The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Another Day, Another Deadline

Posted on | June 14, 2023 | 1 Comment

“There was never enough time. Every deadline was a crisis. All around me were experienced professional journalists meeting deadlines far more frequent than mine, but I was never able to learn from their example.”
– Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72

MEMO FROM THE NATIONAL DESK
This morning, at precisely 6:09 a.m. ET, I created a Word document with the idea of whipping out a quick column for The American Spectator. When I took a break about 7:30 a.m., it was already more than 700 words long, so I sent the top to my editors with an inquiry as to when the deadline was for me to send over the finished product for online publication Thursday. Back in the day when I was campaign-trail road warrior, Wlady Pleszczynski was always the guy on the editing desk. Wlady’s a night owl, so my usual deadline was midnight, but even that was often a challenge, as for example my frenzied pounding away at 1 a.m. to file from the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Anyway, Wlady’s health has caused him to cut back his duties, so that he only works the weekend shift now, and The American Spectator now has two young women working as editors on the weekdays, so my habitual last-minute midnight blitz to deadline won’t do. Six o’clock, they said, and I thought, “Piece of cake.” Just finish up my work for the day job in the morning, then there’d be plenty of time to leisurely proceed to that evening deadline. The Journalism Gods laugh at my hubris.

 
Throwing in The Big Yellow Button because I suspect some nearsighted readers may overlook the regular-size PayPal button with the imperative verb “DONATE.” Otherwise, I’d have to entertain the possibility that you don’t enjoy my work as much as you used to, or perhaps the recent paucity of output perturbs you. Honestly, I do have a day job now, one I never discuss on the blog because . . . Well, the Cancel Culture mob is always looking to make trouble for us Thought Criminals. And since we’re now on the topic of crime, how about this dangerous felon?

Say hello to Michael “Norah” Horwitz:

On Saturday, Michael Horwitz was arrested after fatally stabbing his father, Dr. Abbey Horwitz, at their home in Virginia Beach.
The 34-year-old, who identifies as a transgender woman and goes by the name Norah, has been charged with second-degree murder and stabbing in the commission of a felony.
According to the Virginia Beach Police Department, officers were called to the 1300 block of Wren Place just before 9 am Saturday. When they arrived, they discovered Dr. Horwitz, 68, suffering from “multiple stab wounds.” First responders performed emergency medical treatment, but to no avail. He was pronounced dead at 9:13 am.
In their release, the VBPD noted Horwitz’s full legal name, but added “Norah” in parentheses. Horwitz was also listed as female and authorities noted that “she” was being held in custody at the Virginia Beach Jail.
According to Reduxx, Horwitz appeared in court on Monday and was assigned a public defender after expressing that as a low-income worker, hiring a lawyer was too expensive.
Dr. Horwitz was a dentist and served as President of the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater and President of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater. The Art of Dentistry, Dr. Horwitz’s practice, said in a biography that he was married to his wife for over 25 years, with the two having three children.
Michael Horwitz was also a drag performer under the name “Menorah Horwitz” in Portland, Oregon. Horwitz wrote a series of stories for the Portland Mercury in June 2017 regarding Pride month.
In 2016 Horwitz performed alongside drag queen “Sharon Needles,” who was on the fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Horwitz also published a book titled “The Diary of Menorah Horwitz,” which describes his combination of “Judaism and a love of drag in all the wrong ways when he becomes Menorah, Portland’s premiere Anne Frank impersonator,” according to a synopsis of the book.

Don’t you feel sorry for him/“her”? He/“she” is now an orphan!

Sarcasm aside, the story of “Menorah Horwitz” actually turned out to be relevant to the topic of my American Spectator column, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise too much. At any rate, after wrapping up my day-job work and taking a shower, it was 4 o’clock before I headed down here to Sheetz, where I could use their WiFi and concentrate on finishing that column which, as always, took longer than I’d expected. How is it that after all these years, I’m still plagued by this problem?

Hunter S. Thompson never solved his Deadline Crisis Syndrome either, but I would hate to follow his example too closely, consider how that ultimately worked out. Anyway, I managed to file 1,900 words before 6:30 and the girls on the desk said that was OK, so it should be online tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’ve been paying for coffee here at Sheetz to legitimize my use of their WiFi and, believe it or not, next week I’ll be blogging with an Alaska dateline, for reasons that I’ll explain once I get there, but that trip won’t be cheap, so for now, I’ll just ask readers to recall the Five Most Important Words in the English Language:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!



 

 

Category: Fear. Loathing., Shoe Leather Fund, Uncategorized

Comments

One Response to “Another Day, Another Deadline”

  1. North! To Alaska! : The Other McCain
    June 26th, 2023 @ 7:48 am

    […] be flying the friendly skies, first to Dallas for a three-hour layover before heading to Anchorage. I’d told y’all about this trip earlier, when I thought we’d be leaving last week, but I was mistaken about the anticipated travel […]