-
Alan Abelson, RIP
May 10, 2013 | 20 comments
-
South Carolina on My Mind
April 30, 2013 | 31 comments
-
Dream Sequences
April 26, 2013 | 62 comments
-
Just Like a Woman
April 25, 2013 | 35 comments
-
Missing So Many
April 19, 2013 | 41 comments
Ben Stein's Diary
Once There Were Greenvilles
Your monthly installment, from the print edition.
(Page 3 of 3)
Well, anyway, I got up about noon, made a wonderful breakfast of one scrambled egg, sausage, and English muffins. It never fails to amaze me how much food is available. I guess I have some pre-life memory of a time of real hunger in Russia or Israel or somewhere. I really appreciate food.
Then Alex and I went to the airport and had a super-good hot dog at Five Guys. Their restaurants are spartan but the food is fabulous.
Then, onto AA flight 75 to LAX. Lots of passengers coming up to me to commiserate about the election. I keep thinking that this election was a huge thing: The white man’s reign in America is over—at least the white man without being allied with some other man (by man, I mean human). That’s a big change. I wonder how long it will take us to become really violently racially divided. I hope and believe never, but it could happen. I really, really pray, never.
But I worry about prisons, where whites, blacks, and Hispanics do not associate at all—at least from what I have read. In some states, you can get killed (I am told) for sitting down at a table with prisoners of a different race. I wonder if prisons are harbingers of the future, telling us what our most basic feelings are. I sure hope not.
The flight home was madness. A nutty-looking man in front of me kept putting his seat back in my face. He was a teeny-tiny little fellow and he didn’t need to do it. But he kept doing it. He gave off a vibe of complete insanity. He had a peering rabbit face. He was with an equally nutty-looking woman and a hugely fat young man, who also looked distinctly ill, physically and mentally.
I went back to an empty row in coach to get away from that group’s horrible aura. I made a list of all of the times God has spared me, saved me, from wildly crazy drunk driving, from very bad, potentially life-ending misconduct with drugs, from association with bad girls.
Most of all, I thought how God has put my wife in my life when I did not even remotely deserve anyone as wonderful as she is. She is beyond wonderful. She is super-humanly wonderful. I consider her genuinely Divine. I am sad Mr. Romney lost, but I win every day I have Big Wifey. I am sure Mr. Romney feels the same way about his wife. God is good.
—
Photo by Jas&Suz | Flicker; Creative Commons 2.0
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 (5) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Ben Stein
More Articles From Ben Stein's Diary
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/12/28/once-there-were-greenvilles
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Appleby| 12.28.12 @ 6:48AM
Yep, you wealthy folks fly into small towns where you don't live and praise their picture postcard aspects and demand that they stay the way they are -- but when you're gone, the people who live there are still slowly suffocating in all that picturesque ennui. I lived in Greenville NY when I was a child and went to a two-room school until I was 10 years old, and lived in an area where there was nothing to look forward to except getting out of it as soon as the ink was dry on your high school diploma. I also went to Bible College in Greeneville, Tennessee, where you had to drive 10 miles and another town (Johnson City) to go bowling or to a movie, except if you were a Freshman at Bible College you were forbidden to leave campus without written permission, assuming there was anywhere you could actually go. I enjoyed my time there, although it was stifling to the city girl, because LBJ sent us symphony orchestras, operas and other cultural events to brighten our lives. Later I graduated from a large private university in California and I have lived in big cities since then. Tiny little Greenevilles are not theme parks for you and your wealthy friends to enjoy and then go home. They are places where people are trapped with nothing to do. You can't eat a postcard view.
Kitty | 12.28.12 @ 7:39AM
Your last sentence reminded me of the 1983 movie "Local Hero," which took place in a tiny village in Scotland. The Russian, Victor, and Mac were sitting on the pier talking when Mac remarked how lovely the village was and what a shame that it will all change when the American company Knox Oil & Gas buys the whole place and turns it into a refinery. Victor replied, It's their place, Mac. They have a right to make of it what they can. Besides, you can't eat scenery!
Btw, that was back when everyone was talking about the coming ice age. One of the scientists said: Of course, we don't need that ice age. We can divert the gulf-stream and unfreeze the arctic circle. He proved it right here, but they won't listen. They want to freeze.
SPQR| 12.28.12 @ 6:52AM
Ben- check out the Wikipedia description of Bob Jones University in Greenville, and the filth that they teach under the guise of religion. I am always totally amazed when you praise these backwoods types of places, yet you live in Malibu, Washington DC, etc- the exact opposite. If you ever moved to Greenville, you'd be packing your luggage up forever in one week.
holmegm| 12.28.12 @ 10:03AM
Maybe the guy on the plane was "nutty" because of a lifetime of being rejected due to his looks.
(You do seem very focused on looks.)
Maybe people in these small towns think that *you* are nutty, jetting in to leer at their daughters? Just something to consider.
sineperde | 1.10.13 @ 5:19AM
The men and ladies of Greenville ar simply brimfull with sensible mental state. The individuals here look the completely best, beauty and mental state wise, of any individuals I actually have ever seen. Well, perhaps the individuals in Charleston might contend. however these individuals look the manner individuals ought to look. Content. Clean featured. Not angry. pleased with their heaps in life.
www.kanal6.net