really, it’s not my fault

• September 25, 2024

It’s not my fault.

When my kids became teenagers and no longer ran toward me joyfully, yelling “Mommy, mommy mommy!” when I came in the door from work, I struggled to adjust.

When they shrugged off my affectionate arm on their shoulders as if it were covered with toxic waste, I tried not to feel hurt.

When they insisted I drop them off a block before their destination, so no one would see them with me, I grimaced but agreed.

When they looked at me with disbelief after I suggested we all go to the movies together, I realized it was time for me to get my old life back, and started calling childphobic friends who’d avoided me for more than a decade.

When the kids turned 18 and became legal adults, I proudly took them to vote for the very first time.

Unfortunately, this meant that they were also old enough to sign legally binding contracts, but too young to understand what this meant.

And it never occurred to me at the time to teach them. I was still busy trying to shove them through school.

Cheetah Boy went in to peek at one of those ultimate fighting gyms where you guys go to legally beat each other up. He came out with a year’s contractual agreement requiring him to pay them more than the cost of my first car.

I stopped shrieking at him when I realized he really didn’t understand what he’d done, because they don’t teach you stuff like that in high school. They teach you how to mitigate misnomers and punctuate strange mathematical signs — in short, things you will never use once in your life, unless you become a nuclear physicist.

But my kids’ school never taught them how to make a budget, manage their finances or even mail a letter.

“Are you sure the stamp goes here, Mom?”

They certainly never learned about business law or contractual agreements, and it quickly became obvious that there’s a certain subset of cretins who make a living preying on these innocents.

I had to explain to my son that his signature on that gym contract would not have been legally enforceable yesterday, when he was 17, but now that he was 18, it was.

Guess who ended up paying it off? Ten years later, those people still call and try to get me to sign up again.

When Curly Girl turned 18, she decided to walk into a dumpy used car lot and take a look, because she had a job and she’d been toying with the idea of buying her own car.

She was by herself, unaccompanied by her mother (who’s bought many used cars in her life and, as she likes to point out, is old and knows stuff) or her boyfriend at the time, who was an auto mechanic.

No, she was all alone, on a car lot for the first time in her life and unfamiliar with the wiles of used car salesmen. Well, you know what happened.

She drove home a gray Plymouth station wagon that looked remarkably like a hearse. Pretty much the opposite of any car appropriate for a girl her age.

I’d been trying to get hold of her for hours, so I was annoyed already when she got home.

“What is that car out front?” I asked her, and she burst into tears.

She told me that she’d just gone in to take a look, and before she knew it, she ended up buying a car.

“They scared me,” my daughter said. (She gets anxious.)

“But you had to drive to the bank to get the down payment,” I protested. “Why didn’t you just drive away and never go back? Or at least get me or your boyfriend to go take a look?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I was just confused.”

I told her I was going to get her brother’s baseball bat, and we were going back over to that car lot and raise hell until they tore up her contract. How dare they take advantage like that of a young girl?

“No, Mom. I actually like the car,” she said. “And it was my mistake. I know better now, and I’m going to keep the car and next time, I’ll know better.”

I grumbled about this, but ultimately it was her decision. And nowadays she owns a little Toyota that’s much more appropriate.

The thing is, even though I loved being a mom to my young children, there are advantages to having them all grown up.

I often give them unasked-for advice, but when they ignore it and do something utterly boneheaded, it’s not my fault.

I can’t lock them in their rooms or haul their rear ends into the house until they see reason. I can’t look over their finances or convince them to take my sage advice about big decisions.

So, when they make the same sorry mistakes I made at their age, there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t have any money to bail them out.

And it’s a relief to know, this time, it’s not my fault.

P.S. Hey, are you coming to my book signing and meetup at noon, Monday, Sept. 30 at Curly Girl’s dive bar? Poor Richard’s Cocktails, 6412 Stearns St. Long Beach. I’ll be there from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. You don’t have to buy a drink. See you there!

Related links

Frumpy Mom: When do I stop being a mom?
Marla Jo Fisher: I like saying ‘no’ to my kids
Fisher: I accidentally became the team mom
I quit being my kids’ maid
12 reasons to have a dog instead of a kid

​ Orange County Register 

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich manages to be wrong about almost everything

• September 25, 2024

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich now makes videos, like I do.

In fact, his channel, Inequality Media, is very much like Stossel TV. He also reaches people via social media platforms, gets millions of views and covers economic topics.

Reich does almost exactly what I do, except … Reich is repeatedly wrong.

It’s understandable. Despite being frequently introduced as “economist Robert Reich,” Reich has no economics degree. He’s another liberal lawyer. His videos reflect that.

“Inequality Media” is a catchy name. Americans dislike inequality.

But my new video points out that inequality isn’t a conspiracy. It’s simply what happens when people are free.

Taylor Swift’s a billionaire. Should government force you to listen to me sing to make life more fair?

Reich wants to “ban billionaires” like Jeff Bezos. I don’t much like Bezos, but his creation, Amazon, is wonderful. It’s lowered prices so much that it cut America’s core inflation.

Reich claims Amazon is a monopoly. But Amazon is far from a monopoly. It has to compete with Walmart, Target, eBay, Alibaba, etc. Where there are free markets, we have choices. If we buy from Amazon, it’s only because we think it’s cheaper or better.

Reich says it is bad that billionaires “get money from rich relatives.”

But the biggest study of millionaires found few do.

Bezos got some money from his parents, but most of what he needed to grow Amazon he got from investors. Media “experts” sneered at them for years, because at first, Amazon lost so much money.

Capitalism rewards such risk-taking.

Progressives and liberal lawyers like Reich believe rich people take most of America’s wealth and leave little for the poor. Like the Hollywood writers for the movie “Wall Street,” they call our economy “a zero-sum game — somebody wins, somebody loses.”

But that’s just dumb.

Capitalists create new wealth. They don’t take a big slice of the pie and leave us a sliver. If they get rich, it’s because they find ways to bake lots of new pies.

That’s what’s happened in America. Its why today, even poor Americans have access to things European kings only dreamed about.

Capitalists can get rich only by making all of us better off.

Actual economist Dan Mitchell explains, “Billionaires only kept 2.2% of the additional wealth they generated … the rest of us captured almost 98% of the benefits.”

Reich also mocks trade. In one video, he sneers, “Global trade is good for everyone. That’s bunk!”

Of course it’s bunk. Few things are good for everyone.

But trade makes almost everyone richer by allowing us to specialize in what we do best. It’s called comparative advantage.

Reich complains, “What if a country’s comparative advantage comes from people working under … exploitative conditions?”

“Exploitation” would be bad, but people in poor countries aren’t forced to work in factories. They took those jobs because their alternatives were worse. Trade allowed a billion people to lift themselves out of poverty.

Still, trade does take away some Americans’ jobs. Donald Trump complains about other countries “ripping us off and taking our jobs.”

He and Reich don’t understand that trade creates more jobs. It’s why unemployment is low. Companies engaged in global trade created 60% of America’s new jobs.

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Finally, Reich says it’s “rubbish” that President Joe Biden’s huge spending increases caused Inflation. He claims it’s “corporate greed … Mega corporations raise prices to increase their profits.”

That’s just silly. When prices fall, did companies suddenly get less greedy?

My video cites actual economists like Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, who explains, “Inflation is made in Washington because only Washington can create money. Any other attribution of other groups to inflation is wrong.”

Robert Reich’s videos are wrong about almost everything. It’s sad that colleges pay this fake economist to deliver foolish propaganda to students.

His “progressive” ideas would leave all of us poorer. And less free.

Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom. He is the author of “Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.”

​ Orange County Register