July 28, 2016

The Siege of Deningrad


The Den's Fave Snake Charmer: Nastassja Kinski. Is she obsessing over GSL? Listen 'Nasty' darling, slip out of the snake and into a form-fitting A-Line, strappy heels, and meet GSL at The Red Lion...we're here to help.

The Den continues to be under bombardment from what we suspected to be Russian hackers (with nearly 800 hits in the past 24 hours alone) but thus far no detectable damage unlike the Democratic National Committee whose subterfuge to undermine Bernie Sanders was exposed for all to see.  DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, perhaps the only woman in American politics more disliked than Hillary Clinton, was thrown under the proverbial bus and this after only the first tranche. Our investigation has now gone beyond KGB sponsored hackers.  The suspicions now point to a Lone She-Wolf hell bent on adding deeper meaning to her lonely life.

Ravishing Russky Soprano Tatiana Serjan dazzled last year as Tosca at our Civic Opera House She experienced an intense verismo of revelation when GSL's baby blues lasered in during "Vissi d'Arte". Might she be the one? Observers noted Ms Serjan came to Chicago a singer and left a Great Artist.
Another suspect bandied about is Fashionista Miroslova Duma who
delights in being identified as a GSL It Girl.

At a Den Security meeting this morning, an Oligarch Plaything Theory was floated by our Forensic Psychologist and it really does make perfect sense. Imagine being a great natural beauty from the East Siberian Uplands tiring of seeing Daddy down tumblers of anti-freeze night after night. You flee to Paris and get discovered by a photographer while gazing up at The Gleaners in the Musee d'Orsay.

The Gleaners by Millet. Musee d'Orsay. Our Catwalk Kitten saw the life she fled.

The Glamorous Life came on fast & furious, Youth and beauty gave instant access to a world beyond wildest dreams. Then she finds herself in the clutches of one of the world's most vulgar creatures: A Russian Oligarch. Cocaine & Vodka can deaden only so much pain. Her one distinguishing feature is raw physical Beauty which thus far has only displayed French Couture and ornamented hairy arms of clammy cretins thrice her age. She wants something more.  Beauty can have a destination far more glorious when treated as a gift.

London based Sergey Veremeenko in pensive repose.

Den investigators believe we have zeroed in on our damsel in distress. It seems a Russo-Kleptocrat and a beautiful much younger woman of dispirited air recently saw our Tatiana Serjan as Tosca at Staatsoper Hamburg.  Reports are dispirited attendee was in raptures following performance and has ever since been frantically seeking assistance to escape virtual house arrest.

Hang on my dear, help is on the way.

July 24, 2016

Wedding Bell Blues

Pippa with soon to be 1st Husband. He's a Hedgie who invests in other Hedge Funds which is what Bernie Madoff did.. I'll bet QE2 prefer they tone down the glitz but the coming Middleton-Matthews circus will keep the Daily Mail FeMail staff's claws razor sharp.


The Den has been under siege the last few days with Russian hackers keeping us under steady bombardment. Vladdy's henchmen were likely incited by GSL's hide and seek taunts.. They are now probing with 500+ pageviews a day; always in 21 hit increments.  If you stop by one day and see gay porn or something else bizarre, you'll know they're toasting The Den's demise in the Kremlin.

Chelsea Clinton famously said she tried to care about money but couldn't. She had Daddy buy her an $11mil NYC apartment and NBC News paid her nearly $27,000 per minute for telly work.  She had a $3million wedding to a hotshot Hedgie of her own, Mark Mezvinsky, whose father is a former Congressman who did time in prison for fraud.  Chelsea's hubby just had to close his hedge fund after losing 90% of his clients money. Cute couple.


I watched this doco last night online. It connects a lot of dots and many of us thought Hillary's email server issue was really to hide all the conflicts of interest with the Clinton Foundation which may still be under investigation by the FBI. The doco was watched by over 500,000 people in the first 48 hours and is now permanently available to watch for free here.


