Couple Books

After not really getting into a fictional account of Stalin's daughter defecting to the U.S., my second "grab and go" NYPL pick-up worked well.

It was an autobiography by Jill Wine-Banks (then in her first unhappy marriage) covering her time as a "Watergate Girl." We get an inside view along with a bit of juicy personal tidbits, including an affair. She tosses in a bit about one of her colleagues thought to have a drinking problem that came off as questionable. OTOH, though it is referenced in a photo and the notes, her penchant for pins is not discussed. Well written, brisk read, though one is depressed at an investigation with actual prosecutions and executives realizing certain limits.

I re-read the Pulitzer Prize winning Original Meanings [recall that Christmas book], which was pretty interesting, but at times a tad tedious. His basic attempt here was to look at it as a historian though the final pages suggest its use as a judicial practice is dubious (if Madison can't apply it that well ...). If it was unclear in the 1790s, when its use was so recent, application in 2020 is really dubious. History as a whole, including the beginnings, should be used with other interpretative devices. A few years later, the author challenged the individual rights view of the 2A (or rather, to be precise, one form of it) based on history.