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Ben Stein's Diary
Poets of Construction
From the print edition, Ben remembers Roy Ash from the Nixon days. Plus much more.
(Page 3 of 3)
Once Roy and I were having dinner at Mr Chow and he told me about his aggravation over someone owing him a few million dollars. “What can that possibly matter to a man with wealth like yours?” I asked him.
“It’s liquidity at the margin,” he said.
I guess I looked puzzled.
“It’s nice to have cash,” he said.
For the last thirty years or so, he has been restoring Pre-Revolutionary War estates in the Hunt Country outside Washington, D.C. I have never seen any of them but I imagine they are magnificent. Roy was a poet and had an eye for poetry.
Lila Ash and Roy’s children must be devastated. He was a prince.
THURSDAY
My wife saw the doctor about her months of feeling ill. He told her to eat oatmeal with flaxseed oil. What on earth are we going to do? What can that even mean?
I am getting extremely worried.
I had many calls today from broke friends asking for money. It is amazing how many people hit me up for money, amazing how many people I know do not work—amazing how miserable they all are. And they do not know, not one of them, that there is no self-esteem without work. You just cannot be happy if you are idle. It’s that simple. But so few people get it. Scary. Read Day of the Locust about cunning people in L.A. preying on normal working people. That’s my story. Nathanael West, real name something like Weinstein, wrote it. He got it totally right.
I spent an hour sitting in on a class at Palm Desert Charter Middle School. It was on the Constitution. It was a fine class with a fine teacher. But I kept going back to my eighth grade Civics class. I guess it’s just old age, but I recall we did the subject at a much more intense level than the class today. Probably it’s just an old man’s memory tricks. The class today was fine. (I keep using that word because John Coyne uses it. We talk a lot.)
I recall an eighth grade class where we were assigned to be Tories or Patriots debating the Revolu-tion. I was a Tory. I was saying that the Revolutionists were just “rabble rousers.”
An incredibly, unbelievably smart fellow in my class named Arne Steinberg replied, “John Adams, Samuel Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. Were they rabble?”
I have never encountered such a powerful comeback ever again in my life. That guy was a genius. He was also a fine pianist. Probably still is.
Anyway, I enjoyed the class but the windows do not open and I could not smell the new mown grass as I did in 1958 through immense open windows.
Autres temps, autres moeurs.
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (11) | Leave a comment
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Herb| 3.30.12 @ 8:58AM
"there is no self-esteem without work. You just cannot be happy if you are idle. It's that simple."
Hmm..... I worked until I was 62. My wife just retired. We're trying to do our income taxes and believe me, we're not idle. And this notion that you're nothing without your occupation to define your self worth? What has one's relationship with G-d got to do with that?
So, Ben's being hit up for money by poor relatives? He must have plenty of self worth.
ggoblue| 3.31.12 @ 9:31AM
asshole
Alan Brooks| 4.1.12 @ 1:47AM
"Beavers"?
I thought it was 'Girls Gone Wild'.
gearjammer| 3.30.12 @ 11:55AM
Are the Beavers insulted that the jerks in the white house don't think they can build a proper pipeline fron Canada ? Or, has big guv infrastruture spending bought them ? Hope you beat the thing the legal thing that is tormenting you. Is loser pays in place ? The evil party will never allow that.
Alan Brooks| 4.1.12 @ 1:51AM
BTW,
Nixon was a really good guy- which is why he should have stuck to law and not gone into politics; attorneys aren't half the crooks politicians are- you can steal twice as much in office than with a briefcase.
Nixon did well in prosecuting Hiss.
McCarthyism hurt many innocent, but it did remove spies and liars such as Hiss.
Occam's Tool| 3.30.12 @ 8:48PM
Dear Ben: Flaxseed oil and oatmeal are non-medication approaches to lowering elevated cholesterol. Might I recommend that you ask your wife's doctor these questions sometimes? I explain things to my patients; although, as a board certified psychiatrist and a former instructor of psychiatry at a medical school (Alabama), I do not have your vast lawyerly knowledge of psychiatric medications.
Perhaps it is because you are such an overbearing prick that you cannot communicate with your medical professionals.
************************************************
As for the lawsuit---boy, Loser Pays would weed out these illegitamate lawsuits, wouldn't they?
Occam's Tool| 3.30.12 @ 8:49PM
Sorry: "illegitimate."
George Z| 3.31.12 @ 1:36AM
Ben, you're awesome because you are pro-life.
ggoblue| 3.31.12 @ 9:35AM
those founding fathers certainly were considered to be 'rabble'. in fact washington, as an officer of the 'continentals', was indeed a 'rabble rouser'.
they proved themselves as men, and fired the shots heard round the world.
danshanteal| 3.31.12 @ 3:15PM
Keep it coming. I enjoy your comments.
Scott Turner| 5.13.12 @ 8:33PM
Maybe you should shoot clays. It's like playing golf with a shotgun. BTW: Thanks so much for the wonderful words for those who have served our country.