The Democratic Party convention is this week and word is Vladdy's boys, prior to targeting The Den, hacked into email accounts with the first tranche confirming the DNC had worked against Bernie Sanders in favor of HRC just as Bernie's people had insisted all along. DNC Chair Deborah Wasserman Schultz has been forced to resign.  Bernie Sanders supporters are understandably outraged and heavily promoting the Clinton Cash doco.  Hillary's camp is saying Putin engineered all this to help Trump.



July 19, 2016

Broadcast News


A little gem from 1987. 
Holly Hunter as straight shooter 'Jane Craig'; GSL had a big crush in late '80s.


GSL's favorite TV Show as a boy was The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite that aired every weekday at 6:30pm. I tried to never miss it.

Walter Cronkite aka 'Uncle Walter' was often referred to as the "most trusted man in America".
Dan Rather succeeded Walter Cronkite at CBS News.  Cronkite never liked Rather who he thought of as a show-boating upstart who put himself ahead of the story. Dan Rather was fired by CBS News when he tried to parachute in on election eve with a supposed scandal involving George W. Bush hoping to tilt the election.  Only problem is Danny Boy never vetted the sources or had the documents authenticated which turned out to be forgeries.

CBS News President David Rhodes whose brother just so happens to be Obama's Foreign Policy Guru. The Obama Administration sure liked having that close connection when things started to unravel  and pesky journalists were trying to get to the bottom of it.

Sharyl Attkisson was one of those pesky reporters who insisted on covering the Obama Administration the same way she covered the Bush Administration. This didn't endear her to the boss. Nor did her outrage at discovering a 60 Minutes Obama interview was edited to shield him from Benghazi criticism during a crucial moment in his reelection campaign..  She was soon thereafter effectively forced out at CBS News.
Former Al Gore Campaign Manager and Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile who frequently appears on ABC News & CNN.  The Left doesn't have a better spokesman than Ms Brazile.  Always well reasoned and pitch perfect, if she were on the ballot this November, she'd probably get my vote. 
MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow is my mother's favorite journalist.  She usually gives the Left's strongest argument
on any topic.  She always does her homework and is fair minded towards opposing views.


These days I don't even have a TV but monitor newsfeeds online.



I marveled at the rise of Fox News, a Right Leaning (sometimes Far Right Leaning) Cable News Channel, that came out of nowhere in 1996 to become a cable TV behemoth and cash cow while diminishing the audience and influence of the big networks. Their founder, Roger Ailes, is reportedly being pushed out by Rupert Murdock and sons because of numerous sexual harassment allegations.

Until a few days ago, Roger Ailes was a man I had a lot of respect for. He built a juggernaut precisely because it was the only high profile Rightward counterweight to the major news organizations that all lean Left.  The numerous sexual harassment allegations, if true, reveal a man who sounds like he should have been fired long ago.. I've always hated men that use their gifts and power to exploit and/or prey upon vulnerable women which is why I've always despised the Kennedys and Bill Clinton.

It will be interesting to see how this Fox News debacle shakes out. I hear the Murdock sons were keen to push Roger Ailes out on any pretext. Many of the female news anchors came out in support of Roger Ailes....but not Megyn Kelly.

The new face of Fox News: Megyn Kelly. Reports are her testimony to a Fox News internal investigation
spelled doom for Roger Ailes.  Megyn Kelly is a very talented, and I think credible, journo-celebrity.
We've come a long way since 'Uncle Walter'




July 12, 2016

Iron Lady II


The United Kingdom's next Prime Minister Theresa May

As frequent visitors can attest, The Den loves strong, smart women and while we don't yet know much about her, we suspect this Theresa May is going to be a highly competent World Leader.  On this side of the pond, I read reports the Feminist Establishment was quite unhappy at having the top two candidates be women not from the Left.  She looks like a lady of great strength and dignity which is sadly lacking in the two choices we have this November.

GSL will see to it Theresa May is never placed at the "back of the queue" while in America.

Iron Lady
Highly recommend her memoirs (both) and especially the audio versions as she does the narration.


Dignity is very underrated. Remember this ridiculous nonsense? That is David Cameron trying desperately to get his weak chin into this tableau of bad taste... At least Michelle knew the Nelson Mandela funeral wasn't the best time and place for Glossy Posse Selfies.
These two did dignity better than anyone ever has.

Lady Thatcher was a towering presence at the Reagan funeral.


July 01, 2016

May-December

Bogie & Becall was one of the very few May-December romances that didn't seem creepy.

GSL has never been a fan of May-December romances. It strikes me as a crime against nature.  GSL has had a number of liaisons with women a decade or so older. This was mostly back when I was in my twenties and thirties and the women were all smart, accomplished, and independent divorcees to whom GSL was a breath of fresh frisky air. The decade+/- age difference preempted any fairytale fantasies making the sitch: Win/Win with no expectations of meeting mother closely followed by white picket fenced home with 2.2 kids. Older women have always been my preference and while I've met numerous charming and attractive young ladies, invariably 3 words into a conversation, GSL assumes his customary avuncular manner of ensuring these girls understand the perils of living in the big city and provides counsel on how to meet their Prince Charming.

Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn in Charade. GSL didn't like this pairing.
....nor this one with Fred Astaire in Funny Face.
These two look good together. With Peter O'Toole in How to Steal a Million.


I recently met a charming young lady that had me reconsidering my policy towards much younger women.


Frank & Mia.
No way in hell was this ever going to work. Frank should have just stepped aside and used his power and influence to help Mia get a good start on life.

It was during my recent National Guard Annual Training and we were doing some Joint Logistics Training Exercises with a Scottish Regiment up in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I was summoned to the Command Post one night and notified that the following day I would be on a 2 man 'mission' picking up food and taking it 250 miles to one location and back again which would make for a long full day.  The very impressive late thirtyish Scottish Officer giving the brief seemed relieved upon meeting me noting how I'd like who she was pairing me with, a 'Private A'...."she's quite petite but will be no trouble at all". It then dawned on me that the fellow I was a late replacement for had a poor reputation with the female soldiers therefore considerably older GSL set minds at ease the day would go without incident.

Private A was an eyelash over 5 feet tall and bore a resemblance to Kelly Macdonald who GSL has long had a huge crush on. Even more eerily, Private A's surname is beloved by The Den..


The following day at 0600 had standing before me the loveliest creature I've ever laid eyes on.  She was quite nervous and understandably so since she'd be driving the biggest truck she'd ever seen on the wrong side of the road with the steering wheel also on the other side. I set about putting her at ease with her becoming comfortable soon thereafter, and for the next 15 hours, we chatted amiably on this and that and with each passing moment the crafty old pro could feel himself becoming quite taken with this enchanting ingenue... against his better judgement.  She was curious about what I did and so informed her of my children's book series and I always keep one near at hand as a convenience for fielding inquires.  She read the book and heard the backstory about the characters, incidents, etc.  At a rest halt, she showed me her entire family in pics on iPhone and she has a large very close happy family she absolutely adores and they obviously adore her. I showed her a pic of me around age 7 as the inspiration for the little boy in my book series.  She took this opportunity to finally inquire, indirectly,  as to my age and for the first time in my life hated saying how old I was.  Being told I don't look 51 was of little consolation and her informing me she was "almost 25" wasn't comforting either.  Any romantic notions were further pummeled by discovering I was nearly half dozen years older than her father.  A couple hours later, after I had nearly recovered my dignity, and after we discussed rendezvousing in the UK or America (with her parents), she wanted a selfie of the two of us and then seeing us side by side stuck a fork in anything beyond trying to help that lovely girl pursue her dreams and find someone special and worthy of her....near her own age.




Charlie Chaplin and Oona O'Neill who was the daughter of Playwright and Nobel Laureate Eugene O'Neill.  CC was 36 years her senior.

Joan Collins & Percy Gibson. Quite an unconventional marriage but they both look happy and nobody's youth
has been stolen.
Rick & Ilsa had Paris and now South Dakota has a special place in GSL's heart.